Procedural

Goosebumps of excitement wave over me as I consider the monumental impact offered by procedural elements of virtual worlds.

Remember when Will Wright destroyed that entire planet in the GDC demonstration of Spore? That planet was unique - the culmination of an unprecedented formula of fluid choices. There was a history to that spherical nation. Now it is gone.

In the same way physics introduce a piece of infinity to games, as will procedural elements. It is the elimination of a fundamental limitation we are bound to, and as a new starting point for content creation, it is one better based on reality. In the quest for virtual worlds in which every character is the result of a piece of genetic code, where the Sun is a physical entity millions of miles away, and all the accepted facades of gaming melt away, this could be regarded as the important milestone since 3D.