The
first computer game is a controversial topic among gamers and Game historians
(A thing) alike however as far as my research can pull up the first computer
game was in 1940 at the worlds fair. The game was the traditional game Nim a
simple puzzle game whose computer counter part was made by a Mr. Condon.It was
not until '47 when the cathode ray tube would be used for computer games
creating a very simple form of galager or space shoot.
Through
out the 50's the developments in computer technology was expanding which led to
innovations such as the first chess playing computer (the mechanical turk was a
man in a box). However the thing that punctuated this era was pong a one to two
player game of tennis that was created with an oscilloscope in 1958.
However
all of this games where made by old white men sat at a computer however
dartmouth changed this by creating the first universal coding language allowing
university students to code. This lead to the explosion in the creation of
games.
The
first gaming system for the home system "the odessy" was made in '68
and released in to the public and sold well. this was a huge step in gaming as
now it was accessible to everyone with a TV and some disposable income.
Here
is a link To AVGN and him talking about the system (Caution swearing):
In
'71 one of the largest PC games was released and it was called the origin trail
the first game that emerged you in to the game and trying to make you believe.
This was the first game with a narrative.
In
1972 the first ever 'Cabinet' was released. What was it? It was the one and
only pong.
The
Atari 2600 a pivotal system is released and despite its simplicity is a massive
hit however in this time there is no rules for games so in a system where a man
character is only 5 pixels high they made a lot, from children's games about an
adventure to the infamous Atari "Porn" games. There were no rules as
gaming had not been established enough to have what could be described as
a norm.
skipping
on 10 years we see arguably one of the most recognisable video game mascots in
the game Donkey Kong and while donkey kong is very popular as a character the
character I am talking about is Jump Man who would latter go on to take to name
of Nintendo's warehouse attendant "Mario".
In
'84 we see the Russian invented game of Tetris that Nintendo released bundled
with the new Gameboy the first handheld console that wasn't considered a
failure.
The
following year the failing video games market was revived almost completely by
the FamiCom or NES for those outside the Japan. This console had revolutionary
graphics for its time and utilised the old tech of Cartridge based games and
used it to build whole worlds on this seemingly limited console, releasing
games like Super Mario Bro's and The Legend Of Zelda and even one of the
earliest customisable games Excite Bike.
The
release of this console is one of the largest milestones in modern gaming and
this single Company Managed to set the standard for games for the next two
console generations up to the Super NES.
In
1990 we see Microsoft wade in with the release of Virtual solitaire that
becomes bundled with every subsequent copy of the MS OS.
In
91 in comes the Mega Drive from Sega. This started the rivalry between Sega and
Nintendo that still today is debated despite the winner being obvious to anyone
who looks at it objectively. Nintendo with its own next Gen. Console and then
Sega without one.
1993
was a BIG YEAR in gaming. first with the release of the game Mortal Kombat for
almost every console of the time. This game not only popularised the genre of
fighter but also caused senate hearings in the US as to wether this game should
be out lawed in the states. This is what created the US ESRB rating system for
games.
The
second half of this year was filled with the FPS (first person shooter) Doom. A
game made mostly for PC and ran predominantly on the MS DOS.
Now
this is where I stop as far as my game but here are the next few big events.
3D
gaming came to the console with the N64 and the Playstation by 1995
Pokemon
one of the most successful franchises in gaming came out for the game boy in
1996 and is still running today with the remakes of its 3rd games.
Xbox
and the PS2 go head to head with the Nintendo console Game cube which is widely
considered intends last non gimmicky console.
The
comes the Xbox 360 and the PS3 followed by the Xbox one and the PS4 which takes
us up to today.
IN DEPTH LOOK IN TO ATARI SHOCK
It is difficult to and near impossible to talk about games
and the gaming industry without talking about the 1984 North American games
crash which is also known as the “Atari Shock” in depth. This was a point in the
industry where Atari had the monopoly on the games market with its system the
Atari 2600, at the peak of the games of the pre-crash era revenue was peaking
at $3.2billion that while today may seem small, was a huge amount of money for
an industry based on a new form of entertainment.
