Like for real, not just on the paper. Moral choices, gameplay style, dialogue, multiple factors combined; not something like binary stuff deciding the ultimate outcome/ending and not things that simply determine the summary cutscene at the end. More like something that can fundamentally change the way the player experiences a game in a 'the journey is its own reward' way with nuances and both micro and macro consequences. And maybe done in a natural way instead of "you've gained/lost karma points". 

I get the impression there are not too many actual "gamers" on this forum, and quite a few people who just play quake and bitch about games that aren't quake. Nothing wrong with that - that's to be expected - this is a quake forum after all.

I used to be a "gamer" - I'd say from about 2005 - 2012 (give or take), but then after that I found I didn't really have enough free time to keep up with it, and kinda got bored because every new release just seemed to be some variation of another game I'd already played.

To actually answer the question that's the topic of this thread, I'd say the stuff that impressed me most as a gamer were the big open fantasy worlds like in Elder Scrolls 3, 4 and 5, and I'd really like to see more shit like that - more depth, more scope, more feeling like you're in a huge world with a million different things you can decide to do at any one time. Maybe it's not commercial to go down the "bigger worlds, more shit to do" route though. I think the money is just on cinematic crap and better graphics, like it's always been, and that's a shame. 

i don't anticipate anything because i have no idea
i play few games, fewer each year, and i replay a lot the same few games.
in 2016 i played quake, xcom lw, doom, medieval 2 total war and dying light.

desire?
a proper a-life in a stalker-like game, in a game world in wich you can have experiencies like the one in the dialogues and fanfiction occur in real-time. really hard to do, i know.

the same for a skyrim-like game

w40k chaos gate 2: bigger, better, prettier

i'm one of the few who liked age of empires 3. i would like the game to go open-source (never) or some game that combines the best of aoe3 and cossacks 3, and a few new things. 

There have been quite a few threads lately on the topic of game-design. But ultimately they were created to smash the modern game design to prove that Quake is still the best. 

Negke: good call.

Kinn: I think enough games do "bigger worlds, more shit to do" BUT they don't necessarily make it an interesting world with more depth and scope and varied and meaningful things to do rather than cut and paste side quests. So, yeah good call.

Most of my desires are to do with meta-gaming I guess, how games are delivered and developed. As far as actual content and games go, I quite like seeing what appears next....it's been great in the last few years.... 

Anticipate: nothing, that way I am not disappointed

Desire: targeted memory loss, so that I can play Quake like I'd never played it before and experience that same feeling of youfouria, yooforea, ueforeea, uphurea, sheer joy again. 

https://youtu.be/szzVlQ653as?t=22s 

Good name for a map.

Shambler

I bet games will change dramatically when "meta gaming", as you put it, change.

My request is that games become more about culture and less about industry. 

Humour.

When was the last time a big AAA game tried to make you laugh? And I'm not talking about dorky meme humour like Portal, or objectively crass shite like Bulletstorm.

A non-gamer friend raised this the other day. Would be nice to see a game with good writing that's actually properly witty as well as being a proper game. I think the Fable series wasn't too bad on this front. Can't think of many others. 

I played the Stanley Parable a few days ago, that managed to get a real life laugh out of me, twice in fact! The game itself was pretty shit though, and hour of walking through corridors with 10 year old graphics.

But yeah some humour in games would be good. 

What I anticipate... VR porn. VR porn games.

What I want, yeah I'd quite like some spiritual successors to Quake. It doesn't even need to be in a modern engine. I can't believe there's all these indie studios making garbage retro sidescrollers, and not one that's making an old 90s shooter like Quake or Doom. It's like the 90s never happened and everyones forgotten what was popular in gaming then! 

Next 20 years? Damn, I don't know if I would be even playing games in 20 years.

-Wishful thinking is the return of meaty expansion packs as opposed to day 1 DLC or other exclusives. I'd like for games to not require 2-4 weeks of game breaking fixes after release as well. At this time, I don't buy games newly released because I expect there to be terrible experiencing ruining issues.

-I want to see further releases of quality indie single player games especially in genres of Platformers, Metroidvanias, and couch co-op. Actually in addition to that I would like to see well thought-out co-op experiences in games and not just gimmicks. "Lovers in Dangerous Spacetime" is a good example of a co-op experience that just makes you laugh and panic at the same time.

