[Xfire-TTHS] Debateox: We are currently waiting for all our guests to arrive, and will being shortly

[Xfire-TTHS] Debateox: thanks all!

[Xfire-TTHS] Debateox: Welcome to the CIG Debate on the past, present and future of gaming! We are amazingly lucky to have our moderator and panel members here just for us. At this time, I would like to have our guests briefly introduce themselves and then turn the floor over to Dean Takahashi (our moderator).

ctaylor1: My name is Chris Taylor, I am the Founder of Gas Powered Games, and love to chat with people online... what are you wearing?

Henry Lowood: I am Henry Lowood, co-director of the Stanford Humanities Lab. I head the How They Got Game project at Stanford, and curate the Machinima Archive (at the Internet Archive), as well.

Henry Lowood: none of your business, Chris

plevy: My name is Paul Levy, I am the PR and Marketing manager at Gas Powered Games and I am wearing a black t-shirt with jeans.

deantak: I am Dean Takahashi, tech talk columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, author of The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, and co-author of the Dean & Nooch on Gaming blog. I am wearing a Geek Squad T-shirt and brown shorts.

[Xfire]Frederic: It is Cosplay day at Xfire today. I am dressed as early 21st century euro trash.

Henry Lowood: You are revealing too much. No wait, I didn't mean it that way.

deantak: We're waiting for a couple of more panelist intros

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I am Apocalyptica Founder and Studio Lead of pixeltamer.net here in Berlin, Germany. We are developing browerbased MMO’s

Unknown Worlds - Max: Hi, I'm Max McGuire. I'm the technical director at Unknown Worlds where Charlie and I are working on Natural Selection 2. Before that I was the lead engine programmer at Iron Lore on Titan Quest and Titan Quest: Immortal Throne

deantak: And your name please, Parsec...

[xbox] vladcole: Hi, I'm Vladimir Cole. I used to run the Joystiq blogs before graduating from bschool and joining the Xbox group as a business development manager.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Oh yes, my Name ist Jasmin

Charlie Cleveland: My name is Charlie Cleveland and I'm Design Director at Unknown Worlds. I like long walks on the beach and...er, we're working on Natural Selection 2 for Source/Steam.

 

deantak: Thank you all. Welcome. This panel is called the future of gaming. Shall we just cut to the chase? Should the subtitle be the Triumph of the Wii?

Unknown Worlds - Max: How about the triumph of independent developers?

Henry Lowood: No, it shouldn't

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Triumph of the independent developers sounds just fine to me ;)

[xbox] vladcole: That'd be a good subtitle for the talk, Dean -- though "Wii" is probably too narrow. The current reinvigoration of interest in gaming from all age groups goes beyond a single platform. The future's looking bright -- not just because of the Wii -- but also because of WoW's 9M subscribers and the wonderful stuff that's happening with SNSs as platforms for gaming and game-like interaction.

Charlie Cleveland: Yeah the Wii is kicking butt and poised to kick even more. Triumph of Blue Ocean Strategy? Games for the real masses (instead of "casual")?

Henry Lowood: But the Wii as the future? how do you mean that?

Charlie Cleveland: It really is a fantastic time to be independent. Independent of publishers, with great middleware and exploding opportunities overseas. Quite exciting.

ctaylor1: It does seem like the really big opportunities are off in areas that big publishers aren't comfortable exploring.

Charlie Cleveland: The Wii isn't "the" future, but I sure hope it (along with Guitar Hero) has convinced stodgy publishers that there is huge opportunity we haven't even touched on.

ctaylor1: What big publisher would have funded Club Penguin, for example.

Charlie Cleveland: True. Though just curious, has anyone here actually played it?

ctaylor1: Guitar Hero is the perfect example.

[xbox] vladcole: Innovator's dilemma and all that: as a rule, the big players in any given market are rarely comfortable exploring areas outside the activities that allowed them to grow into big players.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Guitar hero ? no. I am a Rayman Raving Rabbits Fan ;)

Charlie Cleveland: For awhile we were having Guitar Hero parties in local bars here in San Francisco. That's how big it was.

deantak: Well, the Wii is outselling the PS 3 and the Xbox 360 combined. It seems that the casual gaming that it represents, with a direct reaction against too much realistic graphics and violence, is catching hold. Nobody predicted that Nintendo would come on top and be the company identified with the expansion of the gaming market.

ctaylor1: My kids played it, and I had to scratch my head when I watched them... they were crazy about getting cool stuff for their penguin.

[xbox] vladcole: Dean -- I think "gameplay vs. graphics" is a false dichotomy.

Charlie Cleveland: I think anyone that read and believed Blue Ocean Strategy could see Nintendo winning.

Henry Lowood: I agree, but I don't think that putting out a winning platform is the story there. It's figuring out who the "new" players are that have come to the platform.

[xbox] vladcole: What's "Geometry Wars" but "Asteroids"? Increased graphical horsepower unlocks new gameplay that wasn't previously possible. Without 3D processors Zelda: TP would still be a top-down/isometric game. The game made leaps in immersiveness when it went 3D.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Wii is an excellent Tool for Parties and casual no doubt, but for "real" gaming it will never be as good as gaming on a pc.

plevy: Is it "new" players? They've been here all along. We just never realized what they wanted.

Henry Lowood: that's why I put "new" in quotes. :-)

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I think it attracts new players because of the physicalness of it. Its like playing outside, just inside

ctaylor1: I think we are finally seeing the market shift in a big way... customers want story, character, gameplay, and then they want graphics and technology improvements.

Unknown Worlds - Max: I think it's new players in the sense of people who haven't been playing games for the last 10 years. Most gaming marketing is targeted at people who are already immersed in the gaming culture. But if you look at the Wii advertisements, you see people having fun with their friends -- anyone can understand that

[xbox] vladcole: PS: Just to be clear, I believe GW:RE evolves the genre in very significant ways. I meant the above remark as a counter to the unhelpful "graphics vs. gameplay" debate that seems to have taken root. Evolution in processors enables unique new gameplay.

Unknown Worlds - Max: Do people really want better graphics, or do we just keep telling them they want better graphics?

Charlie Cleveland: (that's coming from a graphics programmer, no less)

Henry Lowood: I think there are two lines here: the future is new machines or the future is figuring out how to address a much larger base of players. I tend to the latter, though I love my machine. Want to see a picture?

[xbox] vladcole: Max: graphics are a means to an end, not the end itself. Graphics are only necessary to unlock new types of fun.

 

deantak: Given that the Wii is here, what does it say about the future? If you're planning the follow-up to the Wii, or the Xbox 360 or the PS 3, what direction would you go? Or the next-gen PC for that matter?

Charlie Cleveland: Well better graphics seems to be the most obvious way to innovate, so we do it over and over. Trying to make better characters, what does that mean? It's murky, compared to upping the poly-count.

ctaylor1: I think for years we gave them better graphics because we didn't understand the artform well enough to give them anything else, or give them significant amounts of anything else. Today it is arguably a fair fight between pure gameplay innovation and technology. Tomorrow, I bet on gameplay first.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I believe poeple are currently very happy with the graphics, but looking for more exiting gameplay. That seem to have suffered a lot lately and kids are getting bored with 20 hr fast cheap gamplay

ctaylor1: If it's fast and cheap, is it gameplay? I think not.

Charlie Cleveland: Yes true. Also, I think that it used to be that the market could support more expensive games with better graphics. Now though, at the budgets we're seeing, the current market just can't support it. We have to reach significant masses of new players or collapse.

[xbox] vladcole: Apocalyptica: think about a game like Wii Sports: not possible on the Atari 2600 (or even many Atari 2600s duct-taped together). Games of tomorrow will innovate in the way that Wii Sports innovated by pushing technology -- and they won't be possible on any of today's consoles.

