How big can games get?

[Menchise]

After reading some posts in the BCM and VCF threads, I found myself thinking about how complex the implementation of BC must be. With the hype surrounding other games that boast of "living worlds" and all the other buzz words that infest the industry today, I began to wonder:

How big and sophisticated can computer games become before the software reaches "critical mass"?

For those who are not familiar with this term in the context of computer programming, it refers to a state or condition that a highly complex program reaches where fixing one bug in one part of the code invariably creates another bug somewhere else. When this happens, any attempt to make the software bigger or more sophisticated makes the entire program very unstable, like a giant house of cards where the first level cannot support any more weight.

In a time when the gaming industry is producing software that is bigger (in terms of disk space) and could eventually become (if it hasn't already) more complex than the most bloated operating system, how far can it go?

[Joel Schultz]

IMHO, "critical mass" can be staved off nearly indefinitely through refactoring. Generally, code that is approaching "critical mass" also is code that has been enhanced and added to for quite some time without refactoring or rearchitecting it. Once structure has been re-imposed on the mess, enhancements can safely be added without worrying (as much) about unwanted side-effects like that.

[Commander Jamont]

ooh well in a few years all games will be dvd standard i think