The Next Innovation in Gaming

[Raven Crowking]

Short of outright sci-fi brain-scanning that detects your mental state, I mean.

About time we got a "Psionics Handbook" that really does what it says on the cover......

 

[Festivus]

I'll take 20.

I'll second what somebody else said and say Google Wave... although Google needs to make it an actual, functioning application before that will happen. (You're trying to centralize text-based into an app that reduces my typing speed based on network connectivity? Fail.)

If somebody can design a program that makes running a game online as easy as running a game at the tabletop, that will be huge. Right now the difficulty of prepping maps and handouts for any online interface makes it look like that goal is still a long way in the future, though.

When I hear folks discussing using Wave, I have to wonder if they are aware of Maptool, which is purpose built for online roleplaying games.

I am finding that Maptool with one of the campaign frameworks (Veggisama, Rumble, etc) makes prep time on the computer fairly quick... and it wouldn't be a great leap to make an importer from the DDI tools for it. Once that was in place, online play will be very easy to setup.

Maptool: RPTools - Home
Frameworks: RPTools.net Forums • View forum - Campaign File Frameworks

 

[Woas]

I'm skeptical about an electronic innovative revolution in table-top gaming cause of the nature of the game. It's basically already here but AFAICT has not swept us all into the digital age of digital-top gaming. Plus Magic tried this and it's not like Magic Online is smashing the actual card game into obscurity at all.

I'm more in line with what Lost Soul is thinking. Eventually someone is going to figure it out and make a game that is just so dog-gone good across the fanbase and change how we all think games are 'done'.

 

[garyh]

Garyh - I don't know enworld really well but I've had that idea, and I know living (gameworld)'s too. These may be popular, but they aren't a phenomenon yet. Something giving a greater spark is needed, perhaps a development platform done in a new way making community efforts more manageable and easy.

Oh, certainly. I'm not saying EN World's Living Games are taking the world by storm, just that the concept is out there and being enjoyed by a subset of gamers.

Right now in Living 4th Edition, we have 18 active adventures running in the campaign. Not bad for a subset of a subset of a subset of gamers (EN Worlders, interested in Play By Post, interested in a Living wold).

I'm actually not sure how well such a thing would work on a larger scale. Living 4th Edition has about 60 players (more PC's, since once you get your fisrt PC to 2nd level you're allowed to create a second PC). If you tried to do the same with 1,000 people involved, I'm not sure how anything would get done or be agreed upon regarding world-building. It'd probably take the innovative tool you're speculating.

 

[jaerdaph]

I predict the next innovation in gaming will be a roshambo task resolution system, Eric Cartman style.

 

[bytor4232]

In the near term, I think Google Wave is going to make a big splash with the RPG community. Its still new, but give it six months or so and you'll see an explosion.

Eventually I think the next big innovation is going to be a virtual tabletop with support. I know they exist now, but I'm talking about a place to go to find a game any day, any time. WOTC claimed they were going to do this with 4E, if they can pull it off, I think it will be huge.

Seriously, picture this. Its friday night, your board, nothing to do. You log into a web interface, and start poking around. You find a couple other people looking for a game. You pick an adventure, one of you decides to become the dungeon master, or perhaps there is an option for an AI based DM. You guys play for a few hours, and move on with your lives. Some of you join another game.

I think this could be huge.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Following on the wave of Reality TV, the next big thing will be RRPGs - Reality Role Playing Games.

Galleys and Geeks features a dynamic system where players develop characters who sit around a kitchen table playing games. Future supplements will include rules for MMORPG players, comic book collectors, and LARPers.

 

[roguerouge]

If innovation were predictable, it wouldn't be really innovative.

I'm not so sure I agree. After all, the changes predicted and fostered by Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson seem to have been pretty innovative. Alan Turing predicted Artificial Intelligence, even providing a test for it.

 

[SSquirrel]

Combination of iPhone/iBook where the physical books just aren't needed or used anymore. The books on the device aren't even necessarily books with full hyper links, video images for training, ability to handle combat, interact with tables for terrain, etc...

The first part would be the rumored iSlate (or whatever Apple calls it) likely being announced at the January 26th Apple event. I would love to see what someone else mentioned about errata auto-updating your books and having them in a readable format, as well as having your Character Builder etc on the system.

None of that stuff works on a Mac currently tho I don't think

...but sooner or later we are going to have a programmable electronic tablet that can be wrote on via a stylus/mouse, and at that point, a truly functional game management application becomes possible.

You mean like http://www.wacom.com/productinfo/ ?

 

[Umbran]

I'm not so sure I agree. After all, the changes predicted and fostered by Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson seem to have been pretty innovative.

With respect, I believe if those men as they were in the 1950s and 1960s were to see what we have now, they would not claim this is what they were thinking of.

Alan Turing predicted Artificial Intelligence, even providing a test for it.

Yes, but AI in Turing's sense also doesn't exist. It turns out that we don't know enough about human cognition to make computers do it, such that it is among the things that are "20 years away" now for maybe 40 years. Perhaps not the best example of predicting the next big innovation, hm?

Here's the thing - hindsight is 20/20. For any particular development, after the fact you are probably able to find that someone, somewhere, predicted it would happen. There are hundreds of millions of people around to make guesses, so by simple odds a few of them will get it right. That's prediction by shotgun method in hindsight - not really useful.

For a thing to be predictable, we need to reliably say beforehand what will happen. You can say that Star Trek predicted cell phones, but then it also predicted transporters and FTL travel! We can't figure out what will be the next Cabbage Patch Kid, much less what new technology will really take off.