Blog A, a genesis.
Let’s not begin by picking apart Call of Duty. Let’s not get into Modern Warfare, or various other first person shooting sprees which largely involve being yelled at over headsets by faceless opponents. Let’s take a step back.
Let’s pause and discuss the root: how the internet has made gaming a social event, a sport if you will, as opposed to the golden age of mole-characterized teenagers staring into pixilated screens alone.
Before the advent of the Sega Dreamcast, video game consoles simply did not offer built-in modems.[http://www.thegameconsole.com/videogames96.htm] Though the evolution of video games (as we know them today) spring from our great ancestor Atari’s Pong [http://www.thocp.net/companies/atari/atari_company.htm], a multiplayer game, the ability to play multiplayer games with people across the globe via the internet is a fairly recent phenomena. In 2002 “Microsoft released the Xbox Live on-line gaming service, allowing subscribers to play on-line Xbox games with (or against) other subscribers all around the world and download new content for their games to the hard drive” [http://www.thegameconsole.com/videogames01.htm] Socializing while playing video games before these new technologies involved chips, mountain dew, and face to face interaction. The ability to instant message and voice chat over services like Xbox live and the Playstation network has attracted different types of demographics; no longer just the skinny guy that gets pushed against lockers will rush home to make quick contact with a well worn controller, but the basketball stars, the show choir girls, and the captains of the football team. Says one gamer, fifteen year old Marcus; “Playing online with my friends is why I play video games. I don’t like the hard games with puzzles. I just want to shoot my friends.” Allowing for online interaction allows for collaboration during game play, as well as player to player interaction –whereas in previous history video games allowed solely for player to game interaction. It may sell more games, but two interviewee’s I spoke with were not at all impressed with the innovations; “Internet gaming has opened up a new doorway for the world to connect with each other. Unfortunately in my experience this has only allowed me to be cursed at by foreign children and hear the idiotic ramblings of our nation’s youth” twenty-something Spence notes, seconded by near thirties Ivan who states ““Agreed – however great, fantastic even, it [the use of the internet to communicate in gaming] has been plagued by children (and sometimes grown men) with “loud-mouths” who never have to “see” the people that they play with/against. The idea and availability it offers to the world of games is great! But with is, I fear that the most “popular” games are only training tools for the next generation’s army!”
A controversial topic, if nothing else, that sparks debate between all types and ages of game enthusiasts. Hardly a single blog topic, I admit, but hopefully this covers a basic introduction.
And if not, well, I guess you can bite me.
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