submitted

to

Dr. Michael Robidoux

Recreation in the Leisure Age

prepared

by

Joel Tone

Student # 001047662

As of 1999, almost half the U.S. population used computers, and over half of those used their computers to play games.[1] In Australia, 53% of adults and 94% of 12-17 year olds have played a computer game in the last year.[2] With this widespread use and enjoyment of computer games, we need to know more about them in order to be able to react to them correctly. This paper examines the history of computer games as well as two negative and two positive aspects of computer games.

Computer games have grown and changed over time, developing from simple shoot-em-up games on $100,000 machines to sophisticated and nearly ubiquitous works of art. This paper does not give a complete history of computer games but rather highlights a few seminal games and some of the key developments in computer hardware that affected computer games.

The first true computer game was Spacewar, which was written in 1961.[3] Before Spacewar, there was a tic-tac-toe program, but there were no games that took advantage of the unique capabilities of computers.[4] In 1961, computers cost more than a nice house the PDP-1 computer that housed Spacewar was a cheap computer and it cost more than a nice house, $120,000 (1960 dollars).[5] Spacewar was a simple shooter game where two human players maneuvered spaceships around the screen trying to shoot each other with missiles. We still see Spacewars descendants in arcades everywhere. I was unable to find the first complaint about violence in computer games, but doubtless it also appeared around this time.

Jumping ahead thirteen years to 1974, Atari developed a game, "Home Pong", which allowed you to play tennis on your television. At first, Atari couldnt find anyone willing to retail it but the following year 150,000 units were sold through Sears.[6] This brought computer games into the home for the first time, and introduced the console computer whose sole purpose was game playing.

Another important development at this time was the game, "Colossal Cave Adventure."[7] In this computer game, the player guides a character through a system of caves, which were described by text on the computer screen. The character is controlled by typing simplified English phrases such as "GO LEFT", "USE ROPE", and "TALK DWARF". For the first time, players shaped a relatively sophisticated story with their actions.[8] What would the hero do next? Would he discover the lost treasures and escape or would he wander the caves forever? Adventure is the direct ancestor of todays computer role playing and adventure games, one of the most popular genres.

At the same time as Adventure was setting the foundation for role playing games another genre, strategy games, had its birth in "Empire." Strategy games date back to just before World War I, when H.G. Wells published books outlining rules for simple war games.[9] In order to simulate realistic warfare, rules for war games grew in scope and complexity so that a single players turn might take several hours by the time all the calculations were complete. Nevertheless war games continued to be popular, and people continued to develop them. One day in the early 1970s, Walter Bright was thinking about a war game he had written and abandoned as too unwieldy before beginning his studies at Caltech. He realized that "a computer could handle all the bookkeeping automatically, and if I had the computer be the opponent, there would always be a tireless player ready to play any time I was."[10] These two factors, the ability to handle complex rules effortlessly and the convenient access to an opponent, are what made computer games popular.

In 1977 Apple released the Apple II computer which popularized the general-purpose computer as a gaming platform.[11] There had been other general-purpose computers sold to the public, but they paled in comparison. For the remainder of this paper, I will restrict myself to a discussion of games on general-purpose computers as opposed to console games.

IBM unveiled the IBM PC in 1981 aiming it at the business market.[12] This machine was supposed to be strictly business, as opposed to Apples gaming friendly computers. It didnt take long for that to change and by 1984 the immensely popular "Kings Quest" was developed especially for the IBM PCjr.[13] IBM-compatible computers continued to improve in sound and graphics capabilities, encouraging more and more game developers to target IBM-compatibles as their primary platform.

Myst is the top selling computer game of all time.[14] It was greatly helped by propitious timing. Mysts gorgeous scenes used cutting-edge technology at a time when many people were buying their first computers. People bought a copy of Myst to show off what their new computer could do. As a game, Myst was simply an adventure much like "Colossal Cave Adventure" but with graphics and a mouse instead of text.

While Myst was breaking sales records another important development in computer gaming was making its impact on public awareness. Back in 1969 the United States Department of Defense commissioned a massive computer network with a high degree of redundancy. This network eventually merged with other to become the Internet. Until 1989 the Internet was restricted to universities, government, and government-approved institutions, but that year the Internet was opened to the public at large. In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee unveiled the protocols and programs that make up the World Wide Web, a hypertext overlay that makes the Internet far easier to use.[15] In 1995, 14% of the American population was online and by this year 54% are online regularly, including 74% of Americans under 30.[16][17] The mass adoption of the Internet made online gaming popular. As early as 1996, 11% of the online population used the Internet for computer games.[18]

Today a well-written computer game is a work of art. Gorgeous graphics approach motion picture quality, intricate story lines pull gamers in, sophisticated controls and calculations give the gamer the power to change the games world, the Internet allows people from all over the world to play together. Through the medium of computer games, gamers can experience life as a railroad tycoon at the turn of the century, as an elf on a quest to save the world, as a pilot, or as a super soldier fighting through a maze of enemies. To paraphrase S. I. Hayakawa, "It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can game, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish."

