Today, we know gaming as a global phenomenon that millions enjoy. However, it wasn’t always this way. Gaming was once considered a niche hobby, and while it had a sizeable following, it was primarily the domain of young people and tech enthusiasts. Those days are behind us. It’s now impossible to pigeonhole gamers. No particular demographic holds a monopoly on gaming. Gamers come in all shapes and sizes, and people across generations enjoy playing video games.
In fact, gaming has become so big it has passed music and movies in revenue and is now the go-to entertainment form for people around the world. Gaming has had a big influence, and its reach can be felt from culture to economics. For anyone who’s been following all of these changes, it’s hard to believe an industry that was once dominated by titles with pixelated graphics has evolved into virtual reality (VR) experiences. The shift has been monumental, and in this article, we look at how it occurred.
Gaming’s Early Days
While it’s hard for many of us to imagine a world without gaming, a world like that existed just a few decades ago. Gaming as we know it today got its start in the 1970s and 1980s when arcade games like Pong and Pac-Man became worldwide sensations. These games were simple, but they were considered groundbreaking at the time, and they laid the foundation for what was to come in digital entertainment.
Back then, things like VR and artificial intelligence were the things of science fiction. Nobody gathered online to play battle royale games like Fortnite because the internet wasn’t available to the general public. Instead, people gathered in arcades to test their skills and compete with friends and strangers to see who could get the highest score. Casino games were popular back then, just as they are today. However, there were no casino apps or virtual platforms to play blackjack online, so they went to physical casinos. While online and offline blackjack is similar, the goal is to reach the value of 21 without exceeding it, beating the dealer’s hand in the process; the digital version gives players the flexibility of playing anytime and anywhere, something that wasn’t possible in the early days of gaming.
Still, people enjoyed these early social gaming experiences, and by the late 1970s, home consoles like the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System made it possible for them to enjoy their favourite titles from the comfort of their homes, which opened up gaming to an entirely new audience.
The Rise of Home Consoles and Personal Computers
Gaming took off in the 1990s, and a lot of that had to do with the intense rivalry between Sega and Nintendo, which was dubbed the console wars. Every gamer had their preferred console, and the companies battled it out to see who could create the most inventive games to lure customers from the other side. Many households had both consoles because serious gamers wanted to play the exclusive titles both had to offer.
Gamers benefited from the competition between the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The games speak for themselves: better graphics and deeper storytelling than had ever been seen before. While all of this was happening, PCs were also becoming an important part of the gaming world. From Strategy games like Civilization to immersive simulations like The Sims, PCs gave players more flexibility to tweak settings and experiment with mods, something many gamers found appealing.
The Internet Era and Online Gaming
The internet forever changed gaming, making it possible for us to play games with people on the opposite side of the world. All of this began in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft making it possible for gamers around the world to connect. An entire community formed around these games that encouraged teamwork and collaboration, and these virtual worlds became places where gamers socialized, competed, and went on epic quests together. Today, online multiplayer games are the preferred choice of many gamers, and that shows no signs of changing anytime soon.