Games that changed the world

[dragonbird]

Games that changed the world

I caught the TV program on how video games changed the world a couple of days ago, and would be interested to see what others think of their list. It's about influence rather than how good the game was, by the way. Sort order is by date.

Pong - First video game for the masses
Space Invaders - Took video games out of arcades/bars into places like cafes where there were families
Pac-Man - First character, personality, mascot, in a game
Manic Miner - Indie games, anyone can create a game in their own basement
Elite - Sandbox games
Super Mario Bros - Consoles
Tetris - Availability to absolutely everyone
The Secret of Monkey Island - storytelling
Street Fighter II - Violence, start of the Moral Backlash
Doom - First big-selling FPS, playing with a group of friends
Night Trap - interactive film, extreme controversy, caused the rating system
Tomb Raider - female protagonist
PaRappa the Rapper - rhythm-action games, first "making music" game
StarCraft - gaming as a competitive/spectator sport
The Sims - life simulator, escaping into a virtual world
GTA III - morally blank freedom
Shadow of the Colossus - consequences of your actions, feeling guilty
World of Warcraft - massive multiplayer, game addiction
Wii Sports - gaming accessibility
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare - realist brutality
Braid - Indie Games revival
Angry Birds - Everybody can play games, anywhere, games as time-killer
Minecraft - Games as educational tools, creativity, social
The Last Of Us - Games as a drama, emotional engagement
Twitter - gamification. (OK, ignore this one if you want)

 

[Blothulfur]

The one with Charlie Brooker? Yeah I thought it was quite good and made some solid points, though I think Diablo should have been in there somewhere as the spawn of an entire genre. Also I don't see why the man limited himself to video games, Chess, Wargames practised by the ancient Athenians, Senet etcetera. That could have been a really interesting program, how our games have evolved and shaped society at large.

When I was young I ran about playing War with my mates, shooting them with a stick. After I grew up and served that compulsion went away entirely, but I wonder if Call of Duty and such are just the modern alternatives to that for modern kids? Charlie needs to drop the sarcasm as well, he's an intelligent and likable bloke when serious and I think he doesn't need the sneery wisecracking. His columns were entertaining when he used to write for PCZone back in the day, and thought provoking at the same time.

 

[Garrison72]

It seems like a list that completely ignores RPG's.

 

[dragonbird]

The one with Charlie Brooker? Yeah I thought it was quite good and made some solid points, though I think Diablo should have been in there somewhere as the spawn of an entire genre. Also I don't see why the man limited himself to video games, Chess, Wargames practised by the ancient Athenians, Senet etcetera. That could have been a really interesting program, how our games have evolved and shaped society at large.

When I was young I ran about playing War with my mates, shooting them with a stick. After I grew up and served that compulsion went away entirely, but I wonder if Call of Duty and such are just the modern alternatives to that for modern kids? Charlie needs to drop the sarcasm as well, he's an intelligent and likable bloke when serious and I think he doesn't need the sneery wisecracking. His columns were entertaining when he used to write for PCZone back in the day, and thought provoking at the same time.

Yup, the Charlie Brooker one, and yup, a full-blown documentary series on games generally would be interesting.

I liked the wisecracking, possibly because it was the first time I'd come across Charlie Brooker. I can see it could quickly get annoying if he's on the TV a lot though.

It seems like a list that completely ignores RPG's.

What would you consider their influence? He did mention RPG's a fair number of times, but none made his main list.

 

[GuyNwah]

Speaking as a techie, I would have included Maniac Mansion, for introducing a script language (SCUMM); it made the storytelling advances of Secret of Monkey Island possible.

 

[Garrison72]

Yup, the Charlie Brooker one, and yup, a full-blown documentary series on games generally would be interesting.

I liked the wisecracking, possibly because it was the first time I'd come across Charlie Brooker. I can see it could quickly get annoying if he's on the TV a lot though.
What would you consider their influence? He did mention RPG's a fair number of times, but none made his main list.

The influence of role playing games? That deserves its own thread.

 

[SystemShock7]

How they changed the world? I don't know about games changing the world. That reads more like a list of games' evolution.

 

[Blothulfur]

A little demonstration of Charlie being earnest, I far prefer him here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAftt3UnzoI

I think though that RPG's were so ubiquitous in the early days that none stands out, perhaps Adventure, the first MUD and Ultima Online can be counted as truly groundbreaking, but even them i'm not so sure of.

 

[dragonbird]

How they changed the world? I don't know about games changing the world. That reads more like a list of games' evolution.

Yup, the title was a bit excessive (Charlie Brooker said that too).

But I guess that the concept is that the evolution of video games has changed the habits and hobbies of millions of people, so that has changed the world. And then there's gamification, but I'm not 100% sure I accept all of the claims made about that, or that I'd consider it a direct result of video games.

@slimgrin - So start the thread. />
(And personally, while I think that many of the best games made are RPG's, I'm not sure that I'd put many of them up in a most influential list. But if the scope had included all games, not just video games, then D&D would definitely need to be in there)

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Actually, it is the entire history up to the last year (The Last of Us). Daggerfall and Morrowind should be included as well, for starting sandbox/open wold make-your-own-adventure experience. I don't think it is less significant than Lara Croft as a female protagonist.

