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Migdon Ferido
Professor Campbell
UWRT 1103
5 April 2016
Virtual Unreality: The Future of Gaming
Introduction
What are video games to you? Some might say video games are their outlet. They
escape from all the stresses of life and enter a mindset where pleasure and entertainment rule.
Some might say video games are nothing but a waste of time. All that virtual play doesnt make
any difference in the world and that games are just for children. Well, theyre wrong. The
culture of gaming has a long and rich history of discovery and unreality. Archaeological
evidence proves that as early as 2600 BC, humans played games. Archaeologists found game
boards that were etched onto the backs of statues by bored Assyrian guards by the 8th century.
This state of boredom stimulated the mind to create a world unreal and imaginary. Some of
gamings history led to controversy, like the video game that put you in the shoes of John F.
Kennedys assassin, JFK Reloaded (Anderson); a complex first person simulation game that
simulates JFKs assassination. Some events were considered astonishing and groundbreaking,
like Blizzards fantasy MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of
Warcraft. In this essay, I will explore the potential future of video games. With a rich history
planted on fertile soil, gaming and gaming culture will grow into something monumental to
society and media. My focus on gamings aspects will be towards mainly on its psychological
standpoint and some of its technological standpoints because these have been impacted the most

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ever since the first video game was created (Chatfield, Fun Inc.; Andersen, There Has to be
More to it: Diegetic Violence and the Uncertainty of President Kennedys Death).
What does it mean to game?
We all know at least one person who identifies as a gamer. Its that one person can be
someone that you know that wears clothing and accessories that involve video games or their
characters. It can be the person you least expect it to be. It can be thats that person that can
recall every video game they played ever since they laid their hands on a controller. If notyouve
never met a gamer, you should meet one. Theyre interesting, theyre awkward, theyre
confident, and theyre humans. Yes, humans! Gamers are teachers, students, professors,
parents, and on rare occasions, even pets. Yes, animals can play video games, too. Anyone who
can enjoy a game and play it is a gamer. According to Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is

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Broken, The United States alone has 183 million active gamers with numbers still growing.
This means that there are 183 million individuals who, according to surveys, report that they play
video games at least 13 hours a week. Globally, the online gaming community accounts for
more than 4 million gamers in the Middle East, 10 million in Mexico, 13 million in Central and
South America, 17 million in South Korea, 15 million in Australia, 200 million in China, and
100 million in Europe (McGonigal, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How
They Can Change the World). This active community of gamers are brought together by their
passion to game. There is one sole reason why individuals would spend countless hours on a
game. We game to gain meaning.
Individuals escape the real world to enter a virtual one, but why? You might say that it
means nothing when you achieve a goal in a video game. Whether its defeating Bowser in
Super Mario Brothers, or building yourself a home in Minecraft, individuals will still spend

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countless hours in those virtual worlds because in reality it ends up in some form of reward, or
some form of meaning. This reward gives the player a small but satisfying victory over the
game. Have you ever conquered or beat a hard level or a hard boss then exhaled in relief? If so,
thats the satisfaction we gain from gaming. That small victory gives the player a purpose to
play which then gives us some meaning after each victory. Or in other words, some form of
positive reinforcement. With all the stresses of real life beating down upon you, the satisfaction
of defeating a virtual being that threatens your video game world will mean little to most, but a
lot to you.
The future to game relies on the complete urge to play. This means that playing games
with one another, or by yourself, disintegrates boundaries because video games are a movement
within society that within society thats one true purpose, as with any game, is to slip the bounds
from the norm (fastcompany.com; Chatfield, Fun Inc.).

