Portalarium’s Starr Long will be giving a talk at GDC Next this year (which takes place from November 5th to 7th in Los Angeles, California). His topic will be “Nine Trends for the Next Decade of Video Games”:

There are many trends in video games and technology today that will influence and even dominate the next 10 years. What happens when multiple trends collide to create heretofore unknown results? For example, imagine taking the options created by the explosive proliferation and evolution of interfaces (cameras, wearable tech, screen extenders, haptic touch, etc.) and mashing two or more of these into a completely new experience? Or what if we combine 3D printing with digital toys like Skylanders? Twenty-year veteran Starr Long selects nine of these trends and explores how they are already changing the way we make and consume games.

Gamasutra caught up with him recently to chat about that very topic, and to get his opinion as to what the most significant trend of all might just be. Long, for his part, seems to be betting on user-generated content as the next big thing:

PM: Much of your recent work with Disney Interactive has been for younger audiences. How do you think the next generation of gamers are going to shape the expectations for the rest of the industry? What do you see children playing or watching now that will have resounding effects on the business of game development when they’re old enough to have their own disposable income?

SL: Some of the changes are obvious and happening right now like the dominance of mobile. I think the more subtle changes are related to user-generated content. Minecraft is a true bellwether of this trend, but it doesn’t yet have economic rewards for the users for making content. That is going to change, however, as we can already see in the crowdsourcing movement. This upcoming generation is going to expect not only to make their own content, but to be rewarded economically for it. Also, touch interface is an obvious expectation, but camera input resolution is increasing rapidly and it will quickly become as ubiquitous as touch.

Obviously, Portalarium are going down this route, soliciting a significant amount of user-generated content from the fan community that has grown up around Shroud of the Avatar’s development. The same is happening with Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera. Likewise, AAA-level games like EverQuest Next are jumping on the bandwagon, allowing future players advance access to help shape the game world.

The question, I suppose, is what games will allow for it after these ones have been released? Will the trend continue, or peter out?