Since the first arcade machines of seventies, computer games have become an ever growing cultural phenomenon .Indeed one could argue that the birth of modern gaming culture is steeped in human nature, the creation of the sacred space, a place of pure intent, a site of ritual and community, the arcade was all of these things to the throngs of young people who clamoured to part with their change for a few minutes of play. In a way the act of playing these games became a form of childhood pilgrimage, the house had to be scoured of change, all the sofa cushions checked, before a bike bore journey to the local arcade. Its culmination was a challenge, a game of skill and chance, the reward for your offering of penny’s, the act itself becoming the reward.
Such powerful attraction generates equally powerful demand. In order to meet the demands of a booming market, buffered by a cultural explosion, the gaming industry took the sacred space of gaming into the homes and living rooms of the western world throughout the course of the seventies and early eighties. This innovation impacted dramatically on the developing market for games, the shady teenager infested arcades and all of their gaudy neon and unsavoury reputations, were subsumed into the home, as a generation grew up for the first time with computer games. The sacred communal game space was overridden by domestic dynamics of the family, bringing gaming into the realm of the family.
Such powerful attraction generates equally powerful demand. In order to meet the demands of a booming market, buffered by a cultural explosion, the gaming industry took the sacred space of gaming into the homes and living rooms of the western world throughout the course of the seventies and early eighties. This innovation impacted dramatically on the developing market for games, the shady teenager infested arcades and all of their gaudy neon and unsavoury reputations, were subsumed into the home, as a generation grew up for the first time with computer games. The sacred communal game space was overridden by domestic dynamics of the family, bringing gaming into the realm of the family.
This substantial change in gaming culture can be measured in two very different developments. First as games insinuated themselves into the family home, they became more widespread and acceptable, becoming a corner stone of childhood experience for many. And secondly, the innovation of the home console shifted the market away from the pocket change of children and teenagers, and began to target increasingly complex gaming technologies at the affordability of home owners and parents. This subtly changed the dynamic of the gaming pilgrimage.
Money was still gathered, the journey still made, though less frequent. Though now there was physical property in return for your offering, tangible objects of play in exchange for tangible currency. These portable shrines of the gaming pilgrimage carried with them the sacred space of play. In exchange for money you brought the sacred space home with you, or brought the sacred space with you to share with others.
Though the argument has been made that the history of computer games is a history of technology, and by that token that technology informs cultural development. It is however in the human desire for social play that the antithesis of this statement becomes apparent. From this point of view it can be seen that human social and competitive nature was equally powerful in shaping the developing culture of gaming, the demand creating a market, and the market investing in technology to meet the demand.
Though the argument has been made that the history of computer games is a history of technology, and by that token that technology informs cultural development. It is however in the human desire for social play that the antithesis of this statement becomes apparent. From this point of view it can be seen that human social and competitive nature was equally powerful in shaping the developing culture of gaming, the demand creating a market, and the market investing in technology to meet the demand.
It is a faulty premise, built on the assumption of mutual exclusion of technology and culture, rather than mutual exclusion it is the synthesis of these two driving forces which would determine the evolution of computer games. The desire for social interaction in play and the advent of early internet age connectivity would inevitably lead to crude attempts to connect the play space together via dial up bulletin boards and M.U.D (multi user dungeon text) based adventures. Offline games such as the Sims series and Civilisation stressed social mechanics as the core of game play and squarely aimed them at what can be argued as the first generation of adult gamers, those who had spent their formative years on the arcades ritual.
Though the connectivity of modern online play was still a long way off, the games market relied heavily on the social draw of gaming culture from late eighties to early nineties. With many popular second and third instalments of gaming’s first franchises and consoles heavily tuned towards co-op play for two, four or sometimes even more players. While it is fair to say that the established culture of the time cried out for this functionality, it cannot be ignored that it also greatly increased the speed at which games began to saturate society, thus increasing market demand. This multiplayer boom added a layer of prestige to the owners of certain games within their social (gaming) group, giving the owner a key to the sacred play space through which they could travel with anyone. It is perhaps in this exclusivity that the games market found a potent lever with which to create revenue. By becoming objects of desire, symbols of status, and a source of envy, games became at once both cultural icon and highly valued commodity.
The desire for shared experience in gaming would turn a new chapter in the mid-nineties, networked computers became common place, private internet connections paved the way for the first complex online play spaces. Though the pilgrimage of the purchase was still being walked, the advent of online play via such games as Doom, Dune in the early nineties and their mid-nineties counterparts Quake and Star-craft, greatly changed the fundamental nature of the ritual of game-play. In effect this development expanded the sphere of play space beyond the boundaries of family and social grouping to include anyone anywhere, provided of course they had completed the same ritual of purchase.
