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1973-1983
I come to you as
an Atari child born into the Golden Age of Gaming, during which the Arcade
scene revolutionized the industry. Early home consoles such as the
Magnavox Odyssee, Atari 2600, and Apple II paved the way, but had remained
primitive while their coin operated larger cousins grew slowly from the mid
70's. The introduction of high resolution vector graphics, the use of color,
and the implementation of the microprocessor made this possible. Arcades filled
a niche missing for youth seeking amusement or challenge in a culture of
wandering hippies. The social aspect created a good atmosphere to divert youth
from the streets and crimes of boredom. Arcade machines were accepted
mainstream as good for business and permeated all facets of society appearing in
grocery stores, drug stores, doctor's offices and even in school recreation
centres. Dedicated arcade centres and chains appeared across the nation, and
pac-man displayed his mass appeal. Arcades provided safe isolated areas where
kids and teenagers could hang out and feed a reasonable amount of money back to
the industry, unsupervised for hours. It was not technology or the games
themselves which caused the plight of the Golden Age, it was simply public
fears resurfacing. Unfortunately, given time, the arcades lost their innocence
as family fun centres. Detractors began to point out the imminence of loitering
youth, implicating arcades as a gathering place or a gateway for vandalism and
drugs. Arcades began to shut down despite lack of evidence to support claims,
often cited as lacking proper permits. Some parents believed that arcades were
run by opportunists and scum of the earth that taught gambling to children,
encouraged aggressive behaviour, and led to criminal activity.
1983
The novelty was
great for a time, but the completionists were ready to move on and did not find
challenges fast enough to hold their interest. The casual players were not
interested in pumping quarters into games they did not have the skill to finish
or appreciate. Meanwhile, these older units became abandoned once they had been
defeated or their high scores could no longer be challenged, earning no further
returns to justify their existence. The arcade boom made a large amount of
money quickly. Locations outstripped their resources by purchasing too many
machines and identical units. The media, politicians, and health professionals
had already begun to latch on to the addictive or costly nature of the games,
stating they were for "amusement only". Some games were touted as
being morally corrupt or a complete waste of time, being compared to booze and
prostitution, in much the same way as arcade precursor pinball machines had
been following prohibition. The early 80's saw more homes consoles appear such
as the Intellivision, Commodore 64, and Coleco Vision, inspired by the success
of Arcades. The arcades died a slow painful death during the early 80's, before
being all but forgotten. Meanwhile, the viability of a home console market
crashed due to a flooded market of similar home consoles, unlicensed or
overfunded crap titles, competition from personal computers, inflation, loss of
publishing control, and high profile game failures, such as ET: The Extra
Terrestrial. Having produced way too many games that could not be returned to
companies or sold without personal loss caused widespread bankruptcy. Many
large console manufacturers and publishers did not survive the fallout. This
massive recession is sometimes referred to as the Atari shock. In 1983,
revenues were 3.2 billion, but by 1985 they had fallen to 100 million, a drop
of 97%.
1985-1990
I have owned or
played many consoles and games, prior to my beloved Playstation. It has been
over 20 years since I began collecting; that is, buying, playing, and keeping
my own games. What first began as a childhood fascination with the interactive
medium that allowed it’s user to control elements of a fantasy universe to
complete an objective, soon evolved into a deep appreciation for the learning
curve, strategy, challenge, and immersion of a player into the video game
designers world. After all, in it’s purest form, the game was not just an
expression of a designers vision, but also, as a form of escape into the
players own imagined world, for his imagined purpose. Such were the dreams
alive in the mind of a child, encouraged by fantasy board games, books, movies,
Saturday morning cartoons, and trips to the local arcade. My first
experiences with a videogames were playing Atari, Amiga, Coleco Vision and
Commodore 64. The arcade scene was barely alive and personal computers were
neither affordable, or viable platforms for arcade ports. There were no mascots
or epic storylines, just simple games that could be made or broken by their
concept and control scheme. Then, during mid 80's something magical
happened. A company called Nintendo, found success in the Western world,
releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of their
Japanese Famicom, or Family Computer, released a couple years earlier. The
Nintendo was marketed as an entertainment system and it's devices were given
toy names, to avoid the stigma that consoles were a passing fad. Nintendo also
provided quality titles to provide better returns and shelf lives for games by
promoting their publishers with a Nintendo seal of quality and limiting the
number of games they could put out each year. Nintendo took these games up
a level, bringing arcade quality games with higher production values to
livingrooms everywhere. I will never forget my first time playing Super
Mario, Megaman, or Battletoads. These games defined an era of twitch gaming,
expert timing, and extreme difficulty. I remember paying for $80 games and not
caring how many tries it took to be a level. The sense of accomplishment for
these struggles was the only trophy needed. Any other rewards and extra content
were hidden in the games for you to earn or uncover.
