COMM190:

Lesson 2: A History of Play and Videogames

Lesson 2 Overview (1 of 6)
Lesson 2 Overview

Lesson 2 Overview

 

Introduction

Bust of Homer
Figure 2.1. Bust of the Greek Poet Homer.

Imagine a videogame in which the hero moves from place to place, battling his way to defeat a series of ever more dangerous monsters (“bosses”), overcoming existential threats, fighting off magic users, resisting deadly seductions, skirting natural disasters, raising dead spirits and finally killing off his many rivals and saving the faithful woman who had been waiting for him. Sounds like a great game, right? Or did you recognize the story—the adventures of Ulysses (AKA Odysseus), as composed by the Greek poet Homer three thousand years ago? The technology of video games is new, but their elements are embedded in a long tradition of history, culture, art, and society. This lesson situates videogames within this context and explores how games have influenced and been influenced by various aspects of social and technological development.

In this lesson, we are going to start off with some very general background. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and video games did not just suddenly appear without any historical roots. They have very deep roots, not just in their immediate predecessors like television or film, but also in the shared human experience they portray. Games are not a constant but are instead constantly evolving. In this lesson, we will look at the concepts of games and play, as well as important figures and moments in video game history.

Objectives

Here are the objectives for this lesson:

Lesson Readings and Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.

 

Please direct technical questions to the IT Service Desk.

Video Games: New Form, Old Practices (2 of 6)
Video Games: New Form, Old Practices

Video Games: New Form, Old Practices

We have all had the experience of play. Many of our happiest memories are probably about playing. The ways we play have changed as we have gotten older, and the ways younger people play now have changed. The simple play of a young child gradually evolves into much more complex and organized activities. Play has had an important role in all our lives, but have you ever stopped to reflect on it? What is “play”? Why do we do it? Is it just something for children? How does society evaluate and value it?

Before we approach the topics of video games, virtual worlds, and interactive media, it is useful to briefly reflect on these questions. Doing so will help us better understand some important issues related to the treatment of video games and their audiences.

Play

What is “play”? It’s not easy to define. Scholars and philosophers have yet to agree on a single definition, but there are many common elements.

Are people (or animals) using play to build skills that they will need later in life? Think about children (or puppies, or lion cubs, or baby seals). Would you say they all “play”? Mammals, at least, seem to play. Do other life forms like fish or reptiles “play”? Many people (not animals) have tried to answer these questions. Some say it is for enjoyment, or to practice survival skills, or to burn off excess energy. Some say play provides good cognitive training for the unexpected, and for flexibility in behavior. Others say play contributes to social bonding, or to establish dominance in a social setting, or to pass on cultural norms.

Definitions for play generally emerge as a contrast to work: an instrumental activity in which the end purpose or aim does not reside within the activity itself (Suits, 1988). We work because it is a means to other ends. Play, however, is an intrinsically rewarding activity—also known as an autotelic activity—where the aim or reward is participation in the activity itself. We could therefore when a person plays, they are voluntarily engaging in an activity for the purpose of experiencing the activity.

Two Kinds of Play: Unstructured and Structured

Unstructured play is a freely chosen, intrinsically motivated, and personally directed form of play. Unstructured play has also been called primitive play (Prensky, 2001; Suits, 1988). Unstructured play exemplifies the notion that one of the key characteristics of play is freedom (Huizinga, 1950)—in that it is an activity not bound by external or real-life structures and rules. When engaging in unstructured play, we have the freedom to engage in the activity at our own discretion, by our own rules, with meanings and values prescribed solely by ourselves. It has long been recognized as an important aspect of childhood and child development. Unstructured play has been shown to increase children’s creativity, academic potential and social skills, stimulate the development of problem- solving skills and help children grow into happy, well-adjusted adults (Wenner, 2009).

Structured play is also freely chosen and intrinsically motivated but tends to be more rigid in regard to rules and action possibilities. People are mostly free to choose what games they want to play (Hide-and-Seek, Monopoly, Super Smash Bros). After that however, the rules of the game generally regulate how one plays the game and what he, she, or they are allowed to do within the boundaries of that game. Structured play (also known as sophisticated play; Prensky, 2001; Suits, 1988), introduces children to rules and order and teaches them how to navigate worlds dominated by systemic requirements. Video games (and most other forms of games) fall under the category of structured play because video gameplay is always bound by the restrictions set in place by the game’s programming or the technology on which the game is run and engaged with.

A kid in a sandbox may use the sand in any manner to engage in unstructured play. However, in a video game—even a perfect simulation of that sandbox is limited by what the game developer intended. Sandboxes at your local playgrounds are seldom designed with the intention for the sand to be eaten—and yet children have always found a way to ingest sand as part of their play. In a video game simulation of a sandbox, unless the action of eating sand was designed and implemented by the game’s developers, that action would simply not be possible.

