Gaming system expansion

When you slip into the folds of your couch, flick on the television and fire up your Xbox 360, you’re not just “playing a game,” you’re a part of something larger, something so wonderful your imagination can’t even fathom it yet.

Sure, playing a match of “Modern Warfare 2,” or “Halo 3” seems like a fairly cut and dry experience. You win, they lose. Nothing to it. But, like an iceberg, or Australia, the meat of the matter is down under, where 80 percent of the potential sits.

With the limping economy, we’d like our dollars to stretch further. Thankfully, the big players, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, know this. Instead of launching the Xbox 720, PlayStation 4 or Wii 2, the three companies, and their respective systems, are choosing thrift instead of posh.

Instead of each company’s system successor, in the next few years gamers will enjoy cutting edge titles like “Halo: Reach,” “Killzone 3” and “Super Mario Galaxy 2.” These games, or now more appropriately deemed ‘interactive experiences,’ will push the limitations of their systems to levels we thought to be inaccessible.

But it’s not just games. Nintendo was first to jump into the motion-control era and the rest are following suit. Their games revolutionized gaming and allowed those turned off by the seeming complexity of a controller and its button combinations to play games by waving their arms.

By year’s end, Microsoft and Sony will have released motion-controlled gaming technology of their own as well. Microsoft is releasing its “Project Natal” (to be officially named likely in June) hardware, which eschews the controller entirely, with the computer picking up bodily movements, by holiday 2010. Sony, whose motion technology, dubbed “PlayStation Move,” is more similar to the Wii setup and will release around the same time.

And, if you’re excited already, we’ve barely begun.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all beginning to see the merit in extending the value of their systems with additional interactive experiences. All three systems, as of March 2010, have access to feature film and television-watching application Netflix. And just last week, Sony made a ground-breaking technological advancement, bringing about the MLB.TV application the PlayStation 3. With it, gamers with a love for professional baseball can get both fixes in one place.

News from last week also brought about the preponderance of Xbox Live, Microsoft’s social service for its Xbox 360, hosting television channels within its technological framework. And those with an Xbox 360 can access popular social media sites like Facebook, where they can update their status, check their newsfeed and look at photos, Twitter and the music-shuffling tool.

All  this boils down to is the enticement of consolidation. Humans today are tied to so many technological properties that having them all in one place and staying ‘plugged in’ for as long as possible is what these huge game companies want.  When I’m done blowing up my friends in “Modern Warfare 2,” I can, without getting up or even shifting my weight, check my Facebook, listen to music and get my fix of What Would John Locke Do? in an episode of “Lost.” It’s beautiful, really.

The term ‘gamer’ is becoming an increasingly incorrect description for those who play video games. Nevertheless, it remains the label by which the video game playing community is associated with.

It’s never been a better time to be a video game playing technological enthusiast (someone, please, design a more succinct term!) The way games are evolving, it’s damn near impossible to say what the future holds, but instead of fearing that uncertainty, embrace it. It’s only going to get better.

Eddie Makuch can be contacted at emakuch@keeneequinox.com