Bouncing from Pong to Halo
This really dates me, but it was 1973 when I was first introduced to video games.
I had just moved into a new apartment in Longview, Texas, and I was invited to a neighbor’s for dinner. After burgers and beer, he showed me a contraption he had hooked up to his TV set that produced the image of a white bouncing blip across the black screen with a couple vertical dashes on each end that kept it moving.
The game was called Pong, it was the first game made by Atari, and it would open the door to the cultural phenomenon of video gaming.
AP writer Ron Harris uses the Atari Flashback 2 video game console playing the game Pong in San Francisco. The Atari Flashback 2 recreates the classic home video gaming experience of decades past. Instead of requiring cartridges like the original game, these games are programmed in. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Decades later
We’ve come a long way since then. Whether that means we’ve progressed or regressed depends on how much time you think you’ve wasted in front of a video monitor, lured into the marvelous world of repetition.
As we have transitioned from the television screen to the computer, videogames have followed us. They are firmly entrenched in the Internet universe. They have grown from the simple games of Pong and beyond to the sophisticated, online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Halo 3.
Each of those games boasts tens of thousands of players worldwide at any given time.
The Halo plot
Owned and published by Microsoft Studios, Halo is a trilogy of games that focuses on the interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant.
A far cry from ping pong.
The earlier arcade versions of video games, like Pong, Asteroids, and PacMan gave way to more sophisticated role-playing games online with early IBM and Apple machines in the mid-1980s. Games developed into a genre called multi-user dungeongs, or MUDs, which are video games with multi-player capabilities.
For communication theorists, this was when video games moved from the one-one-one mode into the realm of mass communication.
Advertising means change
A change occurred when advertisers began perceiving video games as a platform to reach large and lucrative audiences. The games became more creative and more complex, appealing especially to younger male audiences.
Tester Danny Hollefreund works on a Halo game at the comapny's headquarters in Kirkland, Wash. Microsoft Corp. has spun off Bungie Studios, creator of the blockbuster Halo video game triology, but still owns a minority stake in it. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
One genre of these online, advertising-supported games is called artificial life games. Players are put in control of a character in make-believe situations. These simulation games are structured around the social interaction of the individual characters controlled by the players.
A popular idea
It is a vicarious experience where the video game player lives the life of a fantasy character. It’s like the old TV series Fantasy Island, only this time the viewer actually steps into the plot on screen as one of the show’s characters.
The same idea that Woody Allen had in his film, The Purple Rose of Cairo. It was also the same concept in the film of Pleasantville. Real life folks moving into a fantasy world and taking on other roles.
The platform, Second Life, is used to support these role-playing games. In them, players select an avatar (alternative identity) and interact with other avatars in the community.
The immense popularity of games like Guitar Hero even allow us to become virtual rock stars.
Good demographics
Since they have amassed such a huge audience, it is only natural that video games have become a target for advertising. Video gamers are an attractive audience for advertisers. The Entertainment Software Association says players average 6.5 hours per week playing these games. And the players include a broad range of people, with about 40 percent earning $50,000 a year or more.
In fact, among entertainment industries, video games have leaped ahead of music in revenue rankings. A recent comparison of entertainment media shows the following relative sales:
- Books: $35.7 billion
- Movies: $32.5 billion (including DVD sales and rentals)
- Video games: $21.3 billion
- Music: $10.0 billion
Whether this fascination with video gaming – and especially the desire of many gamers to live their lives as avatars in fantasy communities – is a permanent or passing trend, remains to be seen. But for now, video games seem here to stay.
The social side of politics
As a writer and former working journalist, I often ponder the mantra of journalism today which is, “We no longer search for the news; the news finds us.”
In those eleven words you have the recipe for how significantly the news media is doing business today in finding out where the news consumers are hiding and beaming the news to them in those lairs.
More and more, those lairs are on the social media sites of Facebook and Twitter. Reporters and editors are hanging out there, too, and using their posts to tease stories linked back to the news site.
In this photo taken from CNN, a YouTube contributor asks a question during the Nov. 28,, 2007, Republican Debate in St. Petersburg, Fla. The debate format utilized a first-time partnership with CNN and YouTube in which contributors could post their video questions and have them selected for response by the presidential candidates. The debate was aired live on both media platforms. Next February, NBC will team with Facebook for a similar project, this one occurring before the actual debate. (AP Photo/CNN)
“…the news finds us”
But it is not just a matter of reporters and editors taking promos to the social media sites. In increasing numbers, the actual news events — at least those that can be scheduled — are moving to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as well.
In the last presidential election, one social media site, YouTube, hooked up with CNN in giving Tubers the chance to interact with the presidential candidates by uploading their video questions that were then addressed by the candidates and shown on the televised debate.
It was a breakthrough in the merger of new and old media, and this presidential season it is being used again, this time with a merger of Facebook and NBC.
Meet the Facebookers
David Gregory will host a special edition of Meet the Press on the Sunday prior to the Republican Primary in New Hampsire that will allow Facebook users to ask questions of the candidates. In addition to being seen on NBC and Facebook, the show will stream live on MSNBC.com and NECN.com.
All politics is social
In a Facebook video, Gregory spoke of the NBC/Facebook merger for the event. “While it’s been said that all politics is local, today it may be more accurate to say all politics is social,” he said.
And NBC News President Steve Capus noted, “What really sets this partnership apart is that we are able to combine the reach of NBC’s audiences and Facebook’s users to connect with engaged, informed communities.”
Facebook’s vice president of U.S. public policy, Joel Kaplan, said in a prepared statement that the NBC partnership illustrates how Facebook is enlarging its role in the presidential campaigns and the country’s democratic process.