Keep in mind that the importance of play is not limited to children. Although often perceived as a frivolous and non-serious activity, adults at play often display a transfixed seriousness and entranced absorption while engaged in it, and playing continues to have effects on our thoughts, emotions, and behavior—as we will discuss in Unit 3.

Games (3 of 6)
Games

Games

A common definition of the concept “game” is that it is a type of play, structured with rules, and involving goals, chance, and competition. According to the “magic circle” theory, a game should have no impact on reality (Epstein, 2008).

The French sociologist Roger Caillois, a student of Huizinga and author of the 1961 book Man, Play, and Games, argues that we can understand the complexity of structured play forms best by classifying games into four types (p. 12):

There are few games that are purely one form or another; most games—including video games—display some combination of two or more of these elements. He also noted that games are subject to changing cultural and social pressures, and hence that rules for individual games can change over time. We still see this happening in modern video games, with new patches and updates released that continue to alter the way that certain games (e.g., League of Legends, Overwatch, Diablo, etc.) are played even years after their release. The apparent instability of play may come from this process of rule-forming and re-forming.

Most games feature goals, interaction, rules, boundaries, and some sort of a challenge. In addition, games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often some combination of both (Kramer, 2000). Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of physical exercise, and perform a variety of educational, situational, or psychological roles. While games have existed about as long as human civilization, videogames are a much more recent development in the history of games.

Key Moments in Videogame History (4 of 6)
Key Moments in Videogame History

Key Moments in Videogame History

The history of videogames is full of important individuals and events which contributed to the state of videogaming in modern society. While we will not have the time to discuss it in its entirety, let us explore an overview as well as a few of the influential figures and moments in videogame history.

Click each era to learn about videogame development in each era.

The Birth of Videogames (1940s–1960s)

  • World War 2 (1945). The first digital computers created for code breaking. After WW2, the computer became commercialized (albeit still being too expensive for the average consumer).
  • Bertie the Brain (1950) was a tic-tac-toe machine built to demonstrate developments in computer science.
  • William Higinbotham designs Tennis for Two in 1958. Higinbotham worked on the team that developed the first nuclear bomb.
  • Spacewar! (1962) showcased the improving graphical capacities of early computers like the PDP-1 minicomputer. The PDP-1 cost $120,000 or roughly a million after accounting for inflation. (Try SpaceWar! here)

The Rise of Videogame Arcades and Home Console Gaming(1970s)

  • Computer Space (1971) was created as an arcade videogame, drawing heavily from Spacewar!
  • The Magnavox Odyssey (1972) was launched as the first console for videogames at home. Likely inspired by the Odyssey’s Tennis game, Atari released the arcade game, Pong (1972).
  • Space Invaders (1978) was released by Japanese game development company, Taito, to great acclaim and financial success—grossing over $3.8 billion (around $13 billion today accounting for inflation).

The Globalization of Videogames (early 1980s)

  • Pac-Man (1980) was released for arcades, quickly becoming a chart-topping success in both the US as well as Japan. One of the earliest games to employ mechanics that were not associated with war or sports.
  • In 1980, Space Invaders was the first arcade game ported to a console system (Atari 2600). The revenue from Atari’s console port of Space Invaders allowed Atari to dominate the market for videogame consoles.
  • Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak were notable Atari employees during its heyday.
  • Oversaturation of the console market and the marked reduction in game quality resulted in the collapse of the American videogame market collapse in 1983.

The Nintendo and Sega Generation (1980s-1990s)

  • The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES, 1983) was released in Japan, with Nintendo implementing strict quality control measures to ensure the quality of third party games produced for their platforms.
  • Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985—with the first instance of side-scrolling gameplay allowing players to play seamlessly across multiple scenes.
  • The Sega Genesis was released in 1989 (1988 in Japan), beating out NES in its year of release.
  • Nintendo released the GameBoy in 1989—dominating the competition (the Atari Lynx & the Sega Game Gear) with its lower price despite having much poorer specifications.

The Arcade Revival and the Rise of Sony (early 1990s)

  • The highly successful release of Street Fighter 2 (1991) and growing popularity of competitive arcade fighting games leads to a resurgence in the popularity of arcade gaming.
  • Sony enters the market in 1994 with the Sony PlayStation. Sony focused on 3D graphics hardware and its support for PC based game development (prior console games were developed on often unwieldy stand-alone developer kits). The PlayStation was also priced significantly lower than the competition—the announcement for which perhaps goes down in history as one of the shortest game release presentations ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI
  • In 1996, Sega attempted to recapture market share with the release of the Saturn Model 2 for $199. Unfortunately, Sony simply lowered their PlayStation price to match it.

