GE 4102 Video Game: History, Industry, Society, and Creativity

Introduction to games research

1961 - The birth of video games on a DEC PDP-1 computer

Steve Russell, who developed Spacewar! at the MIT, with the DEC PDP-1 computer

Spacewar!

http://www.masswerk.at/spacewar/

The game was sold by an MIT graduate, Larry Rosenthal, to the company Cinematronicsto become an arcade game

“You can’t say that video games grew out of pinball, but you can assume that video games wouldn’t have happened without it. It’s like bicycles and automobiles. One industry leads to the other and then they exist side by side. But you had to have bicycles to one day have motor cards,” Steven Baxter

Pong

http://www.ponggame.org/

In 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari

Pong was one of the first game they had developed using transistor logic, which simply an exercise for their newly hired staff, Al Alcorn

After three months, they have a working prototype, which could be displayed on black and white TV

They installed it at a local bar, but it was broken after two weeks

“Al, this is the weirdest thing. When I opened the bar this morning, there were two or three people at the door waiting to get in. They walked in and played that machine. They didn’t buy anything. I’ve never seen anything like this before,” The bar manager to Al.

Video games are peer-driven products

Peer: a person of the same age, status, or ability as another specified person

Peer-driven: directed by someone of your own status (i.e., non-hierarchical)

At MIT, Spacewar! was developed out of the students’ own free time

At Atari, Pong was developed out of concepts of pinball, but was an accidental innovation

But developing games out of electrical devices and simple transistor logic is hard

Many early video games were simple games

Pac man, 1980, by Namco

Space Invaders, 1980, by Atari

Donkey Kong, 1981, by Nintendo

1983, Sega releases home console, SG-1000

Other manufacturers followed suit

SG-1000 by Sega

Family Computer by Nintendo, 1984

7800 by Atari, 1986

Legend of Zelda, Atari (1987) Final Fantasy, Square Soft (1987)

In parallel with rise of console gaming, PC gaming was also on the rise

Steve Job and Apple II Computer, 1979

Commodore 64, 1982

Ultima I, 1981, designed by Richard Garriott

Sentinel Worlds: Future Magic, 1989

Heroes of the Lance, 1988

The Hobbit, 1982

Before Richard Garriott developed Ultima, he was a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) player

In 1977, using a very primitive programming language, Teletype, he developed the first D&D game on a computer

Richard had been using teletype to perform calculation task, but his father challenged him to build a game. And if he could do so, he would pay for half of the cost of an Apple computer

Richard Garriott was also an avid D&D player

He created a continent, characters, and stories, which became Ultima—the starting of his gaming career

http://vimeo.com/61154938

Dungeons and Dragons (1973) is a fantasy table top role playing game imagined after JRR Tokkien’s Lord of the Rings, and designed by Gary Gygax

Equipment needs:

• Dice — the following different kinds of dice are available from TSR

• 1 pair 4-sided dice 1 pair 20-sided dice• 1 pair 8-sided dice 1 pair 12-sided dice• 4 to 20 pairs 6-sided dice• Chainmail miniature rules, latest edition (available from

your hobby dealer or• directly from TSR Hobbies, POB 756, Lake Geneva, Wi.

53147)• 1 3-Ring Notebook (referee and each player)• Graph Paper (6 lines per inch is best)• Sheet Protectors (heaviest possible)• 3-Ring Lined Paper• Drafting Equipment and Colored Pencils• Scratch Paper and Pencils• Imagination• 1 Patient Referee• Players

Each player will first choose a race:Man

Dwarf

Elf

Halfing

Others

Three main character classes:Fighters

Mage

Clerics

Each player can choose to be of any class within limit of her race

Each player will also have abilities randomized based on dice rolls

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

Each class, race, and ability has different uses

A game master will be in charge of storytelling and refereeing the game rules

Other players can be whoever you want to be!

