The technologies depicted in video games never get the credit they deserve in the media. While news channels and websites always gushingly compare new tech with that seen in legendary movies, few people spares a thought for the ingenuity shown by video game developers in bringing never-seen-before inventions to life on the game screen. You could make a case that video-games are the best medium for reality to take technological inspiration from. The driving force in games is gameplay rather than narrative, and as such they tend to be less subtle than movies in how they depict future tech. The Metal Gear Solid series, for example, is pretty much tech pornography, depicting machines, weaponry and armour that is both flamboyant and could conceivably be applied to reality. While games go largely uncredited, there are some technologies coming up that make you wonder whether influential figures working in national defence organisations are actually closet gamers. There's something pleasing about envisioning a military general sitting at home - clad in beret, white vest and y-fronts - playing Metal Gear Solid, and saying to himself "I wonder if the government will put up a few billion dollars to fund a giant mechanical T-Rex". Here is a list of in-game technologies that are currently being tested in real-life, offering solid evidence that life does sometimes imitate video-games - even if it's mainly in the field of murderous military weaponry.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
