The Technological Developments of Xbox Live Through History
April 9, 2009Back in the days of the pre-industrial era which was the in early 1900’s to around 1926. In this period children didn’t have as much supervision as they do nowadays, and they were inclined to go outside to play with the other neighborhood kids. During this period of pre-industrial the base roots of video games deprived from the basic rules and structures of the games children used to play at that time. The phenomenon known as Children Street Culture was when one generation of children passed their games and knowledge to the next and so on in urban cities, during the pre-industrial era. Entertainment in this era was largely based on children’s game such as hopscotch, British bulldog, head up sevens up, and dodge ball.
Children used to incorporate what materials they had into games. For example during the winter they gathered up an array of snowballs, created forts, and battled all day long. During the summer they collected conkers, and sycamore seeds. The lack of material items in that period led to children being very adept at scavenging free materials for use of entertaining games that deeply incorporated rules and emphasized on winners and losers.
As time passed and technology progressed, computers were created. During the mid-20th century in between the period 1940 to 1945 computers were first made and they were the size of entire rooms. These computers were all run through programming; there was no OS system like windows in those times. In February 1961 a computer programming class in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created Space wars, the earliest known computer game. It took well over 200 hours for the class to compete the initial version, a student Alan Kotok was the main creative genius behind the game. Afterwards approximately 11 years later in September 1972 the first arcade system was released, which from that day onwards changed the face of entertainment.
1970 was the beginning of the arcade centers. In the late 1970’s arcade centers starting popping up all over America with games like Space Invader, Pac-Man, and Pong. In the industrial era entertainment was capitalized by companies since arcade systems could be easily mass produced and sent all over the country. During this period there was a shift in the entertainment industry. No longer were kids rushing to the fields after school to play sports and games with friends, instead they all started to crowd inside the local arcade centers to rank up high scores, and see who’s the best at certain types of games. Computer programming changed entertainment by incorporating the basic premises of rules and structures of the games children play such as hopscotch and sports and turning them into arcade games with similar policies and organization. During the late 1980’s with the introduction of fighting game series such as the Street Fighters sparked nationwide tournaments and local rankings. The form and shape of entertainment was increasingly beginning to change.
In the post-industrial society, the entertainment industry took a change. During the 1990’s the number of arcade centers across North America started to decrease, its popularity began to dwindle. This was all due to the ever more popular home based consoles. Children were no longer dwelling long hours at their local arcades but instead enjoying gaming in the comfort of their own home. In November 25 in 2005 the Xbox 360 was released by Microsoft, and with it came a different take of entertainment. In the pre-industrial era children played games and competed with one another in playgrounds and fields. Now in the post-industrial society a new way of competition emerged, composed of video games. It started in March 2002 the Major League Gaming (MLG) was founded by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso and was the first ever professional video gaming league. The thin lines between Major League Sports and Competitive Video Gaming were beginning to merge. MLG consists of 6 Pro circuit tours throughout Canada and the United States a year, where teams composed of 4 compete against each other. The winners of the tournaments win millions of dollars and become overnight millionaires. Currently the games they most utilize are Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Gears of War 2, with the top teams being Str8 Rippin, Triggers Down, and Final Boss. Today video games emerge as a type of competitive sport. For example most Xbox 360 games consist of leader boards, and online ranking systems to see who the best players in the world are, through the use of Xbox live, which connects all 360 users to a single community.
The historical precedents of Xbox live was the evolution from pre-industrial era where kids wanted to be the best player in the playground, to the industrial era of arcade center tournaments, and then finally the post industrial era of Xbox live which connects gamers from all over the globe. Gaming has come a long way from the ancient times of Samaria and Egypt illustrating our ancestors enjoyed playing board games thousands of years in the past to modern competitive gaming leagues.
Reference List
Children’s street culture. (2009, February 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Children%27s_street_culture&oldid=268925252
MLG Corporate. (2009, February 6). In MLG Pro Retrieved from http://www.mlgpro.com/about
Industrial Revolution. (2009, April 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Industrial_Revolution&oldid=281551608
Vintage Coin Operated Fortune Tellers, Arcade Games. (2009, April 3). In marvin3m. Retrieved from http://www.marvin3m.com/arcade/
The evolution of gaming: computers, consoles, and arcade. (2005, Oct 5). In Ars Techncia. Retrieved from http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/10/gaming-evolution.ars
