Compare a video game from the present day to one made 40 years ago. To most people, the difference is night and day from the first look. The first difference raised would most likely be the graphical quality between the two games. It is certainly true that as technology has developed, the video game industry has maximised it to produce some incredible looking games. The second difference would be the complexity of gameplay. Instead of linear controls, games today have complex systems of controls and mechanics that work together to provide a rewarding experience. There is no doubt the industry has come far in the relatively short time it has had since its inception. But are the lines of the gaming world and reality becoming blurred?
The freedom some games provide cannot be understated. Grand Theft Auto V is a great example of this. It is an open-world sandbox, meaning that players are free to explore a massive area in-game and make their own fun. Grand Theft Auto acts as a mirror to real life as it allows the player to do things like getting a haircut or going to the cinema. Virtual money can also be spent at a casino similar to the real-life activity, some sites not blocked by Gamstop can be found here, and shows just how well the game simulates the real world.
Technology is an impressive thing. The world today now relies on it to keep everything running smoothly, and innovations are arising all the time based on developing technology. The video game industry is a major culprit of this. There is a belief in the gaming community that the better a game looks, the better it is. While this is not strictly true in all cases, some studios do conform to this belief and try to make their games look as good as possible. The result of this are blockbusters such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Forza 4 and The Witcher 3. Anyone who has played these games will tell of the first time they played it and how they had to do a double-take when they mistook a beautifully rendered landscape for a screenshot of a real-life one. Moments like these are becoming increasingly common in gaming and it is easy to see how soon, photorealistic graphics might be commonplace in the industry. It may get to a point where differences can’t be seen between video games and real life, which is both an exciting and frightening prospect.
The rise of virtual reality may prove the definitive factor that finally crosses the lines of the real world and the virtual world. This would be no surprise, given the technology’s name. Such is the potential for virtual reality; growth is expected to soar past all other types of media by 2025. At the moment, the technology involved in virtual reality is still limited, but the rate at which technology develops could soon see players experiencing ultra-realistic worlds and people through a headset in the comfort of their living room. The notion sounds like something straight out of Blade Runner, and yet it may not be that far away. Traditional forms of gaming already have similar levels of graphics and combining the two would blur the lines between gaming and reality.