[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1272},["ShallowReactive",2],{"navigation_docs":3,"-game-dev-history-of-games":72,"-game-dev-history-of-games-surround":1267},[4,26,43],{"title":5,"path":6,"stem":7,"children":8,"page":25},"Using Parallax","\u002Fusing-parallax","1.using-parallax",[9,13,17,21],{"title":10,"path":11,"stem":12},"Getting Started","\u002Fusing-parallax\u002Fgetting-started","1.using-parallax\u002F0.getting-started",{"title":14,"path":15,"stem":16},"Project Structure","\u002Fusing-parallax\u002Fproject-structure","1.using-parallax\u002F1.project-structure",{"title":18,"path":19,"stem":20},"Working with the Agent","\u002Fusing-parallax\u002Fworking-with-agent","1.using-parallax\u002F2.working-with-agent",{"title":22,"path":23,"stem":24},"Deploying Your Game","\u002Fusing-parallax\u002Fdeploying","1.using-parallax\u002F3.deploying",false,{"title":27,"path":28,"stem":29,"children":30,"page":25},"Features","\u002Ffeatures","2.features",[31,35,39],{"title":32,"path":33,"stem":34},"Feature Overview","\u002Ffeatures\u002Foverview","2.features\u002F0.overview",{"title":36,"path":37,"stem":38},"Roadmap","\u002Ffeatures\u002Froadmap","2.features\u002F1.roadmap",{"title":40,"path":41,"stem":42},"Feature Requests","\u002Ffeatures\u002Frequests","2.features\u002F2.requests",{"title":44,"path":45,"stem":46,"children":47,"page":25},"Game Dev","\u002Fgame-dev","3.game-dev",[48,52,56,60,64,68],{"title":49,"path":50,"stem":51},"The Game Developer's Mental Model","\u002Fgame-dev\u002Fmental-model","3.game-dev\u002F0.mental-model",{"title":53,"path":54,"stem":55},"A History of Games","\u002Fgame-dev\u002Fhistory-of-games","3.game-dev\u002F1.history-of-games",{"title":57,"path":58,"stem":59},"Game Categories","\u002Fgame-dev\u002Fgame-categories","3.game-dev\u002F2.game-categories",{"title":61,"path":62,"stem":63},"Theme and Visual Design","\u002Fgame-dev\u002Ftheme-and-design","3.game-dev\u002F3.theme-and-design",{"title":65,"path":66,"stem":67},"Visual Design in Games","\u002Fgame-dev\u002Fvisual-design","3.game-dev\u002F4.visual-design",{"title":69,"path":70,"stem":71},"Theme in Game Design","\u002Fgame-dev\u002Ftheme-in-games","3.game-dev\u002F5.theme-in-games",{"id":73,"title":53,"body":74,"description":1260,"extension":1261,"links":1262,"meta":1263,"navigation":1264,"path":54,"seo":1265,"stem":55,"__hash__":1266},"docs\u002F3.game-dev\u002F1.history-of-games.md",{"type":75,"value":76,"toc":1244},"minimark",[77,81,86,107,119,130,133,137,365,369,380,392,396,399,404,492,506,520,533,546,550,564,578,592,606,610,621,632,636,774,787,800,814,827,840,853,867,871,884,887,890,893,896],[78,79,53],"h1",{"id":80},"a-history-of-games",[82,83,85],"h2",{"id":84},"why-we-play","Why We Play",[87,88,89,90,94,95],"p",{},"In 1938, the Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga published ",[91,92,93],"em",{},"Homo Ludens",", which translates as\n\"Man the Player.\" His central argument was radical: play does not emerge from culture. Play precedes\nculture. It came before language, before law, before philosophy. \"Games were a primary condition of\nthe generation of human cultures.\" Civilization did not create games. Civilization grew up around them.",[96,97,98],"sup",{},[99,100,106],"a",{"href":101,"ariaDescribedBy":102,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":105},"#user-content-fn-1",[103],"footnote-label","","user-content-fnref-1","1",[87,108,109,110,118],{},"Eight decades of archaeology have confirmed the basic shape of that argument. The oldest carved gaming\npieces found come from Basur Hoyuk in Turkey, dated to approximately 5,000 years ago.",[96,111,112],{},[99,113,117],{"href":114,"ariaDescribedBy":115,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":116},"#user-content-fn-2",[103],"user-content-fnref-2","2"," Wherever\narchaeologists find complex societies, they find games with them.",[87,120,121,122],{},"The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi spent the 1970s trying to answer why through observation\nrather than theory. He studied chess players, surgeons, musicians, and rock climbers, and found they\nall described the same inner state during deep engagement: a narrowing of attention to the present,\nloss of self-consciousness, distorted time, and a sense that the activity itself was its own reward.