I have been listening to reports from E3 on 1Up. In the next 12 months, we are going to see the next level of sophistication in virtual worlds, i.e. games. Snowcrash isnt here yet but it is coming fast.
Graphics are always improving and the next wave of games is going to show amazing levels of detail. GTA IV is going to have extreme levels of map detail in its world. Crysis (often leaked but never released) has impressed everyone who has seen it with its foliage and water details. Killzone 2 has amazing character detail. I personally was not impressed with Gears of War on Xbox 360 but it does look fantastic on the PC (too bad it still lacks a story).
Networking connectivity continues to limp forward. Xbox Live was a big step for consoles but still lags far behind the PC world. MMO's and virtual worlds like Second Life have been around for some time with few big advances. However there may be interesting changes in cooperative play when Sony finally gets its act together on the PS3. Little Big Planet sounds like the first PS3 title to show off networked gameplay.
But the real mind-blower for me was Valve.
Valve is apparently introducing a facial animation system that links what you say in your headset to the facial movements of your in-game character. I have not seen this in action yet but given the sophistication of the current HL2 engine, this next rev sounds amazing. While other companies focus on the big things - more pixels, more blood - Valve consistently forges ahead on the little things that improve the overall experience. With HL2 it was lighting and story and this voice thing continues the trend.
Imagine a virtual world with the level of graphic detail of HL2 and the characters faces move like ours. No one is talking about this yet but I think the impact will be huge.
