# History of Video Games **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 10, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683 "2012-06-10T03:57:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/1 "2012-06-10T03:57:59Z")
I thought this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HcMm6TJoYL0) was pretty good even if it ignores PC games. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/2 "2012-06-11T14:06:39Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I thought this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HcMm6TJoYL0) was pretty good even if it ignores PC games. Ehhhh. Even setting aside any complaints about the relative amount of time allocated to the current generation of games, far, FAR too little time was allocated to the Playstation/Playstation 2 era, which I would argue is far more historically significant than anything that has happened this generation. Plays more like a “here are a bunch of videogame clips arranged in loosely chronological order” than an actual history that would attempt to, I dunno, give proportional representation to each ‘era’ based on duration, or number of games, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/3 "2012-06-11T14:23:09Z")
Some of the inclusions are just nonsensical, and the omissions are incredibly obvious, even purely on the console side of things. Also, making a “history of video games” video without even mentioning the PC is like making a “history of the world” video and never mentioning Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/4 "2012-06-12T02:59:31Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Ehhhh. > > Even setting aside any complaints about the relative amount of time allocated to the current generation of games, far, FAR too little time was allocated to the Playstation/Playstation 2 era, which I would argue is far more historically significant than anything that has happened this generation. The most popular and culturally significant video game (yes, even more than playstation games. Yes, even more than that one) is currently taking 20 bucks a month from 11 million subscribers and has been for almost a decade. The only thing more historically significant than World of Warcraft is pong. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/5 "2012-06-12T16:22:37Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > The most popular and culturally significant video game (yes, even more than playstation games. Yes, even more than that one) is currently taking 20 bucks a month from 11 million subscribers and has been for almost a decade. The only thing more historically significant than World of Warcraft is pong. A) Since the video was confined to consoles/dedicated hardware (since some of it was arcade stuff) I was confining my comments to that. B) By the very virtue of being almost a decade old, World of Warcraft belongs FIRMLY in the PS2 “generation”. And sorry, the jump the 3D is way more significant than WoW, which, frankly, is an interative improvement that happened to make it big because it was polished. Which game, to you, is more important? The original Warcraft, or Starcraft? I’d argue for the former, and in doing so, argue against WoW actually being particularly significant. Ultima Online is historically significant. WoW? Eh. Making a lot of money doesn’t make you historically significant. If it did, Titanic would be the most significant movie of all time. So thank you for arguing outside the scope of the discussion and being… let’s call it overly generous, shall we? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/6 "2012-06-12T16:55:49Z")
It doesn’t feature [Knightlore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Lore), therefore it cannot be a representative history. ---
**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/7 "2012-06-13T13:14:24Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > The most popular and culturally significant video game (yes, even more than playstation games. Yes, even more than that one) is currently taking 20 bucks a month from 11 million subscribers and has been for almost a decade. The only thing more historically significant than World of Warcraft is pong. I would put far more historical importance on the _Ultima_ and _Wizardry_ franchises than any other RPG. Ultima (or rather it’s spiritual predecessor Akalabeth) created CRPGs, and the original trilogies of both franchises codified the basic game play elements of RPG’s in general. The NES ports of those games inspired _Dragons Quest_ which in turn basically started the Asian RPG, and the later _Ultima_ games codified the open world Western RPG. That’s not even mentioning _Ultima Online_ which codified and paved the way for later MMORPGs. Heck _WOW_ wouldn’t even exist without _Dune 2_ since _Warcraft_ was an early and incredibly successful _Dune 2_ imitator. _WOW_ is an example of a game taking standard mechanics and elements and executing them in an exceptional way, it’s certainly an important and influential game, especially in it’s genre, but to call it the most important game since _Pong_ is simply ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/8 "2012-06-13T13:22:15Z")
> [@Rubixcube](#): > > I would put far more historical importance on the _Ultima_ and _Wizardry_ franchises than any other RPG. Ultima (or rather it’s spiritual predecessor Akalabeth) created CRPGs, and the original trilogies of both franchises codified the basic game play elements of RPG’s in general. The NES ports of those games inspired _Dragons Quest_ which in turn basically started the Asian RPG, and the later _Ultima_ games codified the open world Western RPG. That’s not even mentioning _Ultima Online_ which codified and paved the way for later MMORPGs. Heck _WOW_ wouldn’t even exist without _Dune 2_ since _Warcraft_ was an early and incredibly successful _Dune 2_ imitator. _WOW_ is an example of a game taking standard mechanics and elements and executing them in an exceptional way, it’s certainly an important and influential game, especially in it’s genre, but to call it the most important game since _Pong_ is simply ignorant. Gotta agree with most of this, but need to give _EverQuest_ a shoutout. _EQ_ was top of the heap for a couple of years, but it was flawed (poor graphics, unbelievably complicated and way too difficult for the average person). _WoW_ dumbed it down, made it pretty and BAM! became the biggest game in the world. I give Blizzard a lot of credit for recognizing EQ’s strengths and weaknesses and figuring out how to amplify and minimize them for their own game, but _WoW_ is just the most successful game of our time, not the most groundbreaking or innovative or original. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/9 "2012-06-13T14:05:37Z")