Obama opened the door
Certainly the politicians have found a home on the social media. President Obama used it more during the last presidential campaign than any other candidates, and he has continued to use it. Just a few weeks ago, he held a special town hall forum on Twitter, interacting with the public by responding to their tweets.
The special edition of Meet the Press will not air until the start of the 2012 primary season, but that’s not stopping users from suggesting questions now, according to MSNBC writer Cory Bergman. Writing in his blog, “lost remote,” Bergman says NBC newsman Chuck Todd has already held a live roundtable on Facebook’s U.S. Politics page to start the interaction with users.
A Revolutionary Web
As I write this, it’s the 4th of July, and I’m more reminded of it than usual because I’m helping to host 20 college student leaders from Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia at my university. It’s the first time any of them have been in America, and they are having a blast on this fireworks-laden birthday for America.
Their view of America has come largely from television and the Internet, and they have learned a great deal about us from these media. Much more than we know about them, in fact, but that’s usually the story, no?
"Liberty!" is an interactive site about the American Revolution, the people and events that brought it about. It is a companion site to the PBS television series of the same name and even features a "Road to Revolution" game.
Living-history sites
So I started wondering what kinds of views of American history might be available online, and it led me to two interesting sites that I’ll describe in this post. Let’s start with the PBS site called, “Liberty! The American Revolution.”
Like many of the PBS sites, this one is a companion to the series of the same name that aired on the public broadcasting network. “Liberty!” provides a wealth of interactive information about the revolution and even offers a “Road to Revolution” interactive game for younger viewers.
Bringing it to life
When you click open the tab, “Chronicle of the Revolution,” you are greeted with individual multimedia packages focusing on the following moments: Boston, 1774; Philadelphia, 1776; Trenton, 1776; Saratoga, 1777; Yorktown, 1781, and Philadelphia, 1791.
In the first of these packages you find an original handbill from April, 1774 Boston entitled, “High Tea in Boston Harbor! Band of ‘Mohawks’ dumps 342 chests of Darjeeling tea off Griffin’s Wharf.” Clicking deeper, you can get video presentations of the tea party, and pop-ups of key figures in the protest movement including Benjamin Franklin.
Clicking open the “Road to Revolution” game, you can test your knowledge about the American Revolution (ahem, and the true location of the Concord Bridge, despite the fact Rep. Michelle Bachmann thinks it is in New Hampshire), and “navigate your way to independence.”
Hmmm…
First question from the test: “What did Great Britain create in 1773 that put you on the Road to Revolution?” Possible answers: (A) The Stamp Act, (B) the Intolerable Acts, or (C) The Benny Hill Show. Although one or two presidential candidates might pick C, the rest of us know better.
Second question: “What was the name of the local political group that organized this demonstration?” Possible answers: (A) Sons of the Pioneers, (B) Sons of Liberty, (C) Sons of the American Revolution. Since Roy Rogers was born a few years after the Revolution, you have good reason to doubt A.
The site also gives you audio/video previews of the PBS series of “Liberty,” “The Making of Liberty,” and “The Music of Liberty.”
Williamsburg comes alive
Another interactive look at 18th Century America is found at the Colonial Williamsburg site. The tagline on this site’s heading is, “That the future may learn from the past.” For those people unable to go to Williamsburg in person, this site does a pretty good job of letting you learn vicariously about early-day America.
18th Century America comes alive at Colonial Williamsburg, the the site of the same name offers several interactive exhbits and sight/sound packages of Young America.
The site’s “History” tab presents you with, “Life in the 18th Century: People, Places, and the Making of History.” It is here you can see photos of early-American craftsmen in period garb using hand tools to build such things as a baby grand piano, or you can learn the recipes for early-day dishes like the following for apple fritter:
“Pare some apples and cut them in thin slices, put them in a bowl, with a glass of brandy, some white wine, and quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, a little cinnamon finely powdered and the rind of a lemon grated: let them stand some time, turning them over frequently; beat two eggs very light, add one quarter a pound of flour, a tablespoonful of melted butter, and as much cold water as will make a thin batter; drip the apples on a sieve, mix them with the batter, take one slice with a spoonful of butter to each fritter, fry them quick, of a light brown, drain them well, put them in a dish, sprinkling sugar over each, and glaze them nicely.” – Randolph, Mary. “The Virginia Housewife.” pg.155.
Babies galore
You can also find many interesting bios of 18th Century men and women who are all a part of this country’s colorful history. Some are well known, others aren’t. One of the latter is Catherine Blaikley, born in 1695, and a glimpse of her shows the following:
“Catherine Blaikley lived in Williamsburg and was an ‘eminent Midwife who delivered “upwards of three Thousand Children,” presumably white and black, slave and free. Her husband was merchant William Blaikley, who died in 1736. During her 35-year widowhood, Mrs. Blaikley lived in the house now called the Blaikely-Durfey House on Duke of Gloucester Street. She died in 1771.”
More than java
Under the “Visit” tab on the site, you are invited to “Be Present in the Past,” and can experience sights and sounds of 18th Century America. For example, you can take a video tour of the Richard Charlton’s Coffeehouse where you learn: “
English coffeehouses appeared in the 17th century and quickly became popular. These establishments provided patrons with new beverages such as coffee, tea, and chocolate. Even more importantly, coffeehouses served as sites for the energetic discussion of politics, news, and business.
“Despite Williamsburg’s relatively small size, locals sought to emulate the cosmopolitan fashions of Europe, which included this coffeehouse culture. In the early 1760s, Richard Charlton, a local wigmaker, became proprietor of a newly converted coffeehouse near the Capitol. During the ten years the coffeehouse was open, many important political figures frequented its rooms, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Lieutenant-Governor Francis Fauquier, as well as many merchants and gentry.”
Nothing beats going to these living-history museums in person, but interacting with their online sites is not a bad alternative if information about this country’s young years is what you’re after.
