As an avid gamer who lives in the virtual world more often than the real world, I found this week’s reading interesting.  Because Randall Farmer wrote his article in 1991, I kind of have a context of how this article may have influenced the gaming industry. Having been born in 1989, and turning four years old by 1993, I was alive during what I personally believe was the golden age of gaming.  My first system was a Sega Genesis which introduced me to my first virtual world and my favorite mascot ever (if my username is any indication).  Today, the virtual environments provided by the Genesis are very basic (just moving left and right), but after reading the article, creating a habitat is not an easy task.  It’s not just creating an environment, but also creating the objects within that environment that have their own properties, traits, and behaviors. 

As games progressed, and as I played newer generation consoles, I noticed monumental leaps in their virtual environments as they began becoming more and more lifelike.  By 1996, when the Nintendo 64 launched, I was introduced to the world of 3d gaming.  There were landscapes with their own textures, enemies with their own artificial intelligence, and objects with their own physics. 

When the Xbox launched, I was introduced to the world of online gaming.    Online gaming, with the possibility to play with friends and strangers, and to actually communicate with them via voice, immersed me into the virtual world even more. I was not just playing in an environment that felt artificial, but I was playing in an environment that simulated reality. 

The Nintendo Wii has recently introduced me to motion sensing gameplay and has immersed me by providing an extendsion of my hand into the virtual world. 

The virtual world is getting more and more complex, and as time goes on, as graphics get more and more realistic, and controls become more interactive, what will differentiate what is real from what is artificial? 

Click the link below to watch the next monumental step in gaming. Be prepared to drop your jaw.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wNr3yGcI_V8&feature=related