Gaming as I Know It
Gaming as I Know It
The game industry has been around for as long as any of my peers can remember. Dating all the way back to 1940, when Dr. Edward Uhler Condon introduced a video game based on the ancient mathematical game of Nim. According to an Article, The History of Gaming: An evolving Community, it was played by an estimated 50,000 people before shortly dying out six months later. Little did many realize what this small idea would turn into, 77 years down the road.
Nearly three decades later, in 1967, the “Brown Box” was released. While its name is very close to the modern day “Xbox,” I can assure you they speak two different languages. Remember this was back in 1967, the technology was far advanced for these days. The Brown Box allowed two players to play a variety of games, such as ping pong, checkers and four sports games. Basically recreations of what we could do in the real day to day world. It was licensed to a company named Magnavox, which would have been forgotten and replaced by the well-known Atari, however, Magnavox had taken action to paten the idea of objects bouncing off of each other on a screen. For the next 20 years, any game that used that idea, had to pay royalties to Magnavox. Therefore, even though Magnavox was discontinued in 1975, they were making money off of other companies entering the gaming community. Crazy, I know!
Many more bizarre attempts to grow the world has happened before the day I was born, including Sega’s well known successes and failures. Arcade games became huge, and still are around to this day. The Atari, personal computers, and the Sega Dreamcast; all brought forth attributes used in todays advanced gaming. I was not around to see any of these attempts at mastering gaming, but I have been around to reap the benefits. For example, I have been able to enjoy the entire Xbox era, starting with the original Xbox. I remember being about ten years old, sitting around the screen with my cousins, shooting each other up on Halo 1. It was a much simpler time back then, all playing split screen on one screen. It is funny to think about doing that now. Rarely does anyone all sit around one TV anymore, and play split screen. The easily accessible web has made the online experience that much more fun, in turn dominating the split screen gameplay. In addition, online has taken over most story mode games. These advancements have made the games last longer. Players can play one game for much longer and be entertained the entire time, due to the never ending goals people work towards. For example, I played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for a total of 24 days and 17 hours. Now, that may sound nerdy, but I was able to do this without getting bored of the game, due to the endless objectives to work towards. Can you imagine playing pong for 24 days? NO! This is an aspect of gaming that has come a long way.
Gaming has also made so many recent advancements due to affordability. Accessing the internet has become much more affordable, allowing the game market to blow up. Many people are gravitating towards virtual reality and things of that nature. I have even gone and enjoyed it at Mall of America, at the new, hip place called SMASH. There is every kind of virtual reality you can imagine. I enjoyed myself, however there were a lot of games down, needing repairing. I can’t imagine these being cheap to repair. What am I getting to? I guess I am saying that I think virtual reality is going to go through a lot of ups and downs before I see it being too successful. The virtual reality headsets, alone, can range up to 500 to 600 dollars. I can say for certain, there will be a future of gaming. What that future will be… I do not know, but there will be a future.
Chikhani, R. (2015, October 31). The History Of Gaming: An Evolving Community. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/31/the-history-of-gaming-an-evolving-community/
Credits, E. (2017, July 26). Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=c06uoVVFZd4&app=desktop
Nelson, Chpt. 8: “Intellectual Property Pong: Three Classic Matches that Affect Your Play Today” (Play/Write)