Modeling and art

Lore and map making

Game mechanics

Storytelling

“None of you have found any sign of true clerics through all your travels. The bushes to your left rustle. Suddenly, dark shapes scurry from the woods on both sides of the road. Their yellowgreen skin pales against their heavy black armor; their twisted faces glare from the evening darkness. They crouch in a large circle about you, well beyond sword range. A stout pony struggles up onto the road, sagging beneath a flabby figure much the same, although larger, than those who surround you. The pony rider suddenly turns his head toward you and yells, .Onyx demands the blue crystal staff! Forfeit the staff now or die!.”

Dragons of Despair (1984) by Tracy Hickman

Designers of fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons first modeled an approach to game design that took into account a game’s relationship to outside elements—player attitudes, play styles, social reputations, social contexts, and so forth

A game does not “go” until a player makes a move in it—they lend themselves naturally to intents and purposes of their users

“It’s interesting, because games do seem to be this form—even when you startplaying them as a little kid—you understand that you can change the game,it’s in your power. But it’s not true with other media—I don’t think there’s thesame instinct when you see a film to say, ‘Oh, it’s not exactly right, I’d like tochange it’ or an animation or TV show—it’s just not like that. ... But with gamesyou do feel like you can,” Song, Starcraft II developer

“It’s a game that encouraged the player to become part of the creative process,” Justin Browder, StarCraft II Lead Developer on Dungeons and Dragons

Video games were at the cutting edge of computing

In the 80s, software interface design is marked by a progressive adoption of the concept of Direct Manipulation:

“As I talked with these enthusiasts and examined the systems they used, I began to develop a model of the features that produced such delight. The central ideas seemed to be visibility of the object of interest; rapid, reversible, incremental actions; and replacement of complex command language syntax by direct manipulation of the object of interest-hence the term "direct manipulation.“ ” Ben Schneiderman, 1983

Line-oriented editors vs. display editors

But computer games already applied direct manipulation since the beginning

Before Windows and other software adopt direct manipulation, early games had already done so

Pong, 1971 Donkey Kong, 1981

Direct manipulation in today’s touchscreen devices

Incidentally, computer games also allow hacking, or the player alteration of computer games

Decimal to Hexadecimal conversion

Modding—the practice of end user alteration of commercial hardware and software—can be traced back to at least to Spacewar!

Computer games are about players exercising their creative over machines

In 1992, players altering Wolfenstein 3-D (1992), a first person shooter game made by id Software, overwrote the graphics and sounds by editing the game files

id Software released Doom in 1993 with isolated media files and open source code for players to develop custom maps, images, sounds, and other utilities

By 1996, with the release of Quake, end user modifications had come to be known as “mods,” and modding was an accepted part of the gaming community

Hacking is often illegal alteration; modding is mostly legal alteration

Examples of PC Games Supporting User Modifications

World of Warcraft mods

Default User InterfaceModified UI – attention to the entire group

Addon—scripted programming files that specify user interface elements. Players download the files into the AddOns folder in the game directory where they are read when the game starts

WoW modders could alter WoW’s user interface but they could not change game terrain, character design, quests, or class character abilities

Modified UI – attention to personal stats

Modding

Community

Actor

Actor

Actor

Actor

Texts and Scripts

Recognition

Mod

s

End U

sers

Modding taking place in a community environment to enhance creativity

Electronic sports: organized set of leagues that “compete through networked games and related activities”

APM demonstration

Modding in esports

Ohana, by IronManSC, 22, California

Gold farming and virtual trading

Can we bring video games principles into learning?

Zoom Online Lecture

On February 3, the week after Lunar New Year, we will conduct an online class. This is a preparation for unexpected disruption in the semester.

Technical:• Install the Zoom software ASAP. Make sure it installed correctly;• Test your mic and camera setting in Zoom and make sure they work;• Before you join the class, find a quiet spot and strong Wi-Fi connectivity;• If your current accommodation does not provide a good enough Internet, let me know so we can

make alternative arrangement;• Zoom meeting code will be distributed in Week 2.

Zoom protocol:• Use real name when you sign on Zoom;• Turn on your video at all time. This is important to cultivate social presence and community. So if

you like to look good on camera, please dress up and tidy your surroundings 😉 ;• When you are not speaking, turn off your microphone. You may turn on anytime when you like to

speak.