As others said I would hope to see a return to when games could be laughed not at but with...there is a severe overabundance of serious "cool GFX" copy and paste AAA games that just further saturate the gunky side of games for me.

VR is definitely something in the future and I want games for it to be fully invested in the technology and not just little mini-games.

I'd say something about wanting a return of Quake 1 in someway or at least its design but I won't hold my breath. DOOM 2016 was great, I can't deny that but the single player experience fell too short and what do they do but release 3 fucking multiplayer packs and completely cold shouldering the other crowd.

I'd like to see games be built from passion again and not be sent through the corporate (and sometimes political) meat grinder.

Wishful thinking. 

i remember the old nolf had humour in spades 

That unapologetic, rambunctious homage to 90s gaming never fails to put a mischievous grin on my face. 

I might be interested in an action horror game,maybe Quake+Doom 3.



Doesn't sound good. 

Maybe RE7 instead of Doom 3. 

I can see the desire for that.

I do think some games inject a bit of sass / cuteness / satire / self-aware jibes. But it's quite minimal.

Personally I have dick all interest in a highly humourous game, but I'm a bit fussy about humour in media (don't like comedy films or spoofs, but do like classic humour / satire and general banter). I think as a general progression towards "eliciting an emotional response" i.e. an actual emotional response rather than a 1 second blatant nudge in a design-by-committee way before you realise how shallow it is, that could be a thing, and agreeing with Kinn, should be a thing.

I saw the GF play a couple of games - Beyond Two Souls, and Life Is Strange, and both of those seemed to reasonably convincingly emotional. I can't remember if humour played much of a role though, and they were quite particular style of story-sim games.

I actually found SOMA provoked some surprising emotional responses, as well as mild fear / panic, there were moments of awe, humour and sadness in that. One of things I liked about it.

It would be interesting to see how much emotion could be convincingly put into a proper action game.... 

Good, or at least adequate, AI to be available as standard, so that devs have more opportunity to make single player games. 

anticipate

1. highly replayable and dynamic narrative driven games (I'm look at you, ken levine).

2. VR dominance (someday). VR will be an umbrella that games, film, tools, and other experiences fit under.

3. hyper detailed engines (voxel?) that stand up to scrutiny in VR and look amazing on traditional displays. real-word scanning of assets and digitization of real spaces and characters. Think 90s live action point n click games but not shitty. I think there will be sort of a middle ground between film and games and the two will use similar tech and offer similar experiences.

5. continued merger of industry giants and even more niche/boutique studios to fill the void.

6. attempted, large-scale transhumanism that will ultimately fail and set humanity back some decades, provided that the world doesn't experience world war or some other global catastrophe before then. using a neural implant to get a steady stream of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, etc. while you level up will be cool for a time, though.

7. more DLC

desire

good games. 

I'd quite like some spiritual successors to Quake. It doesn't even need to be in a modern engine. I can't believe there's all these indie studios making garbage retro sidescrollers, and not one that's making an old 90s shooter like Quake or Doom.

If the people making garbage retro sidescrollers were to make a FPS, it would be a garbage retro FPS.

The kind of talent needed to make a good retro FPS is the kind of talent that makes projects such as Arcane Dimensions. People with a professional attitude and an AAA mentality.

Quake is retro now, but it was AAA back then; the problem with most indie games is that they think of "AAA" and "retro" as opposite concepts - they're thinking only about budget, not about quality. But if we look at good retro works such as Skiffy's Shambler, we often see that they're made by professional AAA developers in their spare time.

Simplicity may be cheap, but quality isn't. Retro game studios can cut some costs due to the simplicity of their games, but if they also want their simple games to be actually good, they need to hire good AAA professionals, and pay the price for that. 

Good points there. 

holographic games. Being literally immersed in the image must really be something else in terms of sensory experience, even compared to VR. Imagine stumbling upon, say, a shambler twice your size around a corner. Yikes! 

1920x1440, 85Hz, perfect colours from every angle 

My old CRT weighed something like 25kgs... 

yeah, LCDs are light. was easy to walk with it the day it arrived back to the postoffice to return it because of unwatchability. I want 32kg CRT