Though arcades would remain popular for many years, their decline in the face of growing opposition from console sales was inevitable.
The steady spread of early pc/consoles such as the c64 and the Amiga, as well as the exponential growth of the emerging market lead to the establishment of Game shops in almost every large town. With many conventional retailers now stocking games and consoles along side traditional toys, the demand for gaming errata could only be met through dedicated vendors.
The steady spread of early pc/consoles such as the c64 and the Amiga, as well as the exponential growth of the emerging market lead to the establishment of Game shops in almost every large town. With many conventional retailers now stocking games and consoles along side traditional toys, the demand for gaming errata could only be met through dedicated vendors.
This model of human/computer interface would flourish in the burgeoning gamer culture. Niche market demand would create a loyal customer base through the supply of specialist equipment and artifacts of gamer culture. This interaction would remain purely physical until the advent of mobile phones, and their use as gaming devices.
Though the purchase of a phone, remained broadly simular to the purchase of a console, for the first time the purchase of game content was widely accessible to the public via online download. This is a bench mark in Human/computer interface, though the concept of downloading content was already in place for some pc products, this would be as big a step forward for games culture as the adoption of the home console. Mobile phone saturation coupled with the ease of simple click to purchase transaction would shape both the future of how game content is delivered and open up the ever growing market of mobile phone users to gaming as a casual pass time.
World of Warcraft has a long established model of subscription based play. The player maintains his account separately with the product developer, maintaining the separation of purchase and play. With this model the players interactions in-game and the players interaction with the financial cost of the game are kept separated. Here we see a clever use of HCI ( Human computer interface) to separate the players from the cost of play, while at the same time providing an online "store" for transaction. Though the success of their brand and this model Blizzard entertainment manged to tap into both gamer culture and the emulation of the traits of the traditional game store, providing outlets not only for purchase and play but also an out-let for gamer expression and "real world" ( or at least IRL- in real life) community. Here we see one of the finest examples of HCI expanding beyond gameplay or the facilitation of transaction and moving on into the realm of community and market building.
As we approach the eighth generation of gaming consoles, the second generation of online enabled consoles, we are seeing more and more a move to adopt the online store model of interaction. The success of services such as Xbox Live (left), Steam Store and Play-Station network has perhaps finally spelled the end of physical interaction in game purchase, community and support.
Though this development has been a long time in the making it remains to be see what implications this will have for Human / Computer interfaces and Games culture in general. Ease of access and a lower industry overhead may make this a paradigm changing devlopment.
Though this development has been a long time in the making it remains to be see what implications this will have for Human / Computer interfaces and Games culture in general. Ease of access and a lower industry overhead may make this a paradigm changing devlopment.