Unknown Worlds - Max: Technical improvements have their place, but we should be using all of this new power we have to push in new directions

[xbox] vladcole: Max: agree completely.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Well, when I pay 60 Dollars for a game, I realy would like to be entertained a little bit more than 20 hours.

Henry Lowood: Dean, I'd like to see a lot more support for the player community inside the gamespace, I guess kind of like what Xbox Live offers, but that's only one platform.

Charlie Cleveland: Dean: Better graphics! ;)

[xbox] vladcole: Apocalyptica: $60 for 20 hours of gameplay is a steal! Why sell games short? You'd pay $10 for a 2-hour movie, wouldn't you?

deantak: Charlie Charlie Charlie. You must spend the next 48 hours in a room locked with a Wii.

Henry Lowood: There is so much more to do with sharing play experiences -- replays and so on. I'm not sure a lot of hardware innovation is needed for that.

Charlie Cleveland: I was kidding Dean!!

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Personally no I would not, got a beamer at home at watch my movies there ;:p

deantak: :)

Charlie Cleveland: The Wii is a pretty exciting implementation already, although I think it's a bit weak that a lot of the interaction isn't really analog. For instance, the timing matters in Wii Tennis, but the way you swing the controller doesn't. What I really want is for it to take into account how I swing, so I can spin it, hit it harder, etc. (I could be wrong, maybe it is taking all that into account but it doesn't feel like it)

[xbox] vladcole: Point is: there's nothing inherently wrong with a paying $50 for a 20-hour experience. That's part of what needs to change about games in the future: they need to be recognized and valued as much as other entertainment. If a movie can be monetized at $5 an hour, why can't a game be monetized at that same rate? We're clearly not convincing consumers of our value if they're only paying pennies per hour for the experience.

ctaylor1: Dean, to answer your question, I think I would push ease-of-use even harder... I think today's consoles put barriers up in front of the player more than ever... heck, reminds me of the PC!

ctaylor1: What device do you want to use to store stuff, what gamer profile, etc, etc... it's really a lot of steps before you can play.

Charlie Cleveland: Yeah I agree Chris. PC ftw!

 

deantak: So the Wii started with the Wii-Mote and Nunchuk. Now we have the Wii Wheel and the Wii Zapper coming. Are we all waiting for the full body scanner or some such peripheral to introduce new kinds of game play?

Charlie Cleveland: I don't care so much for all that new-fangled hardware. Give me a game that changes my life in a good way and I'll be happy.

Unknown Worlds - Max: Dean: that's a hard one. All the diretions that I want to see games go in we can do with the current technology, primarily in relation to the online experience. Won't we have hover cars by the time the PS4 comes out?

ctaylor1: I'm not so hot on gaming peripherals... more stuff to break, too many wires, too much crap on my TV set. We need simple if we want mass market appeal.

Charlie Cleveland: I agree Chris - the PC is the ultimate low-barrier device if used properly.

Henry Lowood: Well, there are people doing things with games that requires a lot more expression than most platforms offer -- making movies, for example, in Second Life or Halo. They could go for a lot more control.

Unknown Worlds - Max: We're really just starting to explore the idea of allowing users to make their own content (in a simple way)

Henry Lowood: Maybe the platforms will split off -- PCs if you want to crazy things with your game. Consoles if you want a packaged experience.

[xbox] vladcole: Dean, seriously -- do you believe that the Wii Zapper (an inert piece of plastic designed to give you a different way to hold the Wii gaming controller) represents the peak of innovation? But your point stands: holodeck-level immersion would be pretty awesome.

 

deantak: Going down another track, what is the game that is here today or announced today that points us toward the future?

Charlie Cleveland: Lol Vlad

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I agree, holodeck immerson would be awesome.

[xbox] vladcole: That's why we need the focus on graphics and processors: full-on immersion is going to require many more generations of tech innovation.

Henry Lowood: Not a game, but maybe Second Life. In terms of the flexiblity it gives players to make stuff in the world.

