Remembering Westworld

Bob

I’ve always been a fan of great stories. I’d often fantasize about entering and living in the worlds portrayed by my favorite books and the sense of immersion and experience conveyed by great stories, movies, comics, and games has given me ample opportunity to explore the depths of imaginations – both of others and my own. Through these media, I’ve experienced a vast range of stories, settings, and surprises. Westworld represents the (un?)natural progression of storytelling.

The introduction of the open world concept was a watershed marker in gaming history when players were given the choice to play the scripted game narrative or to finally venture out on their own, exploring the virtual world of the game, making their own choices. Right now, this seems to be the apex of the immersive experience – the ability to participate in a given storyline or to wander off and explore one’s personal narrative. Westworld’s writers expertly blend storytelling’s narrative elements with game mechanics in a hauntingly familiar and compelling way.

Great storytellers are also visionaries and all it takes is just one person to fall in love with the story so much that they strive to make it a reality. What Trekkie hasn’t dreamed of life aboard a starship? What Star Wars fan hasn’t tried to use The Force, even in jest? What fan of superheroes hasn’t envisioned having super powers? How many of today’s advances were first expressed in the tales of days past?

Stories have a way of foretelling and a select few have shaped my life paths. TRON and The Last Starfighter blended video games with revolutionary visual effects of their times, which helped propel me into a computer graphics career. William Gibson’s Hugo Award winning Neuromancer was the quintessential cyberpunk tale about hacker console jockeys, street samurai, and birthed the term cyberspace – inspiring me to explore the online world long before the internet became commonplace. Avatar breathtakingly showcased telepresence and advanced biomechanics, showing that anything that can be imagined can be made real on the big screen. And now, with photorealistic virtual reality finally approaching mass adoption, a new wave of experiences will soon be upon us. As such, I have been learning the technologies and tools necessary to be well positioned when that wave crests.

At some point in the future, sooner I’d wager than many believe, we will have the opportunity to go to parks like Westworld. As technology continues to advance at an exponential rate, people will soon have the ability to experience their every curiosity, dream, and desire first hand in a virtual world. It is going to happen, it is just a matter of time. And, as studies on active visualization have shown, the brain cannot tell the difference between a visualized event and one that happens in reality. Emphasis will shift from the technologists to the creatives, the designers.

Imagine what that means… 🙂

 

Read Christine’s Take on Westworld here.