I think the more serious question to ask would be will PC games be the same? I thought the whole Columbine deal had blown over but with the recent lawsuit obviously people are still convinced that violent PC games were the cause for the shooting. Now I could ramble on for hours about how everything goes back to parenting and realizing when a child is unstable, but that wouldn''t change a thing. The thing is in our form of government people have influence. And if they try hard enough they can have a lot of influence. Look at all the countries already banning violent games, like Germany and South America (specifically Brazil if I recall correctly). What''s to say that the US won''t follow suit in the future to placate the hundreds of thousands or more people crying out against violent media? If you don''t think it could ever happen head to the main page and follow the link I included in my news item. Jeremy "Norm" Scott reminds you how the comics industry was likewise sterilized when it was associated with youth violience. Of course, as you can see it solved absolutely nothing but people in government have a habit of not learning from past mistakes. Like I said, I could ramble on and on about the stupidity and narrow-mindedness of these people and senators but it won''t hold up against a majority vote - nothing will. Let''s just hope it all blows over with no ill effects towards PC gaming. I''d scream if I had any restraints placed upon me while developing a game. Sorry for the dark mood but it''s something to think about and not forget.

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"Need more eeenput..."
- #5, "Short Circuit"
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I just believe we''ll see a fusion between the consoles/pc game world. Quite frankly, i already see it happen.. look at the specs of the XBox. Is it more a console or more a pc ?

Yeah, I agree with Ysaneya - in fact I had started an article on how the console and PC were starting to merge a few months ago when everyone was still worrying about the XBox being the doom of the PC (chuckles). I never got around to finishing it though. While consoles are easier to set up and use, computers still advance faster and allow a wide-range of tasks to be performed on it.

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"Need more eeenput..."
- #5, "Short Circuit"
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Cant wait until they have thing like in Johnny Mnemonic.... Just download to your head and play anywhere you want, talk about a mobile device.

"There is humor in everything depending on which prespective you look from."

For the coolest Future Console, check out the PLAYSTATION 9 commercial. That would totally suck to have loading times... It'd be like closeing your eyes and dreaming of pure blackness or something. And if anything, I'd stay far away from any MicroSoft Neutronic (I think thats the word for brain things) Consoles... What if it crashes? That would like suck... lol

Alex Ford
PointSoft EA Co., Ltd.
http://www.pointsoftonline.com

Edited by - PointSoft on June 5, 2001 10:42:41 PM

That could take the blue screen of death to a new level...

Gesture recognition, and not "by mouse".

Real-time text-to-speech coupled with natural language synthesis.

Voice recognition. Touch screen interfaces. In essence, input and output methods. Will they fundamentally alter gameplay? Will the sort of games we make and play in the future be predicated by the technology of today, or vice-versa? Before Wolfenstein 3D we had no FPS genre; after (aggressive FPS-sounding title) VR, will we gravitate to spatial devices and 3D glasses? Will immersive environments be the immediate future?

What about the next step in coin-ops; will tank sims actually place you in enclosed spaces to be rocked by the simulated collision of missiles with your mech?

And so on. Today only holds questions, which are invariably more interesting than answers, or people''s feeble attempts to answer them. More questions!

in 5 years there will be 10 gigahertz handhelds, you heard it here first. the "pc" will do more and have many new types of interface. i think in 10-20 years anything is possible. but i do expect games both console and pc to achieve current cg animated movie standards. i dont see either pc or console dying out, but maybe melding together, at least becoming compatible to a degree. imagine you see a commercial for a new game and at the end of it there is a link that leads to a download site, that takes a few minutes then you bring it with you to school on your wristwatch computer.

If someone of you can code for handhelds, please contact me: niels.bauer@nbsd.de

I need someone to convert Smugglers (www.nbsd.de) to handhelds. You''ll be provided with art, design, etc. You can then either decide to receive a small amount of money or get royalties.

(sorry to post it here, but I guess it fits to this post)