Dave 'Fargo' Kosak: I see games as another entertainment art form, like books or movies. The great thing is that games are just starting out. We're only beginning to figure out what's possible. The earliest motion pictures didn't have any real plot or craftsmanship to them, they were just demonstrating what's possible with the technology. Games are there today -- most games are strategy games or sshooter games, but soon we're going to see them do so much more. For example, underneath Deus Ex was a subtext about human rights in a technological society -- and the game allowed you to explore that firsthand. In the next decade or two we're going to see people use games to create some immensely powerful experiences. After all -- you're nteracting with a game. The potential there is very, very powerful from a dramatic standpoint. For games to become mainstream we're going to have to tap into that as opposed to just basing games off of twitch reflexes. I can't wait!
Games are just going to keep getting bigger and more popular. GameSpy is invested in games in a big way -- we've got a huge web network, technology to help game developers make better games, and software to help people find and play games. We believe this is THE next big thing in entertainment. Sure, maybe not next year, or the year after -- but in the long haul. I can't wait.
Frans P. de Vries: To me, immersiveness is most important factor in a game, which is why I prefer first-person and (to some extent) third-person games, and can rarely "get into" isometric and top-down ones. So with that as a given, and changes in this world usually being evolutionary rather than revolutionary, I feel the 'next step' to increase immersion would be more convincing AI, and increased non-linearity in storylines (you can tell I'm not much of an online gamer, can't you?
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I think Black & White is the first game to employ a more convincing and advanced AI than has been witnessed until now, while the number of different ways you have in Deus Ex to approach any given situation has also rarely been seen in other games. So I hope to see significant advances in both areas in far more - and a wider variety of - titles, following on and surpassing the examples set in those two games. Immersion is more than photo-realistic graphics, if a game doesn't stimulate your imagination and challenge you to think out of the box every now and again, then the pretty pictures are pretty meaningless
. Although a mindless blast (eg. Serious Sam) can be a lot of fun too 
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Adam 'Barak' Perfect: More immersive games would be nice, but I think we're still quite some way from fully realistic VR. I think FPS games will be the first to start moving towards VR but I'd still like to see games exploring other styles such as third-person. Halo was promising this and it looked great but that's gone with the move to the XBox. I still hold out a shred of hope for the PC version
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Anthony 'Rayn' Maio: I'm not sure. I'm not an expert on the gaming industry as I don't have time to focus outside of Tribes, however it seems to me that the games are staying basically the same, but the eye candy is improving. Most developers push their games with screen shots of fancy stuff my computer can't even handle. I'm not a real fiend for mind blowing graphics, I played most of Tribes 1 in software mode .. I would rather just have games that perform well, but I digress. I think the biggest advances we'll see in the near future are in terms of rendering a gaming environment that looks virtually real - graphics, sound, etc - but from there .. I have no idea.
Brian Clair: I think we're going to see increased resolutions, speed and, as a result of these, more realism in games from high polygon counts. It won't be too much longer before we're able to play games that look as good as what we see in movies at 60fps - though it might come to consoles before PCs for various reasons. This might be controversial but I think VR is just a fad, just like 3D glasses were not too long ago. I'm sure it will reappear sometime in the future, however, once technology has reached where it needs to be.
John 'Rizzuh' Jensen: It's way too hard to tell. I know that multiplayer games will never dominate though, games like Max Payne will always be hits. Multiplayer doesn't do much in the way of story telling.
I think Massively Multiplayer will become bigger and bigger as time goes on. Of course, as Counter-Strike's overnight success proved, anything can happen.
Louis Wu: I think games are definitely getting more realistic... but the jump to VR is gonna be a step backwards, at first - just because there's so much more that needs to be rendered.
But yeah, that's the next big jump, because until you get away from controlling movement with a keyboard (or a console controller), you'll never really be PART of the game. The next step is FLYING the plane, or DRIVING the jeep, or SHOOTING the gun.
Rob 'Keltic' Shea: Visual quality and frame rates are going to continue increase steadily for the next few decades, which is great, but that in and of itself will not revolutionize gaming. The next big step that I would like to see is the combination of shooters, squad tactics and strategy games into a single multifaceted world. Image a team of a dozen first person shooter players, not unlike the FPS games we have now. Now add a squad leader, with live video from each player’s helmet cam, plus radar and other tactical information on the battlefield as well as an audio comm-link to each player. This would look a lot like the first alien encounter scene from Aliens. (Gorman: “Drake, check your camera, there seems to be a malfunction.” Drake slams his head into the bulkhead. Gorman: “That’s better”.) Now image a field commander directing dozens of squad leaders and their squads, while looking at a more strategic view of the battlefield. Then image a general, issuing orders to multiple field commanders. It’s the best of all games rolled into one, a first person shooter, a tactical game, a strategy game, with real people at every level and thousands of players in the same game. The war emulator, now that’s a game. That’s my idea of the next step.
Tyler 'TySoft' Lott: Blazing FPS at any setting? NO, there will always be something better and faster - that’s a given. I do believe that VR is going to be the ‘next big step’ though - I can’t wait for that to advance. Imagine it, Tribes 5 in VR - ooh *drool*.
Joscha 'fraGGle' Dzielak: As you can see on some screenshots from games which will be in the next two years (think of Doom 3 or think about Tribes 3) I think there will be the point when games are one step in front of the reality. I believe in Dynamix and ID Software and I know that it's just a small step for them (or for other game-developers) to make games which let me jump 100 meters high
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Matt 'Acrappa' Martinez: I hope not, I get confused easily enough as is.
I just want to play games in front of a screen with a mouse and keyboard.
Ben 'Hypn0tik' Tamler: I think that VR is the next step. Until that time, game companies will still continue to put out better looking, more detailed games ect... But the VR thing is for certain.
Manveer 'Eidolon' Heir: The next step seems to be blending genres -- this has been going on for many years, but now we are really starting to see some good hybrid genre games come out. I'd like to see less of the massively multiplayer game crap -- the market is going to get saturated very quickly, which will invariably lead to only a few successful games and lots of failures. The business model, at this point, can only allow a few successful games.
Final Thoughts:
n/a