It is worth mentioning at this point that the role of mobile phones as gaming devices had a vital part to play in further cementing gaming culture as a part of main stream culture. While it is true that the console and hand held systems of previous game generations brought gaming into the mainstream when they entered the house hold, it was only with the development of gaming on early mobile technologies that gaming truly achieved a symbiosis with modern culture.
The mobile phone, a device that changed the nature of human communication, used by all ages in every part of the developing world, opened up gaming to a whole new demographic. By piggy backing the utility of the mobile phone game companies and publishers had found both an abundant new market and medium. It is fitting then perhaps, that if our inclination to play is rooted in social need, that we can play games upon the device we use to communicate with.
The mobile phone, a device that changed the nature of human communication, used by all ages in every part of the developing world, opened up gaming to a whole new demographic. By piggy backing the utility of the mobile phone game companies and publishers had found both an abundant new market and medium. It is fitting then perhaps, that if our inclination to play is rooted in social need, that we can play games upon the device we use to communicate with.
By contrast to the pilgrimage of purchase, the exchange on physical currency for physical goods and experiences, the growth of online play would present an important dynamic that would inevitably shape established paradigm of the play space. Online gambling would explode out of the betting shops and casinos and into the privacy and seclusion of the home with a speed to rival the acceptance of conventional computer games.
Between 1996 and 1997 there was a huge jump from fifteen online casino websites to 200, and by 1998 earned 830million dollars world-wide. While games for adults were by no means a new phenomenon at this point, the nature in which the game was interacted with was revolutionary and by all evidence highly lucrative and pervasive. In place of the act of purchasing games permanently, pay to play became the model of this new innovation. Where once you paid cash to receive a real world piece of technology, here we see the beginnings of the micro-transaction. The fiat currency of the credit card and the first game Virtual Economies offered alternative new business practises to replace the pilgrimage. An a la carte pilgrimage if you will, opt in or out as much as you are willing to pay for, subverting the notion of play for the sake of play with gambling disguised as innocent fun.
Between 1996 and 1997 there was a huge jump from fifteen online casino websites to 200, and by 1998 earned 830million dollars world-wide. While games for adults were by no means a new phenomenon at this point, the nature in which the game was interacted with was revolutionary and by all evidence highly lucrative and pervasive. In place of the act of purchasing games permanently, pay to play became the model of this new innovation. Where once you paid cash to receive a real world piece of technology, here we see the beginnings of the micro-transaction. The fiat currency of the credit card and the first game Virtual Economies offered alternative new business practises to replace the pilgrimage. An a la carte pilgrimage if you will, opt in or out as much as you are willing to pay for, subverting the notion of play for the sake of play with gambling disguised as innocent fun.
The innovation of online Virtual Economies would soon leak into the mainstream of evolving online game media, with games such as E.V.E and World of War craft attempting to embrace this subversion by making game play out of in game economics. The inclusion on in game economics coupled with the ability to trade openly with fellow players, has lead the development of a whole subset of gaming culture to whom the economy is the game and the rest mere window dressing.
Subverting the idea of “pay to play” into time based subscriptions, has in a way attempted to maintain the pilgrimage of purchase, by maintaining the separation of real world financial needs and in game experience. The user is presented with a virtual “store” with which to trade with the company directly, thus removing the middle man, and making the source the destination of the pilgrimage. But does this change in the nature of our interaction with games? Does abstracting their monetary value and divorcing ourselves from physical possession of a thing undermine our value of it?
Subverting the idea of “pay to play” into time based subscriptions, has in a way attempted to maintain the pilgrimage of purchase, by maintaining the separation of real world financial needs and in game experience. The user is presented with a virtual “store” with which to trade with the company directly, thus removing the middle man, and making the source the destination of the pilgrimage. But does this change in the nature of our interaction with games? Does abstracting their monetary value and divorcing ourselves from physical possession of a thing undermine our value of it?
It could be argued that increased availability of games via E-stores and services such as X-box live, Steam, and Play-station Network has had a detrimental effect on some aspects of gaming culture. Saturation of content and the change of dynamic from physical to virtual interaction could be argued to have altered the balance between game content and profitability. The product becomes smaller while the price tag remains unchanged, whist the lack of physical interaction dilutes the value of the money spent. This is evidence of business practice impacting on the Ritual of Play, while these services have merged the console and online play to deliver the virtual marketplace into every home. As of this year the debate on whether next gen consoles will rely solely on the electronic market place.
As we approach the point where physical ownership of games becomes a thing of the past, has this changed the the value we place on our games? And if we value our games less, does this diminish the Ritual of play?