Raph Koster thinks so, and of course, he's right. Gamespot has covered his talk at the Austin Games Conf, which focused on the future of publishing; in sum: aggregators, digital delivery and broad spectrum content will win over publishers, boxed products on limited shelves and narrow AAA content.
On top of that, other media are sniping aspects of the game industry and throwing them into their own products. Television series like American Idol, Survivor, Lost, and Star Trek 2.0--a new interactive version of the original sci-fi show--all incorporate elements from gaming.
"We now have television shows with Easter eggs," Koster said. "In fact, they're putting Easter eggs in the commercials. Our best tricks are getting stolen."
Yup, television is becoming more playful. Games, too, are becoming better at storytelling. Pop will eat itself? I shouldn't think so. Linear and interactive (passive and active?) will continue to complement each other. Merging will happen in places, we'll eventually see some hybrids - I certainly hope we will, and I want it to happen soon - but overall there's more opportunity here than ever before, to use Hollywood's favourite word.
Talking of easter eggs and playful teevee, Lost Season 2 just arrived in the post. You may not see me for a while ;)
I highly recommend reading the f13.net liveblog rather than any of the press summaries of the talk. :)
Posted by: Raph | September 08, 2006 at 09:05
Every new medium changes the old ones. Photography changed painting. Film changed theater. Television changed film. And so on.
What's odd is that it has taken so long for video games to begin having an influence on television and film, etc. (and they aren't finished, either). I suppose it shows how culturally marginalized video games were (or were viewed as being) and how conservative the television/film industries are.
Posted by: bob | September 08, 2006 at 20:17