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Tech Slump Over Yet?
lowrads
Member UncommonPosts: 200
Whatever happened to Virtual Reality?
When I was a kid, I had a blast just playing the original 8bit legend of Zelda. Ok it wasn't so much me playing at first but me with the map guiding my dad through the levels, or with my older sister chokeholding me. This was normal. That was my first and last console. I learned dos from the age of five, which is amazing when you consider that until last month I believed that chicken eggs were single-celled organisms.
Then the 90s were very exciting technologically, which partially made up for all the terrible music. 1992, I miss you. Up until 1997, I believe that internets 2.0 was around the corner. I was sure the internet would go 3D and everyone cool would have a VR headset in the closet.
It did not happen.
I went to college where I mostly learned about the wonders of cable television and what all the chick classes were. (Highschool kids: Go for English electives, epecially postmodern fiction.)
Now because I am a no-account loser, I have played mmorpgs since about the time I got a broadband connection, through the latter part of highschool, college, and either whenver I am pretty sure I am not going to get fired from a job, or when I'm pretty sure getting fired is innevitable anyway. I have to tell you guys, I am disappointed in nerddom in general. You have all let me down.
Most especially I blame Gary Gygax for the current state of online gaming. Where I lived, that tabletop stuff was impossible because nerds collating in groups of more than 2 or 3 was prohibited by law. In my day we had to content ourselves with books. When we got to college we could be more nerdy and listen to other paid nerds talk fervently about things they loved, and gleefully give tests about the piddling details. I was never bored. That's because nerds, or shall I say, geeks, love problems, and of course the misapplication of many combined arts.
Virtual Worlds are not properly worlds until they borrow from every field of nerdly inquiry.
There are hard science nerds creating bio weapons, and nerds from the middle ages (most theological debates were about like our message boards today) developing calculus so they could figure out how to fling rocks from cannon more accurately. But more importantly there were political science geeks developing all kinds of long and tortiously written theories on the nature of self-governance in cities and states. The really long science as I like to think of it. We've got real politik partially nailed down, but there's farther to go. Of course, all political science and notions of justice revolve around the balancing of other sciences. Also the math nerds are conspicuously missing in most virtual worlds because there is a definitive lack of problem solving. Where are the puzzles that only the math guys can be hired in isk or gil to solve (or just plain recognize)? Are all mmogs created by out of work graphics developers? Who let those guys be in charge? All they ever do is.. well we won't get into that. And what about the econ nerds? I've seen some ok progress on the macroeconomics front. Some player made economies are out there, even though they usually have hypercompetition and too much knowledge about markets and not enough "transaction costs." But what's really missing is the microeconomics of consumption, personal and business overhead, impossible to circumvent problems of debt, and generally just the culture of players employing players. There is really a lack of professionalism and mercenary self-interest in the breed of this generation of gamers which seems odd when you consider that most MMOs are run by guys with MBAs. You know they didn't get Ferraris by abusing livestock.
If I know anything about geeks, it's that they are always passionate about something or other. Why doesn't that translate to games? A simple problem of too many game engines in one package? Does anything that hints of education automatically send up klaxons for the typical nerd? That seems really really weird to me for some reason. I think it may partly be why there is less acceptance of games amongst the hoi polloi and the fairer gender. The latter of course because they grow up faster than us, and the former because they are still stuck on hard mode on RL 1.0 I guess.
So what's the deal and the predictions? I have been hearing about 64bit architecture being around the corner for quite some time now. Is that going to change everything? Is that going to push us into a new and fabulous plastic and pixelated future? I would really like to know, because if not, I am really just gonna think about moving on to hard drugs to wean myself off of the digital crack for the next decade or so. Or maybe I'll just get religion, it's probably more in my budget.
When I was a kid, I had a blast just playing the original 8bit legend of Zelda. Ok it wasn't so much me playing at first but me with the map guiding my dad through the levels, or with my older sister chokeholding me. This was normal. That was my first and last console. I learned dos from the age of five, which is amazing when you consider that until last month I believed that chicken eggs were single-celled organisms.
Then the 90s were very exciting technologically, which partially made up for all the terrible music. 1992, I miss you. Up until 1997, I believe that internets 2.0 was around the corner. I was sure the internet would go 3D and everyone cool would have a VR headset in the closet.
It did not happen.
I went to college where I mostly learned about the wonders of cable television and what all the chick classes were. (Highschool kids: Go for English electives, epecially postmodern fiction.)
Now because I am a no-account loser, I have played mmorpgs since about the time I got a broadband connection, through the latter part of highschool, college, and either whenver I am pretty sure I am not going to get fired from a job, or when I'm pretty sure getting fired is innevitable anyway. I have to tell you guys, I am disappointed in nerddom in general. You have all let me down.
Most especially I blame Gary Gygax for the current state of online gaming. Where I lived, that tabletop stuff was impossible because nerds collating in groups of more than 2 or 3 was prohibited by law. In my day we had to content ourselves with books. When we got to college we could be more nerdy and listen to other paid nerds talk fervently about things they loved, and gleefully give tests about the piddling details. I was never bored. That's because nerds, or shall I say, geeks, love problems, and of course the misapplication of many combined arts.
Virtual Worlds are not properly worlds until they borrow from every field of nerdly inquiry.
