Tomorrow's WorldTeenage boys raised on a steady diet of first-person shooters can orchestrate wonders with the two joysticks and the dozen or so buttons of a typical controller, but the uninitiated take one look at the contraption and give up. No wonder some of the industry's biggest recent success stories, including Nintendo's Wii, have emphasized playability over mind-blowing graphics. With their simple, intuitive controls, they've been hits with non-traditional gamers, from teenage girls to grandparents. As game makers try to further broaden their appeal, expect controllers and interfaces to become increasingly user friendly—and games to put fun before complexity. Many of today's video games look and sound like high-quality action movies, replete with elaborate animation, sound effects and dialogue voiced by professional actors. Yet the fundamental difference between the two forms has always been that movies are passive entertainment while games are interactive. But that boundary has begun to fall. Recently released Metal Gear Solid 4, lauded as the first “killer app” for Sony's PlayStation 3, features great lengths of action-packed narrative that the player simply sits back and watches. As game designers continue to challenge filmmakers for action-entertainment supremacy, we are likely to see more of these game-movie hybrids. Imagine a video game that comes with all the emotional and psychological richness of the best films. It may sound unattainable, but ambitious designers are trying to realize it. While the interface still looks like it needs more development, they believe that within decades, games will be able to generate dialogue and dramatic situations—in effect writing scripts for movies starring the player.