Charlie Cleveland: Although I hate the "holodeck" thing. Let's do the hard stuff in our grasp first.

Henry Lowood: Not for everybody, of course, but that can be developed much further than Second Life has.

[xbox] vladcole: Yeah - it's rather far off, Charlie. Agreed.

ctaylor1: I have to say WoW... let's face it, it's popularity is already making the case. People want persistent, community building games, that frankly, aren't hard to learn and play. This is the future... it's just a damn expensive future to compete in. You have to find some new place to compete, but that shares a lot of those same experiences and values.

[xbox] vladcole: A current/announced game that shows one future path: how about no specific game but sites like AddictingGames and Kongregate? These sites hint at a future when game creation technology is so easy to use and so democratized that anybody can put together a game and share it with friends.

Unknown Worlds - Max: Dean: Natural Selection 2!

Charlie Cleveland: Interesting question. Wii Sports, Kart Racer, Club Penguin for a start.

Charlie Cleveland: lol

Henry Lowood: I agree, Chris -- but something with more content creation possibilities for players than WoW. It might be in WoW2, though.

Unknown Worlds - Max: There are a lot of different futures. Personally I'm excited about games becoming more like toys and allowing the player to "create" something. Think Little Big Planet, Garry's Mod or even Guitar Hero

ctaylor1: Heh... how about Facebook? It's not a game, but it has a lot of stuff for people to do... perhaps it's really a distant for of Interactive Entertainment?

Charlie Cleveland: Great examples Max, forgot about those.

Charlie Cleveland: Facebook is basicallly a game.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Indeed MMO's are the future. Well I would say that. But a game where you pay monthly or per item shop that is always there when ever you want. With players having an impact on the game and a huge friendship base is what a lot of people want

Unknown Worlds - Max: That's why you pay me the big bucks

 

deantak: Henry, Chris, Charlie, a lot of companies are trying to create the same kind of community that Second Life has. They're combining social networking with games in the hopes of creating the same kind of enthusiasm that YouTube has. Are you saying that a good direction? That we can create the YouTube of Games?

[xbox] vladcole: Facebook is absolutely important for the future of gaming: I've logged more hours playing Facebook's "Scrabulous" game than I have playing "real" games in the last two weeks.

Charlie Cleveland: Amy Jo Kim drew up a great comparison about Facebook/MySpace and games...eerily similar

Henry Lowood: There is no doubt that these other products like Facebook and Second Life and YouTube will influence future games.

Henry Lowood: Make stuff, share stuff.

[xbox] vladcole: Charlie - I saw that presentation. I agree with it.

ctaylor1: I think content creation is important, but we have to understand the relationship between people who create it, and people who experience it. It's got to be 99:1.

Henry Lowood: This also means that games become more important, they begin to define a medium for doing and performing and communicating.

Charlie Cleveland: I think Little Big Planet (a "casual"/beautiful/accessible take-off of Garry's Mod) is astounding

ctaylor1: Ummm, 1 create , 99 experience it.

Charlie Cleveland: Spore has to be up there too for the same reason

Henry Lowood: Yes, of course, much of the energy goes into the sharing and commenting, you can be below the top of they pyramid and contribute.

deantak: Chris, that sounds like a movie. You create it. We watch it.

[xbox] vladcole: Correct, Henry. That's why it's usually cited as 90/9/1. (9% contribute in some way.)

Henry Lowood: I mean: You don't have to make mods to be part of that eco-system.

ctaylor1: That's a very good point, the "non creators" are helping to manage the creative content with how they rate it and spread it.

Charlie Cleveland: I think games like Viva Pinata show the types of content that could be popular too (although it wasn't so accessible)

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Also the non creators are helping often alot in creating the community which is very important to a game

Charlie Cleveland: I wonder how a WIKI would be categorized in Amy Jo's genus?

Henry Lowood: You can start by making sense of what goes on in these spaces, then start to talk about it and share ideas on fansites or whatever, then maybe you start making things, too. There are different roles and people have "careers" where they might go from one role to another.

