Over Thirty Years Of FPS Games
First-Person Shooters are abbreviated “FPS”, and decades have come and gone since the first FPS options hit the market. Let’s start with the first “at-home” option, MIDI Maze. This thing was a cut above previous “vector graphics” options, where green geometric shapes were the order of the day. Basically, it was first-person Pac-Man.
Eventually, Doom, Wolfenstein, and Dark Forces changed things up in the nineties. The most game-changing options of that day were Quake and Goldeneye. Both had exceptional multiplayer options, and Quake was graphically astonishing as well.
The next revolution came in the form of Half-Life and Halo. Then all those Call of Duty games came out, bringing the online vibe to the genre. Online gaming has developed a sort of subculture that plays by its own rules and best practices.
From that culture has developed a collateral sub-culture of pariahs, and “themed” groups. People make entire cultures around the communities they produce through online multiplayer gaming.
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Iterations Of The Future, Which Is Now
As of 2021, the next big iteration is online FPS gaming becoming combined with Virtual Reality (VR) rigs. Some of these rigs even have “run-and-gun” stations, where there’s a little circular platform you can jog around in. That platform makes it so that you’re actually getting exercise while you play.
Augmented Reality (AR), self-driving cars, and the brain chip Elon Musk has been developing (and is at a level where a monkey can play games using its mind) are the next natural evolution here. Eventually, online FPS games will have communities meeting up in real-time across the country.
FPS Games Are Not Monolithic
The thing about a single genre of games is that it’s no monolith. That is to say, all games build from the lessons of their forebears. For example, the first at-home FPS game was basically a Pac-Man sort of thing. Well, Pokemon GO made it so people can meet new gamers and explore their physical world through a basic AR interface via smartphone.
So what do we really know about FPS games? Well, they build on others, and they tend to expand in terms of their interactivity based on available technology and gaming innovations. They’ve made the leap from vector graphics to fully-realized 3D models to multiplayer extravaganzas which span the globe via the internet, to truly astonishing VR.
The Implications
Now AR and VR will combine with cybernetic technology to facilitate a sort of gaming experience that truly changes the physical landscape of the world in which we live. In short, the potential for modern FPS gaming can authentically represent a way of life. When you consider in China there are economies built around “Grinding” for World of Warcraft “money”, this is something to really think about.
Staying abreast of modern gaming conventions is more than just a means of understanding what’s trending in entertainment. Play your cards right, and your FPS fashion sense could very legitimately dovetail into a career. Simultaneously, though, not everyone has the commitment to go quite that far.
That’s one reason at sites like the following, I Want Cheats, you can acquire shortcuts for a variety of popular shooters on the market. This can save you time, give you an edge, and allow you to swiftly experience everything a given game has to offer. Even culturally plugged-in gamers find value in such cheats.
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The Exponential Shifts Of The Modern Gaming World
Gaming exponentially expands on itself year over year. Something else that is now defining FPS games is the “indie” market. Just a handful of people can make a next-gen game that’s innovative. Gaming “engines”, like hardware or Operating Systems (OS) on computers, can be put to use on a unique map or another set of circumstances.
Hideo Kojima essentially expropriated an engine, with all legal moves in place, for his magnum opus Death Stranding. If he can do it, so can anybody who wants to, and still, be considered original by many in gaming. Accordingly, keep your eye out for VR and AR games of the FPS variety which never see a mainstream release, but become phenomenons anyway.
One thing is sure: regardless of what anybody thinks about FPS games, given their interactivity and entertainment value, they’re going to become more trendy than they ever have in due course. Especially as VR, AR, and biotech take off, you can expect some fundamental shifts. Ladies and gentlemen, The Matrix is here.