When looking back at digital technology and media one may have encountered when young, games come to mind. Although digital games have been around for decades already such as arcade machines, they didn’t become popular until the 1990s and 2000s when the internet grew and digital media/ technology became more readily accessible for households. It also became popular due to the possibility of playing with your friends (multiplayer games) online. When looking at the 2000s, online as well as offline games that come to mind include The Sims (2000), Club Penguin (2005), The Need for Speed (initially created in 1998), and Minecraft (2009), with the addition of other console games particularly games available on Wii. Aside from PC and console games, I think a memory many people who were born in the late 1990s and early 2000s have is getting their first handheld game console, especially the Nintendo DS or the PlayStation Portable (PSP).
To begin with, before acquiring your first handheld game console I believe we all were familiar with pc or console games. Sitting at your parent’s computer, feet unable to touch the ground and hearing the click-clack of the keyboard and mouse when playing games either alone, with your friends, or with your siblings. I think the great thing with games at this period and is partially what aided in the industry taking off is how simple and effortless it was to play with your friends. Multiplayer games have been around since the late 1970s however, as mentioned before, when more households had computers and the internet was taking off, multiplayer games became more common and there was a possibility of playing with your friends from the comfort of your own home. Logging onto Club Penguin at the designated time you and your friends agreed on and visiting each other’s igloos and going for walks with your puffles. Similarly with Minecraft, many can recall logging onto the same server as their friends so that they can play together. In regards to The Need for Speed and Sims, I and am sure many others can recall that these were games often played with friends or siblings on the same computer. Taking turns racing around the tracks and squeezing on one chair deciding what colour to make the outside of the house on The Sims brings back nostalgic memories alike.
When looking back at the Nintendo DS and PSP, much like how the games and gaming world was like on PC, one could play alone (which was often the case) but also with friends, if you had the same game, linking them up. The only difference is that these were handheld and portable consoles, meaning we didn’t have to squeeze around one computer anymore. Much like how many do today with our mobile phones, we sat and played games together on our little devices, such as Mario Kart and Pokemon, exchanging games and having fun.
Games have changed and evolved at such a fast rate it is difficult to believe that only 15-20 years ago we had to buy the little game chips to manually insert into the console and pc, whereas now we download any game we would like within a matter of minutes. Although gaming has become even more accessible and simple, the games and gaming as a kid in the early 2000s felt like simpler times.
References.
image 1. Club Penguin
image 2. Nintendo DS
Chikhani, Riad. “The History of Gaming: An Evolving Community.” TechCrunch, 31 Oct. 2015, https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/31/the-history-of-gaming-an-evolving-community/?…
This post inspired me to do my own trip down memory lane when it comes to the games I played as a child. Although Club Penguin wasn’t especially popular in the country I grew up in (as far as I’m aware), I spent a lot of my teenage afternoons on playing MovieStarPlanet, dressing up my avatar and creating movies. I have a vivid memory of waking up at 6 am on Christmas Eve when I was 6 to a brand-new PlayStation 3 and spending the whole day playing on it. Moving abroad and becoming an adult made me forget all these little happy moments, so thank you for reminding me to appreciate them more!