Charlie Cleveland: ...especially a wiki that ranked and promoted contributors according to quantity and quality of their work

 

deantak: Now let's take another track. What developers are really positioned to deliver something that is truly out of this world and deserving of the next-generation status?

Henry Lowood: Heh, Stanford.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Well at first we should define what is next gen...

ctaylor1: I like to think that my company is moving in this direction... we're tired of following trends... it's time to start doing stuff that really scares the shit out of people.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I like your view ctaylor ^^

Charlie Cleveland: Maxis and Blizzard come to mind. Introversion is up there too, so is Media Molecule.

ctaylor1: That's the exciting stuff!! You know, like when Howard Schultz was pitching his idea for Starbucks... really dumb idea.

deantak: Define it Parsec. And Chris, that is a nice shameless plug.

ctaylor1: I have a saying, "If an idea doesn't sound really dumb, you proably shouldn't do it".

ctaylor1: Ummm, I'm actually feeling quite ashamed, so it was a shameful plug!!

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Next gen is always that we we, as developers strive for. Always that we we cannot do right now I believe. The moment we havew done it, we are already talking about the next next gen

Charlie Cleveland: Carnegie-Mellon too? Whomever developed Facade.

Henry Lowood: Seriously, thinking about Dean's question, are universities and other places outside game development contributing to this future?

Henry Lowood: hehe, the answer before the question ...

[xbox] vladcole: MTV/Viacom appear to be extremely serious about making waves in games of the future. They're the company that made music videos ubiquitous. I'd love to see them popularize games in the same way, and their recent investments indicate they're on top of it.

Charlie Cleveland: Interesting Vlad.

Charlie Cleveland: Nexon is doing some wild stuff too.

Charlie Cleveland: Though they're innovating more in the business-model side of things.

Unknown Worlds - Max: It's pretty rare that something jumps leaps and bounds ahead in a way that stands out as next generation (and if it does, you probably haven't head of it). The game industry is really about evolution

ctaylor1: Good ideas and crazy innovation will come from everyone, but it's just more likely to come from established game development companies and publishers. To some extent, you have to have the tools, the relationships and the overall means (IE money) to bring these ideas to life.

[xbox] vladcole: Sometimes it's business model innovation that enables a product's rapid spread. Think "search" before and after people figured out how to monetize it with advertising.

Charlie Cleveland: Eric Chahi, the Out of this World guy?

Henry Lowood: "search" > google > stanford

Henry Lowood: my point is just that the ideas can come from outside the industry

Charlie Cleveland: Man, what if Google entered games?

[xbox] vladcole: They're already in it.

Henry Lowood: They were at GDC -- two booths

[xbox] vladcole: And at Casual Connect.

ctaylor1: What games did they show?

deantak: MTV brings RockBand to mind. It's interesting to me how this music genre came out of nowhere.

Charlie Cleveland: I don't think they're making any games though.

[xbox] vladcole: You don't need to create games to be a major influence.

Henry Lowood: Google maps?

[xbox] vladcole: What if games could be ad supported? What if that $50 or $60 barrier didn't exist?

Charlie Cleveland: Probably just trying to sell ads there (or crowd-source with image labeler)

Henry Lowood: Google Earth

Henry Lowood: just throwing that out there

Charlie Cleveland: Games ARE ad-supported...in Asia

Henry Lowood: some of the mashups show efforts very similar to what's put into mods

deantak: Back to my other thread. I agree with a lot of the overall thinking here. A lot of other kinds of entertainment and experiences are certainly becoming game-like.

Unknown Worlds - Max: The music genre didn't come out of nowhere though, it's been evolving

[xbox] vladcole: You can navigate Microsoft's Live Maps with an Xbox controller. It's not far-fetched to think that one day you might play a game like Project Gotham Racing on "real" city streets.

