People have been playing games for a long, long time. If you ask historians, the oldest game in the world might be more than 8000 years old, dating all the way back to 6000 BC in Jordan.
For all kinds of reasons, the human race loves games. While the rise of technology and the internet has revolutionised many aspects of life, few have been touched as deeply — and as entertainingly — as games. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the ways in which the gaming world has changed over the years, as well as how it’ll likely continue to develop in the years to come.
Moving From The Analog to the Digital
The most transition has been from analogue mechanisms to digital infrastructure. Some, such as pinball machines, didn’t really make the transition to the digital era; their heyday was very much in the pre-digital landscape. Others, such as slot machines, came into their own following the shift to the computer world. In the past, one-armed bandits operated on a mechanical gears and levers system, but today’s digital offerings are based on RNGs (Random Number Generators), which determine when the reels should stop. The analogue slot machines have had their charms, but they couldn’t manage the variety of games available today. And talking about a variety of games…
A Wider Range Of Games
There are some people who argue that the golden age of gaming was at some point in the past. When that time was usually coincides with when the person making the argument first got into gaming. Golden age thinking, the idea that everything was better in the past, is an epidemic. Today’s gaming climate is rich with a wide, almost unfathomably wide range of games. Last year alone saw some 10,000 titles released on Steam.
In other words: there’s something for everyone. If someone really believes that games of the past were better than what’s released today, then they’re still free to play them. When they do, they might realise that the game isn’t quite as good as it appeared at the time.
And a Much Larger Audience
The gaming world has benefited from technological improvements (more on that below), but perhaps the success that the industry can claim is that games are now much more accessible than they were in the past. Today’s smartphones are highly capable, and with just about everyone owning such a device, there has never been a bigger gaming community than there is today. That many of the leading games are free to play only further this claim. In the past couple of decades, gaming has gone from being something that only the truly dedicated could engage with, to something that everyone can enjoy regardless of what device they have.
Technological Capabilities
We mentioned above just how many games are released each year. But it’s not just the number of games that’s impressive. The quality of the games is impressive, too. The gaming industry has benefitted from rapid and advanced technological improvements in recent years, allowing developers to be much more ambitious in scope. To emphasise this point, just take another look at the simplicity of the earliest games — you can easily find Pong or Space Invaders online — and then compare them to the grand gameplay experiences offered by today’s games. While we should be respectful of the early, pioneering titles, they really don’t compare.
Cutting Edge Innovation
The gaming industry has been marked by continued innovation. In fact, that’s essentially the store of the gaming world — it has never sat back and rested on its laurels. It’s always looking for ways to improve and enhance the gaming experience. It’s that attitude that’s gotten us to the current, outstanding state of gaming, and also the one that’ll drive the future. In the decades to come, there’s no telling what the gaming world might look like, or just how awesome it’ll be.