1987-2000
Once Nintendo
had restored order to the gamer realm, the founding fathers enjoyed a brief
period of peace on Mount Gamemore. Occasionally they battled amongst
themselves, but for the most part, they each enjoyed their own success by
accepting their differences. Each originator offering solid game mechanics that
held held a special place our hearts. Little did they know, they were puppets
in a matrix, each designed by an architect with ulterior motives.
The third
console generation was a period of recovery for home consoles, with the newcomers soon becoming mainstays in living rooms across the globe. Home gaming was here to stay, and to fill the void left by the death of the Arcade. The late 80's set the climate for a bloody battle between Nintendo and Sega. On the heels of Nintendo's success, Sega, a company who had been a huge player in the Arcade industry, released a similar product in the Sega Master System the following year. Although, technically superior, the Sega did not achieve the widespread success of Nintendo, mainly due to 3rd party licensing restrictions that Nintendo imposed on it's publishers, meaning that many arcade hits which appeared on Nintendo first, could not be relicensed. Sega fought back by releasing the Sega Genesis in 1989, a 16bit console, with double the power and blast processing, whilst renewing stronger operating support with 3rd part publishers. Around the same time, Sega ditched Alex Kidd, in favour of the edgier Sonic the Hedgehog, to go head to head with Mario. Sega began to bite into Nintendo's market share, and players began to jump camps.
The 90's
The next decade
was one wrought with competition, seeing the mainstays take on several key new comers
to the home console market; although the main battle for dominance occurred
between Nintendo and Sega. In response to the Sega Genesis, Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The fourth console generation became heated and
things got ugly. Smear campaigns appeared, such as one from Sega claiming,
"Sega does what Nintendon't". Nintendo responded by asking, "Why
did the Hedgehog cross the road?" Then stated, "To get to Super Mario
Land 2", whatever that means. Their rivalry helped fuel creativity in
the industry, creating diverse types of games and different ways to play them.
This golden era of gaming, is where many hardcore gamers hail from. These
dedicated gaming consoles revolutionized the industry. It was all about the
gameplay then, as consoles were not yet bonafied home entertainment units.
These "true gaming consoles" are where most collector's focus their
attention. Panasonic and Atari attempted to enter the fray, but never landed on
their feet. Sony, however, successfully established themselves prior to the
Nintendo 64 by offering a CD based storage medium with quality sound and a
massive game library containing many groundbreaking titles with cinematic
qualities and three dimensional gameplay. Unlike Sega, who after several
generations of consoles, still struggled to gain 3rd party developer support
and make good marketing decisions, Sega's console division ended prematurely
after the promising launch of their Dreamcast console to the new king of
consoles, the Playstation 2, which offered an affordable DVD standard and
backward compatibility to their massive Playstation catalogue. Nintendo
survived by reinventing itself, going back to it's roots with regard to
gameplay and by offering innovative motion capture technology. It was so
cutthroat that even Sega and Atari would not survive as manufacturers, but
solely as publishers of their own trademarks or franchises.
