Gone are the days when you headed to the arcade and played the old-school games with your friends. This is the time of the internet now. Everything has shifted online, including work, school, business, healthcare, industry, and even agriculture. The internet has revolutionized every aspect of society, changing habits and expectations in the process.
Tasks that took hours before are completed within seconds now – all thanks to the advancing internet technology. With a simple subscription to, let’s say Cox internet plans and packages, you can access the world at your fingertips and turn your routine futuristic. While the impacts of the internet run deep, there is one field that has seen significant change over time due to network integration, and that is gaming. Let’s explore how technology is altering the gaming landscape, as we speak.
Live Streaming
Gamers are not only competing in professional championships, but they are also showcasing their talent online. The funny thing is that people actually tune in to watch them play. The cross between live streaming and gaming is catching on. Just head over to YouTube and open PewDiePie or any other content creator’s account and you’ll come across ‘live-gaming’, where these players unravel games in real-time for the whole world to see.
Anyone who catches the stream can participate in the experience by leaving their comments below the video, which the players can read aloud and even follow to make their gameplay better. So, it’s not just about playing a game anymore in the traditional sense of the word. Technology is changing the way games are ‘viewed’, bringing walkthroughs equal to the level of movies or TV series, and adding an entertainment value to them.
Virtual Reality Simulations
The fine line between the real, physical world and the online, virtual world is quickly blurring with technological inventions like VR coming to the gaming industry. What is VR? VR or Virtual Reality is a computer-generated simulation that superimposes on your actual environment. It makes your gaming landscape three-dimensional, meaning you can walk through dungeons and face dragons as if they are flying right over your head.
All you would need is a VR headset and gaming gear, and you will enter the world of your favorite game in actuality. VR games are available online for you to play. Some of the most famous titles are Beat Saber, Arizona Sunshine, Tetris Effect, Pistol Whip, and Half-Life. So, VR makes gaming deeply immersive for the player, merging reality with the artificial world.
Mobile Gaming
Though nothing can take the place of PCs and gaming consoles per se, mobile phones are showing a huge potential to change the way games are played in the upcoming decade. These small, pocket-sized devices bring the world within your palm. Every year, a new innovation in smartphone technology opens even more avenues of convenience and human efficiency for us.
You can take your phone everywhere with you and do almost everything on it, which includes playing games. So, whether you are traveling on a sub or waiting in line at a bank, you can do a quick adventure on your mobile device and spend some quality time. Giant game developers like Tencent, EA, and Mojang are coming to the mobile gaming industry and launching high-powered games like PUBG and Minecraft for your compact device. The future of gaming may, perhaps, be mobile, after all.
AI-Integration in Games
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have also taken the scope of gaming to a whole new level. In the past, when you played against a computer, you could only face pre-determined responses. Now, AI in games has advanced to such an extent that the whole map of the game changes on the basis of a single action, including the interactions with non-player characters or NPCs.
AI bots in games learn from your actions, record your choices and analyze the way you strategize, and shift their behavior accordingly, resulting in a more personalized, yet unpredictable gaming experience for you. This unpredictability is nothing short of thrilling when you can’t be certain of how the gameplay is going to work out and which of the hundreds of endings you’re going to get. Though AI integration in the world of gaming is still in its initial stages, it has a lot to offer in the distant future.
So, How Is Technology Changing the Gaming Industry?
There are many ways in which technology is upgrading the gaming industry and bringing new avenues to the forefront – the likes of which no player has seen before! These include live-streaming participation, Virtual Reality simulations, mobile applications, and the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the world of games, which we have covered in this post in detail.
One thing is for sure: this list is far from being exhaustive. Technology is dynamic and it will continue to leave long-lasting impacts on the way people engage in gameplay. You just wait and see!