The Rise of the PC and the Next Generation of Consoles (late 1990s—2000s)

  • The PC based game development kit popularized by Sony resulted in many ports of popular PlayStation games to the PC—for example: Tomb Raider III (1998) and Final Fantasy VII (1997)
  • Many of the legacy PC franchises had their start in the late 1990s, such as: Age of Empires (1997), Fallout (1997), Diablo (1997), StarCraft (1998), Baldur’s Gate (1998), Half-Life (1998), EverQuest (1999), Unreal Tournament (1999).
  • This continued into the turn of the millennium with games like CounterStrike (2000) and The Sims (2000).
  • The Sony PlayStation 2 was released in 2000 and the Nintendo Game Cube and the Microsoft XBox were launched in 2001.
  • Access to Broadband internet access propels the online gaming scene forward and becomes a staple for many new franchises such as Call of Duty (2003) and World of Warcraft (2004).

The Birth of New Technologies (2010s-present)

  • The iPhone (2007) and the launch of the AppStore (2008) saw the beginnings on smartphone gaming with releases such as Angry Birds (2009)
  • New motion control technologies were popularized by the Nintendo Wii (2006) and other competitors like the Xbox Kinect (2010) and the PlayStation Move (2010)
  • Augmented reality and geospatial technologies become popularized by games like Pokémon Go (2016)
  • The Oculus Rift was launched in 2016, breaking ground in implementing virtual reality for videogames.

 

Important Figures in Videogaming History (5 of 6)
Important Figures in Videogaming History

Important Figures in Videogaming History

Click each name to learn about important figures in videogaming history.

Fiorella La Guardia

Important enough that he has an airport named after him, Fiorella La Guardia (1882-1947) served as the mayor of New York from 1934-1945. In 1942, Mayor La Guardia made a push to ban pinballs as part of his campaign to address problematic gambling in New York. This led to a citywide ban on pinball machines, with remaining contraband machines being altered to rebrand them as games of skill rather than games of chance. One of these alterations was the addition of the flippers that most nowadays would consider central to the game of pinball. Prior to 1947, the player’s only real interaction with the machine was to drop in money and launch the ball. The ball would then fall randomly down different paths—the outcome of which could and was used as something to bet on. With his effective takedown of pinball in its original form, La Guardia paved the way for a new version of pinball that distinguished games from gambling through the implementation of a new mechanic; in this one case at least.

Ralph Baer

While we often credit Nolan Bushnell as the father of videogames due to his founding of Atari in 1972 and his extensive contributions to the development of the early videogame arcade scene, Ralph Baer can be thought of as the father of home videogaming. In 1967, Baer began prototyping a method of interfacing with commercial televisions (which were becoming more and more affordable at the time). The technology that he created would go on to become the Magnavox Odyssey—the first home console (1972).
Please watch this video.

This Man Invented the World's First Video Game Console Transcript
No transcript available.

Shigeru Miyamoto

Miyamoto Shigeru is one of the undeniable greats among the pantheon of legendary videogame developers and designers. A lifelong developer of toys and games, Miyamoto created many of the character franchises—such as Donkey Kong (1981) and Mario (1981), the Legend of Zelda (1986), and many others that are still receiving updates and reboots to this day. While it is difficult to think of Nintendo without Miyamoto, since he began working at Nintendo in 1977 Miyamoto has never been its boss.

Please watch the following video from Vox.

How the inventor of Mario designs a game Transcript
No transcript available.

For more information, read this article by the New Yorker

The Korean Videogames Industry

Alongside the many individuals whose work intentionally and/or unintentionally advanced the technology and culture surrounding videogames, various interesting social, political, and economic factors have played important roles in the present state of the field. While South Korea has become widely recognized for its avid gaming culture (with around 20,000 gaming cafes around the country; Statista, 2022), widely popular MMORPGs (e.g., Black Desert Online; Maplestory; Tera), and renowned esports professionals (e.g., Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok; Lim “BoxeR” Yo-hwan; Cho “Maru” Sung-choo), this was not nearly the case in 1996.

Then everything changed when the 1997 International Monetary Fund financial crisis occurred. The 1997 financial crisis is generally accepted to be the worst economic recession in South Korea’s history (Jin, 2020). The recession led to two important factors: the South Korean government pouring money into the tech sector to boost the country’s economy; and a surge of penniless, depressed, and unemployed Koreans with a lot of time but little money on their hands. Fortunately, while they were not able to buy games of their own at the time, many of these people could still afford to enjoy videogames at internet cafes (known in South Korea as PC Bangs) where the hourly rates for computer use were less than US$1—significantly cheaper than other entertainment options (Jin, 2020). The government’s push to improve the South Korean tech center led to widespread availability of high-speed internet and funds for videogame startups. Coupled with the burgeoning esports and videogaming culture, South Korea quickly rose in prominence as a powerhouse not only for esports athletes but game developers as well.