Charlie Cleveland: In fact, games are basically free in Asia. They rely on the 10% of players to purchase extra stuff in the world while the masses of free players spreads the word, provides distribution, keeps the servers full, etc.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Yes Item Shops, big thing over there

[xbox] vladcole: Not just "over there" but over here too.

Henry Lowood: Vlad, yes. Think about Google earth mated to a 3-d world

Henry Lowood: I mean a virtual one.

Charlie Cleveland: They are? I never leave my apartment so I have no idea.

[xbox] vladcole: Nexon spoke at GDC Austin and gave some nice facts about the success of item-based game models in Europe and North America.

ctaylor1: Absolutely... Like I sort of touched on earlier... it's less about "Video Games", and it's more about "Interactive Entertainment". I doubt that many people really care why you only get three lives... they just want to use computers to have fun. It's all about having FUN! Full stop.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: in Europe people are a bit slow to catch onto it and still prefer the monthly payment

 

deantak: I would definitely say that YouTube and Google and Facebook are all competing for the same time as video games. Who's winning now?

Henry Lowood: Do you mean Google Search or the other services?

[xbox] vladcole: Dean -- not sure if you caught my note above, but I've logged more hours playing a Scrabble game on Facebook in the last few weeks than I've logged playing traditional games.

Henry Lowood: Search is ubiquitous -- for everybody.

deantak: Yeah, Vlad. That's something that wouldn't have happened just six months ago.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I think that you tube, facebook etc can be used at the same time as playing games and even connect players

Unknown Worlds - Max: YouTube and Facebook have the advantage of expanding (or contracting) to the amount of time the player has available

Charlie Cleveland: Well I guess it depends on what our goals are. I feel like it's easy to spend a lot of time on social networking sites and get very little value from them. The amount of friends/dates I get from them is pretty low. Games have social-networking sites probably beat in the "fun" area as well, so it might be OK that they don't generallly improve your life (though they might improve your mind).

Henry Lowood: Based on my kids -- yes, multi-tasking is part of the picture.

 

deantak: I've hogged our time. Back to our essay question before we wrap up. What direction will you take toward the "future of games?"

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: indeed, from my own experience I play a game on one monitor and have forums, messengers you toube etc on the other monitors

Charlie Cleveland: I feel like there's a big rush towards social networking sites, but there will be a backlash. After you use them like crazy and sign up for everyone one you can, you realize that they don't actually provide much value. Even LinkedIn.

Henry Lowood: Dean, for me, it's what players are going to do with games in the future; I mean how they are going to be creative. I think that's going to be huge.

Charlie Cleveland: We have one direction we're passionate about: we want to unite the world through play.

[xbox] vladcole: Hey, Everquest improved my life! Seriously -- some games unlock really tremendous experiences. Until EQ I'd never managed or coordinated the effort of 80 to 100 people. What an eye-opening experience that was for me! Former and current guild leaders can attest to these learning experiences. Maybe truly "next-gen" games might supplant traditional teaching methods with more experiential + interactive teaching methods.

ctaylor1: I have my own short list of things that will change... IE, no more Game Over screens. No more ways to fail, it's all about reward and winning. And the experiences will need to be persistent... who wants to go back to the beginning? of anything!?

Charlie Cleveland: So for us it isn't about fun, diversion, crying, releasing energy or anything else. We want to unite the world.

Unknown Worlds - Max: Dean: Better graphics! No seriously, for us I believe it's bringing the experience outside the four walls of the game window, The most memorable and rewarding game experiences are those you share with other people

Henry Lowood: with wargames ...

[xbox] vladcole: Oops - my answer came out of sequence. I was responding to Charlie above.

Henry Lowood: just kidding. :-)

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: I believe that going to the shops buying a game is of the past. Downloadable games an games without down load but with the feel of a full price title is where the future lies . Online gaming with persistent world where a player has a "home"

Henry Lowood: no letters please

Charlie Cleveland: Well wargames might be the ultimate way to do just that...look at how powerful Band of Brothers is.

deantak: Me, I'm investing in my kid. She's 10. She went to one of those tech camps for a day and she created a video game in one day. Already she has done what Dad hasn't. Maybe I can convince her to create war games for me and Henry.

