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What exactly is a next generation game?

What exactly is a next generation game?

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website

The Outsider is due for release at Christmas 2009

The term next-generation is used a lot in the video games industry but what does it actually mean? How are developers taking advantage of new gaming hardware and what are the challenges and next steps for the industry?

With each new iteration of games console hardware comes the promise of revolutionary game experiences.

When the Xbox 360 launched in November 2005, the then boss Peter Moore said: "Xbox 360 will deliver mind-blowing experiences."

Ahead of the launch of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) Sony gushed: "Gamers will literally be able to dive into the realistic world seen in large screen movies and experience the excitement in real-time."

The reality of course is quite different.

"Each time we have a step forward in games, it feels phenomenal. But when we look back we realise it was just another step," says David Braben, the veteran developer who co-created Elite in the 1980s, and whose studio is now working on a so-called next-gen title, The Outsider.

He says video games are entering their fifth generation of hardware (starting with home computers in the early 1980s) and that developers need to be more ambitious and aim higher with the kinds of stories they want to tell.

In this one sequence at the start of the level we are drawing well over one million polygons. Steven Ter Heide, Guerrilla The production ethos of Killzone 2

"The tools we need are still under development, but the technique of story-telling also needs to be mastered.

"We need the Alfred Hitchcock and the Orson Welles of gaming to step forward and lead the industry into a new era. At the moment we have plenty of Buster Keatons and Harold Lloyds."

Braben believes that the industry needs artistic figures who can employ the next-generation of tools to tell stories in new ways and cross the Uncanny Valley.

The Uncanny Valley is a term coined in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. He pointed out that as robots, and computer animations of people, get closer to replicating the movements and expressions of humans, the bigger the gulf between them and us seems to be.

Human challenge

Frontier has been working on tools to help cross the Uncanny Valley for more than five years and The Outsider is still more than two years away from completion.

"It will be a game where you genuinely can do different things; you can come at a problem in different ways because you thought of a way."

There is no silver bullet that will solve our problems of tools and storytelling David Braben

The Outsider's ambitions are to put thousands of characters inside a game, each one unique and displaying "subtle human behaviour".

The company has also been working on an animation system which gives a greater feeling of realism and is more adaptive and less scripted.

These challenges are among the biggest issues all developers are grappling with, along with non-linear story-telling, artificial intelligence, photo-realism, connected experiences and user-generated content.

A new wave of titles for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 hoping to confront these issues are due for release in the coming months, among them Bioshock, Crysis, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Fable 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Halo 3 and Killzone 2.

Nintendo has stepped away from this debate somewhat, focusing on games which highlight participation.

Power pack

Halo 3, for the Xbox 360, is hoping to be the very definition of next generation when it launches next month.

We want to let our fans do great things Brian Jarrard, Bungie The hopes and hype for Halo 3

"We're expanding our ability to empower our fans to really take the game and make it their own," says Brian Jarrard, director of franchise and community affairs at the game's developers Bungie.

Halo 3 will include tools to let gamers edit their own game movies and share them among friends, swap photographs from games, as well as re-build many of the maps the makers have provided, through a feature called Forge.

Jarrard adds: "We want to let our fans do great things. These fans are making really great Halo movies and we're giving them really powerful tools and we're excited to see where they go with that."

The increasing amount of raw power available to developers has made the job of creating immersive, detailed worlds more achievable.

David Braben estimates that today's machines are 20 million times more powerful than the first mass-market games machines of the early 1980s.

Game ambition

One title aiming for "Hollywood realism" is Killzone 2, for the PlayStation 3. A recent demo of the game at E3 in Los Angeles impressed many observers.

Steven Ter Heide, one of the producers on the project at Guerilla, says: "The PS3 allows us to deal with a tremendous amount of data on screen, the amount of polygons on screens, animation, the hit responses."

One level of the game equates to about two gigabytes of data, he says.

Bioshock is aiming to tell more mature stories

He adds: "In this one sequence at the start of the level we are drawing well over one million polygons. There's a lot of processing power needed to pull off these effects, such as motion blur, full-screen anti-aliasing, volumetric smoke."

But throwing more polygons and higher definition textures on to a screen are not going to be enough on their own to create truly interactive experiences, argues Braben.

In 1982 he and Ian Bell created a whole galaxy for Elite on the humble BBC Micro, and all inside just 22K of RAM.

"We have textures on a single rivet in The Outsider that are bigger than 22K," he says.

Braben says the firm is also working on tools that allow for more realistic conversations between the player-controlled character and AI characters in the game world.

And that world will be huge. The ambition for The Outsider is to render a 49 sq km city

But Braben is pragmatic about what can be achieved this generation.

"There is no silver bullet that will solve our problems of tools and storytelling.

"I don't think any of the games we have made have ever matched the ambition we had for them. But that's true of the whole industry.

"The important thing is to have the ambition."

