video game history essay

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Video Game History

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 17, 2022 | Original: September 1, 2017

Today, video games make up a $100 billion global industry, and nearly two-thirds of American homes have household members who play video games regularly. And it’s really no wonder: Video games have been around for decades and span the gamut of platforms, from arcade systems, to home consoles, to handheld consoles and mobile devices. They’re also often at the forefront of computer technology.

The Early Days

Though video games are found today in homes worldwide, they actually got their start in the research labs of scientists.

In 1952, for instance, British professor A.S. Douglas created OXO , also known as noughts and crosses or a tic-tac-toe, as part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge. And in 1958, William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two  on a large analog computer and connected oscilloscope screen for the annual visitor’s day at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York .

In 1962, Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology invented Spacewar! , a computer-based space combat video game for the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1), then a cutting-edge computer mostly found at universities. It was the first video game that could be played on multiple computer installations.

HISTORY Vault: Game Changers: Inside the Video Game Wars

Brought to life by Academy Award-winning director Daniel Junge, this is the untold story of the personal battles that gave rise to the multibillion-dollar video game industry.

Dawn of the Home Console

In 1967, developers at Sanders Associates, Inc., led by Ralph Baer, invented a prototype multiplayer, multi-program video game system that could be played on a television. It was known as “The Brown Box.”

Baer, who’s sometimes referred to as Father of Video Games, licensed his device to Magnavox, which sold the system to consumers as the Odyssey, the first video game home console, in 1972. Over the next few years, the primitive Odyssey console would commercially fizzle and die out.

Yet, one of the Odyssey’s 28 games was the inspiration for Atari’s Pong , the first arcade video game, which the company released in 1972. In 1975, Atari released a home version of Pong , which was as successful as its arcade counterpart.

Magnavox, along with Sanders Associates, would eventually sue Atari for copyright infringement. Atari settled and became an Odyssey licensee; over the next 20 years, Magnavox went on to win more than $100 million in copyright lawsuits related to the Odyssey and its video game patents.

In 1977, Atari released the Atari 2600 (also known as the Video Computer System), a home console that featured joysticks and interchangeable game cartridges that played multi-colored games, effectively kicking off the second generation of the video game consoles.

The video game industry had a few notable milestones in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including:

• The release of the Space Invaders arcade game in 1978
• The launch of Activision, the first third-party game developer (which develops software without making consoles or arcade cabinets), in 1979
• The introduction to the United States of Japan’s hugely popular Pac-Man
• Nintendo’s creation of Donkey Kong , which introduced the world to the character Mario
• Microsoft’s release of its first Flight Simulator game

The Video Game Crash

In 1983, the North American video game industry experienced a major “crash” due to a number of factors, including an oversaturated game console market, competition from computer gaming, and a surplus of over-hyped, low-quality games, such as the infamous E.T. , an Atari game based on the eponymous movie and often considered the worst game ever created.

Lasting a couple of years, the crash led to the bankruptcy of several home computer and video game console companies.

The video game home industry began to recover in 1985 when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), called Famicom in Japan, came to the United States. The NES had improved 8-bit graphics, colors, sound and gameplay over previous consoles.

Nintendo, a Japanese company that began as a playing card manufacturer in 1889, released a number of important video game franchises still around today, such as Super Mario Bros. , The Legend of Zelda , and Metroid .

Additionally, Nintendo imposed various regulations on third-party games developed for its system, helping to combat rushed, low-quality software. Third-party developers released many other long-lasting franchises, such as Capcom’s Mega Man , Konami’s Castlevania , Square’s Final Fantasy, and Enix’s Dragon Quest (Square and Enix would later merge to form Square Enix in 2003).

In 1989, Nintendo made waves again by popularizing handheld gaming with the release of its 8-bit Game Boy video game device and the often-bundled game Tetris . Over the next 25 years, Nintendo would release a number of successful successors to the Game Boy, including the Game Boy color in 1998, Nintendo DS in 2004, and Nintendo 3DS in 2011.

The First Console War

Also in 1989, Sega released its 16-bit Genesis console in North America as a successor to its 1986 Sega Master System, which failed to adequately compete against the NES.

With its technological superiority to the NES, clever marketing, and the 1991 release of the Sonic the Hedgehog game, the Genesis made significant headway against its older rival. In 1991, Nintendo released its 16-bit Super NES console in North America, launching the first real “console war.”

The early- to mid-1990s saw the release of a wealth of popular games on both consoles, including new franchises such as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat , a fighting game that depicted blood and gore on the Genesis version of the game.

In response to the violent game (as well as congressional hearings about violent video games), Sega created the Videogame Rating Council in 1993 to provide descriptive labeling for every game sold on a Sega home console. The council later gives rise to the industry-wide Entertainment Software Rating Board, which is still used today to rate video games based on content.

In the mid-1990s, video games leaped to the Big Screen with the release of the Super Mario Bros. live-action movie in 1993, followed by Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat over the next two years. Numerous movies based on video games have been released since.

With a much larger library of games, lower price point, and successful marketing, the Genesis had leapfrogged ahead of the SNES in North America by this time. But Sega was unable to find similar success in Japan.

The Rise of 3D Gaming

With a leap in computer technology, the fifth generation of video games ushered in the three-dimensional era of gaming.

In 1995, Sega released in North America its Saturn system, the first 32-bit console that played games on CDs rather than cartridges, five months ahead of schedule. This move was to beat Sony’s first foray into video games, the Playstation, which sold for $100 less than the Saturn when it launched later that year. The following year, Nintendo released its cartridge-based 64-bit system, the Nintendo 64.

Though Sega and Nintendo each released their fair share of highly-rated, on-brand 3D titles, such as Virtua Fighter on the Saturn and Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, the established video game companies couldn’t compete with Sony’s strong third-party support, which helped the Playstation secure numerous exclusive titles.

Simply put: Sony dominated the video game market and would continue to do so into the next generation. In fact, the Playstation 2, released in 2000 and able to play original Playstation games, would become the best-selling game console of all time.

The Playstation 2, which was the first console that used DVDs, went up against the Sega Dreamcast (released in 1999), the Nintendo Gamecube (2001), and Microsoft’s Xbox (2001).

The Dreamcast—considered by many to be ahead of its time and one of the greatest consoles ever made for several reasons, including its capability for online gaming—was a commercial flop that ended Sega’s console efforts. Sega pulled the plug on the system in 2001, becoming a third-party software company henceforth.

Modern Age of Gaming

In 2005 and 2006, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s Playstation 3, and Nintendo’s Wii kicked off the modern age of high-definition gaming. Though the Playstation 3—the only system at the time to play Blu-rays—was successful in its own right, Sony, for the first time, faced stiff competition from its rivals.

The Xbox 360, which had similar graphics capabilities to the Playstation 3, was lauded for its online gaming ecosystem and won far more Game Critics Awards than the other platforms in 2007; it also featured the Microsoft Kinect, a state-of-the-art motion capture system that offered a different way to play video games (though the Kinect never caught on with core gamers or game developers).

And despite being technologically inferior to the other two systems, the Wii trounced its competition in sales. Its motion-sensitive remotes made gaming more active than ever before, helping it appeal to a much larger slice of the general public, including people in retirement homes.

Towards the end of the decade and beginning of the next, video games spread to social media platforms like Facebook and mobile devices like the iPhone, reaching a more casual gaming audience. Rovio, the company behind the Angry Birds mobile device game (and, later Angry Birds animated movie), reportedly made a whopping $200 million in 2012.

In 2011, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure brought video games into the physical world. The game required players to place plastic toy figures (sold separately) onto an accessory, which reads the toys’ NFC tags to bring the characters into the game. The next few years would see several sequels and other toy-video game hybrids, such as Disney Infinity , which features Disney characters.

The 8th generation of video games began with the release of Nintendo’s Wii U in 2012, followed by the Playstation 4 and Xbox One in 2013. Despite featuring a touch screen remote control that allowed off-TV gaming and being able to play Wii games, the Wii U was a commercial failure—the opposite of its competition—and was discontinued in 2017.

In early 2017, Nintendo released its Wii U successor, the Nintendo Switch, the only system to allow both television-based and handheld gaming. Microsoft released its 4K-ready console, the Xbox One X, in late 2017, and followed up in 2020 with the Xbox Series X and Series S. In 2020, Sony released the Playstation 5, a successor to Playstation 4. 

With their new revamped consoles, both Sony and Microsoft currently have their sights set on virtual reality gaming, a technology that has the potential to change the way players experience video games.

‘Spacewar!’ The story of the world’s first digital video game. The Verge . The First Video Game? BNL . The Brown Box, 1967–68. Smithsonian . Inventor Ralph Baer, The ‘Father Of Video Games,’ Dies At 92. NPR . The Video Game Revolution. PBS . Video Game History Timeline. Museum of Play . The Surprisingly Long History of Nintendo. Gizmodo . How Tetris Helped Game Boy Take Over the World. Gizmodo . How Sonic Helped Sega Win the Early 90s Console Wars. Kotaku . Sega and Nintendo Console War: Greatest Moments. Prima Games . Angry Birds Maker Rovio Reports $200 Million In Revenue, $71 Million In Profit For 2012. Business Insider . Here’s who won each console war. Venturebeat . The History Of Gaming: An Evolving Community. TechCrunch . The History of Video Game Consoles. TIME .

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Video Game History Timeline

Explore the history of video games. Many artifacts illustrated in the timeline reside in The Strong’s collections.

Video game arcades reach their heyday as home consoles—led by Nintendo—begin to take sway.

Click and drag to scroll through the timeline.

A missing slice of pizza inspires Namco’s Toru Iwatani to create Pac-Man , which goes on sale in July 1980. That year a version of Pac-Man for Atari 2600 becomes the first arcade hit to appear on a home console. Two years later, Ms. Pac-Man strikes a blow for gender equality by becoming the best-selling arcade game of all time.

Video game fans go ape over Nintendo’s Donkey Kong , featuring a character that would become world-famous: Jumpman. Never heard of him? That’s because he’s better known as Mario—the name he took when his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, makes him the star of a later game by Nintendo.

Disney taps into the video game craze by releasing the movie Tron . An arcade game featuring many of the contests from the movie also becomes a hit.

Multiplayer play takes a huge step forward with Dan Bunten’s M.U.L.E. In the game, players compete to gather the most resources while saving their colony on the planet of Irata.

Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov creates Tetris , a simple but addictive puzzle game. The game leaks out from behind the Iron Curtain, and five years later, Nintendo bundles it with every new Game Boy.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) revives an ailing United States video game industry two years after the Nintendo Corporation released it in Japan as Famicom.

The emerging educational software market leaps ahead with the introduction of The Learning Company’s Reader Rabbit program. The educational computer business mushrooms with the introduction of CD-ROMs in the 1990s, but crashes with the rise of the Internet.

It’s a good year for fantasy Role Playing Games, as Shigeru Miyamoto creates Legend of Zelda , SSI wins the video game license for Dungeons and Dragons , and Sierra’s Leisure Suit Larry gives players a different kind of adult role playing game.

John Madden Football introduces gridiron realism to computer games, making this game—and its many console sequels—perennial best-sellers.

Nintendo’s Game Boy popularizes handheld gaming. Game Boy is not the first handheld system with interchangeable cartridges—Milton Bradley introduced Microvision 10 years earlier—but it charms users with its good game play, ease of use, and long battery life.

Video Game Design and Development

Encouragement, advice, and support for aspiring game designers.

The Evolution and History of Video Games

No, not us, not humanity. That’s a whole different article entirely. I’m talking about video game history. Day one stuff.

What started it all? What allowed me to play Joan of Arc and her French compatriots during the Hundred Years’ War?

The evolution of video games is a rather recent phenomenon in our history. Only a true gamer would know what I am about to tell you, so let’s get this history lesson started.

Timeline of Video Game Evolution

Who Invented the First Video Game?

The first real video game wasn’t invented by the talented team at Atari headed by Nolan Bushnell. No, that honor belongs to William Higinbotham .

In the 1950s, Higinbotham created Tennis for Two. Higinbotham created this game as a fun diversion, to show the power of technology.

Like many in history, he didn’t fully grasp the significance of his foray into video gaming.

What followed was ‘Spacewar!’ a game developed by Steve Russell in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT). This was a two-player game in which both players faced off in an intense dogfight, each player controlling either the ‘wedge’ or the ‘needle’. The game included gravity effects and faster-than-light travel.

It sounds like a current-generation game, doesn’t it?

What Was the First Game Console?

That honor belongs to the Magnavox Odyssey , invented by Ralph Baer. Being able to play video games in one’s home; the idea was revolutionary. I believe that we may take it for granted today, but people used to have to journey to the local arcade, pizza parlor, or bowling alley to play their favorite games.

Leave the comfort of my own bed?

The Golden Age of Arcade Games

Specifically, the release of Space Invaders for arcade systems in 1978 marked a new dawn for games. If you don’t know Space Invaders, what rock have you been living under?

This simple, yet addictive game features the player as a lone gunner ship occupying the bottom of the screen. The top half has the titular space invaders encroaching on the player, increasing in speed as their numbers dwindle. This frantic speed was surprisingly unintended, as the game developer had trouble programming them to maintain a consistent speed. He kept it in the game and the rest is history.

Can you imagine if the alien invaders just kept their normal, slow pace the entire time? Not only would Space Invaders be super easy but there would be no stakes to play for. It would be a boring exercise to merely shoot enemies. Instead, we have an adrenaline-filled defense of the earth.

Arcades were filling up with players, and some serious money was coming in. After the millions in quarters earned by Space Invaders, it wouldn’t be long until a successor in the most-played arcade game mantle was once again taken up by a new contender.

This was in the form of the beloved Pac-Man.

Sounds easy enough, right?

The entire time the player is hounded by colorful ghosts, hellbent on killing Pac-Man. The player has an opportunity for revenge, for if they get one of the bigger dots located at the corners of the maze, they can get revenge on the ghosts: they become vulnerable and can be eaten for extra points.

Pac-Man was an international hit and spawned multiple spin-offs like Ms. Pac-Man.

You Should Know

Pac-Man used to be called “Puck-Man” when it was created by Toru Iwatani. The name was later changed when the game was brought to the United States to prevent potential vandalism changing the “P” to an “F.”

The inspiration for Pac-Man’s design came from a pizza with a slice missing. This iconic shape made it easier to animate and allowed for character expression.

Interestingly, Iwatani designed the game with the intention of appealing to a broader audience, particularly women. The game’s friendly, non-violent gameplay and colorful graphics were specifically crafted to attract female players, making it one of the first video games to consciously target a diverse player demographic. This approach contributed to Pac-Man’s universal appeal and its status as a gaming classic.

Trouble in Gaming Paradise

Was this to be the end of video games as we know them? It sure seemed like it.

From 1983 to 1985, the sheer volume of gaming options seemed to be muscling out arcade games, which experienced over 1,500 closures, not to mention seriously suffering economic setbacks.

There is that famous rumor that Atari had all of their remaining copies of the abysmal E.T. the Extraterrestrial buried in a New Mexico landfill. It became an urban legend, often being repeated as a humorous, but a cautionary tale. Turns out that it was partially true; a Canadian film crew traveled to the landfill, excavated and found copies of E.T., as well as other discarded Atari cartridges.

Serious analysts and economists were pessimistic when evaluating gaming’s future.

Was it to be a one-time fad?

Luckily for us, the development of video game consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), gave the market a big boost.

If the gaming markets weren’t aided by these different factors, you might be filling your cart with Steam sale items and playing the newest Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Perish the thought!

The NES, Accessories, and The Legend of Zelda

Some of you may remember Duck Hunt—the game where you need to shoot ducks with a light gun. This was called the ‘Zapper’ and was released as an accessory in 1985. This allowed the player to feel as if they were shooting their prey on screen. Just remember to hit 100% of the time, or else that pesky hunting dog will laugh at you!

With the NES pulling some seriously heavyweight, the designer of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto, really got a chance to shine.

In 1987, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda.

This is the first appearance of our silent protagonist, Link, as he slays baddies and completes his quest. Miyamoto was inspired by his love of nature, as well as the adventuring he would do as a child. He harnessed his imagination and created one of the most beloved franchises in video gaming.

Any idea of how many Zelda games there are? Probably around 8 or something, right? How about 19 in the main series, not even mentioning the spin-offs and appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series?

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was extremely influential to me as a video gamer. It inflamed my imagination, something that Miyamoto set out to do so many years ago.

The SNES and PlayStation

This is where Nintendo dominated the games market.

SNES is perhaps the most iconic gaming system ever released. While still using cartridges, the SNES upped the ante with graphical capabilities, game design, and audio. It was the bridge between the old world of video games and the modern era.

For example, Star Fox was a famous example of using 3D graphics in a home console game. Nintendo also impressed the world by developing the console’s top 3 selling games in the console’s history: Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3. Not only can they develop winning video game consoles, but their games rule.

On the other side of the aisle, Sony had developed the first major disc-based consoles, the PlayStation in 1994. The PlayStation introduced games like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VIII, and Silent Hill. These titles included extensive, impressive cutscenes, often including recorded dialogue.

Games were getting closer and closer to being movie-like. The narratives were able to be more in-depth, moodier and more atmospheric. A game like Silent Hill would have never succeeded in any system but the PlayStation. The atmosphere, the sound, the graphics; they all hit the mark at the right place and time. The variety and graphical powerhouse the consoles were at the time made a lasting impact on gaming.

N64 and PlayStation 2

In 1996, the Nintendo 64, (named for the 64-bit processing), was released to great fanfare. All of your favorite Nintendo characters were now in fully realized 3D. A highlight was Super Mario 64. In it, Mario must make his way through Princess Peach’s castle, experiencing a multitude of vastly different worlds. The sheer scope of this game had many players reeling.

Likewise, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong 64 brought back many loveable characters to share the modern gaming stage. Alongside the PlayStation, the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn made up what is known as the fifth console generation.

Not to be outdone, Sony released what is still the best-selling console of all time: the PlayStation 2. Released in 2000, the PS2 has sold over 150 million units. This console brought us hits like Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Grand Theft Auto games.

An amazing feature of the PS2, the backward compatibility, allowed for gamers who had an extensive collection of original PlayStation games to be able to play them effortlessly on their new PS2 consoles. This tradition continued well into the present, (albeit a little more limited with other companies like Microsoft, with consoles like Xbox).

PS2 had a lifespan of 13 years, releasing classic games that many of us remember fondly. Luckily for us, we can easily access these titles from the Sony store.

Microsoft and World of WarCraft

They went a step further by introducing Xbox LIVE, their subscription-based online gaming service. This meant you could regularly game with buddies online, buy DLC and access different goodies. In turn, this gave the anticipated release of Halo 2 even more acclaim.

Halo 2 broke sales records and had people funneling onto Xbox LIVE to finally play Halo’s addictive multiplayer online against people a world away. The time for trash talk was over; you now had the chance to put the question to rest: who is the best Halo player you know?

At the same time, Blizzard, the creators of StarCraft, created their most ambitious and popular product yet: World of Warcraft.

It was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG or MMO), where you inhabited the land Azeroth from the Warcraft franchise, leveled up your unique character, did raids, and got some serious loot. It was a smash hit and become a pop culture phenomenon.

The TV comedy South park did an entire episode about WoW, including a fictional weapon called ‘the sword of truth’. Blizzard eventually made the Sword of Truth an actual in-game item. Art imitates art!

The Wii and Big Budgets

It’s cold, it’s early, and you need to get a hold of one of the most talked-about consoles ever made; the Nintendo Wii.

“The Wii?” you ask. Yes, the name is a bit…unconventional.

However, it brought a motion-based play to the table. This encouraged players to get off the couch and physically take part in their adventures.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had players swinging swords with actual arm motions and Wii Sports playing a myriad of lighthearted sports games.

This era was the start of true big-budget gaming. Millions of dollars were now being spent on the development of games; some were the same budgets as blockbuster Hollywood productions.

For example, Destiny, a first-person shooter by Bungie, allegedly had a budget of almost half a billion dollars! This would take the world of gaming even higher into the cultural zeitgeist. It wasn’t an isolating pastime anymore; it was true pop culture, right alongside movies, music, and TV.

As a gamer, we have never been more privileged. We have our pick of the litter: will it be the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PC, Mac, mobile, or the Wii U? They are even releasing versions of the classic SNES and NES systems, allowing for newer gamers to travel back in time and see what the ‘dark ages’ were like. VR consoles are seemingly the new piece of gaming hardware to look out for and cross platform gaming is the latest in multiplayer tech.

Whichever you choose, look back fondly on the timeline of video game history, and be grateful that Pac-Man had to walk so Kratos could run.

What People Are Saying A recent survey conducted by tech services firm Globant in collaboration with polling firm YouGov reveals that a significant 52% of gamers in the United States foresee the metaverse as a transformative force in the gaming industry.

The survey aimed to gauge the awareness and sentiments of U.S. gamers regarding the metaverse, a network of interconnected virtual worlds reminiscent of novels like “Snow Crash” and “Ready Player One.”

Among the findings, Meta emerged as the top company associated with the metaverse, according to 73% of respondents. Additionally, 35% expressed comfort with advertising in the metaverse, while 40% were uncomfortable with it. Nearly half of those surveyed would accept advertising if it meant gaining free access to apps, games, or places within the metaverse.

Furthermore, 49% of gamers prioritize “playing” over “earning” in metaverse games, although a substantial portion values a blend of both. Overall, the survey underscores the growing recognition among gamers that the metaverse is poised to reshape the gaming industry , with 41% believing it will have a positive impact.

However, familiarity and understanding of the metaverse remain areas for growth, as only 39% anticipate its maturity in less than five years.

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The father of the video game: the ralph baer prototypes and electronic games video game history.

From the earliest days of computers, people have found ways to play games on them. These early computer programmers weren’t just wasting time or looking for new ways to goof off. They had practical reasons to create games.

During the 1940s and 1950s, computers took up entire rooms and were so expensive that only universities and large companies could afford them. Most people had both a limited understanding of what these electronic behemoths were able to do and an unfamiliarity with the types of mathematical equations these machines were regularly programmed to compute. Games like tic-tac-toe or William Higinbotham’s 1958 Tennis for Two were excellent ways to attract public interest and support. As an added bonus, computer programmers were able to learn from the creation of games as well because it allowed them to break away from the usual subroutines and challenge the computer’s capabilities.

It was this mindset that led a group of MIT students during the 1960s to create one of the first and most groundbreaking computer games. Students Steve Russell and his friends were granted access to the school’s new PDP-1 computer providing they used it to create a demonstration program that (1) utilized as many of the computer’s resources as possible and “taxed those resources to the limit,” (2) remained interesting even after repeated viewings, which meant that each run needed to be slightly different and (3) was interactive.

Inspired by the science fiction novels Russell and his friends enjoyed, these computers “hackers” decided to create a dueling game between two spaceships. The result, called “Spacewar,” caused a sensation on campus and variations on the game soon spread to other universities that had computer engineering programs.

Although Spacewar was fun to play, it was never destined for released to the general public, since computers were still too expensive for personal use. To play Spacewar one needed access to a research facility’s computer, which kept the game’s influence limited to the small computer technology sphere.

In fact, video games did not get their true start from computer programmers, but from an engineer skilled in another major invention of the 20th century: the television set. By the 1960s, millions of Americans had invested in televisions for their homes, but these television sets were only used for the viewing of entertainment. Engineer Ralph Baer was certain this technology could be used to play games.

In 1966, while working for Sanders Associates, Inc., Baer began to explore this idea. In 1967, assisted by Sanders technician Bob Tremblay, Baer created the first of several video game test units. Called TVG#1 or TV Game Unit #1, the device, when used with an alignment generator, produced a dot on the television screen that could be manually controlled by the user. Once Baer had established how it was possible to interact with the television set, he and his team were able to design and build increasingly sophisticated prototypes.

Sanders senior management were impressed with Baer’s progress and assigned him the task of turning this technology into a commercially viable product. After a few years and numerous test and advancements, Baer and his colleagues developed a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, nicknamed the “Brown Box.” Sanders licensed the Brown Box to Magnavox, which released the device as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.

With fewer than 200,000 units sold, Magnavox Odyssey was not considered a commercial success. Among the contributing factors, poor marketing played a large role. Many potential consumers were under the impression—sometimes encouraged by Magnavox salesmen—that Odyssey would only work on Magnavox televisions. Ultimately, the problem was that Magnavox saw Odyssey as a gimmick to sell more television sets. Executives at Magnavox lacked the vision to see that television games had the potential to become an independent industry, and did not give the product the support it needed.

Meanwhile, a creative young entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell remembered playing Spacewar during his years as a student at the University of Utah. He began to think of ways that the game could be retailed. Bushnell had past experience with amusement park arcades and had witnessed firsthand the popularity of pinball machines. He believed that Spacewar would make a successful coin-operated machine.

In 1971, Nutting Associates, a coin-op device manufacturer, released Bushnell’s idea as “ Computer Space .” However, while Spacewar had been an enjoyable game, Computer Space proved too complex for the casual game player to understand quickly. The changes that were required to convert the two-player Spacewar to a one-player game made Computer Space frustratingly difficult for those who did learn how to play.

Though Computer Space was a flop, Bushnell still believed that coin-operated video games could be successful. After seeing a demonstration of Magnavox Odyssey’s table tennis game in May 1972, Bushnell set about trying to create an arcade version of the same game. He and his business partner, Ted Dabney, formed Atari, Inc., in June 1972, and released Pong, an arcade ping-pong game, that same year. The first Pong machine was installed in Andy Capp’s Tavern, a bar located in Sunnyvale, California. A few days later, the tavern owner called Atari to send someone out to fix the machine. The problem turned out to be that the cashbox was filled with too many quarters. The coins had overflowed and jammed the machine. Atari clearly had a sensation on its hands.

Emboldened by Pong ’s success, Atari partnered with Sears, Roebuck & Company to produce a home version of the game in 1975. Magnavox sued for patent rights infringement. The case was heavily in Magnavox’s favor. Ralph Baer had carefully documented his work. Magnavox could prove that they demonstrated Odyssey to the public in 1972 and that Bushnell had attended the demonstration. (It was even confirmed later that Bushnell had played Odyssey’s tennis game.) Rather than face a lengthy and undoubtedly unsuccessful court case, Atari settled with Magnavox.

The home version of Pong was just as successful as the arcade version. Atari sold 150,000 units in 1975 alone (compared to the 200,000 Odysseys that took Magnavox three years to sell.) Other companies soon began to produce their own home versions of Pong. Even Magnavox began to market a series of modified Odyssey units that played only their tennis and hockey games. Of these first-generation video game consoles, the most successful was Coleco Telstar, due in part to some luck and the help of Ralph Baer.

Coleco, a toy company that later became known for the wildly popular Cabbage Patch Doll in the early 1980s, was just beginning to branch out into video games. Acting on a recommendation from Ralph Baer, Coleco was the first company to place a major order for General Instruments’ AY-3-8500 chip, on which most Pong console clones were based. When General Instruments, which had underestimated the interest in the chip, had trouble meeting production demands, Coleco was at the top of the priority list. While Coleco’s competitors waited for months until General Instruments could complete their orders, Coleco cornered the market.

At a crucial moment, Coleco Telstar did not pass the interference tests needed for Federal Communications Commission approval. Coleco had a week to fix the problem or the unit would need to be totally redesigned before it could be resubmitted for FCC approval. The process could potentially take months, putting the company well behind its competitors. Without FCC approval, Coleco would be stuck with warehouses full of units that they could not sell.

The company turned to Sanders and Ralph Baer in hopes that Baer’s experience would be able to help them. Baer found their solution within the week and Coleco received its FCC approval. Telstar sold over one million units in 1976, before being overshadowed by the next generation of video game consoles.

Produced between 1976 and 1983, these second-generation consoles, such as the Atari VCS (also known as the Atari 2600), Mattel’s Intellivision, and ColecoVision, featured interchangeable game cartridges that were retailed separately, rather than games that came preloaded in the unit. This advance allowed users to build a library of games. There was soon a wide variety of games to choose from, but, ironically, this surplus proved to be the one of the key reasons that the industry faced a serious crash during the early 1980s.

In a classic case of supply outpacing demand, too many games hit the market, and many were of inferior quality. Further complicating matters, there were too many video game consoles from which to choose. Beyond the flooded market, video games consoles now faced growing competition from computers.

The bulky, room-sized expensive computer behemoths were a thing of the past. The age of the home computer had arrived. For many, purchasing a versatile computer, like the Apple II, Radio Shack’s TRS-80, or the Commodore 64, which could play games in addition to running a multitude of other programs, seemed a more logical investment than buying a system devoted solely to gaming.

Sales of video game consoles and cartridges plunged in 1983 and 1984. Many companies like Mattel and Magnavox discontinued their video game lines completely, while Atari, the leader in the field, struggled to remain afloat. Video games remained popular arcade features, but it seemed that the era of home video game systems had ended.

But in 1985, a small Japanese company proved just the opposite. That year, Nintendo released its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), whose popularity and commercial success surpassed any previous game console. No longer a novelty, video games found a firm foothold mainstream American life, just as Ralph Baer had predicted they would.

• The Father of the Video Game: The Ralph Baer Prototypes and Electronic Games
• Video Game History

A History of Video Games

This research begins with the premise that while video-games have become a pervasive cultural force over the last four decades, there is still a dearth of educational and historical material regarding the emergence of video game home consoles and their content. Games have an extensive history, dating back to early radar displays and oscilloscopes of the 1960s (Tennis for Two, 1958) and early home video game consoles of the 1970s (Magnavox Odyssey, 1972). From the JAMMA (Japanese Amusement Machine and Marketing Association) arcade standard of the 80s to the high powered processors of Sonys PS4, video games have come a long way and left a wealth of audio-visual material in their wake. Much of this material, however, is archived and engaged within a traditional manner: through text books or museum exhibitions (Games Master, ACMI 2015). Through interactive design however, this data can be made easily comprehensible and accessible as interactive data-visualisation content. This design research project explores processes of data visualization, interactive design and video game production to open up video game history and communicate its developmental stages in a universally accessible manner. Though there has been research conducted utilising game engines for visualizations in other fields (from landscape architecture to bio-medical science) it has rarely been used to visualize the history of gaming itself. This visualization (utilising the Unreal Engine and incorporating historical video content) creates an accessible preservation and catalogue of video game history, and an interactive graphical interface that allows users to easily learn and understand the history of console development and the processes that lead video games to their current state.

Copyright Date

Date of award, rights license, degree discipline, degree grantor, degree level, degree name, anzsrc type of activity code, victoria university of wellington item type, victoria university of wellington school, usage metrics.

• Computer gaming and animation

When Playing Video Games Becomes a History Lesson

On campuses across the country, professors are putting historically based games into the classroom

Ted Scheinman

Senior Editor

“Okay, class, for tonight’s history homework you’ll be playing ‘Assassin’s Creed.’” What might sound like a slacker’s dream assignment is finding new respect in academia, spurred on by a University of Kansas historian who says video games are crucial to the “creation of public knowledge of the past” and belong in the classroom.

Andrew Denning, an associate professor, notes that the increasing sophistication of history-based titles and the growing number of scholars who grew up on video games (Denning, 38, is one) are softening higher education’s distrust of the activity; a University of Tennessee course centers on the “Red Dead Redemption” series, wherein players explore turn-of-the-century America. The level of detail relayed by a game “far outstrips that of a historical monograph,” Denning argues in a recent paper published in the American Historical Review.

Some game companies are now striving for maximal accuracy, even hiring historian consultants. “The new edition of Oregon Trail has referred to scholars of Native America,” Denning tells me. Here are six other games that may find their way onto a syllabus.

Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft

Attentat 1942, Charles Games

Crusader Kings, Paradox Development Studio

Battlefield, EA DICE

1979 Revolution: Black Friday, iNK Stories

Brothers in Arms, Gearbox Software

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Ted Scheinman is a senior editor for Smithsonian magazine. He is the author of Camp Austen: My Life as an Accidental Jane Austen Superfan .

Video Game History: Overview From the 1990s to Nowadays Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The 1990s in the gaming genre in general can be characterized by the introduction of several home consoles, which gradually transferred games from sprite-based to polygon –based graphics. In the racing genre it can be stated that the major hits in this decade, with a few exception were ports from the arcades. A few notes can be stated regarding the racing games in this decade. Many of the genre-changing games were introduced simultaneously in one year, while there are years that lacked exceptional titles. Thus, the list will not be on a game per year basis, rather than notable games in general in the period from 1990 to 1999.

Stunts (also known as 4D Sports Driving) – 1991

Usually referred to as Stunts, this game was published by Brøderbund/Mindscape and was first released on personal computers in 1990. The game was rereleased on other platforms such as NEC and Amiga. As the title implies, Stunts is a racing games that focuses on performing stunts. Being an unusual aspect for the racing genre, it nevertheless was not its main characteristic. The game was characterized by polygon graphics, great controls, a variety of customization options, and what is most important a map editor that allowed players to make their own tracks (“4D Sports Stunt Driving Review,” 2010).

Virtua Racing (1992)

Virtua Racing by Sega can be seen as an important turning point for the racing genre, specifically in terms of 3 dimensional graphical concepts. The game was first released on arcade machines, and it took almost 3 years for the title to be transferred on home consoles. The game was a formula 1 racing game, and was fully polygonal at the time. The game was introduced as a simulator of driving experience, which also brought a multiplayer experience, allowing players to compete within the location in which the machines were placed.

Ridge Racer (1993-1994)

Ridge Racer by Namco was a racing game which was famous for its arcade controls, rather than realistic driving experience. The twin date in the title refers to the date the game was introduced to arcade machines as well as the date it was transferred to consoles which popularized the game (IGN Staff, 1995). In addition to arcade car behavior, the game was also famous for its beautiful graphics at the time, with each game in the series being a launch title showing the capabilities of the console. It should be noted that promoting the graphical excellence of the game the arcade version is implied. Generally, the main aspect of the game is its focus on enjoying driving cars, rather than transferring realistic driving experience.

The Need for Speed (1994)

The significance of a game can be seen when it is a pilot of a long lasting series. The Need for Speed (the article was removed in subsequent titles) is an exemplary case in that matter. The game was developed by Electronic Arts Canada, and was first introduced on the console 3DO, although the popularity came when the game was released on personal computers a year later. The main genre changing attribute in this game can be seen through the introduction of real driving characteristics of cars, which made each one distinguishable from the other. A characteristic important for the series in general is the selection of real top luxury cars to drive. Another important characteristic is the inclusion of exotic locations in the game.

Daytona USA (1993-1994)

Daytona USA was a NASCAR like racing game developed by Sega and released on arcade machines in 1993 and 1994 in Japan and North America respectively. The features exclusive to the arcade versions which made the game popular include fast speeds, realistic racing perspective with arcade behavior, and powerful force feedback that allowed players to feel the road with their cars (Sega, 2009).

Sega Rally Championship (1995)

Sega Rally Championship is a racing game developed by Sega for arcade machines, which was later ported to their console Sega Saturn. The game, in addition to being the first rally game by Sega, can be distinguished by the main characteristic of allowing players to feel different surfaces. Such differences could be felt by the player through the way the car was controlled, as well as physically in the arcade version (RadioSEGA, 2010).

TOCA Championship Racing (1997)

Toca Touring Car Championship is a game developed by Codemasters for Playstation and personal computers. The game can be seen as the leader in the racing genre until Gran Turismo came up. The main characteristic of the game defining characteristic of the game is a large number of licensed cars with real physics as well as a close to real representation of cars’ destruction (Ryan Mac Donald, 1998).

Need for Speed III (1998)

The third installment of the Need for Speed Series is a game of the racing genre which was developed by Electronic Arts Canada. The game was released on two platforms, Playstation and personal computers. All the characteristic elements of the genre were present, such as exotic cars, arcade controls, and great music. The genre changing element that popularized the game was the introduction of the pursuit mode, as it can be implied from the title. Such mode allows players to race with police cars while avoid being caught by them.

Gran Turismo (1997-1998)

Gran Turismo is a racing game by Polyphony Digital which was released in 1997 and 1998 in Japan and North American respectively. The main characteristics of the game were genre defining at the time. Additionally the following games in the series are still considered influential. The characteristics include high levels of realism, real life tracks, a large selection of licensed real life cars, and enormous tuning options (Gamespot Staff, 1998).

Gran Turismo 2 (1999)

Gran Turismo 2 (1999) by Polyphony Digital might not a genre changing game like its predecessor; it nevertheless, started a trend witnessed in all the following games in the series, which is more of everything. The number of vehicles included in the game was record breaking, reaching more than 400 cars.

4D Sports Stunt Driving Review. (2010). Gamershell.com . Web.

Car Games Reviews. (2010). Ridge Racer. Car Games Reviews . Web.

Gamespot Staff. (1998). Gran Turismo . Gamespot .

IGN Staff. (1995). Ridge Race (Playstation). IGN . Web.

Leadbetter, D. (1994). STUNTS from Broderbund / 4D SPORTS DRIVING from Mindscape . Ibiblio .

RadioSEGA. (2010). Sega Rally Championship. Radio Sega . Web.

Ryan Mac Donald. (1998). TOCA Championship Racing. GameSpot . Web.

Sega. (2009). Daytona USA. Sega Amusement USA . Web.

SEGA F1 Virtua Racing arcade game . (2009).

Taruc, N. (1999). Gran Turismo 2 . Gamespot .

Varner, J. (2996). Need for Speed. Game Spot .

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10.2 The Evolution of Electronic Games

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major companies involved in video game production.
• Explain the important innovations that drove the acceptance of video games by mainstream culture.
• Determine major technological developments that influenced the evolution of video games.

Pong , the electronic table-tennis simulation game, was the first video game for many people who grew up in the 1970s and is now a famous symbol of early video games. However, the precursors to modern video games were created as early as the 1950s. In 1952 a computer simulation of tic-tac-toe was developed for the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), one of the first stored-information computers, and in 1958 a game called Tennis for Two was developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a way to entertain people coming through the laboratory on tours (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2008).

Figure 10.2

Tennis for Two was a rudimentary game designed to entertain visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

These games would generate little interest among the modern game-playing public, but at the time they enthralled their users and introduced the basic elements of the cultural video game experience. In a time before personal computers, these games allowed the general public to access technology that had been restricted to the realm of abstract science. Tennis for Two created an interface where anyone with basic motor skills could use a complex machine. The first video games functioned early on as a form of media by essentially disseminating the experience of computer technology to those who did not have access to it.

As video games evolved, their role as a form of media grew as well. Video games have grown from simple tools that made computing technology understandable to forms of media that can communicate cultural values and human relationships.

The 1970s: The Rise of the Video Game

The 1970s saw the rise of video games as a cultural phenomenon. A 1972 article in Rolling Stone describes the early days of computer gaming:

Reliably, at any nighttime moment (i.e. non-business hours) in North America hundreds of computer technicians are effectively out of their bodies, locked in life-or-death space combat computer-projected onto cathode ray tube display screens, for hours at a time, ruining their eyes, numbing their fingers in frenzied mashing of control buttons, joyously slaying their friend and wasting their employers’ valuable computer time. Something basic is going on (Brand, 1972).

This scene was describing Spacewar! , a game developed in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that spread to other college campuses and computing centers. In the early ’70s, very few people owned computers. Most computer users worked or studied at university, business, or government facilities. Those with access to computers were quick to utilize them for gaming purposes.

Arcade Games

The first coin-operated arcade game was modeled on Spacewar! It was called Computer Space , and it fared poorly among the general public because of its difficult controls. In 1972, Pong , the table-tennis simulator that has come to symbolize early computer games, was created by the fledgling company Atari , and it was immediately successful. Pong was initially placed in bars with pinball machines and other games of chance, but as video games grew in popularity, they were placed in any establishment that would take them. By the end of the 1970s, so many video arcades were being built that some towns passed zoning laws limiting them (Kent, 1997).

The end of the 1970s ushered in a new era—what some call the golden age of video games—with the game Space Invaders , an international phenomenon that exceeded all expectations. In Japan, the game was so popular that it caused a national coin shortage. Games like Space Invaders illustrate both the effect of arcade games and their influence on international culture. In two different countries on opposite sides of the globe, Japanese and American teenagers, although they could not speak to one another, were having the same experiences thanks to a video game.