There are hard science nerds creating bio weapons, and nerds from the middle ages (most theological debates were about like our message boards today) developing calculus so they could figure out how to fling rocks from cannon more accurately. But more importantly there were political science geeks developing all kinds of long and tortiously written theories on the nature of self-governance in cities and states. The really long science as I like to think of it. We've got real politik partially nailed down, but there's farther to go. Of course, all political science and notions of justice revolve around the balancing of other sciences. Also the math nerds are conspicuously missing in most virtual worlds because there is a definitive lack of problem solving. Where are the puzzles that only the math guys can be hired in isk or gil to solve (or just plain recognize)? Are all mmogs created by out of work graphics developers? Who let those guys be in charge? All they ever do is.. well we won't get into that. And what about the econ nerds? I've seen some ok progress on the macroeconomics front. Some player made economies are out there, even though they usually have hypercompetition and too much knowledge about markets and not enough "transaction costs." But what's really missing is the microeconomics of consumption, personal and business overhead, impossible to circumvent problems of debt, and generally just the culture of players employing players. There is really a lack of professionalism and mercenary self-interest in the breed of this generation of gamers which seems odd when you consider that most MMOs are run by guys with MBAs. You know they didn't get Ferraris by abusing livestock.
If I know anything about geeks, it's that they are always passionate about something or other. Why doesn't that translate to games? A simple problem of too many game engines in one package? Does anything that hints of education automatically send up klaxons for the typical nerd? That seems really really weird to me for some reason. I think it may partly be why there is less acceptance of games amongst the hoi polloi and the fairer gender. The latter of course because they grow up faster than us, and the former because they are still stuck on hard mode on RL 1.0 I guess.
So what's the deal and the predictions? I have been hearing about 64bit architecture being around the corner for quite some time now. Is that going to change everything? Is that going to push us into a new and fabulous plastic and pixelated future? I would really like to know, because if not, I am really just gonna think about moving on to hard drugs to wean myself off of the digital crack for the next decade or so. Or maybe I'll just get religion, it's probably more in my budget.
Comments
Just a thought..
MMO migrant.
As the other guy said, why invest tons of money on rockets if you can make as much with sticks and stones.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
Virtual reality is already sufficiently developed to start on a VR MMOG right now at this very moment...and it could be finished, or at least in beta, by 2011.
The main problem is that gamers really don't want it....if they did then we would already see a VR MMOG in development.
...so the gear remains skyhigh and absolutely nothing is being done to bring VR to the consumer market. As you prolly already know, we're gonna have outrageously powerful computers in 2010...
Both intel and AMD are talking about having CPUs that have 32 cores by 2010! 32 fuckin' cores!! This Whitepaper from intel talks about how multi-core CPUs will easily enable realtime photorealistic ray tracing.
RAMdrives are making their way into the mainstream market as we speak. And to really make things interesting we now have 16 GB DDR2 RAM mods! (yeah, their $15,000 a pop...but hey, it's only money!)
We'll have much bigger internets tubes by 2010...The DOCSIS 3.0 rollout will begin in 2009...160 Mbps down and 120 Mbps up!!
Those VR Head Mount Displays could easily be upgraded to OLED displays with resolutions as fine as the eye can see (220 ppi).
This high tech Sony gizmo could easily be fashioned into a full-body forced-feedback suit! You would feel yourself getting hit by those bullets!
Sony has been my main hope in terms of bringing VR to the mainstream consumer market...check this out! Mindboggling Sci-Fi tech...
Anyway, you get the idea...
So now that you know about these things, what does that tell you about the MMOG industry at large? Do you think they're dragging their feet? Do you think they're holding back on us or do you think they're doing the best they can? Fuck, we can't even get a 64-bit MMOG outta these assholes!
Furthermore, how does this knowledge make you feel about your fellow gamers?
edit: Tech slump...what tech slump?
One of the main reasons the VR headsets being developed got put on the shelf was because they induced motion sickness and headaches in the majority of thoses who tried/tested them.
With improvements in CPU power and better minature displays I'm sure it is only a matter of time before another attempt is made
EDIT = Thanks for the links Poopy, some interesting stuff there
About motion sickness...the main culprit in motion sickness is latency. When a persons movements in R/L aren't mirrored in the VR simulation because of latency (lag), something called the Vestibulo-ocular reflex is interrupted and the result is motion sickness (The Vestibular apparatus is located in the inner ear and ocular pertains to the eye.).
So, long story short, it's the latency introduced by CPU/GPU that is most responsible for motion sickness. However, because of the raw computing power that we now have available this is no longer a problem either.
Virtual Reality is being used everyday all over world: for the creation of new pharmaceutical compounds; to aid in the exploration for oil; to train military and commercial pilots alike; to train surgeons in new procedures; and to aid in the design of every motorized vehicle on earth; and, ironically, VR is now being used as a treatment for motion sickness!
We could have a VR MMOG by 2011, IF it were started today and had the proper funding.
But why should they...gamers seem perfectly happy playing the junk they've been told is good. Hell, we could have far better MMOGs than what we have now, if it weren't for the typical gamer. But there is hope...we can make Virtual Reality a reality by spreading the meme. Start threads about Virtual Reality MMOGs and always post your positive thoughts in ones that are already going. Talk to your friends about it...etc., etc.