The new Gamer: Aware and Limitless.

Intro

Limits, like fear, are often just an illusion.

This is how Michael Jordan ended his Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech.

He had no equal on court.

You've sensed fear before if you are human.

In video games, in real life - fear is, or was, present.

But then, there comes a moment when you become aware: fear is a false limit, fear is an illusion.

The new Gamer is aware, they know it's up to them to use their awareness and become limitless, without fear.

Michael Jordan, as portrayed in the artwork at the top of this page, would make for a great new Gamer.

We'll get back to this.

Recap

You read about the Virtual Self 2.0, amazing stuff, right? Then you asked "What about Virtual Reality 2.0?"

It's coming, it's almost here. The current big step: eye-tracking technology - it enables Dynamic Foveated Rendering, which means higher quality renders, better performance and, finally, Depth of Field in Virtual Reality, leaving a lot of stomachs rest with ease.

Brilliant, big and small experts in this field are making it a reality: Somnium Space, BigScreen VR and all of the other, usual, big names, are turning the virtual environment closer to the real one.

Since the stage is pretty much set-up, what comes next?

The new Gamer

Look around you, look at the people you admire.

What sets them apart?

Is it dexterity? Is it strategy? Is it hand-to-eye coordination? That might be what's on the surface, but it isn't the source of their success.

The driver of outstanding performance is the exceptional ability to know, befriend, and use constructively all the corners of your mind.

The hardest battles are fought in the mind.

So says the narrator's voice in the beginning of a cut-scene from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Video games are great at creating emotions: the anxiety of a tight turn in Need for Speed, the stress of defusing a bomb when you're the only one left in CS: GO.

They suck, however, at reading emotions and implementing them back into the game mechanics; and that's at least half of what's important.

A new Gamer's emotions

This is where Brain-Computer Interfaces, in short BCI, come into play:

• The crosshairs wiggle increasingly as you get more anxious or distraught;

• Have empathetic thoughts and NPCs will be more inclined to help you;
• The spell you're loading damages yourself if your mind is wondering;

• Allowing frustration when dealing with hard levels only makes it harder to pass it;
• The difficulty of a level is auto-adjusted if your fear level increases too much - for that small boost to help you beat the level;

Fear is the mind-killer.

That is the essential part of a mantra that educated people of the Dune Universe use during challenging times.

Games flood you with emotions; you admire a game if it makes you experience fear, thrill, arousal. We admire that too.

What you do with those experiences later defines you - as a Gamer, as a human, maybe as a god.

It's up to you to handle those emotions.

Do you cancel them? Do you observe them undisturbed? Do you only engage those that you like? Or do you become their slave?

The new type of Gamer always has that choice.

A new Gamer's focus

Don’t center on your anxieties, Obi-Wan. Keep your concentration here and now, where it belongs.

This is the advice of Qui Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Not the greatest episode, but full of truth.

Michael Jordan knew this truth - "Focus" is the paradigm of his career, as revealed in the documentary The Last Dance.

Can you always choose where your concentration stands?

To build such resilience and engagement inside Gaming, Brain-Computer Interfaces bring unparalleled opportunities:

• Accelerate with a thought, brake with another - the ones who can keep focus on a simple thought are the ones who lose the cops in Need for Speed;
• Navigate World of Warcraft with your mind instead of joysticks; make it a habit of guiding your conscious thoughts instead of your fingers;
• Move objects with your mind, like a true Portal gamer, being careful to keep engaged;
• Cyberpunk hacking, Oblivion lockpicking, Bonelab fighting - all with your consciousness;

We don't all love the game of basketball so much that we get to redefine it.

We love Gaming.

A new Gamer's decisions

Do. Or do not. There is no try.

Master Yoda always knows best.

Trying - or doing with fear - means there's a good chance you'll give up after a few failures.

Doing doesn't let feelings piggy-back your actions, so you can do it as many times as it takes to make it a success.

Fortunately, game mechanics enabled by Brain-Computer Interfaces implement error and decision cognitive processes:

• Make the same rushed decision which leads to a bad outcome too many times, and the game will point it out before it happens again;
• The ability to shoot way before you even realise you've made the choice, because your intuition is more often better than your second thought;
• Role-Playing Games that reflect true skill-trees of the Gamer, based on Creative or Logical thinking, which will develop over time;

When you truly do, your focus is on doing.

And guess what?

When you focus on doing, you get better at doing.

Conclusion

So we are creating the new Virtual Self.

Others are creating the new Virtual Environment.

The new Gamer? The new Gamer is limitless, they know their mind like a Jedi does;

They are the Virtual Self, the Virtual Environment, the Virtual Everything and the Virtual Nothing.

The new Gamer is the whole world.

And you? What about yourself?