Is Augmented Reality really going to change video games?

The expectations are high, can the capabilities keep up?

    a future's Blog.

By: Andreas Katsouris

   Since the beginning of the new era that was created by the new technology brought by big companies, everything seems to be promising while changing into a circle of objectives that can adjust to the Augmented Reality world. The outcome is surely going to change until the destination has been reached, but the journey is still a world that is unknown for us.

   The industry has changed and the market as well. Video games are in a phase where everything is changing and nothing seems to feel it's going to last long. People are consuming resources on video games, faster and faster without thinking what the future holds. Everything feels temporary and so does the video games industry. Not that it is not going to last but rather is changing rapidly into something not stable. At least this is what it feels like.

   What we are expecting might not be the final outcome but criticizing and arguing about everything we slightly don't like is not what is needed at this time. We need to understand and accept the fact that things change once every few years and now is the time.

Fig. 01

   Augmented Reality is here to change our lifestyle as well as video gaming in a good way. Whether is going to succeed or not, we don't know. Although not a guaranteed choice the world seems to risk a lot for this and so AR became the future of gaming in our minds. This is probably the reason why i chose to work with it on my project as well. It gives us a lot more to experience, new feelings, more options and possibilities and also capabilities.

   This is probably the biggest step we are currently going through based on the "future" we used to visualize since the 80's through out movies or games when they took place in the future. As Microsoft's Hololens are believed to be the future of gaming.

 - Fig.01 (zoneoftech - 26/1/2015)

What is the purpose of the 'Tutorial Level' in games and how fun is it?

People often say they hate 'Tutorial Levels', do you?

    a future's Blog.

By: Andreas Katsouris

   Since the beginning of gaming there always been a tutorial level for obvious reasons. Like it or not the industry had to go through developing this part of gaming experience to help the player acknowledge the flow and start to fit into the story as well as mechanics. This is probably the most 'boring' thing that gamers have to note about their own gaming experience. Not necessarily everyone hates the beginning of the game which is mainly the tutorial level(s). But the reasons vary on their confidence on learning while playing and individual ability to discover something new.

   Mostly people don't mind going through tutorial levels even though it means 'wasting' one or two hours of their game-play, they are the ones who understand the importance of the guide's existence and know how difficult it would be to play the game without one. Of course this depends on the difficulty of the mechanics of the game as well as if it's a new one or it has a pre-sequel which is likely to have the same game-play/mechanics. Also those kind of people are the ones that are not satisfied by just killing people and complete the main story. They are likely people who are going to choose one game from a huge variety of options just because it suits them and they find interesting. They want to learn about the game, reach every possible information through the game and sometimes even outside it. Learn about the company that made the game and the lore that is not included in-game. 

Fig.01

   Even though not everyone is going to agree, the biggest amount of players prefer short,quick and simple tutorial levels or even none. That's probably because of the way that the game makes them feel and the wait they had to go through to play the game. Everyone has that one guy in their family or friends who likes to read instruction and he is often called the slow-guy. We always have him read everything and then roughly explain the rules to us so we can go straight to play. The gaming experience is something that let's your dreams come to life and make you encounter a lot of circumstances and worlds you would never dream of. It makes you want to jump in and experience everything, forget about reality. It's like living one of your dreams you had earlier this morning just for a few days. So why do you have to forcefully deal with the pilot of the 'dream express' just before you reach your destination? Most people want to get the basic knowledge of world and the differences from our world and just start playing. You are going to fail, die, lose, and get angry. So what? This is the game and that's the element that makes it different from real life. You lose, you learn. You die, you re-spawn. You fail, you understand. You get angry, you experience the joy of happiness when you beat that part. This is what gamers are looking for and this is the spirit that people who don't play games can't understand. This is why the Gamer's army is always going to be united. Why wait for a game for two years just to get 10 hours of gameplay before you finish the game and 1 out of those 10 hours is tutorial? There has to be a different way.

  Tutorial levels are mostly ineffective and uninteresting to gamers. The world of gaming needs a rough change or a couple of adjustments to how they make their tutorials. This is something that is going to change the way video games start. It could possibly include a measurement of the length of the tutorials or to rearrange the way players get their information, making it possible for the information to somehow follow the player through the main story so they can ask or get help whenever they need to rather than just make them feel they are wasting their time.

   People want something short, sweet and straight to the point.

- Fig.01 (Stefan Sasse - 8/1/2013)

Possible Upgrades on the Horizon.

Would you change your human eyes for "upgraded" bionic ones?

    a future's Blog.

By: Andreas Katsouris

   More than 14 years has passed since the retinal project started and scientists are working on to bring a unique and useful upgrade to people that have low to no vision. Few years ago a viable retinal prosthesis was brought to the market by America. It's not something that we could say we didn't expect. Just as every human part is researched and developed in a "robotic" way same goes with the eyes and retinas as well.

   Although a lot of people are pleased to hear and see what the future holds for human kind and the improvements we are going to be able to have in a few years. Some others don't lose the opportunity to research the project a bit further and discover the possible upgrades that could happen through out this project as well.

Fig.01

   Is it considered a bad idea to change a part of your body that it's 100% healthy? To be specific a lot of people are looking at this project somehow like a garage of a human body where you are able to choose and change body parts based on the abilities you will get from the upgrade. Possible changes could be achieved by this project alone in the future such as improved bionic eyes replacing our - even if  healthy - not so powerful in comparison human eyes. Would you consider humans with perks like night-vision and adjustable zoom eyes upgraded versions of our nature? It's possible that we are going to have access to technology we were only able to see in the movies back in the 80's. There are possible ways that we can close the gaps and solve the problems in our bodies that many people call nature and refuse to change but on the other hand many people would love to get one step closer to what we call "Cyborgs". 

   Is this blaspheme towards our the Greater Existence we call God or is it part of our nature to evolve and discover our inner worlds? Soon we will find out through experience.The fact that we can create better versions of our body parts is a big step for technology but is it the same for human kind? When does technology cross the line that humanity holds and where do we lose ourselves? Is this new age going to create a huge gap between two groups of people accepting or not this rapid technological evolution? Science and Religion were never meant to get along with each other and that is on of the main head to head disagreements that is probably going to happen ever.  

- Some Trans-humanists believe that as technology improves, people might replace their healthy retinas for implants if it meant gaining added functionality such as night vision. ~ (Luke Robert Mason, Director of Virtual Futures, 2012)

- Fig.01 (Wired, 2012).

Where is the gaming performance going to be led to?

What is the best Performance for Gamers?

    a future's Blog.

By: Andreas Katsouris

   What people call best performance mainly vary on their own expectations and opinions mostly. But it's not a big cycle after all. It always comes and goes depending on the current "best specifications" that industry provides people with.  

  

Fig.01

   The main idea of the best gaming experience came to a point that is used and manipulated by mostly AAA-Companies and has now created a myth through out the years that our eyes have a limit of 60 fps. What if the standards we had in mind for so long are not the real capabilities of ourselves.  

   People around the world is believed to be able to see different rates of fps mainly depending on their brain training and how their brains are used daily. Basically the brain's performance onto the eye's FPS rate is a really long story and has a lot of categories to rely on. Though if it's true and we all have different capabilities of FPS but same limits how could we possibly boost our eye *powers* to the limits?

   Sometimes buying a super-powerful computer doesn't always guarantee you the best of performance that it could possibly reach through the games you play due to games having fps limits that probably an average computer could keep up to as well. That makes you feel twice before spending more money on a gadget. Or even thinking about how long you are going to use this computer rather how nice and smoothly is going to work. Makes people think there is no other option. But what other ways could be found to achieve full potential through out research combined with technology?

- The eye is the one sticking point that religious people use to discredit evolution.
(I Project, Ian Gray, 2014).

- Fig.01 (Nick Pino, 2014).

The "complete" Eye.

The main idea and the aspects of Gaming Experience.

    a future's Blog.

By: Andreas Katsouris

   How many times were we driven away from reality based on the Myths and the actual limitations we've been hearing for a long time now, based on how many fps a human eye can see? There are a lot of stories and tails so no-one could accurately say what's our eye's limit. 

   

   What happens when the information gathered so long leads us to the conclusion that each person has different limitations and strengths? If so how does that relate to every person and is there a way to upgrade it?

Fig.01

   The difference between people's eyes is believed to vary based on their jobs, exercise and the way they usually use their eyes combined with their brain's capabilities on everyday basis. That could possibly mean that your brain is going to try and make your eyes adapt to the situation you are in, which that possibly makes you able to see differences that you couldn't before if you didn't use as much potential as needed. Of course that vary on the situation you are in and the light and darkness your eyes encounter. 

   It's said that army warplanes' pilots are known to have one of the most "complete" and upgraded eye analyse speed which that lets them recognize and call the different warplanes from afar in really high speed. That also is known for gamers who through out their gaming life they got a better understanding of the environment they live in and faster tracking of differences and multiple things that are moving simultaneously.

   

   What does this make us believe? Is it possible for the human eye to physically evolve and make humans see and understand in a different way as well as faster and better? Or is it upon the technology to finalize this goal and reach it combined with the physical evolution of the human eye's potential.

- Every living person on this planet is believed to have their own unique pair of eyes. ~

- Fig.01 (Joel Hruska, 2014).