Which brings me to say that the

means to game is also the means to change. Constant feedback is provided by gamers which
then increases the demand of innovation, or in this case change. This is the reason why new
game mechanics and new gaming hardware are still being invented to this day. Feedback also
influences gaming culture in forms of cosplay and gaming-themed events such as PAX and E3.
Gaming has a dynamic nature in which throughout the years, the culture to game has

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been growing at a rapid rate. Video game studios are already working on their newest projects
after the release of their latest title. Competitive and professional gaming are increasing in
popularity and are spreading to different game titles that you wouldnt expect to be played
competitively. Games such as Tetris and Donkey Kong. A significant increase of these youtube
gamers promote, critique, and show off video games with play-through videos and review
videos on youtube.com. Game companies use feedback from forums specific to their games to

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know what to improve on their next product. Social media, such as twitter and facebook,
provides a significant advantage because it gives the public access to communicate with their
favorite game companies. Kick-starter campaigns hosted by kickstarter.com help fund a diverse
group of independent game developers that create video games in the comfort in their own
homes.
To summarize, the meaning to game or to play is a movement that facilitates a form of
change. It is a culture that brings together the community through a dynamic virtual medium. It
strives to induce fun and most importantly, a purpose. Gaming breaks down barriers from the
everyday norm for the simple idea of escaping reality. But more importantly, people just want to
play.
Gaming and the Mind
In most cases, when a person picks up a new game to play, it is a voluntary action.
People tend to say that they only play games because its just for fun. Now why is that? There
are many activities outside the area of gaming that a person can do. Activities like going on
vacation to another country or going for a hike with your friends. Yet, many people choose to
spend hours on end on something deemed not real. Whether its a minigame that only lasts a few
seconds or a fully developed game that would take hours to beat, there is something about the
structured experience of gaming that keeps our eyes glued to the screen.
From my research, I learned that gaming has four defining traits that makes up this oneof-a-kind experience, or appropriately put, this virtual experience (McGonigal). Gaming shares
a goal, a set of rules, a feedback system, and the will to voluntarily participate in the game itself.
The first trait, the goal in the game, is the specific outcome that a player will try to reach. It is
what produces this powerful sense of motivation that keeps our hands wired to the controllers of

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the favorite games we play. In other words, the goal provides the player with a sense of purpose
throughout the game. It is the push that the player needs to progress and succeed.
The second trait is that video games come with a set of rules. The rules project
limitations to the player during the game. Limitations arent necessarily bad. It provides the
player a set of challenges in order to achieve the goal. These set of challenges are what amplifies
the entertainment factor inside video games. I believe the challenges, as with any challenge in
life, encourages innovation and critical thinking. According toAccording to IGN.comHarold

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Goldberg article, 25 Greatest Breakthroughs in Video Game History, video games help unleash

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the creativity of the player and it they fosters strategical thinking. This means that the rules of
the game that accompany the goal pushes our minds to the limit and reinforces a diverse pattern
of thought.
The third trait is that video games provide a feedback system. Feedback comes in
different varieties depending on the type of game that we play. It can be an arcade game, such as
Tetris, where the feedback is represented through points. The more blocks you build and
destroy, the more points you get. It can also take the forms of leveling up, a progress bar, and
animation. Many players describe this feedback system usually as: The game is over when
This real-time feedback serves as a guarantee that the goal can be achieved. Some feedback
systems even give you hints to how you can secure a certain goal which then entices the player to
continue playing the game. An example would be Microsofts Xbox 360s achievement points
system. Each list of achievements that varies on the game has a description under each
achievement that hints at the goal needed to achieve it. The task could be as simple as bringing
up the start menu, or as complex as beating the game on the hardest difficulty without dying.
Every time a player completes a certain task, the player is rewarded with a satisfying bloop

