Gaming technology has gone a long way since the dimly lit arcades and flashing lights of the 1980s. But as processing power increased the capacity of computing, it also paved the way for the huge open world and multiplayer gaming industry. Have you ever stopped to think how much gaming technology is at work when playing games like Raid: Shadow Legends on your smartphone?
Creating a video gameĀ takes years of planning. Constructing believable and realistic back stories, supplementing the game with plot content andĀ character creation, customizing gear, creating huge worlds, employing actors, adding audio and making the game applicable to multiplayer communities – all this takes a lot of time, effort and technology. Game developers have almost unlimited numbers of scenarios to run through to make games seamless and allow progression.
Mobile gaming
Innovations in mobile technology include augmented reality and cloud software that allow games to cross platforms from mobileĀ to tablet to PC. But the greatest advancement in technology is the power of processors to relay those high-definition graphics quickly and seamlessly. Itās the reason why successful mobile games like Pokemon Go have managed to reach such a global audience.
The cloud and live streaming
Games that utilize the cloud arenāt limited to the memory constraints of specific hardware. Thanks to the cloud, developers canĀ openĀ up games to massive server-sized data storages where the majority of the gameplay is sent over a network. Literally millions of individual protocols are processed and then streamed back to the screen through the internet. This greater connection speed allows games to be transmitted in the same way as livestreamed action on popular platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
Massive multiplayer online role-playing games
The majority of video games on the market today arenāt MMORPGs, despite the huge growth in popularity of this genre. Large amounts of data are needed to run these kinds of games on a computer; MMO technology requires a combination of multiple servers (one to control player vs player, one to control a certain realm, one to control community chat, etc.), making it a huge undertaking.
Developing a MMORPG requires creating multiple platforms for players to either combine forces, create their own or just strategize. For instance a game like Soldiers Inc would involve creating hundreds of hours of content, combined with high production values to enable an immersive, multiplayer game that is also free to play on both browser and mobile.
Voice recognition
Voice commands might seem second nature to most generation Xers, but being able to control gameplay, initiate chat and play selections from your music library require specific voice technology (the same as Amazonās Alexa) that has taken a decade to get right. Thanks to immense data collection, cloud-based processing and creating machine learning protocols have overcome accents and linguistic regional variations to distinguish from what is actually said to what is actually required. Voice recognition isnāt ubiquitous to gaming yet, but it is dipping its toes and represents the next level of joystick-replacing technology.
The next time you take up arms against a nemesis or combine forces to fight a common foe, remember it is only possible because of the thousands of hours game developers have put in, on top of the existing work already done by tech developers in making networks, processors, live stream and cloud-based systems viable and interactive.
