Is This The Best Ever Era For Gaming?

With the rise of Pokémon Go (and the endless expanse of No Man’s Sky), we asked members if they thought gaming today is the best it’s ever been. Here’s our fave answer.

Reality seems to be the crux of modern games. From virtual reality (VR) to augmented reality (AR), hybrid experiences and general advancements in technology (as well as budgets), video games are ever-surprising and ensnaring audiences.

It is an exciting time to be in the games business, and better yet to be a player, with new and interesting titles making their way to those who have the equipment.

Something worth mentioning, however, is that while we are on the forefront of some revolutionary mainstream applications of technology, they have been emerging and developing for years along a timeline as old as games themselves.

Games are a social tool; we invented them as a society some millennia ago as ways to learn, grow and engage. Over time they have become more sophisticated, moving from simple physical games to more complex sports - such as football or chess – and, most recently, to video games.

What we see in today’s ground-breaking technology has been tested before, with the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect. Technologies come first, and once established (if they survive) developers will make great games using the tech to its full potential.

As such I don't believe there is truly a 'best era' of gaming; simply advancements into new and interesting territories and themes reflective of our time. Games of the past like Metal Gear Solid blurred the line between ‘game world’ and ‘real world’ by having puzzles which required players to use objects in their physical space to proceed.

Consequently, I think current and upcoming projects like Pokémon Go, Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing VR Mission and Batman: Arkham VR are not so much games as they are experiences. They don’t rely on bringing anything truly astonishing to the table in terms of story, mechanics or themes that hasn't been explored before. Instead, they take something we're familiar with and shove us right into the worlds we've fantasised about and engaged with for such a long time, bringing us closer than ever to the childlike dreams within us.

All the aforementioned games are popular applicants of this new technology, and demonstrate a strong trend of world-immersion instead of really levying the potentials of these technologies in a way that could create deeper meaning. As a result, as the excitement of existing worlds fades, we can all look forward to the ways in which VR and AR will hopefully develop to provide interesting narratives, and really leverage the power of the new medium to create more experiences that do what games have done throughout time: teach and develop while engaging.

Congratulations to Jeremy for winning this writing challenge, answering: We Are Entering The Best Ever Era Of Gaming. Jeremy wins a $50 Westfield gift card for his submission. For your chance to win, check out our latest writing challenges in our Comps section. Also, be sure to follow this guide on how to win the writing challenge!

Photo: Hello Games.