\nHe called this \"flow,\" and found it required three specific conditions: clear goals and measurable\nprogress, immediate feedback on performance, and challenge calibrated to match the player's current\nskill level.",[96,123,124],{},[99,125,129],{"href":126,"ariaDescribedBy":127,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":128},"#user-content-fn-3",[103],"user-content-fnref-3","3",[87,131,132],{},"Those three conditions describe the design of every successful game in this article, from Senet to\nMinecraft. The games change across five thousand years. The conditions they satisfy are constants.",[82,134,136],{"id":135},"timeline-at-a-glance","Timeline at a Glance",[138,139,140,153],"table",{},[141,142,143],"thead",{},[144,145,146,150],"tr",{},[147,148,149],"th",{},"Date",[147,151,152],{},"Event",[154,155,156,165,173,181,189,197,205,213,221,229,237,245,253,261,269,277,285,293,301,309,317,325,333,341,349,357],"tbody",{},[144,157,158,162],{},[159,160,161],"td",{},"~5000 BCE",[159,163,164],{},"Oldest gaming pieces found at Basur Hoyuk, Turkey",[144,166,167,170],{},[159,168,169],{},"~3100 BCE",[159,171,172],{},"First Senet boards appear in Egyptian burials",[144,174,175,178],{},[159,176,177],{},"~2600 BCE",[159,179,180],{},"Royal Game of Ur boards made; oldest complete board game found at Shahr-i Sokhta, Iran",[144,182,183,186],{},[159,184,185],{},"776 BCE",[159,187,188],{},"First recorded Ancient Olympic Games at Olympia",[144,190,191,194],{},[159,192,193],{},"~500 BCE",[159,195,196],{},"Go first referenced in Chinese texts",[144,198,199,202],{},[159,200,201],{},"~177 BCE",[159,203,204],{},"Oldest written game rules (Royal Game of Ur) recorded on cuneiform tablet",[144,206,207,210],{},[159,208,209],{},"6th c. CE",[159,211,212],{},"Chess (chaturanga) appears in northern India",[144,214,215,218],{},[159,216,217],{},"~822 CE",[159,219,220],{},"Chess reaches Islamic Spain",[144,222,223,226],{},[159,224,225],{},"~868 CE",[159,227,228],{},"First written reference to playing cards, Tang Dynasty China",[144,230,231,234],{},[159,232,233],{},"1200 CE",[159,235,236],{},"Chess played throughout Britain and Scandinavia",[144,238,239,242],{},[159,240,241],{},"1742",[159,243,244],{},"Edmund Hoyle publishes rules for Whist; \"according to Hoyle\" enters the language",[144,246,247,250],{},[159,248,249],{},"1889",[159,251,252],{},"Nintendo founded in Kyoto to produce playing cards",[144,254,255,258],{},[159,256,257],{},"1947",[159,259,260],{},"First video game patent filed by Goldsmith and Mann",[144,262,263,266],{},[159,264,265],{},"1962",[159,267,268],{},"Spacewar! created at MIT",[144,270,271,274],{},[159,272,273],{},"1972",[159,275,276],{},"Pong released; first organized video game tournament (Spacewar!) held at Stanford",[144,278,279,282],{},[159,280,281],{},"1975",[159,283,284],{},"Csikszentmihalyi publishes flow theory",[144,286,287,290],{},[159,288,289],{},"1978",[159,291,292],{},"Space Invaders launches; earns more than the highest-grossing film of its era",[144,294,295,298],{},[159,296,297],{},"1980",[159,299,300],{},"Pac-Man released; 30 million US players per week by 1982",[144,302,303,306],{},[159,304,305],{},"1983",[159,307,308],{},"US video game market crashes from $3 billion to near zero",[144,310,311,314],{},[159,312,313],{},"1985",[159,315,316],{},"Nintendo NES launches in North America, recovering the market",[144,318,319,322],{},[159,320,321],{},"1993",[159,323,324],{},"Doom released; modding culture and deathmatch born",[144,326,327,330],{},[159,328,329],{},"1996",[159,331,332],{},"Super Mario 64 defines the grammar of 3D games",[144,334,335,338],{},[159,336,337],{},"1997",[159,339,340],{},"Deep Blue defeats Kasparov at chess",[144,342,343,346],{},[159,344,345],{},"2004",[159,347,348],{},"World of Warcraft launches; reaches 12 million subscribers by 2010",[144,350,351,354],{},[159,352,353],{},"2009",[159,355,356],{},"Minecraft enters public alpha; becomes the best-selling game of all time",[144,358,359,362],{},[159,360,361],{},"2016",[159,363,364],{},"AlphaGo defeats Lee Sedol at Go through self-taught reinforcement learning",[82,366,368],{"id":367},"the-oldest-games","The Oldest Games",[87,370,371,372],{},"Before the written record, before cities, humans were playing games. The evidence comes from objects\nrather than texts. At Skara Brae in Scotland, occupied from roughly 3100 to 2500 BCE, archaeologists\nfound bone dice. At Mohenjo-daro in present-day Pakistan, terracotta dice from around 2500 BCE have\nbeen recovered with opposite faces that add up to seven: a mathematical convention identical to modern\ndice, established 4,500 years ago.",[96,373,374],{},[99,375,379],{"href":376,"ariaDescribedBy":377,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":378},"#user-content-fn-4",[103],"user-content-fnref-4","4",[87,381,382,383,391],{},"The oldest dice were almost certainly not pure gaming objects. Animal knucklebones, called astragali,\nwere used across ancient cultures as randomizing devices for divination. The same objects that predicted\nfutures became tools for gambling and play. At Shahr-i Sokhta in Iran, dated to 2600 to 2400 BCE,\narchaeologists found the oldest complete and playable board game in existence: a 60-square board in a\nserpentine pattern, 60 pieces in two colors, and dice.",[96,384,385],{},[99,386,390],{"href":387,"ariaDescribedBy":388,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":389},"#user-content-fn-5",[103],"user-content-fnref-5","5"," Everything