True, though in my mind I put these things into my "lots of interesting novelties" category. Everything in games (including the physics engine!) is typically fi

True, though in my mind I put these things into my "lots of interesting novelties" category. Everything in games (including the physics engine!) is typically fine-tuned to provide fun, more than realism. The same is currently true for AI (especially enemy AI), and I believe it'll continue to be that way. Good point on the procedural aspect, Minecraft and similar games came to mind when I wrote my first post. I'd argue they are still fundamentally a designed, shareable experience, and that's my main point really. In Minecraft, you can't talk about the world much with someone else since it's generated, but the mechanics, materials, recipes etc. are the same, and provide exchange between humans playing the same game. I believe we'll even see some successful AI heavy games in the near future, but I also believe we'll cycle back to games being, first and foremost, designed upfront. I might be wrong of course and we might see some kind of holodeck 100% custom game experience become dominant. It's just my hunch that we won't, even if it's feasible. Thinking as far back as I can, people always seem to have wanted two things from games: Fun, and connection to other people.