It's an often heard complaint by videogame afficionados that most large companies (genre Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, UbiSoft,...) don't do a lot to further the development of electronic entertainment in new and different directions.
More power mostly means the same games and mechanisms with better graphics, and this video really proves the point:
Now obviously these are not the only developments but you could say that they represent the bulk of the genres that are high on the sales lists these days... There are notable exceptions, but as was stated on the Fallon Planning blog (where I found the video), the biggest evolutions will probably come from users who develop their own content.
And while SecondLife may be one of the triggers (bringing a bigger audience, even though World of Warcraft is already working wonders), I believe that the way people develop their own content for commercial games like Half Life and others will probably work sooner. Counterstrike is a good example, being a big commercial success but not what you'd call radically different from traditional shooter set-ups.
There are more interesting things at the moment, like a certain mod where you can use the game's physics engine to experiment with all kinds of stuff, like building flying machines and all different kinds of contraptions. Not everyone will understand the following paragraph, but it does sound more interesting than 'search for enemy, kill with available guns,...':
In this multiplayer session of Garry's Mod, several players have been turned into physically simulated watermelons and are roped to a scanner NPC (also physically simulated). By rolling themselves around, the players are, with a coordinated effort, able to drag the NPC around the area.
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