The Social and Civic Impact of an Online Game

1-month panel study of an immersive online video game investigated its social and civic impact. The data revealed mixed effects: Although the game led to an improved global outlook and some online community improvements, some kinds of existing friendships eroded and the most social players became more insular. Family interactions were unaffected. News media use was unaffected, but entertainment media were displaced. A decline in face-to-face interactions was detected and described as "cocooning." The results are discussed, along with their implications for theory and for the study of both video games and the Internet more broadly.

Games violence study is launched

Games violence study is launched

All games in the UK are regulated

The government is asking for evidence for a new study of the effect of violent computer games on children.

Psychologist Tanya Byron will head the study, which will also examine how to protect children from online material.

The review is due to be launched by Dr Byron - together with Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Culture Secretary James Purnell - at a school in east London.

The games industry's association Elspa said it would co-operate - but it was too often blamed for society's ills.

Paul Jackson, of Elspa (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers' Association), said the body had already met with Dr Byron and would work with the government on the review.

We are very responsible and keen to ensure that our products are only played by those who they are designed for Paul Jackson, Elspa

But he said the industry was "too often blamed for everything from obesity to youth violence".

He said: "It is just not true and it's not appropriate."

He added: "We feel quite positively about this review. It's clear the review is about making sure parents are properly informed about what their youngsters are playing and what they are accessing on the internet."

Dr Byron told BBC News 24: "The study will be about what industry is doing already to protect children and what more could be done to ensure they have a positive experience on the internet and with games."

Speaking at the launch of the review at a school in Barking, Essex, she said: "Video gaming and the internet themselves are a very positive and important part of children's and young children's growing up and learning and development. But it is also about saying where are the risks?"

The review is expected to last six months.

'Singled out'

Veteran developer David Braben, of Frontier games, asked why games were being singled out.

"A review might be useful but it should not just look at one media, especially when media are intersecting," he said.

He added: "Historically there has always been in government a Luddite sentiment - whatever the new industry is tends to take the blame of the latest ailment of society.

"We do tend to be the people who get the blame first at the moment. And that is a tragedy - because this industry is one of the most interesting media."

Philip Oliver, chief executive of Blitz games, said more education was needed for parents.

"They aren't paying attention to the certificates. That is partly because they don't understand them and have a distorted image of games - that either they are harmless or totally evil."

The review is launched a day after the British Board of Film Classification refused a certificate for Manhunt 2 for a second time.

Mr Oliver said the decision was proof "the system is working".

According to Elspa, only 2% of games released in the UK receive an 18 certificate and the average age of a gamer is 28.

'Higher standards'

Mr Jackson said: "We are a very important British industry. We are very responsible and keen to ensure that our products are only played by those who they are designed for."

Margaret Robertson, a video games consultant and former editor of Edge magazine, said the industry felt it was doing as much as it could.

"The games industry is holding itself to higher standards than the film industry. This is a solved problem.

"Allowing that, everyone is united in not wanting material for older gamers to get into the hands of children."

She added: "This report may start finding some wider ways to do that."

State of Play: The game of love

By Margaret Robertson Video game consultant and writer

Avatars are not always the best guide to the player behind them

People play games for many reasons, but increasing numbers are finding that they are a great way to size up potential partners.

These days, the media is full of tales of people who fall in love online.

The wave that started in chatrooms has swept across internet dating sites and crashed against the shores of Azeroth, Vana'diel and Norrath.

Hundreds, probably thousands, of players can attest that they met their partners or spouses in the worlds of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest. A few more have darker tales to tell of romances that led to obsession or that were founded in deceit or infidelity.

For a while, it was a taboo. Couples steeled themselves against the inevitable silence that followed the announcement "we met online".

Now, it's commonplace: any silence following that kind of declaration will be based on boredom, not embarrassment.

The speed of that acceptance has meant that a fundamental question doesn't often get asked: just what is it about online games that makes them a good place to hook up?

They do, of course, share some of the aspects that make online dating in general successful: it's a quick, efficient way to encounter a large number of potential suitors, all without having to expose yourself too acutely.

it's hard to beat a game for how much it will show you of someone's character, and how quickly Margaret Robertson

And there's a good chance that by picking a game that appeals to your particular tastes you've already limited that pool of potentials to people you have something in common with.

But surely, that's where the advantages end. You don't see anything real of someone in a game, not so much as a photo. You don't get a real name, or even a real gender, as often as not. Conversation can be cumbersome and stilted, and your range of action can be severely limited.

But while information may be sparse in online relationships, insight abounds.

There's an intimacy available in games that the real world takes time to match. Warcraft is a world where you can right-click on someone you've just met and inspect their underwear.

Imagine how that ability would change how you responded to someone who offered to buy you a drink in a bar. What conclusions would you draw about a mighty, armour-laden warrior who is secretly wearing a pink silk shirt under his plate-mail carapace? How would you judge a seemingly level-headed priestess when you notice she's stuck with a low-level robe that offers little protection but matches her hair?

So far, so shallow. But can a game clue you in to more important character traits?