2000-Present
Post-Millenium,
in the wake of Atari and Sega's failure, Microsoft would seize the opportunity
to enter the fray in 2001, but not without Sony and Nintendo further staking
their claims. With widespread internet adoption, gaming exploded as the fifth
console generation went online for massively multiplayer experiences and online
transactions. Around this time, gamers began to feel that their wishes were
being taken into consideration. Companies began to create a newfound level of
customization and started accepted more feedback from players, supporting games
well after their launch, something previously only available to PC gamers.
Also, the ability to beta test, and pre-order games became possible. Games with
larger budgets and returns began to adopt hollywood level screenplays with
equivalent talent and storytelling, sparing no expense. Game companies began to
further distance themselves from eachother, offering different types of
experiences and hardware to interact with the games. Additionally, the consoles
themselves transformed into multiple entertainment devices, offering additional
features such as DVD or Blueray disc playback, browsing the web, meeting in a
virtual space or lobby with other gamers, or choosing from any number on
applications, similar to those offered on a smart television.
With so many
options as gamers we have it so good now, but somewhere we have we have gone
horribly wrong. There are many spoiled, uneducated brats, who do not respect eachother.
We all know who they are, the fanboys who refuse to see the both sides, the
trolls who defend exclusivity as though brand loyalty were a good thing. This
form of thinking is deeply rooted in the psyche of nostalgic gamers who
received subliminal messages and brainwashing during the 90's. The console wars of the previous decade forged strong allegiances between console companies, game developers, game publishers, and the end user creating a gamer bias, and genre block, rehashing similar products lacking innovation in hopes of similar profits and mass appeal. Having limited
choice with regard to the triple AAA major releases and console exclusives being produced, gamers received what they were given, accepting and supporting their beloved franchises. Such fanboy compliance and their related defence arguments have created a division, or a rift in the gaming
community, whereby, each player associated themselves with the perceived values
of their console company, who had attempted to make names for themselves
by alluding to the shortcomings of their competitors. These types of gamers are
easy targets for novelty gimmicks and early adopting that give the architects
control over the system, with our game heroes forever imprisoned and locked
into a war against terror, knowing not what they are fighting for or who they
are fighting against. The real war of this generation is amongst ourselves and
our unwillingness to accept or demand change. Doing so, prevents the medium
from evolving and our characters remain bound to the archetypes which maintain
strongholds on the players of their world. Flamewars perpetuate hate and
prevent sharing ideas. Gamer logic, is sometimes a little flawed. Such, ignorance does not help our cause. Unfortunately, with gaming culture comes a slightly altered world view, somewhat necessary to fully engage in the fantasy of our alternate world view. If we want the medium to evolve, we need to keep one foot grounded in reality.
If we can manage to stop fighting amongst ourselves, we may be able to justify gaming as a lifestyle choice. I am going to argue that the present self-righteous battle for respect, although age old, really began once video game consoles became mainstream. Around this time, acceptance improved, in part because they became standardized entertainment units capable of more than just games and really became a considered part of a normal and even sometimes, active lifestyle. Many more types of games were being developed for mature audiences with varied interests. No longer viewed simply as a toy simply for kids or something one should grow out of, video games sure have come a long way. Even grown adults with responsibilities and priorities now make time to play video games. Yet, the old adage remains, “why play something virtual when I should be busy living my own life?”. Perhaps the scary truth is that the world of a game can sometimes be more interesting than your own life, or serve as a pleasant distraction is too tough to swallow. No game is designed suggesting that playing it should replace living your life, although, it is good for business. “Live in your world, play in ours”, is Sony’s suggestively subtle slogan, which displays their awareness of this matter. The video game industry has more than bounced back, it has overtaken the motion picture industry as the highest grossing entertainment industry. However, it still has a long way to go in the eyes of the public and educators. Stereotypes still exist such as the notion of pale, friendless, base-ment dwelling troglodytes who sponge off parents and government as they paradoxically expand and decompose in the glare of their computer screens. The reality is, gamers now transcend all walks of life and notably include celebrities like Seth Rogan and Megan Fox, business leaders, military personnel and professional athletes. In fact, the US government now considers gamers athletes in their own right, and some are calling video games the sport of the future. In South Korea, probably the world's premiere video game culture, professional gamers make a healthy living and have achieved rock star status. There is an excellent article which references the challenges still faced by the video game industry, click here.
