The first gaming device I’ve ever had was a Nintendo soccer one-trick-pony handheld. It had a screen and two buttons – one to move left and one to move right. If I remember correctly, I was the goalkeeper, there were soccer balls being fired my way and I had to tackle them. It was so simple and straightforward, but amazingly fresh and exciting.
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The next one I encountered almost literally blew my mind away. It was the double-screen, orange-colored Donkey Kong from the Game & Watch early Nintendo series. Here you had a quadruple controller, which meant you could move left and right AND up and down; mind blowing. And, and, and – a round Jump button! The Kong kidnapped the girl and I had to save her. This was a whole new level of freshness. The game actually had a plot and I was a part of that plot. The way I performed affected the outcome: if I did well and saved the girl, hello to a Hollywood-style happy ending; I think there was even animation of small hearts radiating from the girl every time I saved her.
The thing that killed me the most about the Donkey Kong was that it wasn’t mine, it was my older sister’s. She sometimes let me play it, but it was hers. If she wanted to get back at me for something I did – like kicking her on purpose, or ripping a picture of Samantha Fox from her teen magazine – she would refuse to let me play. It killed me, the notion that she had a newer, more advanced game than I had, but it was a good prologue to life in the modern age where your three-and-a-half months old smartphone looks antique.
Now for the life of me I couldn’t have even come close to imagining what these games would evolve to. The present state of gaming is ridiculously amazing. The graphics, the physics of it, the stories unfolding and the pure technical skills required to put all this together, or even play it, are astonishing. I mean, even the voiceovers are bonkers. Just in the GTA about half of Hollywood participates, from Samuel L. Jackson, to Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Ice-T and even Jenna Jameson…
So one can assume based on that, we haven’t seen nothing yet; the future of gaming is far out wild. And if the future of gaming is such, then so is the future of online light-gambling. Every aspect of the online experience is expected to get so much better, so why not how we indulge ourselves in a little money-based-gaming.
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Online poker can be taken to a whole new level with the Oculus Rift or the new HoloLens by Microsoft. You could see your rivals making a poker face! Very cool. And the ability to “pick up” your cards, just the tip of it, sneak in a peak with the other players watching on. The whole virtual interpersonal interaction that the future holds is of a specific fascination for me. Even something as simple as assistance. You want to try to play slots, but it’s your first time. Instead of going through agonizing FAQ’s you simply summon the virtual assistant, which by then will be a hologram with a personality and all, and tell her: Explain to me how to play online slots, please.
Another element I’m really rooting for is the winning stage. At present, when you win in a slot game, or any other instant win game, you have some animation and sound effects to announce your win. But imagine this: you are standing in front of a hologram slot machine, you pull the handle, reels are spinning and then come to a halt and you’ve got it baby – the big win! Coins, shiny and virtual, start splashing out of the slot machine, gushing out, piling up next to your feet. Nice. That’s a scene I’m waiting for.
I believe, I know, that online gaming / gambling is still in its infancy. And as every proud parent looking at their new creation and imaging how they’d be when they are five or ten or twenty-two, so am I, watching over my slots and scratch cards, waiting for them to grow up and make daddy proud.
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