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Let me tell you 'bout the protoculture.
--Del tha Funkee Homosapien
Yes, all you nerds and geeks and techno gadgetry freaks, we're talking video games! But all spectacular language aside, party people, we have a great phenomenon here that has generated a culture that breaks through the boundaries of race, class and even the barriers of other cultures themselves.
About thirty years and some change ago we get the first 'video game', a missile flight simulator which basically was movement of a bright dot that you controlled on a screen. Nothing poetic about it. Not too long after came the original video game. Raise your hand if you remember when this came out and were old enough to be excited and stimulated both socially and creatively:
If you raised your hand (or if you acknowledged that this was you and you didn't raise your hand out of spite), you're now quite old. Not to diss anyone, but, some people who were alive when Pong came out have now passed away. Party people, this simple 'ball and bat' game marked a coming revolution of entertainment and I wish I was alive when this came out, just to say 'I remember when Pong was released. It was exciting. And watching how everything else came about afterward, wow, what a ride.'1970's
Winner: Atari--Grand Champion of Gaming by default with Pong.*
(what, plural? Yes, party people. Here, we see the beginning of the Console Wars. It is as if Nintendo and Sega are two dueling superpowers who emerge victorious after a very chaotic and long war. They remain amicable after the end of the decade, the two late comers, respectively coming into the war near the end of the '80s. However, they are strong. They recognize their own power. They recognize the power of one another. They stoke their individual fires and prepare to win over the hearts of gamers for the next few decades, while tearing the other's heart out.)
1990's
Winners: Nintendo & Sony
(RIP: Sega-- After a good long decade, Sega bowed out in 1999, with the release of the Sega Dreamcast. Although this console ran strong for a few years into the '00s, [yes, those are zeros] Sega then announced it would no longer make video game consoles and focus more on game production. So, we see a good warrior, though gone in the physical/console , living strong in the force/game-culture.)
Winners: Nintendo, Sony & Microsoft
Nearing the end of this decade, we find more and more gaming companies filling their respective niches (which we'll talk about later), therefore, the number of consoles surviving this 'war' is on the rise. Remember, even though this was a short scroll down, thirty plus years have passed. People are older. Some gamers were born and are 10, 20, 30 years old right now. They have their own tastes, depending on when they grew up, where they grew up, et cetera. But, the single defining term that unifies them all is Gamer. They can all call themselves gamers. We all call ourselves gamers.Actually, somewhere along the line, this Console War transformed into a Great Community Build. Someone way up on the top floor of a skyscraper who makes the decisions, pushes the buttons and levers, realized they were making a new form of art, and those who bought them and shared them with their friends deserved the best because these pieces of art were large agents of shaping culture. They've started massive trade shows and conferences (alas, I've never yet gone to an E3 or CES or Tokyo Game Show). Tournaments. Something definitely has to be said about the highly competitive nature of the video game culture. PWN'ed! I already beat that game on hard, collected all the hidden items, saw the secret ending, et cetera.
The '00s will definitely be remembered for the era of massive online connection in video gaming. We connected with people from all around the world whenever we wanted. We created more and more tournaments. We created mini videos of cool gameplay and episodes of our own creative dramas using the characters we found in video games (think, red team v. blue team). Definitely, video games became an outlet of creative expression, community building in addition to entertainment.
Peace, party people. Next up, The Great Build, pt. 2 (the software)
*the timeline above focuses on the gaming consoles, not the actual video games. One can argue that the home gaming console now is the largest avenue pursued when a gamer wishes to game (outside the PC or MAC). For my purposes, it was the easiest and fastest way to frame the past 30+ years of video gaming. You try creating a timeline of the actual video games that were landmarks of each decade. Have fun with that. . .
Special thanks to http://www.thegameconsole.com/
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