How old consoles and new technology can effect gaming
Though we are all recoiled in awe of the new gaming consoles and their power/ potential there is still so much more that we are not thinking about, such as the technology used to create these masterpieces or how far we have come or the even more important question being where we will go from here. First let’s take a look at what we had; on November 15th 2001 the world met the original Xbox. The Xbox was the first video game console to feature a built-in hard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves and content downloaded from Xbox Live. Though this doesn’t sound like much to us now with the ability to save our games entirely virtually on to the cloud this was a massive feature at the time since its main competitor the Play Station 1 forced gamers to save on memory cards which proved to be inconvenient. Before that there was the Super Nintendo entertainment system or Snes and their competitor the Sega Genesis both incredibly loved consoles and each with a great set of games but fairly equal technology. This brings me to my next subject in this article being how come we have almost taken a step backwards in the development department as the consoles of today seem to have a controversy in comparison.
Now we have the “Xbox one” going head to head
against the PlayStation 4 with the later taking the lead in sales as this
article is being written. Both consoles have their strengths and weaknesses in
the technological department such as the Xbox being able to use smart glass so
that owners can use their phone to enable in game assistance or the PlayStation
using the PSVita as a handheld as the console itself. But both seem to have
held back certain features or even cause horrible problems for their owners
such as the Xbox not allowing owners to check their hard drive space or the
interface being clunky or stuttering. While the PlayStation has been known to
overheat easily and on occasion will show a normal light on the console but
will not show anything on the screen at all which begs the question of this
article.
If gaming consoles of today are still causing
problems for their owners can we be sure that the consoles of tomorrow will be
any different? With new advancements in technology it will only be a matter of
time till someone finds a way to put it into the gaming public’s greedy little
hands. A main possibility being nanotechnology, that’s right! The tiny robots
we have heard so much about have a possibility to be in our own living room as
their potential is almost limitless. Imagine being able to use your hands as
the controller but not use gestures, or your TV screen not being a screen but a
set of tiny projectors to fill your whole room with light. Though this sounds
like the distant future it is entirely possible for this to come about in as
little as 5 years. With all these possibilities all we can do now is sit and
wait in anticipation playing on today’s modern marvels.
Critique
I have written my article for the magazine company “Games tm”
because it is a fairly un-biased magazine series and as I am writing about
games consoles in general this proved to be the most relevant. The magazine is
a well-known feature having been established for over ten years, the magazine
doesn’t just focus around games in-general but it also covers all the new
advances in gaming technology. The magazine focuses their articles around the
reader age of roughly fourteen to late twenties, so their articles usually
involve a large amount of facts, figures and subtle humour. The magazine is
mostly aimed at informing the reader about new developments in the gaming world
and giving reviews to games which are either still in development or have just been released.
In the begging of my article I talk about older generation gaming
consoles because of the fact that when I asked people about their favourite
gaming consoles most did not say the Xbox or Play Station no they said that
their favourites were the Snes or Game Cube. This asked the question “why are
older generation consoles more well liked then their older counter parts?” Well
the older generation games focused less on making the gaming experience easier
but instead focused on making games as enjoyable as possible. Because of this
when most gamers think of their favourite gaming consoles they actually just
think of the favourite games because the older consoles did just that, they
focused only on the games and not the console let players just stick in a game
and go without having to go through the hassle of multiple menu’s or constant
updates which so many of us now see as the norm.
Afterwards I went on to talk about modern gaming focusing on the
two main giants of the market the Xbox one and Play Station 4. Both of these consoles
are not as horrible as I seem to have put across, both of them are actually
better than their previous generation in almost every way having lost the
weight of clunky menu screens and instead now having a main hub which can be
easily accessed when starting up the console. When talking about the PlayStation
4’s user interface a writer for polygon said “After seven or eight years of the Xbox
360 and PS3, navigating the PS4's menus and UI quickly and with little lag is
one of the more refreshing elements of the next-gen console experience” (polygon,
2013) Other than UI the new consoles also have made changes to their
controllers putting in touchpad capabilities for PlayStation and Xbox using
smart glass to allow owners to change things in their games and the console
itself.
On my last paragraph I talked about the possible future technology
which might be incorporated in gaming consoles of the future. The main issue
that my article causes is that I only talk about nanotechnology which is in
fact one of the least known technological advances we have discovered, with
little to nothing in the department of gaming. I would have been better off
talking about the oculus rift or the virtuix omni which are both being
incorporated into gaming now. The oculus rift is having more games be added to
its repertoire every month allowing more gamers to experience new ways of
seeing the world. While the virtuix omni allows gamers to move open and freely
in their games giving a whole new meaning to the term pulse pounding games.
When asked in an interview about the sudden boom in virtual reality gaming
company founder Palmer luckey said “VR died in the consumer market years ago, in the 80s and 90s, but
the professional market has continued to exist. They were just really expensive
pieces of gear that didn't always provide a very good experience. So what’s
kind of happening is that those same industries that have always been using VR,
even though it was expensive, are now expanding and doing a lot more things now
that the hardware and software is cheap” (Luckey, 15/1/14, PCGamer) With that
fairly long explanation it is quite clear to see that nanotechnology will not
be put into the gaming industry for quite a while as it takes time for new
technology to lower in price to such a degree that it would be a feasible investment
for the gaming world to take. While we have technology right now which has only
just been incorporated into the market in the past two years.
In conclusion it is clear to see that the gaming industry is an
ever changing and ever expanding place where new advances are made all the time
and many appreciate the hard work and effort that others give to make it
possible. While those who don’t blame them for very small and un-important
features in the consoles design which only provide little discomfort in the
overall playing experience. It is quite amazing to see such small details be
complained about in consoles and even more amazed at the distance some
complainers will go to show their discomfort with some being so bold as to sell
their console all together as a way of wiping their hands clean of the
experience. Personally I am excited to
see where gaming will go and hope that one day others will be more forgiving of
the industries mistakes.
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