The technological revolution has changed the way we do everything from grocery shopping to communicating with our friends and families. The world of entertainment has changed beyond recognition in a relatively short span of time, with more options than ever before.
It seems hard to believe that we were once limited to live television and computer games that needed to be loaded painstakingly from disks or tapes. With so much on-demand content, there is more choice for entertainment than ever before, not to mention the fact that interaction has become more important than ever before.
Instead of passively consuming this realm of digital media, the games industry has become increasingly collaborative with online gaming providing the means for more people than ever to play together. This kind of gaming has proved popular, spawning a huge industry that is constantly adopting new technology and developing new ways to engage players.
The rise of iGaming
They may not have realised it at the time, but the group of students who held the first video gaming contest at Stamford in 1972 was sowing the seeds of an entire industry. The ‘Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics’ were hosted by students who wanted a way to put their gaming skills to the test.
Although home computing, and therefore personal video gaming, didn’t really take off in earnest until the 1980s, its trajectory has been pretty steadily upwards ever since. As computers got faster and more powerful, so too did the games until today, when virtual reality and artificial intelligence are used in a wide choice of games.
The gaming industry has gone from a relative niche pastime to one that has billions of fans worldwide with experts predicting it will be worth around $321 billion by 2026. While there are a number of new games that have billions of players, traditional games are still among the most popular.
Casino games in particular have made the transition from casino to digital to online very smooth. As soon as the potential for computer gaming became a reality, popular choices such as roulette, blackjack, and other games of chance were being recreated in digital form.
With fans’ favourite games available online, people were not so reliant on physical casinos to enjoy the excitement of trying to win big. As players took advantage of the flexibility and convenience of playing online, developers had the resources to design more advanced games and incorporate cutting-edge technology.
The changing face of gamers
With more than 3.2 billion gamers worldwide, the global gaming industry has become a lucrative business that is at the cutting edge of the latest technological trends. Online casinos are no exception as they incorporate the very latest in graphics, sound engineering, and other immersive technology to provide the most authentic period possible.
Gamers are able to play games in a variety of ways, allowing them to choose the playing style that suits them best, whether that’s live streaming online roulette or finding the perfect poker game against players from all over the world. As more and more people engage with online gaming, it has developed an appeal for spectators as well as for participants.
This has created a huge new market, driven by gamers and their enthusiasm for new games, gaming accessories, and specialist equipment. This, in turn, has allowed games design studios to invest in the best talent and technology that are then combined into games that are fun, engaging, and make the most of the latest technology.
Traditional games in the 21st century
Even well-established games have been adapted to use the very latest technology, with casino sites offering their players a range of online games that are designed to make the most of the latest technology. From accepting cryptocurrencies to using artificial intelligence to make their games more realistic, New online casinos have embraced the latest tech trends to create games that players love.
Websites can track the way their users interact with their games, providing useful data about how long players spend on each type of game, the likely outcomes of various different types of strategies, and how they interact with different elements of each game. This can then be used to inform every aspect of game design from the interface players use to manage their accounts to the in-game storylines and progression.
With so much information about the way their games work, design studios offer their players games that appeal to their playing style, with offers and promotions that mean they can usually test out new games for free. With so many games coming to market, there are games to suit anyone, including:
- logic puzzles
- action
- adventure
- driving
- platform
- role playing
- shooter
- survival
- sports
- simulation
For players that want to combine the fun of their favourite game with a chance to win a cash prize, there are plenty of themed games that include cultural references to current trends, popular songs, and favourite TV shows. As the number of players rises, so too does the volume of data available and the games’ designers make the most of their insights to come up with new games that fill in the niches.
iGaming incorporates a wide spectrum of entertainment, from live-streamed poker to racing to strategy games and it truly is a user-led industry. As an agile market that can swiftly respond to the needs and wants of its target demographic, it seems likely that gaming will continue to lead the field when it comes to innovation in entertainment.
