Timeline of the History of Video Games from 2000-Present.
Created by Dtking on Aug 1, 2010
Last updated: 08/01/10 at 03:27 PM
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
This event marks the introduction of smartphone apps. These apps are video games that are played through the modern cellphone and come at a more affordable price than console gaming.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
Everyone has a cellphone in today's market. Smartphone apps target consumers using smartphones for everyday use but allow them to relax with a quick little game that costs them less than $10 through a virtual store. These games aren't incredibly deep or lengthy, but rather great to playing on a lunch break or in transit somewhere. They don't cost much and developers can put out thousands of them in the time it takes for a console developer to make 2 or 3 games. Smartphone gaming has become the new portable gaming platform and is bring the world of telecommunications closer to the world of gaming.
http://www.appolicious.com/games/articles/2039-how-will-a-new-iphone-impact-the-video-game-industry
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Nintendo tries to combat a pirating foe known as the R4 Revolution Cartridge. This cartridge is blank and fits into the slot on the Nintendo DS, it will play any DS ROM you download from the internet once placed into the DS. Nintendo, however, can't combat it because the cartridge itself isn't illegal, it only makes pirating their games easier.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
Piracy has always been a problem for any company who deals in digital products. The R4 made piracy available to everyone. Traditional means of piracy wasn't exactly easy to do and intimidated people with its required knowledge. The R4 makes piracy easy, within moments a person can have a brand new game in their DS with a few button clicks. The R4 has made the industry realize piracy is a big problem that is only going to get bigger unless they take action.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article2933237.ece
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Motion Controls allow gamers to interact with video games more physically than allowed by a standard controller. Players can feel more involved with what they are doing, and enjoy more activities like Basketball and other sports while playing video games.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
Motion Controls have brought around a revolutionary way to play video games. Players are no longer sitting on the couch mashing buttons, rather they are up and moving, feeling more involved with what they are doing. Not only have video games become more fun and rewarding, they're also moving into a healthier era.
http://www.giantbomb.com/motion-control/92-474/
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Grand Theft Auto 4's modding community developed a hack that allowed players to watch an explicit sex scene in the game. Rockstar denied adding the scene, even as a hidden item, but eventually gave in that they did write the code. However they claimed the modding community developed the skins from leftover skins contained on the CD's.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
This event changed the way developers looked at the modding community. Politicians and parents were outraged that anyone would allowed this to happen. GTA 4 for the PC was given an AO (Adults Only) rating due to the mod and developers were urged by the ESRB to start protecting their games against 3rd party modding. Since then, some developers have taken steps to prevent modding, while others have embraced the modding community.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1506530/20050727/story.jhtml
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Achievements are special recognition for doing something inside a video game. The new generation of gaming has lists of things you can do in games to get these achievements, which normally come with a numerical value. The more points you collect, the more you can show off.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
Many games in the industry have incorporated achievements into their systems. World of Warcraft has over 11000 points worth of achievements that players can unlock to fill their need to complete something. Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source have achievements in place to give players something to do while mindless killing their opponents. Achievements give replay value to games that may not have it, or to players who may get bored rather easily.
http://www.twgnews.com/20/articles/152-you-get-a-gold-star-achievements-in-gaming?start=1
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Valve releases a platform for PC gaming known as Steam. Steam is created to be a means of digital distribution for Valve and other partner companies. Steam is required to play the games sold on it, which reduces piracy and allows Valve to control its games.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
The introduction of Steam into the gaming world brought about a change in the way players could buy games. Steam offered players the ease of buying games from home or on the go and stored the records of the sales on their servers. If you lost the game on your end, you could redownload it to your computer. This has been emulated by every major home console and portable device today. The Playstation Network and Xbox Live's Store are prime examples of how Valve's digital distribution changed the gaming industry.
http://www.ggmonster.com/archives/monthly/2010/07/steam-future-of-digital-distribution/
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
This event marks a breakthrough in rendering lighting on objects. This allowed for more realistic lighting and shadowing on characters and objects in video games.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
This event made video games and computer generated objects more believable and realistic. It brought about higher quality graphics and more realistic worlds that we can immerse ourselves in while playing games.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/johnsny/papers/prt.pdf
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Time Control in video games surfaced around 2002 with the game Blinx: The Time Sweeper. It allowed players a chance to control the time within the game for a short period, this has been emulated in games such as the Prince of Persia series where time control is necessary to completing puzzles and levels in the game.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
This gave players a new way to interact with the games it was available in. In Prince of Persia, if you messed up a jump you could reverse time if you had enough resources to do so, instead of plummeting to your death and having to restart. This was a new special ability that drew attention to the games it was in and was emulated throughout the industry.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2007/id2007115_528484_page_3.htm
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
Grand Theft Auto 3 brought about the use of the Sandbox Mode. This means players are put in a world with objectives and missions, but have the choice to ignore these missions and do whatever they want inside the world. They have free control of their character to run around the world and are only limited by the perimeter of the map.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
Video Games had always had a goal in them. There was something the player had to do to get further into the game. Grand Theft Auto 3 changed this by letting players explore the world and do whatever they wished without having to complete the missions in the game to have fun. Companies have learned from this and games such as Mercenaries and Assassin's Creed follow the trend of the Sandbox Mode.
http://www.giantbomb.com/sandbox/92-453/
# Question 1: What were the details of the event?
This event brought about more realistic death animations in video games. By connecting the bones and joints of models in specific ways, programmers were able to make bodies that reacted to events in their environment better.
# Question 2: Why was the event important to the industry?
Rag-Doll Physics paved the way for a lot of the interactions you see in games today. Characters reacted to events like explosions and being hit with objects in a more realistic fashion than they did with preprogrammed death animations.
http://www.slideshare.net/wuzziwug/physics-in-video-games
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