Help loopy make a documentary on those vidja games!

[loopy]

Hey all. I'm in the middle of writing a script for a documentary I have to do for college, and I'd really like some help. Its a 25-30 minute film on a subject of our choosing. Now since I work for a TV show about video games, I chose what I know.

Anyway... I thought about doing a video game retrospective. Highlighting various important events that have helped shaped gaming into what it is today. So, Playgrounders, I've come up with these vague sections and I need your help!

In the Beginning: Pong/Arcade Games
- The Atari Crash
8-bit Wars: NES/Atari/Sega battle
Meanwhile in PC Land: Parallel Development of PC games
Microsoft Enters the fray: Xbox Impact and console games up to now.
MMO Impact:
Effects on our culture:
- Moral Panic
Future Developments:

Now... Have I missed any major sections? What events would you put under each heading? The infamous ET game? Mortal Kombat driving kids to perform fatalities on each other? Please, discuss!

[Fri]

er, what is microsoft console impact?

Anyway, don't forget the great video games crash of 80s. Without that mega event, gaming won't be like right now. And The golden age of (arcade) video game, with pac man and such.

[Revanmal]

As painful as the memories are, the various legal battles and hysteria over violent games, especially those stemming from Wacko Jacko (a.k.a. Jack Thompson), have indeed had an impact on how videogames have developed, as well as social opinions on them.

[loopy]

er, what is microsoft console impact?

Pretty much Microsoft entering the console market. I'll pretty much be overviewing the Xbox/Ps2 and the x360/PS3/Wii generations in that section.

[Crispy Dave]

I think you missed Atari dieing.

[tyckspoon]

I don't know how much you can reasonably cover in only 30 minutes, but I would consider the following as important points/time periods to cover:

Nintendo's ascendancy, covering the NES, SNES, and especially the Gameboy (and it's permutations, if you care to- it's probably noteworthy that minor advances like the Pocket and Color were able to maintain market dominance over a number of technically superior offerings.)

The PlayStation/N64 era: Sony's ascendancy, the start of Nintendo marginalizing themselves for two system generations, the proof that optical discs would be the media of choice for future games, and the first well-known display of good use of 3d space in Mario 64. Also FF VII, if you want to make a note of when Japanese-styled RPGs really made their mark in the US market's consciousness.

The death of the Dreamcast- Sega officially gives up trying to be a player in hardware.

[Crispy Dave]

The death of the Dreamcast- Sega officially gives up trying to be a player in hardware.

it wouldbe good to point out that the dreamcast had features that were later used by consoles like internet gaming.

[Oregano]

it wouldbe good to point out that the dreamcast had features that were later used by consoles like internet gaming.

The Dreamcast was a joint prject between Sega and Microsoft(Or at least I think so) and the entire design is proto-xbox. Look at controllers.

You might want to mention the accelerated rate of PC growth in the later nineties(look at the original Unreal Tournament and Half Life) and how it's only marginally better than consoles now but can be a lot more expensive to run the newest, most advanced games.

[SAMAS]

er, what is microsoft console impact?

Anyway, don't forget the great video games crash of 80s. Without that mega event, gaming won't be like right now. And The golden age of (arcade) video game, with pac man and such.

Xbox Drop: And you thought the colonies were bad.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The Dreamcast was a joint prject between Sega and Microsoft(Or at least I think so) and the entire design is proto-xbox. Look at controllers.Huh? I'd never heard anything about this. [citation needed], please.


Xbox Drop: And you thought the colonies were bad.Stop quoting all the good motivational posters.


On the subject in general, Sony entering the market in the mid-90's had nearly as much of an impact as Microsoft did: another major electronics corporation muscling in on the "traditional gaming" companies and targeting market shares that Nintendon't.

[Oregano]

Huh? I'd never heard anything about this. [citation needed], please.


I'll have to check my Dreamcast but I'm sure it has Microsoft written on one of the corners, they also definately made the online thing.


EDIT: I appear to have been wrong. don't know where I got that idea from, probably the similarities between Dreamcast and Xbox.:smallconfused:

[busterswd]

-As mentioned above, the introduction of the Playstation was huge; new (successful) cd implementation, and the introduction of the 3rd modern gaming superpower.

-Timeline in a bit more detail:
8 bit generation console wars: NES vs. Sega
16 bit era: SNES, Genesis, Playstation 1 (near the end)
"First" generation consoles: N64, Sega Genesis accessories (32x, Sega CD) PS1, Neo Geo, etc. (From what I recall there were a ton of consoles around this time, but a lot of companies also died after this generation was over)
"Second" generation consoles: Gamecube, Dreamcast, PS II, XBox (the rise of Microsoft and the death of Sega)
Current generation consoles: PS III, XBox 360, Wii

-You could also mention the ESRB and censorship in general.

