The future of gaming, as envisioned by the September movie "Gamer" does not involve the happy playing of the Wii. Think more of The Running Man via Project Natal developed by a really rich guy.
Walking to the subway yesterday, I spotted a poster for a movie called Gamer. And I discovered that it is not about me. Or you. Or any other gamers I've heard of.
It's about the future of gaming, a future when games are made by reclusive billionaires and are controlled with hands-free set-ups. It's a future that goes as follows, according to the official plot summary of the movie, as cut and pasted from IMDB:
GAMER is a high-concept action thriller set in a near future when gaming and entertainment have evolved into a terrifying new hybrid. Humans control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online games: people play people...for keeps. Mind-control technology is widespread, and at the heart of the controversial games is its creator, reclusive billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). His latest brainchild, the first-person shooter game "Slayers," allows millions to act out their most savage fantasies online in front of a global audience, using real prisoners as avatars with whom they fight to the death.
You can check out the Gamer trailers (including the Italian one) and witness the future's Project Natal-like gaming interface and the overall magic of gamers controlling human beings (prisoners!) in their video games instead of polygonal avatars.
If this dark future is what will be required for us to cross the uncanny valley in video game visuals, how about we don't cross it? Okay?