Lesson 2 Wrap Up and Looking Ahead (6 of 6)
Lesson 2 Wrap Up and Looking Ahead

Lesson 2 Wrap Up and Looking Ahead

 

Summary

This lesson has introduced you to the basic historical, social and cultural background useful for understanding video games, the video game industry, and how it fits into, and relates to, the larger society and the historic flow of social development. Understanding the terms “play,” “games”, “story” and “leisure” is the foundation on which we will build future Lessons. And, as we prepare to look ahead, it is useful to have an initial understanding of two currently important phrases, “serious games” and “gamification.” As we will see in future classes, they are key components to many future developments in gaming and interactive media. Here is a brief summary of the lesson.

Check and Double Check

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.

Looking Ahead

In the next lesson, we will explore the range of processes, components, and structures involved in the videogame industry.

 

References

Abt, C. C. (1970). Serious games. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Aristotle. (1932). Aristotle in 23 Volumes (Vol. 23; W. H. Fyfe, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Arizona State University. (2012, September 6). Humanities tell our stories of what it means to be human. https://asunow.asu.edu/content/humanities-tell-our-stories-what-it-means-be-human

Averbakh, Y. (2012). A history of chess from Chaturanga to the present day. Milford, CT: Russell Enterprises.

Brown, T. (2008, November). Tales of creativity and play [Video file]. https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play

Caillois, R. (1961). Man, play, and games (M. Barash, Trans.). New York, NY: Free Press of Glencoe.

Chillag, A. (2017, November 2). Why adults should play, too. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/02/health/why-adults-should-play-too/index.html

Cordeiro, E., Leça Coelho, A., Rossetti, R. J. F., & Almeida, J. (2011). Human behavior under fire situations – Portuguese population. Proceedings, Fire and Evacuation Modeling Technical Conference. Baltimore, MD. http://repositorio.lnec.pt:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/1003947

Dartford Town Archive (n.d.). Feasts and Festivities in Medieval Dartford. Leisure and Entertainment. http://www.dartfordarchive.org.uk/medieval/leisure.shtml

Epstein, F. (2008, November 9). The Magic Circle - is not so helpful actually. The Creative Shed. https://www.creativeshed.com/2008/11/the-magic-circle-is-not-so-helpful-actually/

Felluga, D. F. (n.d.). General introduction to narratology. On Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. https://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/index.html

Flanagan, O. J. (1992). Consciousness reconsidered. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ginsburg, K. (2007). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, (119), 182–191.

Hassenzahl, M., & Laschke, M. (2014). Pleasurable troublemakers. In S. P. Walz & S. Deterding (Eds.), The gameful world: Approaches, issues, applications (pp. 167–196). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Huizinga, J. (1949). Homo ludens (J. Huizinga, Trans.). London: Routledge.

Kramer, W. (2000). What is a game? (J. Tummelson, Trans.). The Games Journal. http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatIsaGame.shtml

McLean, D. D., & Hurd, A. R. (2011). Early history of recreation and leisure. In Klaus' Recreation and Leisure in Modern Society (9th ed.; pp. 35–84). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Michael, D., & Chen, S. (2006). Serious games: Games that educate, train, and inform. Boston, MA: Thomson.

Middle Ages for Kids. (n.d.). Entertainment in the Middle Ages. http://www.lordsandladies.org/entertainment-middle-ages.htm

Narrative. (2019, April 21). In Wikipedia (Archive.org). https://web.archive.org/web/20190421045448/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative

OOHOOC. (2011, June 24). Pavlov’s humans: Gamification meets MacDonald’s digital billboard. Time to drool! https://web.archive.org/web/20160426012459/http://www.oohooc.com/?p=25

Play (activity). (2011, November 17). In Wikipedia (Archive.org). https://web.archive.org/web/20111117063426/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_(activity)

Sapora, A, (1975, May/June). Modern concepts of leisure. Illinois Parks & Recreation. https://web.archive.org/web/20170707221751/http://www.lib.niu.edu/1975/ip750524.html

Schiller, F. (1794). The æsthetic letters, essays, and the philosophical letters of Schiller (J. Weiss, Trans.). Boston, MA: Charles Little & James Brown.

Subramanian, S. (2019, March 26). What we learn from one of the world's oldest board games. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/what-we-learn-from-one-of-the-worlds-oldest-board-games

Van Doren, C. L. (1992). A history of knowledge: Past, present, and future. New York, NY: Random House.

Wenner, M. (2009, February/March). The serious need for play. Scientific American Mind, 20(1), 22–29. https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/24940063

Zivkovic, B. (2011, July 13). Telling science stories . . . wait, what’s a "story"? [Blog]. Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/httpblogsscientificamericancoma-blog-around-the-clock20110713telling-science-stories-wait-whats-a-story/

 


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