Charlie Cleveland: ...so long as you don't focus just on the combat

Henry Lowood: I've been playing them my whole life, from boardgames to computer games. It was just a joke.

Charlie Cleveland: Dean: kids like your daughter are going to put us old folks out of business

Henry Lowood: You're on, Dean.

Charlie Cleveland: Gotcha. You're right though, we need to make games without combat as well.

[xbox] vladcole: I'm still hoping for a game that makes me cry. C'mon, EA! I know it's possible!

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Never had time to had my own kids...I am playing to many games ;)

Charlie Cleveland: Don't look to EA for that one Vlad. Try Ico maybe?

Charlie Cleveland: Or Planetfalll? Old example but still...

Henry Lowood: I gotta say: Take the time ...

 

deantak: Yeah, it's encouraging. These schools are cranking out the little Will Wrights, or shall I say the little Chris Taylors etc.? But Vlad, thta rmeinds me. What's the game that makes us cry?

ctaylor1: Before I forget, add to my short list... no more tutorials. Tutorials equal work. And yes, I realize I'm having this conversation with myself.

Charlie Cleveland: When I need inspiration I merely have to try to glean more about Dani Bunten Berry....a true inspiration.

[xbox] vladcole: True -- they're getting really close. Bioshock makes my skin crawl. Fear is a pretty good emotion. But crying is better. =)

ctaylor1: Crying happens when a server crashes and you lose a character you worked on for 6 months. Lucky that seldom happens anymore.

deantak: It is a little sad in BioShock when the Little Sister cries for a lost Big Daddy. But it didn't quite make me cry.

ctaylor1: Dean, did you rescue or kill her?

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Mhh, not for me, I like to be scared, to laugh and stuff. But crying? Naw, don't like cry movies neither ^^

Charlie Cleveland: There's the Chris we know.

deantak: I rescued her. My wife might have come into the room and watched me, you know.

deantak: And you Chris?

ctaylor1: I rescued them all. Who can kill a little girl? Come on!!

Henry Lowood: I agree

Henry Lowood: I always play good

Henry Lowood: can't help it

Unknown Worlds - Max: I don't want games to make me feel evil... I want them to make me feel like a rockstar

Henry Lowood: Max, agreed. 100%

ctaylor1: I am tempted to play again, just so I can see what happens when you kill her... but that's just a game designer curiosity thing.

[Xfire-TTHS] Debateox: At this time, we would like to open the floor to questions, please post questions in the question room.

 

deantak: Thanks much. Enough from me. Now for audience questions. Here's a first: I have heard John Welch of PlayFirst say that he thinks this will be the last generation of consoles. He means that downloadable games, casual games on all kinds of devices on broadband, and other kinds of games will take over. Does anybody agree that there will never be a next game console?

Charlie Cleveland: We will proceed to answer your questions like "BETTER GRAPHICS"

Henry Lowood: Won't the next console have these features?

Henry Lowood: And if not, why not? I don't see why a console can't have that.

Charlie Cleveland: That sounds like a pretty outlandish notiion....one that makes headlines though

ctaylor1: It's not the craziest thing I have heard... I doubt any of the big players will give up, even IF the writing was on the wall... therefore, even though John could be right about the market, I disagree we won't see another generation.

Charlie Cleveland: If we're all playing Bejewelled instead of Guitar Hero in the future, shoot me

[xbox] vladcole: Actually, I see the reverse happening.

 

deantak: Here's another: What do they feel the future of Audio immersion will be? What do they think of the adeptive audio?

[xbox] vladcole: Look at what Nokia's doing with their attempt to "consolize" the mobile gaming space. We'll see more convergence on a simple specification that allows developers to create a game for a mass market. Developers need target platforms that are stable and don't change constantly so that they can address a big consumer segment at once.