-Some noteable PC milestones:
Shareware, the rise of the FPS (Wolfenstein, Doom), the rise of the CD-ROM era (the design of games changed significantly at this point as developers struggled to stuff more content and ended up more often then not just putting lots of FMV in their games), the 3D graphics card wars, the advent of the internet and online multiplayer, the advent of widespread broadband and actual online gaming services which eventually transitioned to MMOG's, the increasingly severe measures taken against piracy (used to be codes provided with a game, transitioned to CD keys, then to write protection, then to DRM and online authentication).

[Fri]

Atari's crash didn't just affect atari. It affect video game at general. You see, back then people see video games as fad. Popular, maybe, but will be over soon. With atari's crash, people thought that the fad is over. People lose faith for video games, and I think it held back video game development and image, at least for console game.

Oh, and I still don't understand how dreamcast died. It was a great console. Sigh.

[loopy]

Atari's crash didn't just affect atari. It affect video game at general. You see, back then people see video games as fad. Popular, maybe, but will be over soon. With atari's crash, people thought that the fad is over. People lose faith for video games, and I think it held back video game development and image, at least for console game.

Oh, and I still don't understand how dreamcast died. It was a great console. Sigh.

Ahead of its time, maybe? I remember when it came out, most of Australia was still on 56k internet. Not really conducive to online gaming, at least on consoles anyway.

[loopy]

Ok guys, next part of the documentary I need help with. What songs do you believe were iconic of the different eras of Gaming?

I ask this, of course, for music scoring purposes. :smallbiggrin:

Here are the 'sections' I'm finding music for:
In the Beginning: Pong/Arcade Games
8-bit Wars: NES/Atari/Sega battle
Meanwhile in PC Land: Parallel Development of PC games
Playstation-ish Generation:
Microsoft Enters the fray: Xbox Impact and console games up to now.
MMO Impact:
Effects on our culture:
Future Developments:

[charl]

A little attention to the effects of the rise of multiplayer and Internet gaming would absolutely be appropriate. You have mention MMOs, but it began before that. Also, perhaps something about LAN parties, if only a short mention. It's an important part of the gaming culture after all.

EDIT: Music...
Start with arcade music, then some bit music, after that game music starts becoming pretty much the same as film soundtracks and such, so I'm at a loss what to do there. It would be nice with actual soundtracks from games, but those are copyrighted.

EDIT 2: I forgot to mention the impact of Internet piracy on the industry. As much as that topic can be a wallbanger, it's important.

[Oregano]

Without giving too much credit to games that I like when maybe they don't deserve it I can only think of one song.

The Halo music, badass, serene and eerie all at once and probably the only iconic music the Xbox has got.

[Inhuman Bot]

Oh, and I still don't understand how dreamcast died. It was a great console. Sigh.

price, too ahead of its time and lack of hype, or so I hear.

[AlterForm]

8-Bit Music: Super Mario Bros., World 1-1.

[Player_Zero]

Be sure to mention the impact on technology in general. Think of how gaming helped improve computer designs and helped people invent new dealies.

Also, that's plenty enough for a 30 minute presentation moo-vie I feel.

[Wraith]

In the Beginning: Pong/Arcade Games
- The Atari Crash
8-bit Wars: NES/Atari/Sega battle
Meanwhile in PC Land: Parallel Development of PC games
Microsoft Enters the fray: Xbox Impact and console games up to now.
MMO Impact:
Effects on our culture:
- Moral Panic
Future Developments:

Under MMO Impact and/or Effects on Cultue, you might consider a moment to speak how video gaming reached a point where it was possible to play "forever", unlike in previous consoles where the game would eventually "end", and the good or bad points about this.

A particular story that springs to mind would be people dying after forgetting to stop playing for nearly 90 hours (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/10/man_dies_playing_computer_games/).

All of a sudden, video games aren't just toys but a way of life - and death - to an adult generation, and how that effects the development of kids into people.
It's now acceptable for an adult to play video games, and as such it's not a stigma to be doing it for a long (or in certain circles, ALL of the) time. Some people even make a living from playing video games, not just in tournaments but as goldfarmers and so on.

[TFT]

On the subject of music... I would probably have music from a mario game, an rpg of some sort(Maybe a final fantasy?), some kind of shooter(Probably halo), and get a few other genres of game in there.

[RPGuru1331]

Under MMO Impact and/or Effects on Cultue, you might consider a moment to speak how video gaming reached a point where it was possible to play "forever", unlike in previous consoles where the game would eventually "end", and the good or bad points about this.

A particular story that springs to mind would be people dying after forgetting to stop playing for nearly 90 hours (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/10/man_dies_playing_computer_games/).

All of a sudden, video games aren't just toys but a way of life - and death - to an adult generation, and how that effects the development of kids into people.
It's now acceptable for an adult to play video games, and as such it's not a stigma to be doing it for a long (or in certain circles, ALL of the) time. Some people even make a living from playing video games, not just in tournaments but as goldfarmers and so on.

There's so much wrong with this post I really don't know where to begin, and am losing my will to really argue on the internet in a general sense. Suffice it to say, I hope, one story doesn't really track to a common trend, or DnD really would be Satan's Game.