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February 28, 2012

Brent: Will the Future of Games Kill the Future of Gaming?

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Yeah.  That's about as many characters as I can fit in the title field - and let's go ahead and point out it isn't even the full title.  A word was left out.

Today the question is:  Will the Future of Video Games Kill the Future of Gaming?

Hello again!  Brent here on this Terrible Tuesday, all fresh-faced from Strictly Average and ready to drop another quality article on an unsuspecting public.

It's up to you to decide what kind of quality that refers to.  While you're at it, maybe you can figure out the oh-so-subtle theme for the images.  (As in, the images I've stolen from around the internet.)

If you're here, reading this, you're a gamer... specifically a subset of gamer known as a 'War Gamer.'  Take a breath!  That means you're upper echelon.  (Right?)  Here are the rest of the Top Five:

  • Card Gamer
  • Video Gamer
  • Board Gamer
  • Roleplayer

Maybe you fit into several categories.  If you're lucky, you're a member of a specialty subset, such as the Stealth Geek.  As an SG, you're also into such things as 'dating.'

There are other specialties we won't go in to here, such as Amtgarder.

But in my exhaustive research into this subject I've discovered an interesting trend:  Video Gamer is perhaps expanding its reach, taking unto itself previously restricted areas of interest.

Such as roleplaying.  Think D&D, then think Skyrim.  You're smart - chances are you leaped ahead of this article after the second picture.  That being the case, I won't waste anymore of your time.

Skyrim is awesome - as in the dictionary definition of the word.  It is awe inspiring.  Be you any sort of gamer - any at all! - then fear the console controller, for it will control you.

It's a meme, a virus, a time sink unlike anything that's come before!  Since picking it up, I've set down the book I was reading (House of Leaves) and the miniatures I was painting (Sisters of Battle) to play this game.

I want to call it silly.  I want to walk away.  God help me, 'cause that's a lie!

It's entirely too much fun.  Know why?  Because it perfectly hits all the reinforcements we gamers grew up developing.

  • Fantasy and escapism - check
  • Dungeon crawling - check
  • Hack and slash - check
  • Rampant accumulation of stuff - check, check, and check!

All those things that made tabletop gaming a bother, like actually getting together and socializing, rolling dice and killing an afternoon, are completely unnecessary.

The point is, Skyrim does it better.  Tabletop roleplaying games are becoming the dinosaur of the genre.

So when does this happen to Wargaming?

* * * 

Can you even imagine it?  The advances in technology just in my adult lifetime are staggering.  Though I don't think we can really guess at the technology to come, it isn't a stretch to think of 3D projectors displaying an image on a table...

...complicated armies battling through point'n'click controls...

...animation, from the units to the battlefield...

...real-time action with all the nuts and bolts hidden away in lines of programming...

...and more.  Much more.

Who wouldn't make the transition?  Who wouldn't set down their paints for instant gratification?  Who wouldn't download the latest patch for Codex Necrons that includes Triarch Gunships to counter Thunderhawk Formations from Codex Space Marines v47.4?

* * * 

Are we destined to become dinosaurs?  What's the future look like?  Is it one you will join or avoid as long as possible?

Thoughts?  Comments?  Hugs and gropings?
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