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sound and an achievement bubble pops up on the players screen. The achievement gives the
player even more satisfaction by giving it a witty name that serves as a joke for the task
completed, and a value of points labeled as G. In summation it basically enforces the
motivation to keep playing, which then contributes more to the games entertainment factor
(McGonigal, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the
World 21).
The last trait of gaming is the voluntary participation of the player. No one is forcing the
player to play video games. There is no judgement or pressure that forces the player to cooperate
with the video games mechanics. Therefore, this phenomenon brings together all the traits that
were previously stated. The player knowingly and willingly accepts the goal, the rules, and the
feedback. The freedom to enter or leave a game ensures that this gaming experience emulates
stressful and challenging work as safe and pleasurable ability. It basically lets the player know
that they are the authority. They are the ones in control.
Jane McGonigal, director of games research and development at the Institute for the
Future, unites these traits by stating:
Compared with games, reality is too easy. Games challenge us with voluntary obstacles
and help us put our personal strengths to better use.
Furthermore, gamers want to play the game. The concept of play provokes positive emotion and
gives the player a sense of purpose. A Hungarian psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
published a scientific study called Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. The study talks about a
specific innate happiness that all humans experience called, flow: a satisfying and exhilarating
emotion of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced
cheek-SENT-me-high) wrote that, Games are an obvious source of flow and play is the flow

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experience par excellence. This concept of flow makes the player want to explore, learn, and
improve in the game. If the goal is truly captivating, gamers will struggle with its limitations.
Gamers will thrive off of and play the game until genuine euphoria or flow is met.
Gamings psychological standpoint coincides with these four traits. They immensely
impact the future of gaming by firstly stating that gaming itself has without a doubt a future to
grow on. Its fate correlates with the ever-growing community of passionate gamers out there
willing to exhaust their abilities in order to conquer virtual challenges. To simply put it, people
play games because games induce satisfaction. This satisfaction from gaming gives video game
studios and companies the vigor to produce more games. Producing video games influenced by
a growing community of positive and critical thinking gamers will optimize society. As Jane
McGonigal brilliantly puts it in a TED talk titled, Gaming Can Make a Better World:
Weve got all these amazing gamers. Weve got all these games that are kind of pilots

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of what we might do. But none of them have saved the real world yet. I hope that you
will agree with methat gamers are a human resource, that we can use, to do real world
workthat games are a powerful platform for change. We have all these amazing super
powers: blissful productivity, the ability to weave a tight social fabric, this feeling of
urgent optimism, and the dire for epic meaning(McGonigal, Gaming CanWorld)
Gaming and Technology
According to Tom Chatfield, author of How to Thrive in the Digital Age and Fun Inc.:
Why Games Are The 21st Centurys Most Serious Business, video games are both a medium and
an industry. It is a rising and increasingly powerful form of entertainment, expression, and
communication. The mid-1970s were the early glory days of gaming. Kids, teenagers, and
adults from around the town would gather at the arcade where for one measly quarter, an

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individual gets to experience this powerful medium of entertainment. In a way, gaming brought
together the community in a particular space. Individuals interact and sometimes play a friendly
game of co-op (cooperation) on their favorite video game. Co-op video games such as Battle
Toads and Contra require players to work together for a high score. Some players compete each
other for the high score. Fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter require each
player to battle each other until a player loses. This hardware and incorporated in-game
mechanics are what makes up the most of gaming technology (IGN.comGoldeberg).
I believe that the future of gaming will reflect on hardware as much as it reflects on
software. In the future, non-gaming industries like security companies or social networking
companies, will incorporate ideas from gaming into new products. An example would be Xbox
360s Kinect. In its early days, Kinect was known as Project Natal. According to Chatfield,
Natal represents the most sophisticated hardware and software ever created in the field of
motion capture and wireless controlcontrol. Which is true. In its early alpha days, Project
Natal was considered a myth or a hoax. No one expected to have access to this Star Wars-like
technology. I remember playing Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 with some friends while
arguing if it is actually possible to implement motion capture technology in the comfort of our
own living rooms. It just seems expensive and impossible to market. But we were wrong.
Microsoft soon announced the development of Project Natal. Steven Spielberg declared that
Natal represents, a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games (qtd
in Fun Inc.). Which is probably right considering the significant transformation of how families
can game in their living room now.
After Project Natals official announcement, talks of social networking involving fullbody projections similar to that of Natals began to rise. Online communication companies, like

