If not VR or AR, what is next for games?

With the graphical, computational, and hardware leaps that video games have gone through in its life, a number of people are/were saying that VR would bring games to the next step. However, I would like to see everyone's idea of what video games could do next to keep improving. There are the obvious graphical improvements, but I was thinking more along the line of learning AI and game hardware. Share your ideas if you are so inclined.

I'd like to see advancements in AI so that NPCs and events don't seem so scripted. The immersion that would bring to a game would be amazing.

I also see games as being in their Baroque period right now. We have an excess of systems and mechanics and content and Michael Transactions and just... stuff. It'd be great if we would enter a full-fledged Classical period where games were stripped down to what really makes them great as individual experiences. I think this has been happening in different areas, but if it was the norm rather than the exception I think a lot more fresh ideas could find a place.

I agree with this. More focus on great gameplay and experiences, less focus on trying to outdo movies or trying to squeeze every last cent out of you.

@zombiepenguin9: @nicksmi56: I see what you two are saying, and I like how we could see video games in a periodical sense.

A standardised fifth face button.

Physics, I wish. I love seeing my Max Payne 3 character get thrown around by explosions and stand again, or flip, slide and get banged up as they throw themselves into the air.

I dislike AR quite a bit and have only a slight interest in VR. VR has a variety of issues for me. Foremost, if I want to sit down to relax and play a game I don't want to wear headgear to do it. I also do not want to stand to do it, and I really don't want to move around a lot to do it. I to it to chill and I don't have MUCH time to do it in the first place so I want to do it how I want. Also add to this having long eyelashes... any time I wear glasses or a VR headset my eyelashes make contact with the lenses and sometimes leave traces of oil or something on the lenses that I am keenly aware of and it annoys me a lot.

Second, I don't have the space to devote to room-scale VR and even if I did I wouldn't want to devote that much room or money into it. Also, my dog would be like "the fuck you doin'?" and stand in front of me or something while I couldn't see her and cause me to crash into the floor... with her... which she would love but it would kinda suck for me.

Also, there are not many real full-fledged GAMES for VR. Most are pretty simple. Again, it's neat to mess with it, but I don't want to play games in any serious capacity in that fashion.

I think the next innovation is AI. But, I think we need to be resalsitic. It won't be better AI taht does everything for NPCs. I think very specifilly it will be chatter-bot AI where if you talk to NPCs have thay have said their scripted lines you get more out of them that is in context. What this alos allowes is some varaiblity in having flexibel storyline where in game player choice is accounted for throught what NPCs say and can say.

The example might be you and a buddy are infinatrating the enemy base. You caspture a guard, when you question the guard it can reveal mamny times of infomation based on what questiosn you ask and what that NPC knows. During the interview of the guard he is always babbling to please not kill him. The guard might reveal more or less depening on what you say or how much you assure them they won't be killed or how much they fear you. At the end, you could tie-up and gag the guard and you NPC buddy on the mission with you might say, "Oh I don't know if that smart" or "It is a risk, but nobody needs to die for this shit." Or, you might quickly shoot the guard in the temple...clean and quick, so you buddy says, "Had to be done..." or he might just shake his head slow and say nothing. Or you might drop a live grenade in the guards lap, so your buddy says, "WHAT THE F__K?! DUDE!". There are not more tahn a dozen thing you could so all are just leave him, tie him up, or kill him in various quick or slow ways; but your NPC buddy and the guard have various responses in such instances.

In games - better AI.

In peripherals - all controllers copying the Xbox Elite model of putting extra paddles/buttons on the back of the controller.

I hope we will see more original ideas in general. The technical push to higher resolutions and fidelity will continue but I think that we are getting to a plateau were the costs will start to outweigh the benefits.

On the AI and machine learning side of things is were I'm really excited. We will probably see some sort of hardware changes in that direction as well. I would not be surprised if Nvidia announced a GPU aimed at game AI acceleration at some point for instance.

Ai, enviromental systems, new types of gameplay, and portability

More cardboard.

More anime waifus

I think vr/ar is THE thing. At least for right now. Machine learning is cool but it's still in it's infancy and despite the entire tech industry getting behind it, its probably a couple of console generations away from coming to gaming. VR on the other hand is set to become a jank free, more mainstream thing in the next 3-5 years.