A good stint in an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) can give you a very accurate reading on, say, how someone handles their money. It's easy to assess the difference between a carefree impulse buyer and a number-crunching investor who knows how to play the auction house - much more revealing that whether or not someone offers to "go Dutch" on a first date.

Or how about tricky social situations? Games are full of awkwardness: persistent beggars hassling you for money or inept but enthusiastic players who need to be jettisoned from a squad if you're to have any hope of success.

Games do not need much help to get players connecting

How a new acquaintance deals with those situations shows you far more about them than spending an evening listening to carefully calculated anecdotes and well-worn jokes.

And all this is before you get to the actual game; there are few more revealing processes than watching someone play.

You can easily gauge some of the slipperiest aspects of human nature by observing someone's tactics. Are they a risk-taker? Do they panic under pressure? Do they respond to failure with frustration or creativity? Are they a gracious winner or a griping loser? A loner or a team-player? Perfectionist or bodger? Is winning all that matters, or will they risk death to pull a prank or tell a joke?

Dinner and a movie may well give you a chance to check out the basics - minor details like physical appearance, age, sex, gender and race - but it's hard to beat a game for how much it will show you of someone's character, and how quickly.

Dating in the real world is all too often reminiscent of the way French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery describes in his book The Little Prince meeting adults who only care about jobs and houses and money, golf and politics and neckties.

They never ask about essential matters, he laments, and so he never discusses them with such people; no talk of boa constrictors or primeval forests or stars, of butterflies and games and rose-brick houses.

It's taken more than 50 years for games to catch up with him, but it's hard not feel that he would approve of the exploration, friendship and whimsy that they now offer.

Are games about to hit prime time?

SOURCE: BBC



It has often been said that the reason computer and video games are more popular then ever is because they look better than ever.

Add to those good looks the action, explosions and fast-paced action in the most popular game titles and you might be forgiven for thinking that they would be a natural fit for TV.

However, the history of competitive computer games is littered with attempts that have tried, and largely failed, to put games and gamers on the goggle box.

The latest attempt came to the UK in September in the form of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). This aims to put pro-gaming on prime time TV on channels run by its main sponsors Sky and Direct TV.

Live matches and footage of CGS tournaments will be shown on Sky One. The CGS is not the only league to be shown on TV. Xleague.TV shows regular tournaments on cable and satellite channels and run its own, smaller scale, league.

The CGS models itself on US pro-sports and it owns the leagues and teams playing under its banner.

Counterstrike has been hugely popular for years

The CGS has created teams on five continents and runs its own leagues in which the teams will compete for a substantial prize pot.

All the members of the CGS teams get paid a monthly wage and each team of ten has players who excel at one of the four competition games: Counterstrike Source, Project Gotham Racing 3, Dead Or Alive 4 and Fifa Soccer 07.

Serious play

Andy Reif, commissioner of the CGS, believes that this time around video games have the best chance of making it as a pro-sport that can attract big audiences.

Prior to taking on the job of CGS boss, Mr Reif was part of the team that owned the rights to beach volleyball.

"When we took that over it was kind of damaged goods," said Mr Reif. "It did not have many fans, sponsors or media platforms."

By the time Mr Reif left to take on the CGS beach volleyball had become hugely popular, had major sponsors and plenty of TV coverage.

"I moved to the CGS because I thought video games were a bigger opportunity and its already global," he said.

The important change that the CGS has made is to create its own teams, said Mr Reif. Before now the world of pro-gaming has been fractured - divided by the games people play and the tournaments they enter.

The CGS hopes to make gaming as big as beach volleyball

The field was also hard to penetrate for those not heavily involved, he said.

To get over these obstacles the CGS had changed the rules in some of the games it ha adopted, developed special software to make it easy to follow the action in fast-moving games and makes the success of a team depend on all players winning at their chosen game.

For Michael O'Dell, a former manager of UK pro-gaming group Team Dignitas and now a CGS team manager, the competition is what the gaming world has been waiting for.

"It's taking gaming as it is now to the level of e-sports we have been trying and hoping we would achieve," he said.

By giving players a salary the CGS has, at a stroke, boosted the numbers of people that make a modest living out of it.

Before now, said Mr O'Dell, the problem pro-players faced was the uncertainty of their winnings. Although there were plenty of tournaments that offer cash prizes there were no guarantees that pro-players would end up in the money.

Few gamers manage to make a living from playing

But said Philip Wride, a former manager of UK pro-gamers 4Kings and now a game industry consultant, the arrival of the CGS has not been welcomed in all corners of the gaming world.

"A lot of European top teams did not bother getting involved with the CGS," said Mr Wride.

Some did not want to lose top players to the CGS or lose the chance to take part in tournaments, such as the World Cyber Games or the E-Sports World Cup, that offer potentially larger cash prizes than are available in CGS events.

Culturally, he added, Europeans were not used to sports in which the leagues own and run teams. This too, he said, may have been a barrier to people getting involved.

For his part Mr Reif is convinced that video games are poised to become hugely popular and that the players of today will become well-known tomorrow.

"The audience will continue to grow and grow." he said. "I've bet my career on it."