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Skype, are experimenting with motion scan holographichologram skype calls using motion scan
technology. calling wherever you go. Today, the military uses custom built flight simulators and
battle simulators to train soldiers. Even though their tech is more complex compared to the
everyday Xbox controller, the simulations still contain similar elements to that of a regular video
game, like a feedback system, a set of rules, and a specific goal (mentalfloss.com11
Unbelievable Advances in Gaming Technology).
This brings me to another point that complexity does not necessarily stop innovation. It
is common belief to those not tech-savvy that an invention with many complex mechanics gives
it the title as the pinnacle of that specific kind of technology; that nothing can be done to improve
it. To many a computer is just a computer; a machine to check email, go on social media, or
watch videos. To some, that computer can be turned into a multi-upgraded machine of infinite
capabilities. Microsoft condenses complexity in Xbox Ones new Kinect system. They have
implemented voice recognition, facial recognition, and an improved motion capture. The new
Kinect even talks to you. With the power of your voice, you possess the ability to control your
Xbox without even lifting a finger. Its as if you have your own personal AI (Artificial
Intelligence) in the comfort of your home.
Today, VR headsets were recently released by game industry giants such as Valve and

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Sony, which marks another great event in gaming history. Gamers are given the ability to have a
full 360-degree view of their video games with the help of implemented motion technology;
which leads me to believe that gaming will give players more freedom and mobility in-game, and
will be more physically and creatively demanding (Wilson). Giving the player more freedom ingame gives the player a sense of exploration which facilitates task completion. An example
would be solving a quantum physics mystery through a game called BringHomeWater.

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According to Amina Khan, author of the article, Take That, A.I.: Video-gamers Solve Quantum

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Physics Mystery Using Human Intuition, Danish scientists created the game to help solve the
quantum physics problem that their computers A.I. couldnt solve; giving the players the
freedom to experiment on a solution through a simple game. It also lessens the fear of failure
which contributed to increased creativity and the idea that human intuition helped solve the
problem. The absence of failure gave the players more focus on the game which resulted in the
players solving the quantum physics problem. Even though the players moved 100,000 times
slower compared to a computer, they solved something a computer A.I. could not (Khan).
Maybe the world of Star Wars tech wont be as far, far away as we think.
In Conclusion
Predicting the future is a task deemed impossible because the future of gaming holds no
bounds. Gaming and its culture will stay dynamic and it will always progress. Its sole purpose
is to break the boundaries of reality in order to improve it through virtual play and virtual reality.
People play video games because reality is boring. People choose to get lost in these little video
game worlds so that the stress of the real world doesnt overcome them. Like everyones future,
gamings future is not written on stone. With all the technological advances happening right
now, the future of gaming can go in any direction it pleases.

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Works Cited
"11 Unbelievable Advances in Gaming Technology." Mental Floss. Intel, 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 09
Apr. 2016.
Andersen, Carrie. "- "There Has To Be More To It": Diegetic Violence and the Uncertainty of
President Kennedy's Death." Game Studies. Game Studies, Dec. 2015. Web. 08 Apr.
2016.
Chatfield, Tom. Fun Inc.: Why Games Are the 21st Century's Most Serious Business. London:
Virgin, 2010. Print.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1975.
Print.
Franciosi, S. J. "Acceptability of RPG Simulators for Foreign Language Training in Japanese
Higher Education." Simulation & Gaming 47.1 (2015): 31-50. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
Goldberg, Harold. "The 25 Greatest Breakthroughs in Video Game History - IGN." IGN. IGN,
30 Jan. 2012. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

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Hill, Mark. "Nostalgia Is Ruining Video Games." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22
Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
Khan, Amina. "Take That, A.I.: Video-gamers Solve Quantum Physics Mystery Using Human
Intuition." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Kudler, Amanda. "Video Games: Timeline." Infoplease. Infoplease. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
McGonigal, Jane. "Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a Better World." YouTube. YouTube, 17
Mar. 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.
McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change
the World. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print. 20 Feb. 2016.
Wilson, Mark. "Why Virtual Reality Will Change Design Forever." Co.Design. Fast Company,
11 Apr. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.

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