Thought

What was your first video game? Was it an online game or an offline game? What did it teach you about the world?

Multi-User Dungeons: Gaming Our Way Online

Games & the Rise of the Personal Computer & Online Ways of Being

part of the point of this history of games is to show the parallel evolution of computing & games, since you can't have an internet without computers...

Let's Go Waaaaaay Back

link to video of gameplay

playing checkers on the Manchester Baby

PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTION CARD

SHALL WE TOSS FOR THE FIRST MOVE? WILL YOU SPIN A COIN? HAVE I WON?

YOU MUST PLAY AT ONCE OR RESIGN

KINDLY READ THE INSTRUCTIONS AND START THE MOVE AGAIN

I REFUSE TO WASTE ANY MORE TIME. GO AND PLAY WITH A HUMAN BEING.

HONEY DEAR

MY SYMPATHETIC AFFECTION BEAUTIFULLY ATTRACTS YOUR AFFECTIONE ENTHUSIASM. YOU ARE MY LOVING ADORATION: MY BREATHLESS ADORATION. MY FELLOW FEELING BREATLESSLY HOPES FOR YOUR DEAR EAGERNESS. MY LOVESICK ADORATION CHERISHES YOUR AVID ARDOUR - YOURS WISTFULLY M. U. C.

Business Simulation

Imagine designing, running, and playing a game on this bad boy, the IMB 1401, one of the best selling computers of the mid-60s. Lease for $20 000 a month in current dollars. source

CTTS at MIT 1959 - not a game, but a 'force multiplier'

The Sumerian Game - 1962

IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE JUST BEEN MADE RULER OF LAGASH, A CITY-STATE OF SUMER, IN THE YEAR 3500 B.C. TWICE YEARLY YOUR ROYAL STEWARD, URBABA, WILL REPORT TO YOU THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE KINGDOM. GUIDED BY THESE REPORTS, YOU WILL DECIDE THE USE OF YOUR GRAIN AND OTHER RESOURCES, TRYING TO KEEP YOUR POPULATION STABLE AND WELL FED. BETWEEN REPORTS, YOUR COURT ADVISOR WILL COME TO YOU WITH NEWS OF YOUR KINGDOM.

ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE RULER'S STEWARD FOR THE SPRING SEASON IN THE YEAR 1 OF LUDUGA I.

POPULATION AT PREVIOUS REPORT 500

CHANGE IN POPULATION -155

TOTAL POPULATION NOW 345

THE QUANTITY OF FOOD THE PEOPLE RECIEVED LAST SEASON WAS FAR TOO LITTLE.

Natural Language - ELIZA 1966

HOW DO YOU DO. PLEASE STATE YOUR PROBLEM.

I SPEND TOO MUCH TIME WITH COMPUTERS

WHY DO YOU MENTION COMPUTERS?

YOU ARE ONE

DOES IT PLEASE YOU TO BELIEVE I AM ONE?

Enter the 70s

  • big room size mainframes giving way to 'mini' computers (the size of a car) mainframe -> mini -> micro
  • Personal computer is invented and becoming popular by end of the decade
  • academic research has led to an expectation that natural language makes a good programming language

But remember, in the 60s and 70s how to interact with a computer still up in the air

PLATO spills into the work world

and births several related machines, like the Alto

and Apple's LISA 1983 and Macintosh 1984

Doctorow on Apple supporting ICE

Right.

So: mainframes are giving way to personal computers. But even the biggest personal computer could not approach the computing power, and hence gaming power, of a mainframe or minicomputer

Adventure & Zork

"...text games could only emerge because of the communities the internet would enable" Aaron A. Reed

Adventure Begats MUD

What Made MUDs Different from a BBS? And Other Observations on Why They Matter

also, cw, a critical moment where the 'regular' world is forced to confront that 'virtual worlds' are still real places

MUD Influence on Internet Culture

Concepts that spread beyond gaming:

  • Forums and threaded discussions
  • User profiles and avatars
  • Real-time chat systems
  • Virtual economies and digital goods
  • Online communities with governance

The Academic Connection

MUD Research Communities:

  • Studying virtual societies
  • Digital anthropology
  • Virtual economics research
  • Gender and identity studies online
  • Education and virtual learning
  • Architecture for virtual worlds, rpgs, massively multiplayer online RPGs
  • Gold farming & digital colonialism