 

[dragonbird]

Actually, it is the entire history up to the last year (The Last of Us). Daggerfall and Morrowind should be included as well, for starting sandbox/open wold make-your-own-adventure experience. I don't think it is less significant than Lara Croft as a female protagonist.

I also think that one of the TES games should have made the list. They brought up sandbox games with Elite, but that was a very early game. TES should have got in for sandbox or modding (or both).

 

[HeelPower]

As much as like as like the last of us, it certainly , absolutely didn't start emotional engagement to games.In fact I don't think the last of us changed anything.Its just extremely well done.

Maybe Silent Hill 2 should be given that label.As the first truly dark and mature drama in games.

Street Fighter 2 changed fighting games forever and almost influenced every FG design after it.Not violence or BS like that.Probably Mortal Kombat is the one associated with that.

Final Fantasy 6 might be the first large ensemble cast in games with depth and emotion.But I could be wrong about that.The opera sequence alone is truly revolutionary.

 

[dragonbird]

Street Fighter 2 changed fighting games forever and almost influenced every FG design after it.Not violence or BS like that.Probably Mortal Kombat is the one associated with that.

They discussed Mortal Kombat in the segment on Night Trap. I think that they picked Night Trap instead because it was a difference concept, whereas Mortal Kombat was a progression from Street Fighter 2. But yes, the message seemed to be that Street Fighter 2 started the muttering about violence, but it was games like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat that escalated it to the point of Senate Hearings.

On The Last of Us, I'm not totally convinced I got the message of why they were claiming it to be influential, so my summary may be inaccurate. They described it as "like an HBO Boxed Set", so maybe the message was supposed to be that it also represented a quantum leap of quality? Maybe someone else who saw the show could add to it.

But if anyone thinks a game should be removed from the list to make way for something else more influential, I think it should be The Last Of Us.

 

[Blothulfur]

On second thoughts i'd definitely stick the Ultima's down on that list for several reasons, first was the moralistic take that Garriot implemented, the living open world, the first person open world of Ultima Underworld that inspired the Elder Scrolls, the party mechanics and massive cast of Britannia, and also the extremely dark and mature content that the Ultima's championed.

Ultima 5's moral absolutism, 6's racism and 7's religious fundamentalism etcetera.

That and Ultima Online was the first real big success of the MMO revolution. Unfortunately a lot of these innovations have been abandoned, diminished and not followed up on.

Amazingly ambitious and before their time.

 

[Cs__sz__r]

I'd add Sid Meier's Civilisation series brought forth popularity for strategy games in general, and 4x strategy games. Being able to manage a countries economics, foreign policy, wars, and territorial expansion is amazing. Total War and Warcraft drove forth military strategies.

 

[FoggyFishburne]

Actually, it is the entire history up to the last year (The Last of Us). Daggerfall and Morrowind should be included as well, for starting sandbox/open wold make-your-own-adventure experience. I don't think it is less significant than Lara Croft as a female protagonist.

Haha, yeah I laughed at that part. The only notable fucking thing about Tomb Raider? It had a female protagonist. Well wooptie doo...

I'm not dissing the dude or his list. That entry is just so appalling because you don't need substance to succeed in life. Only tits. Huge, glorious, soft, bulging, great titties. Sad. I mean, Planescape Torment isn't on there but fucking Tomb Raider is? The typical gamer is clearly the bastion of fine taste and of intelligent disposition...

Ugh, makes me sad to say that I'm so passionate about games. When I'm surrounded by flocks of sheep on all sides. Ask a literary dude or a movie lady and they'll name some of the greatest works of art ever. Everything from Dostoevsky to Hitchcock. The gaming list of most influential games of all time includes a shitty ass game with a chick with big breasts...

A proud and happy day for me.

 

[dragonbird]

Haha, yeah I laughed at that part. The only notable fucking thing about Tomb Raider? It had a female protagonist. Well wooptie doo...

The reason it was included was because it brought a lot of women into gaming.

I'm not dissing the dude or his list. That entry is just so appalling because you don't need substance to succeed in life. Only tits. Huge, glorious, soft, bulging, great titties. Sad. I mean, Planescape Torment isn't on there but fucking Tomb Raider is? The typical gamer is clearly the bastion of fine taste and of intelligent disposition...

Again, the list wasn't meant to represent the best games, but the most-influential. Much as I like P:T, I don't think it was ever especially influential.

Ugh, makes me sad to say that I'm so passionate about games. When I'm surrounded by flocks of sheep on all sides. Ask a literary dude or a movie lady and they'll name some of the greatest works of art ever. Everything from Dostoevsky to Hitchcock. The gaming list of most influential games of all time includes a shitty ass game with a chick with big breasts...

A proud and happy day for me.

And it also includes Night Trap, which the presenters gave as an extremely bad game that glorified voyeurism, killing women, and general perverted creepiness. You may disagree with the list, but make sure you do it for the right reasons. Influential doesn't necessarily mean good.

 

[Thothistox]

Tomb Raider - female protagonist

Not that this matters, but Metroid had a female protagonist years earlier.

 

[dragonbird]

Not that this matters, but Metroid had a female protagonist years earlier.

Fair enough, but the argument was that Tomb Raider caused a significant number of women to become gamers. I don't think Metroid did that?

A fair number of the list items were "because it started [demographic] gaming"

 

[Garrison72]

But games like Zelda, Diablo, Castlevania, Mass Effect, they were all major cross-overs into pop culture. What evs. I actually agree with most of his picks.