In dystopian augmented reality future scenarios, the world becomes a permanent advertising banner. Magic Leap’s game director wants to prevent that: He wants a subtle extension of reality instead of sensory overload. And a little more Star Wars in everyday life.
Magic Leap: Game director hints at further Star Wars adventures
The environment is flashing, noisy and always calling for attention. Man withdraws into his digital bubble – and lonely. The short films “Hyper-Reality” by Keiichi Matsuda or “Strange Beasts” by Magali Barbé are such dark future scenarios.
Magic Leap’s games boss Graeme Devine has worked in the gaming industry for almost 40 years and joined Atari in 1981. With Magic Leap, he should find out how mixed reality games could work – and prevent such dystopias from one day becoming a reality.
People should raise their heads again
Devine is convinced of the “digital everyday adventure” that can be integrated into the real environment in the style of Pokémon Go – but thanks to AR glasses, the conventional view of the smartphone display is no longer necessary.
“My mission for the next five years is for people not to keep looking down on their smartphones, but to lift their heads and look at the real world again,” Devine said during a discussion during the Game Developers Conference.
This task was extremely demanding, as smartphones made people very dependent. “We add enough context to the real world, so you don’t want to look away,” says Devine.
Star Wars makes the way to school exciting
However, the wearer of AR glasses should not be overwhelmed with visual information as in the dystopias mentioned above. If you do Augmented Reality right, Devine says, you subtly expand reality.
“I want the future to be mainly reality, with a little digital everyday adventure,” says Devine. “My way to Starbucks could be more interesting if I go into mixed reality and help Han Solo on a mission in between. The way to school is more interesting when I observe rebels as an imperial spy,” says Devine.