The Future of Gaming
As graphics have evolved, the games themselves leave less to our
interpretation but still, as an art form, contain a record of shifts in
culture, shifts in thinking, and means of expression. A virtually imagined
world, a genre to suit ones tastes, gameplay that is more intuitive and offers
greater depth of control. Such advancements are mind boggling to veterans of
the console wars who began bouncing pixels, with implications that go far
beyond the experience of the game. The Playstation era, brought these games
into the third dimension and put us in the driver’s seat.
Now, 15 years later, we are on the down of a new age. Artificial
intelligence is incredible. The information super highway has allowed games to
grow with updates and real time data. Console games have viable multiplayer
components online, as broadband internet is supported and widely adopted.
People have elaborate and affordable home theatre set-ups with surround sound,
4K ultra high definition televisions, 3D imaging, motion sensing, haptic
feedback, and virtual reality technologies. The games of the future will
implement these technologies to create hyper realism and immersion. The
applications of games will continue to grow. Mobile gaming has evolved to suit
modern lifestyles on the go. There are also far more casual gamers, due to the
low cost development and plethora of games developed for smart phones. People
have less time to sit and play and require more space to play these interactive
games. Video games have become mainstream and are now a part of pop-culture, no
longer commonly associated with a lack of ambition and priorities.
As games move
closer to actively simulating real life, we can be more easily fooled or
engrossed into accepting the universe presented in the game as real, especially
with input devices and peripherals that act as extensions of our bodies and our
senses. The effects of this altered reality remain to be seen. Cognitive
dissonance and suspension of disbelief may become more difficult. The mind may
be trained to think and react different in real world situations. This is a
scary and difficult area to navigate. Open world games with infinite scenarios
and branching paths create games with high replay value that are difficult to
put down. Games have arguably made movies better, and more addictive by using
the captivating narratives of movies in more immersive video game story telling
that creates wish fulfillment for the viewer who can influence how cinematic
games play out. Sometimes, video games can break the fourth wall and seem to be talking directly to the player or referring to events in the real world. Rather than serving to break the illusion of it's universe, if successful, the effect tends to make the game be taken more seriously and draw the player further in creating a heightened feeling of self-awareness and relevance, so long as the implications are consistent with the tone and the laws established within the game.
CREATIVE VISION VERSES CAPITALISM
With the power
to realize the vision of game designers now possible, a new war has emerged.
One where the designer or programmer with an idea and target audience must
answer to the industry leaders, developers and publishers, to produce something
marketable and profitable according to corporate agendas. Independent
developers looking to distinguish themselves are faced with a moral dilemma.
How much of my personal vision and objective should I compromise to make my
game a reality and to return enough exposure or income to make my time and
efforts worthwhile?" This problem even exists for developers within
triple A studios. Sometimes deadlines are too close or the cost is too high
that executives are unwilling to take the risk, wanting to recover their losses
before a polished product or a product that meets the designers vision, is
achieved. Broken games can be released, offering patches and updates months and
years down the road, that is, if a game is successful enough for the publisher
to continue supporting it. Even still, the more evil game studios sometimes
release portions of games (even though it is completed already), not as a way
to fund further developing the game and gaining supporters, but as a carrot to
keep people paying that are looking for the full experience. Once invested in a
game, these situations can be hard to avoid or predict both as a player, and as
a designer when not in full creative control. There is now an answer to
the no compromise mentality for Indy developers in the crowd idea funding site
known as Kickstarter. People in the community can donate for a product they
wish to see realized and can purchase shares or other incentives sometimes
offered by the developer to supporters. Sony has actually encouraged signing
Indy developers and providing them with an avenue to market their games of the
Playstation network. Sony also provided development kits to upstart developers
and opportunities for BETA testing. 