Video Game Consoles

The first video game console for the home began selling in 1972. It was the Magnavox Odyssey, and it was based on prototypes built by Ralph Behr in the late 1960s. This system included a Pong -type game, and when the arcade version of Pong became popular, the Odyssey began to sell well. Atari, which was making arcade games at the time, decided to produce a home version of Pong and released it in 1974. Although this system could only play one game, its graphics and controls were superior to the Odyssey, and it was sold through a major department store, Sears. Because of these advantages, the Atari home version of Pong sold well, and a host of other companies began producing and selling their own versions of Pong (Herman, 2008).

A major step forward in the evolution of video games was the development of game cartridges that stored the games and could be interchanged in the console. With this technology, users were no longer limited to a set number of games, leading many video game console makers to switch their emphasis to producing games. Several groups, such as Magnavox, Coleco, and Fairchild, released versions of cartridge-type consoles, but Atari’s 2600 console had the upper hand because of the company’s work on arcade games. Atari capitalized off of its arcade successes by releasing games that were well known to a public that was frequenting arcades. The popularity of games such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man made the Atari 2600 a successful system. The late 1970s also saw the birth of companies such as Activision, which developed third-party games for the Atari 2600 (Wolf).

Home Computers

The birth of the home computer market in the 1970s paralleled the emergence of video game consoles. The first computer designed and sold for the home consumer was the Altair. It was first sold in 1975, several years after video game consoles had been selling, and it sold mainly to a hobbyist market. During this period, people such as Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, were building computers by hand and selling them to get their start-up businesses going. In 1977, three important computers—Radio Shack’s TRS-80, the Commodore PET, and the Apple II—were produced and began selling to the home market (Reimer, 2005).

The rise of personal computers allowed for the development of more complex games. Designers of games such as Mystery House , developed in 1979 for the Apple II, and Rogue , developed in 1980 and played on IBM PCs, used the processing power of early home computers to develop video games that had extended plots and story lines. In these games, players moved through landscapes composed of basic graphics, solving problems and working through an involved narrative. The development of video games for the personal computer platform expanded the ability of video games to act as media by allowing complex stories to be told and new forms of interaction to take place between players.

The 1980s: The Crash

Atari’s success in the home console market was due in large part to its ownership of already-popular arcade games and the large number of game cartridges available for the system. These strengths, however, eventually proved detrimental to the company and led to what is now known as the video game crash of 1983 . Atari bet heavily on its past successes with popular arcade games by releasing Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. Pac-Man was a successful arcade game that did not translate well to the home console, leading to disappointed consumers and lower-than-expected sales. Additionally, Atari produced 10 million of the lackluster Pac-Man games on its first run, despite the fact that active consoles were only estimated at 10 million. Similar mistakes were made with a game based on the movie E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial , which has gained notoriety as one of the worst games in Atari’s history. It was not received well by consumers despite the success of the movie, and Atari had again bet heavily on its success. Piles of unsold E.T. game cartridges were reportedly buried in the New Mexico desert under a veil of secrecy (Monfort & Bogost, 2009).

As retail outlets became increasingly wary of home console failures, they began stocking fewer games on shelves. This action, combined with an increasing number of companies producing games, led to overproduction and a resulting fallout in the video game market in 1983. Many smaller game developers did not have the capacity to withstand this downturn and went out of business. Although Coleco and Atari were able to make it through the crash, neither company regained its former share of the video game market. It was 1985 when the video game market picked up again.

The Rise of Nintendo

Nintendo, a Japanese card and novelty producer that had begun to produce electronic games in the 1970s, was responsible for arcade games such as Donkey Kong in the early 1980s. Its first home console, developed in 1984 for sale in Japan, tried to succeed where Atari had failed. The Nintendo system used newer, better microchips, bought in large quantities, to ensure high-quality graphics at a price consumers could afford. Keeping console prices low meant Nintendo had to rely on games for most of its profits and maintain control of game production. This was something Atari had failed to do, and it led to a glut of low-priced games that caused the crash of 1983. Nintendo got around this problem with proprietary circuits that would not allow unlicensed games to be played on the console. This allowed Nintendo to dominate the home video game market through the end of the decade, when one-third of homes in the United States had a Nintendo system (Cross & Smits, 2005).

Nintendo introduced its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States in 1985. The game Super Mario Brothers , released with the system, was also a landmark in video game development. The game employed a narrative in the same manner as more complicated computer games, but its controls were accessible and its objectives simple. The game appealed to a younger demographic, generally boys in the 8–14 range, than the one targeted by Atari (Kline, et. al., 2003). Its designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, tried to mimic the experiences of childhood adventures, creating a fantasy world not based on previous models of science fiction or other literary genres (McLaughlin, 2007). Super Mario Brothers also gave Nintendo an iconic character who has been used in numerous other games, television shows, and even a movie. The development of this type of character and fantasy world became the norm for video game makers. Games such as The Legend of Zelda became franchises with film and television possibilities rather than simply one-off games.

As video games developed as a form of media, the public struggled to come to grips with the kind of messages this medium was passing on to children. These were no longer simple games of reflex that could be compared to similar nonvideo games or sports; these were forms of media that included stories and messages that concerned parents and children’s advocates. Arguments about the larger meaning of the games became common, with some seeing the games as driven by ideas of conquest and gender stereotypes, whereas others saw basic stories about traveling and exploration (Fuller & Jenkins, 1995).

Other Home Console Systems

Other software companies were still interested in the home console market in the mid-1980s. Atari released the 2600jr and the 7800 in 1986 after Nintendo’s success, but the consoles could not compete with Nintendo. The Sega Corporation, which had been involved with arcade video game production, released its Sega Master System in 1986. Although the system had more graphics possibilities than the NES, Sega failed to make a dent in Nintendo’s market share until the early 1990s, with the release of Sega Genesis (Kerr, 2005).

Computer Games Flourish and Innovate

The enormous number of games available for Atari consoles in the early 1980s took its toll on video arcades. In 1983, arcade revenues had fallen to a 3-year low, leading game makers to turn to newer technologies that could not be replicated by home consoles. This included arcade games powered by laser discs, such as Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace , but their novelty soon wore off, and laser-disc games became museum pieces (Harmetz, 1984). In 1989, museums were already putting on exhibitions of early arcade games that included ones from the early 1980s. Although newer games continued to come out on arcade platforms, they could not compete with the home console market and never achieved their previous successes from the early 1980s. Increasingly, arcade gamers chose to stay at home to play games on computers and consoles. Today, dedicated arcades are a dying breed. Most that remain, like the Dave & Buster’s and Chuck E. Cheese’s chains, offer full-service restaurants and other entertainment attractions to draw in business.

Home games fared better than arcades because they could ride the wave of personal computer purchases that occurred in the 1980s. Some important developments in video games occurred in the mid-1980s with the development of online games. Multiuser dungeons, or MUDs, were role-playing games played online by multiple users at once. The games were generally text-based, describing the world of the MUD through text rather than illustrating it through graphics. The games allowed users to create a character and move through different worlds, accomplishing goals that awarded them with new skills. If characters attained a certain level of proficiency, they could then design their own area of the world. Habitat , a game developed in 1986 for the Commodore 64, was a graphic version of this type of game. Users dialed up on modems to a central host server and then controlled characters on screen, interacting with other users (Reimer, 2005).

During the mid-1980s, a demographic shift occurred. Between 1985 and 1987, games designed to run on business computers rose from 15 percent to 40 percent of games sold (Elmer-Dewitt, et. al., 1987). This trend meant that game makers could use the increased processing power of business computers to create more complex games. It also meant adults were interested in computer games and could become a profitable market.

The 1990s: The Rapid Evolution of Video Games

Video games evolved at a rapid rate throughout the 1990s, moving from the first 16-bit systems (named for the amount of data they could process and store) in the early 1990s to the first Internet-enabled home console in 1999. As companies focused on new marketing strategies, wider audiences were targeted, and video games’ influence on culture began to be felt.

Console Wars

Nintendo’s dominance of the home console market throughout the late 1980s allowed it to build a large library of games for use on the NES. This also proved to be a weakness, however, because Nintendo was reluctant to improve or change its system for fear of making its game library obsolete. Technology had changed in the years since the introduction of the NES, and companies such as NEC and Sega were ready to challenge Nintendo with 16-bit systems (Slaven).

Figure 10.3

Sega’s commercials suggested that it was a more violent version of Nintendo.

jeriaska – Splatterhouse – CC BY-NC 2.0.

The Sega Master System had failed to challenge the NES, but with the release of its 16-bit system, Sega Genesis, the company pursued a new marketing strategy. Whereas Nintendo targeted 8- to 14-year-olds, Sega’s marketing plan targeted 15- to 17-year olds, making games that were more mature and advertising during programs such as the MTV Video Music Awards. The campaign successfully branded Sega as a cooler version of Nintendo and moved mainstream video games into a more mature arena. Nintendo responded to the Sega Genesis with its own 16-bit system, the Super NES, and began creating more mature games as well. Games such as Sega’s Mortal Kombat and Nintendo’s Street Fighter competed to raise the level of violence possible in a video game. Sega’s advertisements even suggested that its game was better because of its more violent possibilities (Gamespot).

By 1994, companies such as 3DO, with its 32-bit system, and Atari, with its allegedly 64-bit Jaguar, attempted to get in on the home console market but failed to use effective marketing strategies to back up their products. Both systems fell out of production before the end of the decade. Sega, fearing that its system would become obsolete, released the 32-bit Saturn system in 1995. The system was rushed into production and did not have enough games available to ensure its success (Cyberia PC). Sony stepped in with its PlayStation console at a time when Sega’s Saturn was floundering and before Nintendo’s 64-bit system had been released. This system targeted an even older demographic of 14- to 24-year-olds and made a large effect on the market; by March of 2007, Sony had sold 102 million PlayStations (Edge Staff, 2009).

Computer Games Gain Mainstream Acceptance

Computer games had avid players, but they were still a niche market in the early 1990s. An important step in the mainstream acceptance of personal computer games was the development of the first-person shooter genre. First popularized by the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D , these games put the player in the character’s perspective, making it seem as if the player were firing weapons and being attacked. Doom , released in 1993, and Quake , released in 1996, used the increased processing power of personal computers to create vivid three-dimensional worlds that were impossible to fully replicate on video game consoles of the era. These games pushed realism to new heights and began attracting public attention for their graphic violence.

Figure 10.4

Myst challenged the notion that only violent games could be successful.

Another trend was reaching out to audiences outside of the video-game-playing community. Myst , an adventure game where the player walked around an island solving a mystery, drove sales of CD-ROM drives for computers. Myst , its sequel Riven , and other nonviolent games such as SimCity actually outsold Doom and Quake in the 1990s (Miller, 1999). These nonviolent games appealed to people who did not generally play video games, increasing the form’s audience and expanding the types of information that video games put across.

Online Gaming Gains Popularity

A major advance in game technology came with the increase in Internet use by the general public in the 1990s. A major feature of Doom was the ability to use multiplayer gaming through the Internet. Strategy games such as Command and Conquer and Total Annihilation also included options where players could play each other over the Internet. Other fantasy-inspired role-playing games, such as Ultima Online , used the Internet to initiate the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genre (Reimer). These games used the Internet as their platform, much like the text-based MUDs, creating a space where individuals could play the game while socially interacting with one another.

Portable Game Systems

The development of portable game systems was another important aspect of video games during the 1990s. Handheld games had been in use since the 1970s, and a system with interchangeable cartridges had even been sold in the early 1980s. Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989, using the same principles that made the NES dominate the handheld market throughout the 1990s. The Game Boy was released with the game Tetris , using the game’s popularity to drive purchases of the unit. The unit’s simple design meant users could get 20 hours of playing time on a set of batteries, and this basic design was left essentially unaltered for most of the decade. More advanced handheld systems, such as the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear, could not compete with the Game Boy despite their superior graphics and color displays (Hutsko, 2000).

The decade-long success of the Game Boy belies the conventional wisdom of the console wars that more advanced technology makes for a more popular system. The Game Boy’s static, simple design was readily accessible, and its stability allowed for a large library of games to be developed for it. Despite using technology almost a decade old, the Game Boy accounted for 30 percent of Nintendo of America’s overall revenues at the end of the 1990s (Hutsko, 2000).

The Early 2000s: 21st-Century Games

The console wars continue.

Sega gave its final effort in the console wars with the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. This console could connect to the Internet, emulating the sophisticated computer games of the 1990s. The new features of the Sega Dreamcast were not enough to save the brand, however, and Sega discontinued production in 2001, leaving the console market entirely (Business Week).

A major problem for Sega’s Dreamcast was Sony’s release of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) in 2000. The PS2 could function as a DVD player, expanding the role of the console into an entertainment device that did more than play video games. This console was incredibly successful, enjoying a long production run, with more than 106 million units sold worldwide by the end of the decade (A Brief History of Game Console Warfare).

In 2001, two major consoles were released to compete with the PS2: the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. The Xbox was an attempt by Microsoft to enter the market with a console that expanded on the functions of other game consoles. The unit had features similar to a PC, including a hard drive and an Ethernet port for online play through its service, Xbox Live. The popularity of the first-person shooter game Halo , an Xbox exclusive release, boosted sales as well. Nintendo’s GameCube did not offer DVD playback capabilities, choosing instead to focus on gaming functions. Both of these consoles sold millions of units but did not come close to the sales of the PS2.

