Playing games on a smartphone is relatively new yet it’s already a part of our day-to-day lives. And while traditional land casino games, poker, blackjack, roulette etc, have remained unchanged for decades, online casinos seem to boast something new every week.
Before we begin, it’s worth noting that the future, when it comes to gaming, is already here. The simple act of firing up your smartphone and playing slingo, for example, is something that we couldn’t have imagined thirty years ago.
With that in mind, what’s to come in thirty years is almost impossible to predict. But we can take existing ‘future’ technologies and see how they’re doing in the present to, maybe, get an idea.
AI (Artificial intelligence)
AI seems to have only been a thing in the past couple of years. These days you can’t walk down the street without someone either moaning or praising ChatGPT, say.
But AI has been used in gaming for decades, take those ghosts floating around in the 1980s Pacman, that’s AI. Okay, it’s come on since then, but the basic principle remains intact.
Sure, NPCs (non-player characters) like the bystanders in GTA are now able to work together thanks to AI. But they’re still programmed, they don’t think independently and don’t expect them to do so anytime soon.
Games like The Last of Us, follow a plot: if the characters or the enemy began to think independently the game would no longer exist as intended.
Sure, AI can help to make a game more interesting by tracking interactions while the game is being developed. But AI only enhances aspects of the game while in play, it can’t dictate it.
AR (Augmented Reality) VR (Virtual Reality)
AR and VR are almost fifty-five years old, and in terms of technology, dinosaurs. The fact that both aren’t a massive part of our day-to-day gaming experience should speak volumes.
Why it’s not massive is a little more complex, prohibitive costs in acquiring additional equipment might be a factor. But perhaps a more fundamental reason is that it offers gamers an almost fully immersive experience, which may be too much to take in.
It’s one thing to spend a few hours playing Resident Evil via a monitor, and another when it feels like you’ve been dropped into hell. Though we’d argue that AR -with the right balance of reality and fantasy- could still change the way we play, think Pokémon Go and take it from there…
Online Casinos
Online Casinos have come on in leaps and bounds way since Intercasino launched in 1994, and we’re not just talking about a new generation of games like slingo. Games are faster, increasingly sophisticated, safer to play and thanks to RNG (random number generation) every game that relies on chance will do so without a pre-determined agenda.
Where the online casino will end up in the future is an interesting question, as much of it points to existing technology cited above. The fact that AI and AR aren’t currently major features when it comes to online casinos (though some do exist) suggests an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to the near future.
Metaverse
The metaverse may well be the future for all the gaming genres noted above. But, again, we’re talking about here-and-now technology.
The word ‘metaverse’ comes from a 1992 book, Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, but the concept dates back to 1838. Sir Charles Wheatstone’s ‘binocular vision’ combines two images, one from each eye, to create one in 3D: metaphorically this is the metaverse.
But it wasn’t until 2016 that the Metaverse as we know it today came into existence by mixing AR and VR to create a digital world. One in which you can buy and sell goods or, for the sake of context, visit land-based digital casinos.
When it comes to gaming the combination of AR, VR and the Metaverse is arguably the future. But, again, we have it now, so why aren’t we using it?
Ray Tracing
In short, hyper-realistic graphics. And one area of online gaming that we can guarantee will continue to improve in the future.
We already have the ability to use ray tracing algorithms to generate graphics in real time. This is done by tracking light rays on the screen and taking into account shadows, reflections and refraction to create super-real graphics.
It does and will continue to affect every aspect of gaming and this is one area of technology that will influence games in the future. As to how it’ll be used is harder to say: will it be monitor, headset or interact directly with your vision, for example.
But we’ll leave you with this thought. 3D has been around since 1922, it revolutionised the way we saw movies, the trouble is, people just preferred to do without it.
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