The thing that makes EQ different and interesting was the fact that it was still in the “Ultima Online” tradition of trying to make an actual world, rather than a game. A lot of decisions about how the game would work were made not from the perspective of “What would be the most ‘fun’?” or even “How would players react if we did X?” but rather from a sort of “What makes the most sense in the context of the world?” perspective. Things like languages and faction levels that included “Kill on sight” pretty much haven’t been done that way since. And heck. Gearless corpse runs? Crazy. Unfortunately, this was also the game that first encountered a lot of the negative aspects of modern MMOs, and they really didn’t know how to react. Having a comparatively tiny team compared to WoW didn’t help them either. (I’d be very, very curious to see how much money was spent on development/infrastructure for EQ/WoW over time.) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/10 "2012-06-13T14:18:24Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > The thing that makes EQ different and interesting was the fact that it was still in the “Ultima Online” tradition of trying to make an actual world, rather than a game. A lot of decisions about how the game would work were made not from the perspective of “What would be the most ‘fun’?” or even “How would players react if we did X?” but rather from a sort of “What makes the most sense in the context of the world?” perspective. Things like languages and faction levels that included “Kill on sight” pretty much haven’t been done that way since. And heck. Gearless corpse runs? Crazy. Yep. Dead on. And the truth is, all the things that made EQ hard are now things that I miss about WoW. I played EQ on Rallos Zek, a PvP server without hard-coded teams. Players were free to kill whoever they wanted, regardless of race. It made the place feel like a real world by allowing us to make our own choices on who to befriend, who to hate, who to hang out with and what to do. WoW largely removed choices like that from the game, which made it easier for the masses, but makes the game suffer, IMO, in other ways. > [@Airk](#): > > Unfortunately, this was also the game that first encountered a lot of the negative aspects of modern MMOs, and they really didn’t know how to react. Having a comparatively tiny team compared to WoW didn’t help them either. (I’d be very, very curious to see how much money was spent on development/infrastructure for EQ/WoW over time.) I’d be interested in knowing that as well, but I suspect we already know the basic answer: Blizzard spent lots more money and time and man-hours on things than EQ ever did. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/11 "2012-06-13T17:14:31Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Yep. Dead on. And the truth is, all the things that made EQ hard are now things that I miss about WoW. The things you miss “about” WoW, or the things you miss “while playing” WoW? > [@](#): > > WoW largely removed choices like that from the game, which made it easier for the masses, but makes the game suffer, IMO, in other ways. Pretty much exactly this. I don’t really know what the answer is, because it’s obvious that, things like, say, the Three Faction system in Velius with its various killable WORLD SPAWNING boss mob type critters are never going to be done again and really aren’t especially good “game” decisions, but at the same time are such fascinating world decisions that they have some value in that for people who appreciate such things. I played EQ for like 8 years. I played WoW for less than 8 months. > [@](#): > > I’d be interested in knowing that as well, but I suspect we already know the basic answer: Blizzard spent lots more money and time and man-hours on things than EQ ever did. Yeah. It’s just a question of “how many orders of magnitude” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/12 "2012-06-13T17:32:56Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > The things you miss “about” WoW, or the things you miss “while playing” WoW? I miss them while playing WoW. I _liked_ how hard EQ was. I enjoyed the challenges EQ set forth. I mean, when you finally completed all the quests, errands, transactions and whatnot necessary to get your class’s epic weapon, you fucking DESERVED an epic weapon. The rewards pretty well matched the effort that you put into getting them. Making it to the level cap in and of itself was a challenge, what with losing xp every time you died. Exploring was scary and dangerous. Even finding a safe place to grind or farm was a time consuming, often painful task. WoW, in comparison, is like EQ with all the obstacles and difficult bits removed. Remember how hard it was to max out your trade skills in EQ? Even cooking was hard as hell to max out. In WoW, trade skills are so easy to max out that most people don’t even bother doing them as they level up, they just wait and do them in a day or 2 in Orgrimmar. And what I think is really disappointing is that because WoW is now the standard, the benchmark, etc., I don’t think we’ll see a game as difficult, challenging AND rewarding as EQ was for a long time. Heck, they even removed keys from WoW. Key quests were awesome, now they’re use a memory. To everyone else in this thread, sorry for the hijack. To **Airk** , thanks for a chance to reminisce and lament the passing of a good (but difficult) thing. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-video-games/624683/13 "2012-06-13T18:04:38Z")
The video didn’t do a single barrel roll as far as I could tell. Fail.