When Google becomes your eyes.

Escaping Reality

I remember not too long ago, several stories in the news following the premiere of the movie "Avatar" by James Cameron. Reports of a large number of people becoming depressed, even suicidal after seeing the movie, suffering from "Post-Avatar Depression". The film depicts a world far away, where all of its inhabitant are interconnected through nature. And the world it presents is a rather beautiful one. Not yet sullied by the hands of mankind, seeking resources wherever they go.

Are you suffering from "Post-Avatar Depression"?

Yes, I'd like to visit Pandora. Space generally for that matter.

Those depressed people, some of whom may have decided to take their own life, in the moment realising they will never be a part of something like it, if they had just waited a few more years. And seen something like we see in this video. It's not the real thing. But it may one day become something tangiable, an interactive experience that can take us to distant beautiful worlds, if not more beautiful than Avatar's world, Pandora.

I remember playing the first Mass Effect game. Traveling across space and finding new planets and reading about their origins. The best part about the first Mass Effect game was that you could land on most planets and take a look around, outside of the storyline appointed planets. I went out of my way finding the moon, and landing on it. I can now truly say, I have walked the surface of the moon. It wasn't real, but do I care? No.

People do indeed escape reality, whether it is reading novels, watching movies or playing video games which has become a billion dollar industry. And realism in gaming has become one of the priorities when wishing to spell-bind an audience. To convince them to feel empathy for entirely fictional characters in believable worlds and universes, sometimes not based in reality at all. We also see alot of focus on physics and animation in games. And its also of course to motivate people to buy their product. Many movie writers and directors are now working in the video games industry.

The facial animation in LA.Noire is very believable, because it's taken directly from the actors themselves

This tech demo is brilliant. *holds back single tear*

This tech demo from Square Enix shows how to combine graphics, physics and animation effectively.

Great things to come.

But in the recent years we find many examples of the stories in games being the second focus in video games, and instead the multiplayer aspect, often where teams of players battle eachother to win, is the main focus. One can argue that in games with a pre-set ending, where the protagonist's journey towards the end is entirely scripted and the player is given objectives to complete, has become redundant and too predictable. While in a multiplayer match online, or in a MMORPG(which combines story with multiplayer), players are personally responsible for how every round or bossfight ends. Which is the reason why many game developers and publishers sometimes leaves out the story entirely and make games which are entirely based on multiplayer.

There are also examples in singleplayer games, much more popular now than some years ago, where nearly every action the player makes, has consequences in the games' storyline, even giving different endings.(Deus Ex Series, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect Series). In some games the gamer can create their own characters, either recreate a digital version of themselves or whomever they want to be, and see that character go through the story.

Character creation in Saints Row 2. 

Warning: Ab-workout level laughter guaranteed

I will go through some examples of ingame actions in cyberspace having real life consequences in reality in a future post.

I escape reality sometimes as well. Here is a recent Battlefield 3 musicvideo I made:

On a different note, here's some emerging technologies from this years SIGGRAPH convention. Alot of  augmented reality tech this year. =)