Computer Gaming Becomes a Niche Market

As consoles developed to rival the capabilities of personal computers, game developers began to focus more on games for consoles. From 2000 to the end of the decade, the popularity of personal computer games has gradually declined. The computer gaming community, while still significant, is focused on game players who are willing to pay a lot of money on personal computers that are designed specifically for gaming, often including multiple monitors and user modifications that allow personal computers to play newer games. This type of market, though profitable, is not large enough to compete with the audience for the much cheaper game consoles (Kalning, 2008).

The Evolution of Portable Gaming

Nintendo continued its control of the handheld game market into the 2000s with the 2001 release of the Game Boy Advance, a redesigned Game Boy that offered 32-bit processing and compatibility with older Game Boy games. In 2004, anticipating Sony’s upcoming handheld console, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS, a handheld console that featured two screens and Wi-Fi capabilities for online gaming. Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) was released the following year and featured Wi-Fi capabilities as well as a flexible platform that could be used to play other media such as MP3s (Patsuris, 2004). These two consoles, along with their newer versions, continue to dominate the handheld market

One interesting innovation in mobile gaming occurred in 2003 with the release of the Nokia N-Gage. The N-Gage was a combination of a game console and mobile phone that, according to consumers, did not fill either role very well. The product line was discontinued in 2005, but the idea of playing games on phones persisted and has been developed on other platforms (Stone, 2007). Apple currently dominates the industry of mobile phone games; in 2008 and 2009 alone, iPhone games generated $615 million in revenue (Farago, 2010). As mobile phone gaming grows in popularity and as the supporting technology becomes increasingly more advanced, traditional portable gaming platforms like the DS and the PSP will need to evolve to compete. Nintendo is already planning a successor to the DS that features 3-D graphics without the use of 3-D glasses that it hopes will help the company retain and grow its share of the portable gaming market.

Video Games Today

The trends of the late 2000s have shown a steadily increasing market for video games. Newer control systems and family-oriented games have made it common for many families to engage in video game play as a group. Online games have continued to develop, gaining unprecedented numbers of players. The overall effect of these innovations has been the increasing acceptance of video game culture by the mainstream.

Home Consoles

The current state of the home console market still involves the three major companies of the past 10 years: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. The release of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 led this generation of consoles in 2005. The Xbox 360 featured expanded media capabilities and integrated access to Xbox Live, an online gaming service. Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) was released in 2006. It also featured enhanced online access as well as expanded multimedia functions, with the additional capacity to play Blu-ray discs. Nintendo released the Wii at the same time. This console featured a motion-sensitive controller that departed from previous controllers and focused on accessible, often family-oriented games. This combination successfully brought in large numbers of new game players, including many older adults. By June 2010, in the United States, the Wii had sold 71.9 million units, the Xbox 360 had sold 40.3 million, and the PS3 trailed at 35.4 million (VGChartz, 2010). In the wake of the Wii’s success, Microsoft and Sony have introduced their own motion-sensitive systems (Mangalindan, 2010).

Key Takeaways

• In a time before personal computers, early video games allowed the general public to access technology that had been restricted to the realm of abstract science. Tennis for Two created an interface where anyone with basic motor skills could use a complex machine. The first video games functioned early on as a form of media by essentially disseminating the experience of computer technology to those without access to it.
• Video games reached wider audiences in the 1990s with the advent of the first-person shooter genre and popular nonaction games such as Myst . The games were marketed to older audiences, and their success increased demand for similar games.
• Online capabilities that developed in the 1990s and expanded in the 2000s allowed players to compete in teams. This innovation attracted larger audiences to gaming and led to new means of social communication.
• A new generation of accessible, family-oriented games in the late 2000s encouraged families to interact through video games. These games also brought in older demographics that had never used video games before.

Video game marketing has changed to bring in more and more people to the video game audience. Think about the influence video games have had on you or people you know. If you have never played video games, then think about the ways your conceptions of video games have changed. Sketch out a timeline indicating the different occurrences that marked your experiences related to video games. Now compare this timeline to the history of video games from this section. Consider the following questions:

• How did your own experiences line up with the history of video games?
• Did you feel the effects of marketing campaigns directed at you or those around you?
• Were you introduced to video games during a surge in popularity? What games appealed to you?

A Brief History of Game Console Warfare, “PlayStation 2,” slide in “A Brief History of Game Console Warfare.”

Brand, Stewart. “Space War,” Rolling Stone , December 7, 1972.

Business Week, “Sega Dreamcast,” slide in “A Brief History of Game Console Warfare,” Business Week , http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/game_consoles/ .

Cross, Gary and Gregory Smits, “Japan, the U.S. and the Globalization of Children’s Consumer Culture,” Journal of Social History 38, no. 4 (2005).

CyberiaPC.com, “Sega Saturn (History, Specs, Pictures),” http://www.cyberiapc.com/vgg/sega_saturn.htm .

Edge staff, “The Making Of: Playstation,” Edge , April 24, 2009, http://www.next-gen.biz/features/the-making-of-playstation .

Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon. Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2008), 50.

Elmer-Dewitt, Philip and others, “Computers: Games that Grownups Play,” Time , July 27, 1987, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965090,00.html .

Farago, Peter. “Apple iPhone and iPod Touch Capture U.S. Video Game Market Share,” Flurry (blog), March 22, 2010, http://blog.flurry.com/bid/31566/Apple-iPhone-and-iPod-touch-Capture-U-S-Video-Game-Market-Share .

Fuller, Mary and Henry Jenkins, “Nintendo and New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue,” Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community , ed. Steven G. Jones (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995), 57–72.

Gamespot, “When Two Tribes Go to War: A History of Video Game Controversy,” http://www.gamespot.com/features/6090892/p-5.html .

Harmetz, Aljean. “Video Arcades Turn to Laser Technology as Queues Dwindle,” Morning Herald (Sydney), February 2, 1984.

Herman, Leonard. “Early Home Video Game Systems,” in The Video Game Explosion: From Pong to PlayStation and Beyond , ed. Mark Wolf (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008), 54.

Hutsko, Joe. “88 Million and Counting; Nintendo Remains King of the Handheld Game Players,” New York Times , March 25, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/25/business/88-million-and-counting-nintendo-remains-king-of-the-handheld-game-players.html .

Kalning, Kristin. “Is PC Gaming Dying? Or Thriving?” MSNBC , March 26, 2008, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23800152/wid/11915773/ .

Kent, “Super Mario Nation.”

Kent, Steven. “Super Mario Nation,” American Heritage , September 1997, http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1997/5/1997_5_65.shtml .

Kerr, Aphra. “Spilling Hot Coffee? Grand Theft Auto as Contested Cultural Product,” in The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays , ed. Nate Garrelts (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), 17.

Kline, Stephen, Nick Dyer-Witheford, and Greig De Peuter, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003), 119.

Mangalindan, J. P. “Is Casual Gaming Destroying the Traditional Gaming Market?” Fortune , March 18, 2010, http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/18/is-casual-gaming-destroying-the-traditional-gaming-market/ .

McLaughlin, Rus. “IGN Presents the History of Super Mario Bros.,” IGN Retro , November 8, 2007, http://games.ign.com/articles/833/833615p1.html .

Miller, Stephen C. “News Watch; Most-Violent Video Games Are Not Biggest Sellers,” New York Times , July 29, 1999, http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/29/technology/news-watch-most-violent-video-games-are-not-biggest-sellers.html .

Montfort, Nick and Ian Bogost, Racing the Beam : The Atari Video Computer System (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 127.

Patsuris, Penelope. “Sony PSP vs. Nintendo DS,” Forbes , June 7, 2004, http://www.forbes.com/2004/06/07/cx_pp_0607mondaymatchup.html .

Reimer, “The Evolution of Gaming.”

Reimer, Jeremy. “The Evolution of Gaming: Computers, Consoles, and Arcade,” Ars Technica (blog), October 10, 2005, http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/10/gaming-evolution.ars/4 .

Reimer, Jeremy. “Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures,” Ars Technica (blog), December 14, 2005, http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/12/total-share.ars/2 .

Slaven, Andy. Video Game Bible, 1985–2002 , (Victoria, BC: Trafford), 70–71.

Stone, Brad. “Play It Again, Nokia. For the Third Time,” New York Times , August 27, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/technology/27nokia.html .

VGChartz, “Weekly Hardware Chart: 19th June 2010,” http://www.vgchartz.com .

Wolf, Mark J. P. “Arcade Games of the 1970s,” in The Video Game Explosion (see note 7), 41.

Understanding Media and Culture Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The evolution of video games as a storytelling medium, and the role of narrative in modern games The evolution of video games as a storytelling medium, and the role of narrative in modern games

This essay aims to investigate the topic of narrative in video games. Specifically, the evolution of narratives in games, and the role of narrative in today’s story-based games. Narrative is all around us; we can interpret all events as stories with plo

January 7, 2019

1.  An Introduction to Narrative

1.1.  defining narrative.

In a paper exploring the field of narrative and its prominence in video games, the logical first step would be to establish a baseline definition of what narrative is. During the past decade or more, many broader interpretations of the word have arisen, stretching the meaning to involve “belief, value, experience, interpretation, or simply content,” [1]. For this essay, a much narrower definition is required, since narrative regarding games (and my approach the subject of narrative in this essay) refers to storytelling, and the relation of events and characters. Therefore, an appropriate definition would be H. Porter Abbott’s, made in 1978, which is “the representation of an event, or a series of events” [2].

            This definition encapsulates the most basic interpretation of the word, and is a nice, simple way to describe narrative when it is referenced or alluded to in this essay. However, I feel that expanding upon this definition before continuing may prove beneficial. In her paper Defining Media from the Perspective of Narratology [1], Marie-Laure Ryan gives three features by which narrative can be explained, which can be summarized as follows: A “Story that takes place in a world populated with individual agents and objects”, which “must undergo not fully predictable changes of state”, and these physical events “must be associated with mental states and events (goals, plans, emotions).” These three features form a very clear rule by which to define narrative and what counts as a narrative or not.

1.2.  A History of Narrative

Since humans have been communicating, they have been using narrative to tell stories, and it is a topic that has been studied since the time of Aristotle, when he laid the foundation for narrative study in Western culture with his book Poetics [3]. Aristotle theorised tragedy (which was in those days a term used to describe a form of theatre in which tragic events were experienced by the main character), and concluded that plot, or “the arrangement of the incidents” [3] was the most important of the six ingredients of a tragedy. The other ingredients, as he described, were Character, Thought, Diction (the way language is used to convey and represent ideas), Song, or Melody, and Spectacle, given in order of importance. Another concept of narrative defined by Aristotle is that any given story must have a beginning, where a problem is encountered, a middle, in which the characters struggle to overcome the problem, and an end in which the problem is resolved.

Aristotle is widely accepted as the biggest influence on the development of literature in the West, and the thoughts we have about the subject today largely come from his ideas. The ingredients of tragedy that he defined can be seen in modern narrative, and in fact they translate to the definition that we put together before. The individual agents and objects refers to character, the change of state is the plot, and the mental states and events are thought. Stemming from Aristotle’s work, the field of narratology was formed, a study that was most prominent around 1960, which aimed to identify what narratives have in common. The way we tell stories and the way we interpret events has been changed a lot by this research and the work done in this field, because it translates to the narratives that are presented to us in our daily lives.

In the world today, narrative has become such a core part of how we interpret events around us. We see it in every medium from musicals and poems to television and radio, and now we see it in video games as well. Through this exposure to the media, as Helen Fulton describes, “...our sense of reality is increasingly structured by narrative.” [4] We begin to think of everything as a structured story, because we understand that every event that we experience in our lives can be told through a narrative. While the main form of storytelling has always been speech, in the modern age narrative is presented to us most prominently through digital media, especially television and (more recently) video games.

1.3.  Narrative in Digital Media

The twentieth century brought about the beginning of the digital age, the age of computers, and television, film and video. Before this, there were significantly less devices through which to tell a story; The main media that conveyed narratives were conversation, books, and plays. But the introduction of film and cinema, which Marie-Laure Ryan describes as the “art of the twentieth century” [5], saw an evolution in how narrative can be told. In her article, Ryan describes how cinema gave new dimensions to novels and theatre. It allows events to be represented as they happen in the present tense, in a similar way to written tales, while also transcending theatre in its visual representation. The ability for film to put its audience in the action through cinematography and music was revolutionary.

Television and the internet make narratives more accessible than ever before, and contributes to the importance that human cognition puts on them. We might see an advert for a cleaning product, where a child spills his or her drink, and a frustrated mother will try in vain to fix the mess with a ‘regular’ cleaning product, and thus turn to the advertised product. Even this example uses a problem and solution narrative to give authenticity to the product, that resonates with audiences because it is relatable. Modern social apps such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram give users the opportunity to experience their friends lives and adventures in the form of ‘stories’. Narratives can be experienced now more than ever before, due to the amount of media we consume through the internet and through our devices. Video games are the next step in digital storytelling, ushering in a new concept of interactive narrative.

2.  Narrative in Games

2.1.  a brief history of video games.

It is strange, perhaps even incredible to consider how quickly video games have developed from when they began in the 1960’s, as we move towards an ever increasingly technologically dependant world. In his book ‘The Singularity Is Near’ [6], Ray Kurzweil compares it to biological evolution, drawing conclusions that over time, advancements become more rapid, as we use tools from previous generations to progress to the next. This has allowed video games to advance at a very high rate. As we step into the world of video games to discover the evolution and the role of narrative in them, we must take a moment to explore the evolution of video games and look at the history of the medium.

