Law of Convergence

 If anybody read the Grand Theft Auto V retort a few days ago, you may remember that I mentioned the Law of Convergence. I'm almost sure that there is a proper term for this, but I'm too lazy to find it and I came up with it a long time ago anyway. Regardless, the idea is sort of commonplace now, and is relevant alongside Moore's Law and Chaos Theory.

 The technical explanation? Well, it doesn't even strictly apply to games. The idea is that computing power, as it increases, allows for more complex applications to be processed as time passes. As more powerful applications are developed, the job of the new application is to also perform tasks that, at one point, were standalone applications that used the bulk of that computing power. The most basic example is the calculator. When computers first came around, they had to be the size of rooms to perform basic calculator functions and only that. Years later, a calculator could be written as an application booted by the computer, but the computer could only run one application at a time. Even later, an operating system enabled the calculator task to be performed within an operating system, which in essence, is an application. Now, a calculator is incorporated into any program that uses numbers.

 The Law of Convergence also allows for the re-allocation of smaller applications as trends progress. Take AOL, for instance. AOL contained a full suite of internet applications, but AOL was not necessary as an application in itself. As time passed, the functions of AOL such as Instant Messenger and their e-mail service were no longer incorporated into the AOL program, but were broken down into individual parts. Some services become obsolete, and Instant Messenger was given its own lightweight program to be reincorporated elsewhere.

 While the idea is applicable to most technology, its most visible use is in social media and gaming. Grant Theft Auto IV, for example, lets you play an arcade game while your character is in a pool hall. This game is your standard puzzle game that could have been, and still could be, sold as a standalone game. It has been converged into a larger game at the most literal level. Grand Theft Auto, as a sandbox game, pretty much exemplifies what convergence actually does for gaming apart from this time waster.

 As the series progressed, it started taking on the traits of other games. Driver, for example, was pretty much screwed as a competitor because it only did one thing really well: driving. The physics were great and it was loads of fun to play, but eventually Rockstar took everything that was good about the driving and placed it into their flagship series, eliminating the need for another Driver to ever see the light of day. GTA: SA started to use elements from western-RPG's to promote character growth (sometimes literally), and GTA IV has a rudimentary hand-to-hand combat system that allows for basic combos. Flight is also included in the modern games, as well as boating. Many side missions even encourage you to take a stab at taxi missions and street racing, ideas that still manage to have full games devoted to them.

 Basically, Grand Theft Auto will eventually be Midnight Club, Crazy Taxi, Final Fight, Black, Fable, and several other games wrapped up into one title. Unless another game beats Rockstar to the punch, it's going to happen. It's inevitable. It's law.

 So there's the explanation. Now, getting on to the application... Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit