My research was mostly about Advancing technology in the gaming industry because of how deep i could have taken it like how i began at the very start of games with the first co-op/multiplayer game and began to evolve into consoles being able to interact with people all over the world. This was very interesting because i obviously grew up with the classic xbox where games where pretty much just under-developed versions of what we have today but it was interesting researching what came first and how the industry grew to what it is today.
My research started discussing deepfakes with a video showing how it works and it discusses the pros and cons of the technology. With further research I struggled to find other research on deep fakes apart from news articles mostly saying the same thing and having the same debate of is it beneficial and pros and cons. I did find though that deep fakes have been slightly around since 1990 which i was pretty surprised about but back then the technology was obviously still only starting off compared to where we are today and what they have planned for the future. There was not much variety when researching this topic so i decided to go into advancing technology because i was shocked that deepfakes had been around for many years. This took me onto looking at how gaming and gaming consoles evolved into what we have today to give me a better understanding of how we got to where we are now with intelligent consoles and games that can react to movement and compete all over the world
When researching the advancing technology used in games I found myself at the start of it all. ‘The first example of players competing on separate screens came in 1973 with “Empire” a strategic turn-based game for up to eight players’, this was game breaking when it launched because you could play online with your friends and conquer the battle grounds but now a days a game that only allows 8 players is considered quite small. A lot of games now can hold up to 100 players in a single game swell as having thousands of different games running around the world. Online games hit the world with storm and many companies and business man saw great potential for sales and the future of this industry and obviously have invested millions into improving the systems and making it more beneficial for families to have gaming consoles even if not necessary for gaming, you may have one juts for the streaming services and other uses. Almost every household nowadays has at least 1 console from whatever company and they are forever changing and making ideas to give the target audience more and more of a reason to get one in your home.
These are images of playstation and xbox’s through out the years and how they developed to where they are now. As you can easily tell from the images they are all advancing from the big block consoles with wired controllers to having sleek, smaller console and almost everything nowadays is wireless. Its also the same as tv’s and phones. All producers/electronic creators are all aiming to have a simply small design that works perfectly but is not massive and heavy. We know this just from the evolution of phones and tv’s because they used to be huge cinder block looking things but after a few years they got smaller and smaller until we got to where we are now with slim 1 inch tv’s and smart phones that are small and compact with the battery and other electrical parts locked in the back where you cant see it. Its pretty ironic how the consoles and phones get smaller but there power and effect gets better and grows. Games that could only hold maybe 10+ people can now hold 100+ and phones can now “facetime” people from the other end of the globe and show in time movements. Technology is always growing even when we the buyers dont see it because the producers are always looking for innovative ways to improve their product and make it easier/lighter and better looking.
These images where interesting to see how the play station and Microsoft changed in size and style to better performance or just to look better. This is a good understanding of how things have changed and how the style of the consoles have changed from being big chunky blocks with a simple look to a more futuristic style which is forever changing as life goes on the same as pop culture styles and dress styles.
Even the way we play games has changed. we were so used to controllers that when the wii was released it was such a big thing being able to move around and have the game know you movements and even parts of that have evolved into VR which is probably the biggest thing around right now but very expensive. Full body VR is the future of gaming where the game knows every single body movement you do and does the same in game which is incredible and is only going to get better with time so the future is exciting to see where we will be in 10+ years time.
This image is screenshotted from a website online which goes through gaming over the years and even goes as far back as to when the first ever board game was found back in Egypt all the way in 3500BC. That goes to show how much time has been invested into board games and console games throughout time.
“From 2016 to now, the global mobile app gaming market grew more than any other gaming type with an expected value of $72.3 billion in 20201. Mobiles and tablets have influenced the structure of many industries, from retail to hospitality, and gaming technology is no different. 50% of gaming will be conducted on mobile and tablet devices1, but with so many people able to play from the comfort of their own home, how do businesses provide such a core, and profitable, form of entertainment?”
This is a paragraph i took from the website because i thought it was kind of interesting. This shows that people want games to play on the move or anytime they want because now a days everyone has a smartphone that can have apps and games downloaded onto it and who doesnt have even 1 game on there phone? Games in this day and age are so big and easily recognised. Some big triple A games have even been so big in the community that producers thought that making films of the games was a good idea. Examples of this are – Tomb Raiders, Assassins creed, Sonic and many many more some a lot worse than others but never the less they were big films even when being advertised and proves that games a so big right now that there is endless amounts of money to be made in the industry for people with creative and different ideas.
Conclusion – I think the research went well when researching advancing technology. I put in a fair bit of information on games evolving into multiplayer games and how consoles have changed to what we have today being more slick and smaller models compared to the old big and chunky boxes they used to make. I also dove into gaming apps and a little bit of how mobile gaming has changed from classic board games and card games as most physical games that you would classically buy are now mostly able to be purchased and downloaded onto your phone to play anywhere at any time without the setting up and messy process. I was planning on doing the TED talk but due to obvious global circumstances that is not able to be so i have created this essay instead.
references –
#https://www.imageholders.com/insights/blog/post/how-technology-has-influenced-the-gaming-industry/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51204954
https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/evolution-of-home-video-game-consoles-1967-2011/
https://interestingengineering.com/7-technologies-that-changed-video-games-forever
References not used – https://mashable.com/2015/01/08/gaming-tech-ces/?europe=true
DP3GAM1F Tyler Harris's College Blog 