well.. of course shaders is the future.. but we don’t need it... And shaders are good… ^^ nothing more to say... it is a fantastic tool...
But i will not use shaders for the moment. And many graphic cards out there can still not handle any shaders at all. And as long as there are people not caring about graphics and shaders then there is a market for game play ;P... The ultimate game will have the same game play as a game without shaders needs today and it would still use shaders as a option... That a game can handle shaders does not make it less good? O.o... But not better either... Just better looking, that in very few cases leads to more atmosphere and a better feeling.
About the normalmaping... That is probably one of the most useful parts of shaders ^^... just take a look at this...
But isn’t this starting to get a little of topic? Or is it just me? ^^