As detailed in The Complete History of Video Games [7], the first interactive video game was created in 1962 by MIT student Steve Russell. It was a space combat game aptly called Spacewar [20], where two player-controlled spaceships fought against each other around the gravity well of a star. This was the most basic of games by today’s standards, but it was revolutionary at the time, and paved the way for a lot of development in the field of computer science and programming. Though this game was developed openly by community members over the following years, it wasn’t until almost a decade later in 1971, that it became the first arcade machine (released as Computer Space [21] by Nutting Associates). A year later Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell, who headed the development of Computer Space , and Pong [22] was created by Atari engineer Al Alcorn.

            The first home videogame system was the Odyssey, created by Magnavox in 1972, which could be plugged into a television, and came with several games including Tennis [23] and Ski [24]. Three years later, Atari created a Pong unit for home use as well. In 1977, a series of LED-based handheld games were released by Mattel. From this point, the development of the industry speeds up rapidly, with the main companies like Nintendo, Atari, Sega, Namco, and others start developing games and systems at a higher rate. During this time arcades were doing extremely well, with Pacman [25] being released in 1980, which would go on to sell 300,000 units worldwide. 1986 saw the release of the Nintendo NES, the Sega Master System, and the Atari 7800, which were all very successful. During the 90s, PC gaming started to become prominent with games like Doom [26], and new consoles were introduced, including Sony’s PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. The late 90s brought a new trend in handheld games with popular titles like Pokémon [27]. From here, the games industry would only become more successful, and would develop into what we see today.

2.2.  Narrative in Video Games

In this section, I will begin to explore the first part of the essay title, which is the evolution of narrative in games. I will begin by looking at the different styles of narrative that are usually found in games, and describing each of them in turn. Then, using specific examples, I will explore two games from the 1980s and 90s, and look at their stories and the way in which they show them. Then using the same method, I will investigate two more modern games from this decade. After these discussions, conclusions should be made by comparison about the evolution of narrative in video games.

Here it may also be necessary to mention that not all games have, or focus on narrative. For example, sandbox games, simulation games, sports games and the like have no need for a story or even context behind them. Minecraft [28], as a specific example, provides no semblance of story, no reason as to why the player is there in the world, nor a plot to guide them through their experience. Instead the player is free to create their own story in the world, relying solely on their own imagination to create some form of plot, rather than any interaction with the game itself. Since the most important element of narrative is missing, it cannot be said that Minecraft has a narrative. These games are not the type this essay will be focusing on. For the rest of the paper, the games we look at will be ones that have an obvious narrative attached to them, or that are completely story-based.

2.2.1.  Types of Narratives

The first thing to note about narrative in games is that there it two parts: the structure, referring to the progression of the story, the different sections and subsections, and how they are connected and interconnected to form a plot, and the portrayal: how the game conveys or shows the story. There are three main types of narrative structures that are usually found in games, the first being linear. This is likely a familiar concept, as it is the structure found in other mediums such as literature and film, since these mediums can almost only use this model. The Google definition of linear is ‘progressing from one stage to another in a single series of steps’, and this is essentially the case. In a linear narrative, the story progresses from one event to another in a single straight line, with no deviation, backtracking, or skipping ahead. In games, linear narrative offers players no interaction with the story. They are not given choices that affect the story, and cannot alter it through gameplay, therefore being unable to dictate how the story plays out. The game can only be completed one way: the way that was written by the game designers.

The second type of narrative structure is referred to in game design as the string of pearls model. This is where the story is told in a linear fashion, but can be interrupted by player freedom at times. This is a structure unique to video games, as the interactivity required for the player freedom cannot be found in other mediums. This is typically seen in role-playing games, where the main story is linear - made up of separate sequences in the form of missions or quests. The player is given freedom through exploration and side quests that are given throughout the world. The third narrative structure is a fully branching story, where player choice plays a major role in how the plot and characters in the world develop, and how the game ends. This type of narrative has been attempted before video games, in the form of interactive books: this type of novel gives the reader choices at the end of each chapter, each choice sending the reader to a different chapter, giving them a chance to create their own story. This structure is usually used in fully story-based games.

There is a fourth model known as the amusement park model, which is very like the branching narrative except players access story by exploration rather than by completing missions. For example, a story branch will unlock by finding the NPC that triggers it, rather than unlocking it through previously completed content. This is a common structure for open world games. These different structures can be represented well through graphs, using nodes to represent story elements/sequences, and the connecting lines to show gameplay paths. A node with multiple children represents a choice, where each child is an option. Below are the three narrative structures as graphs:

There are also several different ways that narrative can be shown and conveyed to the player in a game. The first is through cutscenes, which is an exposition of the story in the form of a short cinematic. Cutscenes can combine dialogue and action in a way that keeps the player in action, and are used to convey plot development in games the same way film does. Text is a very traditional way to convey plot. A block of text used at each story event is the primary way a lot of older games give context to the player. Dialogue is another way that players can uncover story elements. Talking to NPCs in the game world can uncover plotlines and context for characters and events, as well as giving quests in games that use the amusement park model. The other, and perhaps the most interesting form of storytelling in games is storytelling through the environment and the game world. Letting the player interpret the story through objects, places, and people in the game world allows them to form their own ideas about the plot. This is the rarest form of storytelling in games, however it is prominent and successful in the game Dark Souls [29] and its subsequent titles. Most games use a combination of these narrative techniques to convey story elements to the player.

2.2.2.  Narrative in Early Games

            Nintendo’s Donkey Kong [30], is widely considered the first game that had a story that players could see unfold on the screen. It was released in 1981, and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, who had a very different idea about communicating with the player than the rest of the industry did at that time. According to an article about the history of Donkey Kong, ‘Miyamoto wanted to make sure the whole story, simple though it was, could be told on screen in a way that could be instantly grasped by players’ [8]. Donkey Kong is a 2D platformer, where the player character (an early rendition of Mario) must track down his pet ape who has escaped with the player’s girlfriend. The game uses cutscenes at the beginning of the game showing the ape escaping, and every time the player completes the level, upon which Donkey Kong grabs the girl and climbs to a higher level. Small animations and text serve to convey plot, such as the ‘help’ speech bubble that represents the damsel calling for aid.

Crash Bandicoot [31], released in 1996 by Sony Computer Entertainment, is a 3D platformer following the story of a marsupial as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of the antagonist Dr Neo Cortex. In this game, as with a lot of old-school titles, the story takes a backseat to the gameplay. It instead focuses on the platforming mechanics and level design, in order to make a fun experience for the user. In fact, there are only two expositions of plot: the opening cutscene, where Crash escapes from the Cortex’s castle, and the ending cutscene where Crash saves his girlfriend after the final boss fight with Cortex. The plot simply exists to give context to the player’s actions and to give the player a reason to continue playing through the game.

            What we can see from these games, is that they both employ a classic damsel and destress story. Both the nameless carpenter and Crash are out to rescue their significant other from the antagonist. In both games, the story also takes a secondary role to the gameplay, existing for the sole reason of giving context to the gameplay. The plot serves as motivation for the player, giving them a goal to achieve that makes them want to progress. They are also both linear stories, and that is an indirect result of the gameplay being linear. In both games, the player completes a series of levels sequentially, with no branching options for gameplay, and in turn, no player choices that lead to branching narrative.

2.2.3.  Narrative in Today’s Games

            Skyrim [32], Bethesda Softworks’ fifth instalment of the Elder Scrolls series, is well known in the gaming community, and was met with critical acclaim upon its release in 2011. It tells the story of the Dragonborn, a human with the blood and soul of a dragon. The player controls this Dragonborn, moving through the world of Skyrim to discover locations, people, quests, and ultimately defeat the evil dragon Alduin. The game employs a combination of the string of pearls and amusement park models. The main questline is linear, with player emergency not affecting the outcome of the story. However, the player can explore the world, and take part in other questlines. In all of these optional questlines, the player must make choices that affects the characters and the following quests they can take in regard to that questline. The open world nature of the game, and its non-linear gameplay allow this narrative structure to work.

            Life is Strange [33] is another critically acclaimed title, part of a new trend of episodic games, where content is released periodically in ‘chapters’. Developed by Dotnod Entertainment, it completely revolves around player choice by employing a full branching narrative, where the player’s decisions affect the outcome of the game and produce different endings. The player watches the action unfold before them from the perspective of the main character Max Caulfield, who discovers her ability to rewind time. The player makes choices through multiple choice actions and dialogue, and all these choices affect characters and events in the future. Unlike any of the previous games mentioned, this one is completely story-based, meaning that the gameplay has taken a backseat to the narrative. This is the type of game that tries to tell a story, where the developers have designed the game to give the player a narrative experience that cannot exist in other mediums such as literature or film.

            We can see that these two games are drastically different from the old-school games in the structure of their narrative. These games both use narrative structures that allow player interaction and player choices to have an impact on the outcome of the story. Story in these games is used as a foundation for the game world. It does not feel like a component that is tacked on to the rest of the game, but is instead the backbone of the entire structure of the game.

2.3.  The Evolution of Narrative

By comparing the games from 20-30 years ago, to the games from the current decade, we can look to draw conclusions about the evolution of narrative in video games. First, the structure of progression: we see that while both early games used a linear structure, the last two employ more branching narratives. Players are not able to interact with the story in early games; no matter how they play the game it will always be the same, because they are not given choices to make that will impact the flow of the game, or how the story plays out. Modern games encourage player interaction, by giving them choices that have real consequences, and allowing them to make their own story by the decisions they make.

The role of the narrative has also changed. In the early games, the story existed to provide context to the game, to give players a goal to achieve and a reason to play. It was almost tacked on to some games, and it would not have mattered if these stories had been completely different, or there at all from a gameplay perspective. Nowadays, developers make games with a story in mind, and the gameplay and the narrative become of equal importance in the game. In a blog post about the development of narrative, specifically in the developer Naughty Dog’s games [9], Chris Bowring writes that “In Uncharted the story was merely there to logically funnel you from one segment of gameplay to the next. However, in The Last of Us, the story and gameplay is one cohesive whole.” Bowring also describes how with games like The Last of Us [34], it shows the game industry maturing with its audience. In the early stages of the medium, games were considered toys for children, but now those who played games as a kid are grown up, and the industry is growing with them. The graphic content and the concepts the game explores attest to this.

The fact that games themselves are becoming more advanced and complex, both technologically and gameplay wise, allows game narratives to evolve in the same way. Early games were very restricted by computing power, to small 2D games that could not support the complexity that is needed for such narratives to exist. Modern open world games allow the amusement park model to exist, and the budgets of today’s games allow developers to invest in complex and detailed narratives, and worlds and gameplay that fully support this. Another factor is that the amount of indie games being produced has skyrocketed in recent years, giving way to more experimental games that are not afraid to try new storytelling techniques.

What it ultimately comes down to is the concept of embedded narratives vs emergent narratives. Older games typically have embedded narratives, which means “pre-generated narrative content that exists prior to a player’s interaction with the game” [10]. They have backstories, and “are often used to provide the fictional background for the game, motivation for actions in the game, and development of story arc.” This is what we see in Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong, whereas Skyrim and Life is Strange employ emergent narratives, which “arises from the player’s interaction with the game world, designed levels, [and] rule structure.” “Moment by moment play in the game creates this emergent narrative… depending on [the] user’s actions.” In conclusion, narrative in video games have evolved over time to become more complex and cohesive with the gameplay, moving from embedded to emergent. We have gone from stories being used to show games, to games being used to tell stories.

3.  Exploring Modern Narrative Games

This section of the paper aims to investigate the second part of the essay title: the role of narrative in modern games, by building upon what has already been covered in terms of narrative evolution. To begin, we will look at the latest trends in story-based games, and how interactivity impacts storytelling. Interactivity in games will be discussed, particularly how it can elicit emotion from the player and provide new narrative experiences with new structures and ways that it can be delivered to the player. Finally, I will look at the popularity of modern story-based games and the reasons it appeals to people. Using these points, conclusions can be made about the role of narrative in modern games.

3.1.  Interactive stories

Until Dawn [35], developed by Supermassive Games and released in August of 2015 for the PlayStation 4, ushered in a new age of video games. Until Dawn is a survival horror game, following a group of eight teenagers as they spend the weekend in a ski lodge. They are there to party, but soon realize that they are not the only people on the mountain, and are terrorized throughout the game by a group of cannibals possessed by evil spirits. The player interacts with the game mainly through quick time events, and decisions that are made by pressing one button or another. There are moments when they player can take control of the characters, but it mostly results in what is referred to as a ‘walking simulator’, where the player simply moves the character from one location to the next. The main mechanic in this game is the use of the ‘butterfly effect’, the notion that even the smallest of choices can have massive impacts on future events. Like Life is Strange, this results in is what can only be described as an interactive movie.

In fact, Until Dawn was a collaboration between Hollywood and the game industry. The two lead writers, Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick are both well-established figures in the realm of film, having each written multiple Hollywood films. The script spanned more than 10,000 pages, having to account for all narrative branches, all eight characters and the choices that the player makes. Reznick says that “what’s exciting about games, and specifically narrative-based games, is that you can take that approach from filmmaking, the curated narrative, and then explode it out so that the designers and writers of the game are curating a narrative environment for the player, but the player becomes a complicit collaborator” [11]. From this quote by the writer, we can see that he recognizes that Until Dawn is essentially an interactive movie, approached the same way as a film, the difference being that games allow every possibility of that story to be put into the final product.

