The move to this sort of model has already begun with GameTap and Sony's Station Access, each offering ala-carte gaming for a fee. NCsoft has a whole lineup of simple yet fun online games planned that will be free to download and play, each funded entirely by in-game purchases. And while people might get curmudgeonly about paying for the right to access a game rather than paying to own one, that's really what we've been doing all along. The pretty box and shiny disc have given us a false sense of ownership; read a game's EULA, and you'll realize how little you actually own.
Instead of owning useless boxes and discs, you'll own cars and costumes, wigs and one-click makeup kits, each a virtual tsotchke with a real price tag attached. Collecting stuff has always been a hugely important part of gaming, but whatever you collect almost always stays locked within the game in which you did the collecting. This is epitomized in Animal Crossing, which made hoarding junk a fiendishly addictive pastime. However, when its portable follow-up, Wild World, came along, for many gamers the futility of its GameCube predecessor came to light: What good is a massive collection of pretty things if it all disappears and you can't show it off to everyone?
When you create a world between the games and allow your character to live there, those collectables can live there, too. Surrounding and adorning your in-game self with goodies will help these gaming destinations feel a little more like a home away from home. Like a hunter might adorn the walls of his weekend cabin with the stuffed heads of his conquests, racers will be able to decorate the walls of their pads with digital shots of victories and place reflective trophies on shelves wrapped in wooden textures.
When you visit a friend's apartment to chat, they might lovingly show you the chipped and scarred chest plate they wore to win a gladiatorial tournament, armor hanging on the wall next to their prized BFG-18K rifle and the 22-pound trophy bass they caught last week. It'll be like Animal Crossing all over again, except you won't be digging up fossils and organizing furniture in a little cocoon, you'll be winning awards and showing off the fruits of your labor to the world at large.
Having a constant presence and continuity within and between games will make for a very different and very immersive gameplay experience. Gaming will be more compelling and more addicting than ever, but despite all that, you can be sure we'll still be playing the same basic games. In 2020, you can look for me in Mushroom Kingdom cruising around Mario's Xtreme Putt-Putt and Go-Kart Experience. I'll be the one wearing the Lieberman mask and talking with the funny Vermonter accent.
Tim Stevens is a freelance writer who covers videogames and software engineering. His work can be seen at a variety of interesting places like G4's X-Play and Yahoo! Videogames, along with his blog, DigitalDisplacement.com.
