Slashdot Mirror
Bruce Sterling On Gaming in 2043
At this year's Austin Game Developer's Conference, sci-fi author Bruce Sterling gave a keynote speech about the gaming industry — looking back from the year 2043. GameSetWatch has a summary of the speech, and the full transcript is also available.
"So do people make games for this platform? Sure. Not the sort that were built for flat glass screens. We don't do those anymore, cumbersome, like a covered wagon. We don't pretend a glass screen is a window into another virtual worlds. The idea sounds silly, it's all the same world. It's always been the same world, it just changes. What we do is hang the towel [his metaphor for cheap, ubiquitous, unremarkable computers in the future] up in midair and gaze through it. And all the light that hits the far side passes through it except that the image is tagged and altered. We don't call it augmented reality, because we think reality is real, but you can still have fun with a game interface is that is everything you see."
That's one game, or even several. It isn't every game, or even most games. I want to see a place other than the room I'm sitting in when I take a break a break from reality.
Here's your sig.
Duke Nukem Forever still won't be out, but Leisure Suit Larry will be the new most anticipated game.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Regardless of how games are played or displayed in the future, I believe everyone will have one distinct online "avatar" that will track your skills in every game, regardless of the OS it runs on.
Because back in 1950, people predicted that we'd have hover cars in 2000.
So far, I have not found a single car that qualifies as a hover car and is not mid collision.
Hence, I predict that by 2043 the world ends and only PCs survive, hence they prove to be the ultimate gaming platform, you'll be able to add them to your convertible spacesheep and plug in some wool.
"Don't Forget to bring a towel!"
"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
When I read about the towel interface I got really excited. I hope this means I'll be able to put the towel over my head and play the old Infocom game Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Because you never want to go anywhere without a towel. Douglas Adams was ahead of his time.
Light passing through a towel becomes an image to be tagged and altered? He must be taking some very pedestrian drugs.
Why would you need to "hang a towel"? Seems that automatic interface with your nervous system would be more likely... or for those not exponentially future inclined, at least through contact lenses. They're doing the contact lens thing now, in crude fashion.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
I very much respect Bruce Sterling; I loved Holy Fire and "Red Star, Winter Orbit", and his writing about cyberpunk itself is even good.
However, in this case he's mostly hamming it up LARPing a character from Rainbows End.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
... useless.
35 years ago was 1973. Richard Nixon was in office. We were decades away from the personal computer, the Internet, MUDs, and MMORPGs. Who in God's name could predict how instancing in WoW trades off versus public quests in Warhammer? For that matter, who PRIOR TO THE RELEASE OF FREAKING DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS would have predicted that **ten million people** really want to spend their time pretending to slay those green thingees that English professor dude wrote some fairy tale about?
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
35 years ago was 1973. Richard Nixon was in office. We were decades away from the personal computer, the Internet, MUDs, and MMORPGs.
Decades, really?
Who in God's name could predict how instancing in WoW trades off versus public quests in Warhammer?
Even today, nobody cares about this.
For that matter, who PRIOR TO THE RELEASE OF FREAKING DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS would have predicted that **ten million people** really want to spend their time pretending to slay those green thingees that English professor dude wrote some fairy tale about?
Millions of people have pretended to slay the baddies for eons. It might have been difficult to predict just how much the pretending has been systematized, although the systemization of toy soldiers might have provided a clue. Tolkien as the font of creativity for RPGs may have been more or less predictable, but considering that D&D only partook of superficial sips, it's not really important.
Play Command HQ online
35 years ago was 1973. Richard Nixon was in office. We were decades away from the personal computer, the Internet, MUDs, and MMORPGs.
Decades, really?
Who in God's name could predict how instancing in WoW trades off versus public quests in Warhammer?
Even today, nobody cares about this.
Untrue. The difference between instanced scenarios and public quests is one of the key differences between WoW and Warhammer. For MMO gamers, this is a thing to be interested in.
What happened to the Holodeck? In 2043, I want a to buy a game, that is a the shape of a cube, that transforms the room I am in, into the game world. No platform needed.
... useless.
35 years ago was 1973. Richard Nixon was in office. We were decades away from the personal computer, the Internet, MUDs, and MMORPGs.
Get your facts straight, boy! In 1973 it's like only half a decade till the first MUD.
Who in God's name could predict how instancing in WoW trades off versus public quests in Warhammer? For that matter, who PRIOR TO THE RELEASE OF FREAKING DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS would have predicted that **ten million people** really want to spend their time pretending to slay those green thingees that English professor dude wrote some fairy tale about?
No one.
These predictions are hot air.
I went to the Austin GDC, and when I saw Sterling's name on the program, I made a point of being there for the keynote. I'd enjoyed some of his sci-fi stuff and figured he'd be more of the same in person, which would be really cool.
Unfortunately, the guy who showed up had a somewhat boring speech that was mildly funny in that 'well, actually, that's not funny at all' sort of way that sucks worse than something that actually isn't funny at all, if that makes any sense.
The ideas he presented about future computers seemed a bit lame - cloud computing conquers all? Maybe, but not a very interesting aspect of the future. Maybe it was disappointment that the person who wrote his speech wasn't the same person that wrote those books.
You read those books and you expect some cutting edge speech about the future of computing, not a lame attempt at humor (know your strengths maybe?) and a bland vision of the future.
It was kind of funny to hear his voice, as he sounded like a hippie who'd smoked a bit too much weed a few decades back, but you can't blame people for how they sound. What they say, on the other hand...