As we have seen, computer games have developed in parallel with computer hardware. The mainframes that ran Spacewar could only handle the simplest of graphics and sound was non-existent. Todays computer games deliver sound and graphics comparable to what we might see in a movie, as well as the ability to compete with others around the world via the Internet. Tomorrows gaming platform may well supply a virtual reality indistinguishable from the real world.

Do computer games promote violence? This question was brought to the forefront of peoples attention after the Columbine Massacre in 1999. The killers were known to have intense interest in the computer game "Doom" in which you control a soldier who runs through a massive maze-like building shooting everything you see, which pretty much corresponds to the killers actions in the massacre.[19] Was their penchant for violent computer games a factor in their real world violence or was it just a coincidence?

Psychological studies of the link between violence and computer games are inconclusive. [20][21] After an extensive four-year study, the Australian Government concluded, "none of the independent research published to date has demonstrated serious effects of aggressive game play on young peoples behavior." [22] The position of those who state that there is a definite link between computer games and violence appears to be based upon individual cases and spurious connections rather than upon carefully conducted studies. The most that can be said is that a marked preference for violent computer games may be a manifestation of pre-existent violent tendencies in an individual.

If computer games cannot be blamed for violent behavior, can they be blamed for anti-social behavior? As was noted earlier, one of Walter Brights primary motivations in developing "Empire" was so that he could play a war game by himself without having to find other people with whom to play.[23] Several science fiction stories have posited a future where people live in isolation, communicating with each other via computer on those rare occasions when they are forced into contact with other human beings.[24] Do computer games isolate us from one another?

Provenzo, author of Video Kids asserts that even when children are playing video games in a group, their attention is fixed entirely on the game, to the detriment of social interaction.[25] However, more recent surveys oppose the picture of gamers as individuals isolated from society.[26][27] "58.6% of those who most often use games say they play with their friends; 42% say they play with members of their families; 26.6% say they play with their spouse and 25% play with their parents."[28] So rather than promoting isolation, it would appear that computer games promote social interaction. With this in mind, I will continue my discussion of computer games and social interaction under Positive Aspects of Computer Games.

Given that computer games do not isolate gamers from social contact, do games actually promote social interaction? At a time when pundits are bemoaning the death of the family, a survey showing that 42% of regular computer gamers play with members of their family is a startling statistic. When you consider that 58.6% of these core gamers play computer games with friends, the overall trend appears to be one of social interaction around the computer.[29]

Another important factor is the interaction of computer gamers via the Internet. The Internet supplies opponents for multi-player games at any time of the day or night. Gamers also use message boards, news services, web pages, and Usenet to communicate with one another across the world, whether that communication is help in overcoming a particularly recalcitrant obstacle in a game or swapping of taunts.

Christ Crawfords book, The Art of Computer Game Design, states that the primary motivation in game playing is to learn.[30] In his column about the Columbine Massacre John Dvorak, a well-known computer columnist, stresses the educational nature of games. Whether its Doom teaching you how to do maximum damage in a "kill them all" situation, a racing game teaching you how to handle a car, or a skeet shooting game, skills can be transferred from games to real life situations.[31] Dvoraks examples were all personal, but other studies have confirmed that dramatic learning does occur through computer games. [32]

This paper has examined the development of computer games from 1961 to the present day. Computer games were considered as contributing factors to violence, social isolation, social interaction, and education. Overall, computer games provide a net benefit to society due to their ability to promote social interaction and skills acquisition.

[2] Williams, Daryl. "Computer Games and Australians Today Computer Games and Australians Today: Executive Summary." Office of Film and Literature Classification. Sydney. 1999.

[4] Graetz, J. M. "The origin of Spacewar" Creative Computing. August, 1981.

[9] Costikyan, Greg. "Introduction to Little Wars & Floor Games by H.G. Wells". Hogshead Publishing Ltd. 1995.

[19] Simpson, Kevin and Jason Blevins. "Did Harris preview massacre on 'Doom? " Denver Post. May 4, 1999.

[22] Williams, Daryl. "Computer Games and Australians Today Computer Games and Australians Today: Executive Summary." Office of Film and Literature Classification. Sydney. 1999.

[24] Asimov, Isaac. The Naked Sun. Bantam Spectra. 1991.

[25] Provenzo, Eugene F. Video Kids : Making Sense of Nintendo. Harvard University Press. 1991.

[27] Williams, Daryl. "Computer Games and Australians Today Computer Games and Australians Today: Executive Summary." Office of Film and Literature Classification. Sydney. 1999.

[30] Crawford, Chris. The Art of Computer Game Design. 1982.