Telltale Games have taken this concept, and built a franchise upon it. Founded from the remnants of LucasArts, the studio began to develop entirely story-based games, but they developed games in the same way that television does due to the nature of their games. Thus, Telltale created a new format of games. Episodic releases have been embraced by more and more games since the inception of it, such as Hitman [36] and as mentioned before, Life is Strange. These new trends in narrative games mark a branch from gaming; whether they can still be considered video games is a debate that has been raging online for the past several years. This is an important discussion, but not one that this essay will go into detail about. For this sake of this paper, Telltale Games products will be recognized as video games. Despite this, there is no denying that they are a different breed of game entirely. Interactive games have proven extremely popular, as will be discussed further on, and contribute to pushing storytelling in games and storytelling in general further.

3.2.  Interactivity and Storytelling

                In order to play a game, the player must interact with it, through a human device interface (HID), typically a controller or a mouse and keyboard. Gameplay can only work through player interaction, based on a set of rules provided by the game. However, interactivity impacts not just gameplay, but how the game narrative works and how it tells its story. Craig Lindley explains that “one must learn and then perform a gameplay gestalt in order to progress through the events of the game. To experience the game as a narrative also requires the creation of a narrative gestalt unifying the game experiences into a coherent narrative structure” [12]. From this we can see that for a narrative to exist in a game, there must be a way for the player to interact with it. So the question becomes, how does interactivity impact storytelling in video games?

            An obvious answer, one repeated time and time again, is that by interacting with the characters in the game, the player becomes part of the narrative. In games, players control the pacing of the gameplay, and the movements and actions of the main character, effectively becoming a co-author of the story. The interactivity allows stories to be told from the perspective of the player, rather than that of the main character. An experiment conducted by the Department of Journalism and Communication Research at Hanover University sought to understand players’ identification with video game characters [13]. They got half of their participants to play a game for a period of time, while the other half watched. What they found from participant questionnaires is that “people playing the game and thus having the possibility to act efficiently within the character role identify with the game protagonist to a much larger extent than people do who could not interact with the game.” On top of this, the researchers concluded that “the interactive use of the combat game ‘Battlefield 2’ thus allowed for more intense, ‘authentic’ vicarious or simulated experiences of ‘being’ a soldier in a modern combat scenario”.

            From this research, we can see that games allow players to identify more with the player character because of the interaction with the game. While in movies you can only watch the characters move around the world, games give the player agency, the ability to pilot these characters themselves. In the beginning of The Last of Us, the player takes the role of a young girl at the start of the zombie outbreak. After about 10 minutes of gameplay, the girl is killed. This is shown in a cinematic cut scene, so it is delivered in the same way as a movie, eliciting the same emotions as the scene would in a film. However, by having played as the girl prior to this, they are able to identify more with her and relate to her, making it harder to see her die. By interacting with the game and taking the role of a character the player becomes attached to that role, and so games can, in some ways, more emotion than other mediums.

            The fact that games are inherently an interactive medium opens up a world of possibilities for narrative, and supports a plethora of new storytelling structures and ways in which they are conveyed. A game that must be mentioned, as a specific case study, is Bloodborne [37], From Software’s PlayStation 4 exclusive, released in 2015. In the same realm as Dark Souls, this game uses environmental storytelling, a method exclusive to video games and interactive environments. In the game the player is a hunter, tasked with clearing the city of Yharnam of its people who have turned into beasts. What starts as a gothic horror quickly turns into a cosmic horror, as concepts akin to H.P. Lovecraft’s work arise concerning celestial beings called great ones, and nightmare planes of existence.

On the surface level, and what a player may notice on their first play through of the game, is that there does not appear to be a clear story. There are vague cut scenes that offer unclear exposition, which by themselves make no sense to the player. Players are given clues about where to go in the world to progress, but no clear reason why. There are three endings to the game, one which allows you to allows you to be executed by your mentor, after which you wake up in the city in the morning. Another ending allows you to fight your mentor and take his place, and the third ending sees the player become a great one themselves by defeating the celestial entity called the Moon Presence. At first glance, there is no clear meaning for each of these endings, as there doesn’t seem to be context behind any of them.

            But this is the intention, and indeed the beauty of the storytelling used in this game. There is a story to the world of Bloodborne, a complex narrative that involves history and backstory, branching questlines with player choices that impact the outcome, deep lore concerning the characters and locations in the world. There is a reason for everything in Bloodborne, but the player has to find it themselves. The game does not walk the player through the story in the way other games do. No piece of dialogue or cut scene will ever show the whole story, or explain exactly the situation. But these cut scenes and dialogue, along with items found throughout the game world, are clues, small pieces of a puzzle that must be discovered and put together to reveal the whole picture. There are hundreds of items in the game, ranging from weapons and armour to spells and potions. Each item has a unique description, which serves to uncover a part of the lore. Everything in the world is put there for a reason. A seemingly random item found on a dead body can reveal a clue. Only by interacting with the environment, the characters, and the items in the world, can the player seek to understand the story of Bloodborne.

            This form of storytelling is something that cannot be found in another medium. Bloodborne puts an emphasis on the gameplay by not forcing the narrative on players, allowing them to skip the story completely if they so choose. But if looked into closely enough, it can be seen that everything about the gameplay and the game world is there to support a convoluted narrative whose complexity rivals those of modern story-based games. It merges ludology with narratology in way that is seldom seen in other games. The fact that the player has a choice in experiencing the story or not, that if they want to know about the world and events and the context of the game they have to interact with the world and interpret those clues for themselves speaks volumes about the storytelling capability of video games. The game makes players feel smart if they manage to uncover the plot, and rewards them for their dedication to, and interaction with the story by providing them knowledge of the game and context for their actions. By looking at Bloodborne we can see that games can tell stories in different ways, made possible by the inherent interactivity that is required to play.

3.3.  Why Game Narrative Appeals

                From the previous section, we see that interactivity can provide new narrative experiences within gameplay. Modern games keep pushing strong stories that have real messages to show and a reason to show it. We could ask the question, then, have games become a better storytelling medium than film, television and books. But how would that question be answered? How would one compare one medium to another, or quantify each medium based on its ability to tell a story? Each, of course, have their own strengths and weaknesses, but discussing other mediums is not relevant to this paper. Instead, it may be better to ask why some people choose to play story-based games in order to experience narrative. What about the medium appeals to those hungry for story?

            It has to be said that story-based games are a relatively new concept in games, and though they are clearly on the rise, at the moment are far from being the most popular type of game. In a breakdown of 2016 video game sales in the US by Statista [14], story-based or anything similar was not recognized as a top-8 genre, instead being classed under ‘other’. Despite this, these types of games have some of the highest user ratings on Steam, with Undertale [38], Life is Strange, and The Walking Dead [39] all scoring above a 95% positive rating, and all ranking within the top 50 for positive reviews on Steam [15]. So while not extremely popular at the moment, they do have an overwhelmingly positive reception by players.

            As the investigations in the previous section prove, games are able to give players narrative experiences seldom found in other mediums. A reason that players may choose to play story-based games is because they want to try other narrative forms, such as a branching structure where their choices can make an impact on the game, and where they feel like they can dictate the story. Perhaps people feel like they cannot relate to the stories from other mediums as well as they can with games. They may be too impatient to read books, or sit through a two-hour movie. It may also be to do with the type of stories being told in games, which are generally aimed at a younger generation. People of this generation may feel that the stories being told are more relatable for them.

            A paper from the University of Amsterdam [16] detailing the appeal of interactive storytelling suggests that games takes concepts from other mediums and enhances the user’s experience of them. One such concept is curiosity. “When curiosity occurs, users first perceive a state of uncertainty, which comes along with increased physiological activation.” In games, the user does not just think about what will happen next, but “What will happen if I decide this way?” When playing games, “users may combine different mechanisms of curiosity, which should result in a high frequency and intensity of curiosity-based affective dynamics”. What this says, is that when playing games, there are more ways for players to experience curiosity. Other concepts that the paper discusses in much the same way are suspense, aesthetics, self-enhancement (or a sense of achievement for completing the game or solving the story), and task engagement, otherwise known as flow. This links back to games enhancing the emotion of players due to interaction. Overall, the interaction that players have with the game and its narrative is why people may prefer this medium over others.

3.4.  Role of Narrative in Modern Games

            To conclude this chapter, we look at the overall picture, and look briefly to answer the topic question: what is the role of narrative in modern story-based games? Perhaps the answer is as simple as ‘to tell stories’. Is this not the reason narratives exist in the first place: to communicate events and characters? But narrative is different in video games than it is in other mediums. If books, movies, television, and music seek to tell the stories of the artists behind them, then modern games tell the user’s story. They give the player choices, and a populated environment in which these choices make a difference, and give them control of where those choices take them. Games are being developed to tell stories, and to make the player feel emotions, and think about real-world issues, and so this is the role that narratives take in video games.

4.  The Future of Narrative Games

4.1.  what the future may hold.

                Throughout this paper, games narrative has been discussed thoroughly. We have looked at storytelling in early games, and in modern games, and now, we look forward. To think about the future of story-based games is an interesting topic. It is the same as looking at the future of any form of technology, in the sense that we can never really predict what may happen. The future may hold ideas and concepts that nobody has though of at this time, that may seem impossible now. Who, hundreds of years ago, could fathom the internet? We can speculate though, and we can make educated guesses into what the near future may hold for game narrative. The people most educated on the matter are the game writers themselves. Those who have been in the industry for a long time, seen the developments of the medium, and contributed their own work to the industry. B looking at current trends and asking the professionals, we can seek to answer the question of what the future may hold.

            Phil Spencer is the head of Xbox at Microsoft, and in an interview with The Guardian [14] he explained the current situation and the future of the Xbox, particularly about what they could offer that would attract more people to the Xbox brand. Among other things, he talked about subscription games, referencing Telltale Games and their brand of episodic games. He also mentioned how the subscription model of television promotes storytelling. “[Subscription services] might spur new story-based games coming to market because there’s a new business model to help support their monetization.” Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime allow so much content to be produced and consumed, and offers a platform on which users can access all this content by paying a subscription. Applying the same structure to a game streaming service would allow the same to happen with storytelling in games. More content could be produced and consumed, allowing more stories to be told and experienced very easily. A new business model such as this might improve the future of narrative for games.

            At a fan event in San Francisco in 2015, Some of the biggest and well-distinguished video game writers were interviewed about narrative in games, and in particular, what they think the future of video game narratives may entail. When asked where games and storytelling are going, Jenova Chen, creative director at Thatgamecompany, talked about story streaming. “Maybe in future games, everybody will have different versions of a story, and someone will have a really amazing version that we’ll all want to watch. That might come from dreams” [15]. This is an interesting concept, exploring the move from current branching narratives where players go from one pre-written chunk of story to the next, to narratives where players create even their own chunks, with no need for written scripts. Perhaps procedurally generated narratives could be the future of storytelling.

Chen also mentions even more interactivity between player and game. “Video games [are] still in the era of silent film. The equivalent of sound and words is the ability of AI to understand what we’re saying. Imagine you’re playing a game and not just pressing buttons, but actually talking to the game.” He went on to describe how much more emotional the interaction could be in a video game if you were able to make conversation yourself. From this we can gather that narrative-based games will almost definitely move towards a place where the player can truly interact with the game, rather than using a designed interface to communicate with the world and its characters. It is interesting to think about talking to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system inside of a game. If, in Life is Strange, instead of controlling Max and making decisions based on multiple choice, you as the player are Max, and you can make any decision you wanted when faced with a choice. The future of story games will seek to be more interactive, and look to break down the biggest barriers between the player and the game: the screen, and interface.

4.2.  Future Technology and Narrative

            On the topic of breaking down the screen and the interface, the future of narrative in games will certainly involve Virtual Reality (VR). VR, to give a simple definition, is a simulation of events that users can experience as if they were in the fictional world themselves, through headsets with two screens (one for each eye) and a stereo for sound. It is a very new medium, and is, like games were in the early stages, very restricted by technology. If a game or simulation in VR does not run at a certain frame rate, users can experience severe nausea, and most home computers do not have the processing power to support big, complex games in VR. This means that at the moment, VR games are restricted in terms of graphics and complexity. The large sum of money required to purchase an Oculus Rift or an HTC Vive means that it is not yet viable as a product for the general consumer. However, the medium open up a lot of possibilities for education, medicine, and of course, storytelling.

            In an attempt to research storytelling in VR, Disney Imagineering developed a high-fidelity virtual reality attraction based on the film Aladdin, where guests are able to pilot a flying carpet through a virtual environment. Their findings are detailed in a paper [16] that I will presently discuss. Through their efforts to create a simulation that could tell a story, the team found that VR was a much different medium, and there were a lot of challenges when designing the narrative experience. The fact that the camera is fully controlled by the player means that scenes have to be designed around this. Pacing a story can be difficult, because, like in video games, the player controls the pace of the gameplay. Sound is also tricky because it is typically used to carry emotional tone for a scene, however the developers no longer control the timing. Despite these difficulties though, they managed to produce an experience that captured the imaginations of those who tested it. They concluded the research with a few main points, two of which were that “the illusion is compelling enough that most guests accept being in a synthetically generated environment and focus on the environment, not the technology.” And that “VR appeals to everyone. Both genders and all ages had similar responses to [the] attraction.”

            What we can learn from this experiment with VR, is that there is no doubt that it will become a standard medium of storytelling in the future. It has the ability to transport the player into another realm of existence entirely; a world to themselves, the ultimate form of escapism. This is the first step towards the future that Jenova Chen describes, and as VR keeps developing and improves as technology evolves it will become increasingly immersive for players. It will allow them to tell their own stories and take control of the narrative. This is certainly the future of storytelling in games.