2010-Present
RETRO COMEBACK: COLLECTORS VS. RESELLERS
Gamers face a new war, not
against the industry leaders, but amongst the gaming community. There will
always be flame wars between console fanboys an PC elitists with deep pockets
who prefer their customizable rigs and cutting edge graphics. However, this
competition and division of camps is what drives the industry growth and
innovation. The real problem, and plague for collector's is the mutiny of
scalpers and buy-back chains. The bane of our existence who purchase games
as cheaply as possible with intentions of reselling them for large
gains. The internet made it possible to track resell data and validate the
scarcity and demand for titles, which only served to further inflate prices.
With this information public, the scalpers have risen to buy and resell games,
making them next to impossible to find or afford for the genuine collector who
wishes to preserve the game. As digital distribution has improved and
become more widely adopted, the market for retro game collecting has spiked.
Although many games given a re-release on virtual consoles lose value in their
real world counterparts as they become more widely available, this only serves
to increase the demand for the original hard copies, as the game is once again
seeing widespread exposure. Many games are not available digitally and demand
for them continues to grow. Pre-millenium cartridge based games are where most
of the collectors had focused, both due to nostalgia and because many games
were not mass produced and complete boxed copies were worth seeking. Many of
these games had been out of print for over a decade and not in circulation, due
to the lack of buyback chains or online resources for resellers. The
retro playstation games from the first and second generation had massive
libraries which made collecting a chore and so many games in circulation that
game values did not last and reduced significantly, even within the same
generation. Furthermore, due to the success and long life cycles of the
playstation consoles, they were slow to become collectible in their own right.
A further problem has arisen in the fact that disc based storage mediums and
glass cases are easily damaged, so preservation is difficult. This fact has
actually made good condition classics retain higher values. With digital
distribution common place, retro playstation titles of the previous decade have
finally become collectible, as boxed copies have become a thing of the past,
meaning the mass produced but no longer commercially available, or easy to find
in good condition with all the original packed goodies for collector's and fans,
is a thing of the past.
A GAMERS MANTRA
To say the
least, collecting games serves as a record of how games in their purest form,
concept and objective, serve as a higher level of entertainment and a safe form
of self-expression. Nostalgic motivations exist, as the lore of each innovative
game in of its day, left a lasting impression that is not lessened by the
relative evolution of the medium. There is a fascination beyond the suspension
of disbelief that is inherent as a child. The games literally took on a life of
their own, as they did it first and they did it different or better than any
had ever. That experience at that point in our technological timeline and in
our development, cannot be replicated. Hence, the case that these precious
memories should be preserved in their original form, and not as bastardized
ports, roms, or knockoffs, begs the question. If we cannot relive the original
experience, then why preserve them at all? Alas, videogames are a higher form
of interactive art, a record of human history, pop culture and an honest form
of vision and self-expression. Besides providing escapism and recreation, it
can be a serious and competitive endeavour as well. To each their own.
The only thing
against me is time. Yes, I have a huge backlog, I would play them all if
I could. I cling to childhood memories, I make less new ones as I am now more
concerned with living my own life, rather than a modern day virtual one. What
keeps me coming back is the ability of each unique game to take me to a place
that is different from the everyday, and keep my imagination alive. I am also a
competitive person, so I will always enjoy a game that challenges my reflexes,
memory, and ability to problem solve. It becomes even more gratifying when I am
pitted against a human opponent on an equal playing field and our abilities are
showcased. That I gave up a possibly career as a game designer or competitive
gamer, makes me wonder if it would still be as fun. At lease I am keeping the
spirit alive. That I can pick up a game that I haven’t played for 20 years and
still hand someone a beating, never gets old. I have experience and
perspective, I guess that makes me a mature gamer. I have grown up, but I will never
give it up. I sure as hell won’t sell them for nothing. Collecting these games
has been a chore, and the time that I don’t have is worth more. So don’t call
me a hoarder, I am a collector of a higher order. I preserve them, and I play
them too.