While many may blame the ill-fated “E.T.” game (based on the
spealburg movie of the same name) as the key fault to the crash, which resulted
in a total of 97% decline in revenue for the industry, I honestly feel (as do
many others) that this game was just the straw that broke the camels back.
The esteemed game creator Howard Scott
Warshaw created the “ET” game and before then he was one of the few voices
calling for gameplay innovations on the market. When he was given the task of
creating the game he was only given 5 and a half weeks, a task that would take
any competent team twice as long. Upon release people were shocked and many
copies were returned or unsold; Atari dumped any of the in a landfill in New
Mexico.
While this is seen as the worst game of all time at the time
the entire market was saturated with awful games and for a reason.
For years large companies such as Atari saw no reason to
give the creators any credit and often underpaid them. Many went off and built
their own companies with little experience in this infant market.
In terms of what can be learned you could look at this as
what is wrong with corporations and how the standard model for a money making
machine does not work for more creative forms of industry especially an
industry based almost solely on creative people to make, design and market the
games.
Another one that is more of a personal point is that you
cannot rush the creation of a game. Coding is the most time consuming of any
game and rushing this part of it is detrimental to the game creating glitches,
game flaws and just bad choices in the GUI or mechanics. Rushing any part is a
bad idea but I feel coding is the most overlooked part.
HOMOSEXUALITY IN GAMING
THIS IS NOT TALKED ABOUT AS MUCH AS IT SHOULD BE.
Okay so for the sake of this "rant" I am going to say that the only game series that goes against the generalisations I am going to make is the "persona" games. That is all.
Also one of the main news pieces that drew any attention regarding this was the news that in the new game "Tamadochi Life" it was shown that you could not have same sex pairings, something that embodies this very well is "Yahtzees" quote when impersonating nintendo "Don't gays have there own game, in there own shop in boxes adorned with chest hair."
Games are very homophobic, in fact they have something against the whole LGBT community.
First example of this is in the game "Mario 2" the character of birdo who is an insane pink creature that has a gender crisis and is one of the most well known reassuring villains in the game. Acording to all original Japanese manuals this character is a "Trans-Female", but this was just the first of a long list of LGBT villains in the gaming industry.
My next example is the Magypsys from the game earth bound. they are not technically villains (while not technically good guys) they are not actually human. an in human race from somewhere else. this adds to the "otherness" towards the LGBT community. A similar character to this is merry Maggie from Banjo Kazooi. Both games are for children.
In a more recent example the character "Trevor" from GTA V is shown to be bisexual and is the only one who is in the game who is so. He is seen commonly as a Villain, as A rapist, and without a doubt having some sort of schizophrenia or psychosis. similar to "Alfred Ashford" from the resident evil games who is a homosexual male with some sort of menial illness. all suggesting that homosexual men have something wrong with them.
World héros perfect has the character of "Rasputin" a character who is shown at all points as being overtly stereotypically gay. and for his finisher move he uses an ability that enables you to take the opposing character behind bushed where a heavily implied rape is happening. another example of homosexuals being seen as rapists is the character of "de-santa" from red dead redemption who is not only port raid as being a rapist but also as a pedophile and relating to others he is also seen as mentally ill.
Not even female characters are safe from this prejudice as when you look at the "sisters" from dead rising 2 you can see that they are not only shown as the villains of this game but also it is heavily suggested that they are incestuous as well as being mentally ill.
Looking at the key pieces of evidence you can come up with three main titles that are given to members of the LGBT community "Villains", "Inhuman" and "Mentally Abnormal".
While yes you can look at gamers and how they are seen as being narrow minded the games industry does not help at all turning the LGBT community in to the "Other" and something to be feared or hated. This is the main issue that holds games back compered to other form of media.
While this "rant" for use of better words was well justified I feel that I need to add something to this and talk about a game that was released post rant and does enough thing right that it needs to be talked about in some depth.
the I am talking about is the game "dragon age: Inquisition" a series who has been up and down holding both my number one best as well as my award for "most disappointing game i have ever played" i am serious i was close to tears playing dragon age II and while this is a topic I will cover later I need to get back on hand.