5.  Conclusion

In this paper, we have sought to understand the evolution of games as a storytelling medium, as well as the role of narrative in modern games, and how it may change in the future. By looking at the narrative structures of old-school games from 20-30 years ago, and comparing them to the narratives of modern games, it can be recognized that games have gone from using a linear structure with embedded narrative, to branching structures with emergent narratives. Games now allow players to take control of the narrative, by giving them choices with meaningful consequences that affect the outcome of the story. Storytelling has matured, going from meaningless damsel in distress cases that serve to motivate the player, to being at the forefront of the game with real messages and important stories to tell.

We see modern trends in story-based games, where gameplay takes a backseat to branching narratives, as in Telltale games and Until Dawn. We find that interactivity enhances the ability for games to tell stories. From research about player character identification it can be seen how even in a linear narrative such as in The Last of Us, interaction with the game and character can elicit more emotions than other mediums, leaving a bigger impact on the player. And the cast study of Bloodborne shows the potential games have for different kinds of storytelling, and how they can be effective and rewarding for the audience. For these reasons, we see an increase in storytelling games, and that these games are being met with critical success. Being able to interact with a game is a strong argument for video games being a viable storytelling medium.

We have also looked in to the future of storytelling in games. We see that story-based games may become even more popular, as new business models provide platforms for content similar to TV streaming websites like Netflix. With VR, and a host of other experimental technologies on the rise, narratives in games are looking to become more immersive and interactive, giving the player full control by putting them into the game.

Could Aristotle, when creating the rules of narrative, have ever envisioned what would become of his work. That his theories and his work would be the foundation of mediums of storytelling that would not exist for thousands of years. Video games as a medium for storytelling have evolved so significantly in the last 30 years, that even those who incepted video games could not possibly have known how far we have come. And we, educated as we are in the field, cannot possibly imagine how far we have to go.

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“How Do We Play this Thing?”: The State of Historical Research on Videogames

Though previously overlooked by academia, scholars from a wide array of fields now consider videogames as a serious subject of inquiry. The emergence of game studies as a standalone discipline has led to the publication of high-quality work on the medium, yet the field of videogame history is still immature. Initial attempts to introduce critical historical analysis of videogames in a field dominated by journalistic accounts were themselves plagued by an overemphasis on videogame canons and on the United States and Japan. In effect, early writings by videogame historians resembled “great man” theory, something one could qualify as “great game” theory. Over the last decade, this situation has started to be redressed and there are now growing efforts to produce solid historical scholarship on videogames. Still, game scholars and game historians need to collaborate, engage in conversation, and develop and adapt proper methods to conduct historical research on videogames in order to write relevant histories of this relatively young medium.

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StudyMoose. (2016). The History of Video Games . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/the-history-of-video-games-essay [Accessed: 13-Sep-2024]

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107 Video Game Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Video games have become a popular form of entertainment for people of all ages. From action-packed shooters to immersive role-playing games, there is a video game out there for everyone. With such a wide variety of games to choose from, it can be overwhelming to decide on a topic for an essay about video games. To help you get started, here are 107 video game essay topic ideas and examples to inspire your writing:

• The impact of violent video games on children's behavior
• The evolution of video game graphics over the years
• The rise of esports and its influence on the gaming industry
• The benefits of playing video games for cognitive development
• The representation of gender and race in video games
• The history of virtual reality gaming
• The psychology of loot boxes in video games
• The role of music in enhancing the gaming experience
• The ethics of video game journalism
• The impact of video game addiction on mental health
• The cultural significance of video game franchises like Mario and Pokemon
• The future of cloud gaming and streaming services
• The role of storytelling in video games
• The influence of video games on popular culture
• The relationship between video games and education
• The impact of video game censorship on creative expression
• The portrayal of mental health issues in video games
• The role of social media in video game marketing
• The history of video game consoles
• The impact of online multiplayer games on social interaction
• The evolution of game mechanics in the survival horror genre
• The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in video games
• The influence of Japanese culture on video game aesthetics
• The role of nostalgia in the popularity of retro gaming
• The impact of microtransactions on player experience
• The relationship between video games and violence in society
• The role of artificial intelligence in game development
• The impact of video game streaming platforms like Twitch
• The representation of disability in video games
• The influence of game design on player engagement
• The evolution of mobile gaming
• The role of virtual economies in online multiplayer games
• The impact of video game sound design on immersion
• The portrayal of mental illness in video games
• The influence of Eastern philosophy on game narratives
• The role of user-generated content in game communities
• The impact of fan culture on video game development
• The representation of indigenous cultures in video games
• The influence of literature on game storytelling
• The role of game difficulty in player satisfaction
• The impact of video game piracy on the industry
• The portrayal of war in military shooter games
• The relationship between video games and sports
• The influence of board games on video game design
• The role of player choice in game narratives
• The impact of virtual reality on therapy and rehabilitation
• The representation of historical events in video games
• The influence of film on game aesthetics
• The role of gender stereotypes in video game marketing
• The impact of game mods on player creativity
• The portrayal of mental health professionals in video games
• The influence of tabletop role-playing games on video game mechanics
• The role of game mechanics in promoting teamwork and cooperation
• The impact of game development crunch on industry workers
• The representation of animals in video games
• The influence of science fiction on game narratives
• The role of player agency in game storytelling
• The impact of game difficulty on player motivation
• The portrayal of addiction in video games
• The influence of mythology on game aesthetics
• The role of puzzles in game design
• The impact of game reviews on player purchasing decisions
• The representation of mental illness in horror games
• The influence of architecture on game environments
• The role of game soundtracks in enhancing the player experience
• The impact of game tutorials on player learning
• The portrayal of robots and AI in video games
• The influence of fashion on character design in games
• The role of humor in game narratives
• The impact of game localization on cultural representation
• The representation of environmental issues in video games
• The influence of psychology on game design
• The role of game narratives in exploring complex themes
• The impact of game communities on player engagement
• The portrayal of mental health struggles in indie games
• The influence of mythology on game storytelling
• The role of player feedback in game development
• The impact of game accessibility on player inclusivity
• The representation of gender identity in video games
• The influence of surrealism on game aesthetics
• The role of morality systems in game narratives
• The impact of game tutorials on player retention
• The portrayal of mental health professionals in horror games
• The influence of psychology on game narratives
• The role of player choice in shaping game outcomes
• The impact of game aesthetics on player immersion
• The representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in video games
• The role of environmental storytelling in game design
• The impact of game streaming on player engagement
• The portrayal of mental illness in puzzle games
• The role of player feedback in shaping game development
• The impact of game aesthetics on player perception
• The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in horror games
• The influence of film noir on game narratives
• The role of environmental storytelling in shaping game worlds
• The impact of game tutorials on player skill progression
• The portrayal of mental illness in narrative-driven games
• The influence of science fiction on game aesthetics
• The role of player choice in determining game endings
• The impact of game aesthetics on player emotional response
• The representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in indie games
• The influence of literature on game design
• The role of environmental storytelling in immersive game worlds
• The impact of game streaming on player community building
• The portrayal of mental health struggles in interactive fiction games

Whether you are writing a research paper, a critical analysis, or a personal reflection on video games, these topics provide a diverse range of ideas to explore. From examining the psychological effects of gaming to analyzing the cultural significance of game narratives, there is no shortage of fascinating topics to delve into. So, pick a topic that interests you and start exploring the world of video games through the lens of your essay. Happy writing!

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The Cultural Impact of Video Games: A Systematic Review of the Literature

• November 2023
• Education Sciences 13(11)

• Universidad de Extremadura

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The cultural impact of video games: a systematic review of the literature.

1. Introduction

1.1. technology and culture, 1.2. from playful to cultural: playful culture, 1.3. video games and culture, 1.4. previous literature reviews and meta-analyses on culture and video games, 2. materials and methods, 3.1. rq1. what is the conceptual network extracted from the literature, and what are the topics of the articles according to the journal category in the databases, 3.2. rq2. what is the geographical distribution of publications, 3.3. rq3. what is the distribution of articles according to their position in the database, 3.4. rq4. what the methodological approaches and research methods are used in the selected studies, 3.5. rq5. what is the typology of the video games presented or analysed, 3.6. rq6. how are the video games introduced and how do they interact with the objects of study, 3.7. rq7. what technology associated with the video game is used, 3.8. rq8. what are the titles or video games used, 3.9. rq9. what is the cultural theme being studied and represented in the studies analysed, 3.10. rq10. from which dimension is the cultural approach carried out, 3.11. rq11. what results or conclusions do researchers obtain in relation to the culture-video game binomial, 3.12. rq12. is there a direct impact between video games and human culture, 4. conclusions and discussion, supplementary materials, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Cerezo-Pizarro, M.; Revuelta-Domínguez, F.-I.; Guerra-Antequera, J.; Melo-Sánchez, J. The Cultural Impact of Video Games: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Educ. Sci. 2023 , 13 , 1116. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13111116

Cerezo-Pizarro M, Revuelta-Domínguez F-I, Guerra-Antequera J, Melo-Sánchez J. The Cultural Impact of Video Games: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Education Sciences . 2023; 13(11):1116. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13111116

Cerezo-Pizarro, Mario, Francisco-Ignacio Revuelta-Domínguez, Jorge Guerra-Antequera, and Jairo Melo-Sánchez. 2023. "The Cultural Impact of Video Games: A Systematic Review of the Literature" Education Sciences 13, no. 11: 1116. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13111116

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How student-designed video games made me rethink how I teach history

Professor of History, The University of Texas at Austin

Disclosure statement

Adam Clulow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Imagine you’re a young samurai in Japan in 1701. You have to make a difficult choice between an impoverished life in exile, or the prospect of almost certain death while trying to avenge the death of your dishonored lord. Which do you choose?

“ Ako: A Tale of Loyalty ,” a video game built in 2020, takes players along a difficult journey through early modern Japan filled with decisions like this one. It’s become an essential component of my classes on Japanese history, but it wasn’t developed by a professional game studio. Instead, it was created by a team of four undergraduate history majors with no specialized training.

Designing a video game may seem like a strange assignment for a humanities classroom, but as a professor who teaches a range of courses in East Asian history I have found that such exercises provide an engaging learning experience for students while also generating new educational content that can be widely shared.

The gaming revolution

Nearly two-thirds of American adults play video games, and that figure rises steadily each year. Fueled by stay-at-home orders and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, global gaming sales rose to nearly US$180 billion in 2020.

Among university students, video games are utterly pervasive . When I ask my classes who consumes video game content, either as a player or via streaming services like Twitch , it’s rare that a single student’s hand is not raised.

Schools and colleges have rushed to respond to these trends. Programs like Gamestar Mechanic or Scratch help K-12 students learn basic coding skills, while many universities, including my own, have introduced game design majors to train the next generation of developers.

History professors, however, have been slower to embrace video games as teaching tools. Part of the problem is that the historical content contained within games is often, with some exceptions , repetitive and superficial.

While there are many games focused on Japanese history, for example, the majority reinforce the same tired image of the heroic warrior bound by the rigid code of “bushidō,” a code that scholars have shown had very little to do with the daily life or conduct of most samurai.

Designing humanities games

In 2020, I asked four undergraduate history majors to design a fully functional video game with a clear educational payoff built around a controversial episode in Japanese history.

I was motivated by two ideas. First, I wanted to move beyond a standard reliance on academic essays. While I still assign essays, many students find them fairly passive exercises which don’t stimulate deep engagement with a topic.

Second, I was convinced that university professors need to get into the business of producing games content. To be clear, we’re not going to design anything even close to what comes out of professional studios. But we can produce compelling games that are ready to be used both in colleges and – equally important – K-12 classrooms, where teachers are always looking for vetted scholarly content. A conventional academic essay is intended for just one person, the professor. But a video game produced by a group of committed undergraduates can be played by thousands of students at different institutions.

At first, I worried the task I had set was too big and the technological barriers too high. None of the four team members was enrolled in a video game design program or had specialized training. It quickly became clear that such fears were overblown.

The team decided to work on a visual novel game, a genre that originated in Japan and can best be described as interactive stories. The design process for such games is facilitated by programs such as Ren’Py , which streamline development.

Learning by design

The team’s first task was to design a believable central character. Successful games push players to emotionally invest in their characters and the choices they make. In the case of “Ako,” the design team created a young samurai named Kanpei Hashimoto who was grounded in the period but also easy to relate to as a young person struggling to find his way in a complex world.

From there, the team created branching storylines punctuated by clear decisions. In total, “Ako” has five possible outcomes depending on the choices a player makes. Numerous smaller decisions along the way open up additional ways to navigate the game.

The next step was dialogue. A typical academic essay is around 2,500 words, and students often complain about how difficult it is to fill the required pages. In contrast, the “Ako” team wrote over 30,000 words of dialogue. It required extensive research. What would a samurai family have eaten for breakfast? How much did it cost to buy a “kaimyō,” or posthumous Buddhist name, for a deceased parent? How long did it take to make the oiled paper umbrellas , called “wagasa,” that many poor samurai sold to survive?

Finally, the students developed historically accurate artwork. The game has four chapters with 30 background images and 13 characters. Making sure everything was consistent with this period in Japanese history was a huge undertaking that stretched both me and the students.

Ultimately, the team learned more about samurai life and early modern Japan than any group of students I had worked with across a single semester. They read a dizzying array of books and articles while working and reworking the overall design, dialogue and artwork. And they succeeded in developing a fully functional video game that has already been used in other classrooms across the country.

Most importantly, I believe their experience provides a template for how student-designed video games can transform the humanities classroom.

[ Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter .]

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