Body+Paragraph

When any true gamer tries to identify with their roots, they have to go back to square one. Videogames like most modern commodities, can trace their origin back to the military. A device, called the //Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device// was patented in 1947, and is perhaps the first recreation device that could be considered a videogame. The ‘game’ was a missile launch simulator, and the player could adjust any of the eight knobs to affect the curve or speed of the missile. Since then, multiple advancements with interactivity. Several times, advancements in gaming had to wait for hardware technology to catch up. Because of the limited computer abilities and the lack of access to computers, these games were largely forgotten. Gaming from the 50’s and 60’s had little impact upon the future gaming market other than setting a foundation for the next few decades. The 1970’s saw the golden age of arcade gaming. This is where games like Space Invaders, PacMan, and Asteroids came to the forefront and could be seen in drug stores, restaurants, and malls. The 1980’s saw the induction of home computers and floppy disks, which allowed for the easy transportation and distribution of video games. Also in the 1980’s genre definition of games was taking place, action and fighting games, racing and platform games all started to appear. It is in the 1980s that we see the first adventure games, such as //Wizardry// or //Akalabeth: World of Doom//, both inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, which leads into the next topic of discussion, role-playing games.

Make believe and fantasy have been occurring since the dawn of man. With the unexplainable comes explanations of wonder, and with wonder comes a yearning envy to be like the wonderful. People have always wanted to reenact their versions of myth and legend, and eventually these reenactments became games. Not just games, but games where the participants engaged in the game by assuming the role of a character, whether factual or fictitious. Over the years, make believe eventually got relegated to the realm of children’s play. But within the past 40 years, Role Playing Games have come back into the worlds of whoever so chooses, and also into the realm of computer gaming. These games over the years have filed into their own genres of sci-fi or fantasy (even though this all constitutes fantasy, fantasy has come to mean environments with magic or mythical beings, often elves or a like species). Many of these games try to balance action-oriented game play with the randomness often associated with d20 games (games that operate off of a system of dice, ranging from 4-sided to 20-sided to determine probability, damage, stats, and the like.

The most notable success story for Role-Playing Games is the Dungeons and Dragons series created by Gary Gygax. This game has become the basis for most Role-Playing Games today, with what have become generic classes (a fighter, a wizard, a healer, and a rogue), to the archetypal enemies of role-players across the world today (zombies, orcs, dragons). Role-Playing Games often require multiple people to play, and a substantial amount of time to play in order for the experience to be enjoyable. Many games require a substantial amount time to complete combat, or continue the storyline, to achieve the PCs’ (player character) goal(s). This gets into the first aspect of this past time, the effects on study habits of adolescents. While many adolescents are in school, it is often impossible to play games such Dungeons and Dragons during the school week due to school and other commitments, this leaves weekends. Now, while every teen does not want to accept that weekends are the best time for them to study, such is the case.