While in "dragon age: origins" you could have homosexual relations even going as far has having sex with the same gender, the now game does one up, actually having characters who are openly homosexual on the side of good. not only that but the character who are homosexual arn't only bisexual as is seen with basically every follower on the previous games there are characters who're just in to people of the same gender, thats it.
there are characters as well who are also seen as transgendered and while it is more of a "read between the lines" sort of deal that is just that, that is who they are and they are not bad guys or token there they are people.
Now while this is honestly just one game series this is showing a more active trend of inclusiveness in the AAA and Indie games industries.
HOMOSEXUALITY IN GAMING
THIS IS NOT TALKED ABOUT AS MUCH AS IT SHOULD BE.
Okay so for the sake of this "rant" I am going to say that the only game series that goes against the generalisations I am going to make is the "persona" games. That is all.
Also one of the main news pieces that drew any attention regarding this was the news that in the new game "Tamadochi Life" it was shown that you could not have same sex pairings, something that embodies this very well is "Yahtzees" quote when impersonating nintendo "Don't gays have there own game, in there own shop in boxes adorned with chest hair."
Games are very homophobic, in fact they have something against the whole LGBT community.
First example of this is in the game "Mario 2" the character of birdo who is an insane pink creature that has a gender crisis and is one of the most well known reassuring villains in the game. Acording to all original Japanese manuals this character is a "Trans-Female", but this was just the first of a long list of LGBT villains in the gaming industry.
My next example is the Magypsys from the game earth bound. they are not technically villains (while not technically good guys) they are not actually human. an in human race from somewhere else. this adds to the "otherness" towards the LGBT community. A similar character to this is merry Maggie from Banjo Kazooi. Both games are for children.
In a more recent example the character "Trevor" from GTA V is shown to be bisexual and is the only one who is in the game who is so. He is seen commonly as a Villain, as A rapist, and without a doubt having some sort of schizophrenia or psychosis. similar to "Alfred Ashford" from the resident evil games who is a homosexual male with some sort of menial illness. all suggesting that homosexual men have something wrong with them.
World héros perfect has the character of "Rasputin" a character who is shown at all points as being overtly stereotypically gay. and for his finisher move he uses an ability that enables you to take the opposing character behind bushed where a heavily implied rape is happening. another example of homosexuals being seen as rapists is the character of "de-santa" from red dead redemption who is not only port raid as being a rapist but also as a pedophile and relating to others he is also seen as mentally ill.
Not even female characters are safe from this prejudice as when you look at the "sisters" from dead rising 2 you can see that they are not only shown as the villains of this game but also it is heavily suggested that they are incestuous as well as being mentally ill.
Looking at the key pieces of evidence you can come up with three main titles that are given to members of the LGBT community "Villains", "Inhuman" and "Mentally Abnormal".
While yes you can look at gamers and how they are seen as being narrow minded the games industry does not help at all turning the LGBT community in to the "Other" and something to be feared or hated. This is the main issue that holds games back compered to other form of media.
While this "rant" for use of better words was well justified I feel that I need to add something to this and talk about a game that was released post rant and does enough thing right that it needs to be talked about in some depth.
the I am talking about is the game "dragon age: Inquisition" a series who has been up and down holding both my number one best as well as my award for "most disappointing game i have ever played" i am serious i was close to tears playing dragon age II and while this is a topic I will cover later I need to get back on hand.
While in "dragon age: origins" you could have homosexual relations even going as far has having sex with the same gender, the now game does one up, actually having characters who are openly homosexual on the side of good. not only that but the character who are homosexual arn't only bisexual as is seen with basically every follower on the previous games there are characters who're just in to people of the same gender, thats it.
there are characters as well who are also seen as transgendered and while it is more of a "read between the lines" sort of deal that is just that, that is who they are and they are not bad guys or token there they are people.
Now while this is honestly just one game series this is showing a more active trend of inclusiveness in the AAA and Indie games industries.
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