Charlie Cleveland: I imagine we'll get closer to the Holy Audio Grail of dynamic soundtracks that really adapt to your actions (and what the game thinks is ABOUT to happen)

ctaylor1: I think the technology side of audio is almost maxed out, but the content side has a long way to go... but I'm just talking out of my ass.

Charlie Cleveland: ...but then again, just playing a different track when you enter battle is pretty dang good (Total Annihilation!)

ctaylor1: Absolutely, but that's all on the content side. I'm referring to 32 vs. 64 vs 128 bit, etc... how far can that go? How many channels can you mix? How many speakers can you put in a room? Is 8 speakers just the beginning, or is that about the limit of it? I'm thinkign it's kinda getting full up.

Unknown Worlds - Max: For some reason audio technology seems to be stuck in the dark ages. I've never heard adaptive audio that enhanced the game, it seems to always distract from the experience. And commerically available speed synthesis seems to be in the same state it was in the 80s. But come'on, audio is 1D! I'm sure we'll get there if it becomes a focus

[xbox] vladcole: You know, there's no huge gap between what I hear when I listen to a live concert and a lossless audio file.

[xbox] vladcole: But there's still a HUGE gap between what I see in front of me as I type this and what I see depicted in games.

Charlie Cleveland: Yeah Max, although it BT composed his newest album in Dolby 5.1 surround and says he isn't going back

Charlie Cleveland: Though that's neither here nor there

Unknown Worlds - Max: We're doing so much with simulation in games now, that improving the audio simulation is a natural progression

Henry Lowood: What about directional audio? Can't that be improved quite a bit?

Charlie Cleveland: I feel like the technology doesn't matter on its own sake - it's only good while it serves the game. So improving audio for improving audio's sake doesn't get you much.

 

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: [TTHS]Prophet: With the MMO industry expanding at such a rapid rate, do you think we could see a massive decline in single player gaming in favour of MMO gaming in the future?

 

No, there will be many more MMO’s in the future, but single player gaming will stay put. Even MMO players like an offline game now and then ;)

Henry Lowood: I agree. I don't think the ratio of single player/ multiplayer will change much.

Henry Lowood: But players of both types of games might be doing a lot of other things on-line.

Charlie Cleveland: It's hard to imagine either multi or single player dying away.

 

deantak: Another question: When do you think we will reach the peak for graphics?

Unknown Worlds - Max: I think we've peaked in terms of bang for the buck

ctaylor1: I look at the question more on the tech side... kinda like we think about graphics. Do we need more technology to improve it, or is the challenge now resting on the software/content side?

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: As long as hardware gets better, developer will find a way to make grafcs better

Henry Lowood: The peak would be 100% fidelity to the real world? But is that really necessary for a good game?

Henry Lowood: I don't think that level of fidelity is necessary at all.

Unknown Worlds - Max: We're past the point where the (lack of) graphics sophistication is taking away from the experience

[xbox] vladcole: Graphics: even after we've got absolutely photorealistic graphics, really "seeing" something means believing that it exists. Until we can whack at an ogre and feel our virtual blades hit resistance, there will be a gap between seeing and believing. We've got a long way to go there.

Henry Lowood: except Starcraft.

Charlie Cleveland: Agreed Max

Henry Lowood: But Starcraft II is on the way.

 

[Xfire-TTHS] Debateox: Great questions, but we are all out of time here, we hope everyone learned a lot and had fun doing so. Thanks again to Dean for moderating, and all our guests. Especially the ones in Europe *debateox winks* One hour just seems to fly by! The transcripts will be posted shortly online, so feel free to revisit this debate often.

Charlie Cleveland: Thanks Dean...and everyone

ctaylor1: Thanks All!

deantak: Thanks everybody. It was fun tapping away with you.

Parsec|pt|Apocalyptica: Thanks @ all, it was well good :)

Charlie Cleveland: Thanks for listening everyone, hope you enjoyed it!