Alice Taylor's talk at Aula is very relevant to my research and foresight activities related to video games. She pointed out few "trends" or pertinent directions with regards to socio-cultural practices of video games in her slides:
/broadcasting into gameworlds, that she calls "pipe in"In-game broadcasting: something we see coming as soon as Microsoft build streaming into the Xbox 360; already possible with PC games, PS3 presumably will accept streaming. After that it’s just host server, streams & bandwidth costs. Basic broadcasting, in other words.
In-world realism: 1Xtra (UK radio station for urban music) & Xbox 360: Atari demo of ingame broadcasting. Ignore the graphics: the video demonstrates the driver switching on the in-car radio and 1Xtra live broadcasting into the game. Listen to the radio while you race your buddies….
Extending reach: Radio 1’s Big Weekend: live in Dundee, Scotland but global in Second Life: Live streaming audio and video of the festival’s events; special items for the global audience in the virtual field, including mini radios and radio1 teeshirts. New bands and unsigned talent can perform here: more experiments coming.
/gameworld as narrative environments, which she refers to as "3D drama": The BBC has a long history of producing rich dramas; the future will involve gaming technology, as it becomes par for the course for certain types of audiences who expect and demand a gameworld to complement the linear narrative (or vice versa).
More brand extension, lots more End-games / end-dates? Episodic gaming: in sync with TV? Gestural, physical: Wii, etc Lots more MMOGs (E3 announced 30)
End dates: games/shows/hybrids with a set delivery period. No more MMOGs that just fade out when everyone’s bored, but go out with a bang on a high note. Essential drama!
And her final word was about "the biggest thing on my radar today = Google Earth Goes Gaming" (that she explains more in this blogpost ).
Why do I blog this? I find interesting the trend she discussed (I was not there, I just saw the ppt and inferred from what I watch too). Even though I am quite familiar with trends related to new forms of interaction (tangible interfaces, google earth-like game platform), I find great to have a different perspective connected with the broadcast reality: the ideas of end dates/games and in-game broadcasting are very intriguing avenues.