It is a fact that video games are one of the world’s most popular pastimes. 40% of the world’s population play games of some form, whether it be playing Candy Crush on your phone whilst getting ready for work or playing an extended session of competitive online gaming on a triple-A release, such as the latest Call of Duty first-person shooter experience. Gaming has surged in popularity in the last decade and now the gaming industry is one of the world’s most profitable sectors, surpassing Hollywood and the film industry in general in terms of revenue generated. This article explores some of the key factors that come together to make the perfect gaming experience and have been instrumental in the phenomenal success of gaming.
Advanced Hardware
A key factor in the development of high-quality gaming experiences has been the increasing sophistication of the hardware that runs them. Put simply, without the advances in processing power, graphical capabilities, and memory of modern gaming PCs there would be no modern gaming as we know it today. The latest crop of Intel Lenovo Gaming Computers offers gamers the ability to take advantage of the latest immersive gaming techniques such as ray tracing. This lighting technique within games was not achievable until recently due to the graphical and processing requirements it needs to function. Looking further back in gaming history, the rise of reliable internet access in the nineties allowed millions of people to taste the thrill of online gaming for the first time. Today fiber optic-based internet access allows consumers to play graphically intensive games at 60fps with virtually no lag or interruptions that would reduce their gaming enjoyment.
Immersive Story Telling
Today’s best and brightest gaming releases can tell a meaningful and utterly immersive story as you play which completely draws you into the experience. Avid gamers will have a collection of key memories in their minds that illustrate the power of storytelling in games. Anyone who played the classic Rockstar game Red Dead Redemption to its conclusion will have been utterly invested in the story of the lead character John Marsden as he hunted down his former gang to seek his family. The realistic moral ambiguity of the story woven around believable characters and excellent voice acting sucked players in until (Spoiler!) most gamers watched in sadness and disbelief as the lead protagonist died in a hail of bullets in his final gunfight. Today some games do not even need words to tell a story as is perfectly illustrated in the surreal Zenlike masterpiece that is Journey.
Superb Soundscapes
A final way in which game designers create the perfect gaming experience is by creating inspiring soundscapes within the games that fit the mood of the situation or add drama or fear to key parts of the game. Some big budget open world games even employ the services of full professional orchestras to create meaningful soundtracks that add emotion and drama to the journey and interactions of the main character. Gaming soundtracks have improved immeasurably since the early days of 8-bit gaming where memory constraints severely limited both the scope and quality of the sound effects that could be used. With that said some early games such as the Mario platforming series took a limited memory budget and created music that still captivates today’s generation of gamers.
