If you have played games from the ’80s and the ’90s, you would understand the kind of progress the gaming industry has made, we have gone from 2-D pixelated, low count polygons to unreal graphics that on a good look better than real life.
This has been made possible by the incredible technological advancements in the gaming industry which can be seen if you observe the past 3 decades and see the change in the way games are developed.
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Technological in Gaming Industry
In almost every 5 years we can see graphics improving, gameplay improvements, quality of life changes, and other improvements that simply were not possible before. Thus, below is a list of top technological advancements in the gaming industry over the years.
Increased Processing Capabilities
This has to be one of the most important technological advancement made in recent years, the incredible processing capabilities of a modern-day graphics card or a processing chip was simply unimaginable 2 decades ago (That’s 2000 by the way).
Each and every year the quality of games in terms of visuals and the kind of data a game processes has increased; single-player campaign-style games are the most obvious examples.
games like the Witcher 3, GTA V, and Assassins Creed Valhalla have massive open worlds with tons of stuff to do, this has been made possible by the advancements in how capable our hardware and software have become in processing huge amounts of data.
Increased processing capabilities also allow game Developers to explore new themes of settings for a game since they now have the technology to back their ideas such as procedurally generated areas or dynamic difficulty and choices in games.
Virtual Reality
Another one of the most important pieces of technological advancement has been the development of VR or Virtual Reality.
VR has made it possible for gamers to experience a sensation that normal games cannot offer. The feeling of being actually present and knowing that your brain is being tricked and still being immersed has been one of the most amazing technological advancements.
VR Games allow you to immerse yourself in the game through virtual headsets and controllers that sense the movement of your hand and head, allowing you more control over your character in the game, due to this, instead of moving your mouse or pressing a key to look left, you simply turn your head left.
The most recent example has been Valve’s Half-Life Alyx, which was a great example of how in-game physics and Virtual Reality can be used to enhance the gameplay experience.
Soft Copy Availability
There was a time when people had to actually insert a disc every time they wanted to play a game, this meant that gamers everywhere had huge collections of Discs and cassettes that they had to take care of and ensure that these things don’t get damaged.
Damage to these things meant you will probably have to buy the game again and the process might repeat. Sure, collecting the discs as means of pride and joy was great but the amount of caution needed was great too.
Platforms Like Steam have made it possible for people to buy a soft copy of a game and then download and play them whenever and wherever they want, this has made CD’s obsolete to an extent.
Game Discs are still used by Gaming Consoles such as the PlayStation but even they have online stores that give the option of buying a digital copy of a game and maybe at a discount too.
Digital copy availability has added relief for gamers who do not want a room full of CDs and prefer keeping digital Copies of Games.
Portability
Remember when the only way to play games was to go to the arcade center and play on those heavy machines with tiny screens and limited controls? Most people don’t. Arcade gaming has definitely decreased over the years.
The prime reason for this is the fact that gaming became accessible on laptops and portable devices such as mobile phones, Tablets, Nintendo Switch.
The growth of mobile gaming has been based on the fact that accessing your mobile in a public place or while traveling is very easy and games can be played anywhere and anytime.
A lot of people buy gaming laptops and portable consoles because they know that they want a hassle-free gaming experience. Gaming PCs and rigs do not offer that experience; thus the advent of Mobile gaming and Digital storage has allowed people access to their games anywhere in the world.
Motion Control
Games have utilized motion control in a lot of different forms over the past decade, Nintendo Wii With its motion Control Games and the Recent PlayStation Controller with its Trackpads, all are some great examples of how physical movements in real life are being integrated into games.
A lot of Mobile Games depend on the device’s Gyroscope to tilt the screen, turn or perform other actions, that normally would require some kind of button input, but motion control allows you to perform simple gestures that are translated into gaming actions.
Games nowadays can even use a camera to incorporate blinking in your games, some gaming consoles use motion sensors from the controller to see if the player has moved the controller or not, games like Until Dawn and before your eyes are prime examples of this mechanism.
Visual Upgrades
The art style and imagination have been present in gaming since its early days and it has only improved over the years. games now look much cleaner, sleeker and vibrant. Of course, depending on the game, you play, color schemes can differ but graphical enhancements make even a modern-day black and grey shade look better.
Owing to the huge processing capabilities, games can now render rain, reflection, and even movement of clothes and hair of a character to a great extent, landscapes, and the game world have grown over the years as a result of visual upgrades.
This has resulted in creative exploration of various themes such as escape rooms which require a good level of immersion and with better visuals and graphics, puzzle-solving and escaping becomes activity you can do from your desktop.
Games look a lot better and provide greater immersion in terms of graphics and aesthetics and good graphics are almost always welcome as part of technological advancements.
Accessibility
Now, back in the day of 2-D pixelated games, only a select few studios and publishers had money to actually make a decent-looking 3-D game, in comparison to those days, making a 3-D game with Good visuals is not really a big task.
A lot of Indie developers make amazing 2D and 3D games with a limited budget and thus some of the best games in the past decade or so have been developed by Independent developers.
Accessibility has also allowed common people to have technology that can run games thus allowing most common folks to run a lot of games at cheaper costs, since building a PC, Buying Laptops, Consoles or even mobile phones is relatively cheaper.
Augmented Reality
A Concept that has been developed alongside Virtual Reality, AR, or augmented reality allows players to play games through holographic visuals that can be interacted with through your device. Pokémon Go and Ingress are both excellent examples of AR technology being used in the gaming industry.
AR can be used in a lot of fun ways, such as scavenger hunts or treasure hunts, and many other fun themes that demand exploration of real-life locations.
Incredible Internet
This is a technological advancement that has literally changed the way the world works so it’s not a surprise that the internet has affected the gaming industry in a great way.
One of the effects has been digital storage and the cloud-based accessibility of games. Games can now be accessed on different systems at different locations, and it is simply amazing.
Another great impact has been on the Online gaming community which has grown to the extent that most of the games now include multiplayer if they want to please the masses. This feature has resulted in people being able to play games with their friends while being miles away from each other.
The Internet has truly revolutionized the gaming industry in a lot of ways. Online streaming and platforms like YouTube have contributed a lot to the gaming industry by increasing the player base and also allowing people to play games and just enjoy it while being online with others.
CONCLUSION
Technological Advancements in the gaming industry have allowed gaming developers to explore various new themes and churn out new content that is not only accessible to most people but is also visually appealing. When things like escape rooms which are known for immersion and hidden items and great fun can be replicated in a video game with great graphics and atmosphere, you know gaming has really developed. Just look at the Doom series if you want to trace the kind of advancements that have been made in the gaming industry.
