Inspired by the other thread.
It got me thinking that the way graphics technology is progressing it won’t be long until videogames really will be capable of displaying completely realistic graphics.
When that happens what will be the impact? I can see concerns over FPS shooters with realistic images and imagery etc.
What would be the next evolutionary progress, 3D images? Direct-cerebral input…? 
It would bring porn to a new level.
I think we’re still a long way from that first of all. We’re still taking a lot of shortcuts to try an simulate a “realistic” environment. Even with DirectX 11 coming out and the power of current and next gen PC hardware we’re still a ways off from creating even something as good as what we see in movies. DX 11 will get us closer, but even then we can usually still tell right away when a movie is showing us CGI. Things are still a bit “off”.
Also, I don’t see much a of a concern with violent imagery. I mean we see that in movies and most people don’t seem to have much “concern” over it.
I think is just the old (and ignorant) adage that somehow video games are different and somehow influence us in violent ways.
“When Joe Sixpack can make love to Claudia Schiffer through virtual reality anytime he wants, it’s gonna make crack look like Sanka.” - Dennis Miller
They can finally focus on decent writing and storytelling? 
Nah, that’s when they start competing with each other to see just how many cyborg tyrannosaurus aliens they can cram on the screen at once. My guess? 67.
Cyborg Tyrannosaurs? Sweet! 
I was thinking that if they ever come out with virtual reality like in Sci Fi movies, I’ll have to stop playing platformers and Myst like exploration games since I’m afraid of heights! 
Well by ‘close’ I was thinking in terms of decades, not months, as in how far graphics have come since the early 90’s until now.
When that happens we will all disappear up our own arseholes and the earth will belong to the insects.
We’ll cope. The same way we cope with dreams, which don’t even need perfect verisimlitude to convince us they’re real.
The whole “video games are getting more realisitc, oh noes!!1” hysteria is BS.
Then when you die in the game you die in real life! :o
I’m not really THAT old fashioned (I happily draw on my computer because Photoshop and its clones offer the ability to erase anything), but I still like the traditional media art styles–watercolor, for example, is a great mood setter for surreal and dreamlike environments. (I don’t like the 3-D “Toon Shader” that is supposed to be a shortcut for cel-style shading, tough. It looks too shiny and artificial. Go figure.)
I think when that happens we’ll see a “backlash” and see more stylized games like No More Heroes, or hell, Zelda Wind Waker. Even if they become indistinguishable (god damn it, would these SDMB posters stop jumping into my games?) things like art style will heavily set it apart from reality. Sure, you’ll have some FPSs that look like you’re actually fighting Midway, but I wouldn’t even be surprised to see a “retro” movement to make graphics like they are now, close to real but ever so slightly off.
You mean, when videogames look as realistic as movies do now?
Somehow, I don’t really see it as the end of civilization.
We have 3-D capability now, and have had it in movies for 50 years. But it’s still an occasional gimmick in movies. I suspect it will become standard for some engineering tasks and for games and business used about as often as it is used now for movies.
Put the red pill down, please, sir.
We’re already there. Who’s to say we’re not already in a simulator? In fact I’ve read papers that theorize that it’s more likely than not.
If My, eh, “real” ego is in some other dimension paying to play “earth sim! 2009, now with more pixels!” and I’m his character, I have this message for him (me):
Hey you bastard, pay the gosh darned monthly upgrade fee already and hook me up with some loot! And while you’re at it, give me a washboard stomach. Oh, and you are one weird sicko. Quit making do that. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.