needed to play was present in a\nsingle burial. It was buried because someone valued it, possibly because someone could not imagine the\nafterlife without it.",[82,393,395],{"id":394},"ancient-games","Ancient Games",[87,397,398],{},"The four great ancient games that survive into the modern era tell different stories about why humans play.",[400,401,403],"h3",{"id":402},"ancient-games-at-a-glance","Ancient Games at a Glance",[138,405,406,425],{},[141,407,408],{},[144,409,410,413,416,419,422],{},[147,411,412],{},"Game",[147,414,415],{},"Origin",[147,417,418],{},"Approximate Age",[147,420,421],{},"Geographic Reach",[147,423,424],{},"Status Today",[154,426,427,443,459,476],{},[144,428,429,432,435,437,440],{},[159,430,431],{},"Senet",[159,433,434],{},"Egypt",[159,436,169],{},[159,438,439],{},"Stayed within Egypt",[159,441,442],{},"Rules lost; last played in Roman period",[144,444,445,448,451,453,456],{},[159,446,447],{},"Royal Game of Ur",[159,449,450],{},"Mesopotamia",[159,452,177],{},[159,454,455],{},"Iraq to India, Egypt, Cyprus",[159,457,458],{},"Possibly in continuous play for 4,500 years",[144,460,461,464,467,470,473],{},[159,462,463],{},"Mancala",[159,465,466],{},"Africa (disputed)",[159,468,469],{},"Disputed ancient origins",[159,471,472],{},"Africa, Americas, South Asia, Caribbean",[159,474,475],{},"800+ variants worldwide",[144,477,478,481,484,486,489],{},[159,479,480],{},"Go",[159,482,483],{},"China",[159,485,193],{},[159,487,488],{},"China, Korea, Japan, global",[159,490,491],{},"46 million players; 1,300+ years of professional play in Japan",[87,493,494,497,498],{},[495,496,431],"strong",{}," is the oldest game we can identify by name, first unambiguously depicted around 2620 BCE.\nIt was played in Egypt for approximately 2,000 years. The board has 30 squares in three rows of ten;\nrandomization came from four flat wooden sticks. The rules are lost: Senet ceased to be played during\nthe Roman period, and the mechanics were never recorded precisely. By the New Kingdom (around 1550 to\n1070 BCE), Senet had taken on explicit religious significance. Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead\ndepicts the deceased playing Senet alone against invisible opponents representing the forces of the\nunderworld. The 30 squares represented stages of the afterlife. The pawns were the soul. Tutankhamun\nwas buried with four Senet boards. A papyrus from around 1250 BCE shows a lion and a gazelle playing\nSenet at a table: satire that only works if the audience recognized what they were seeing.",[96,499,500],{},[99,501,505],{"href":502,"ariaDescribedBy":503,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":504},"#user-content-fn-6",[103],"user-content-fnref-6","6",[87,507,508,511,512],{},[495,509,510],{},"The Royal Game of Ur"," gives us the oldest written rules. A cuneiform tablet from around 177 BCE\ndescribes the game as a race, played with pyramid-shaped dice, with specific squares carrying spiritual\nmessages from deities or ancestors. The boards themselves date to 2600 to 2400 BCE and have been found\nacross Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, and Crete. The most extraordinary fact is\ncontemporary: Jewish communities in Kochi, India, were found in the 1950s still playing a game called\n\"Aasha\" whose structure matched the Royal Game of Ur closely enough to constitute the same game,\ntransmitted continuously for approximately 4,500 years. It had been in unbroken play for longer than\nChristianity has existed.",[96,513,514],{},[99,515,519],{"href":516,"ariaDescribedBy":517,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":518},"#user-content-fn-7",[103],"user-content-fnref-7","7",[87,521,522,524,525],{},[495,523,463],{}," is not a single game but a family of over 800 documented variants: a board with rows of\nsmall cups, a pool of seeds or stones, and rules built around counting and redistribution. It is the\nmost geographically widespread game family in the world. Enslaved Africans transported to the Americas\nthrough the trans-Atlantic slave trade carried mancala with them. They played it to build community\nunder conditions designed to destroy community. The Warra variant was documented in Louisiana in the\nearly twentieth century. A game rooted in African mathematical culture survived the Middle Passage and\ntook root in a new continent.",[96,526,527],{},[99,528,532],{"href":529,"ariaDescribedBy":530,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":531},"#user-content-fn-8",[103],"user-content-fnref-8","8",[87,534,535,537,538],{},[495,536,480],{}," is played on a 19 by 19 grid with black and white stones. The rules fit on a single page. The\ngame they produce is effectively infinite: the number of legal board positions in Go is approximately\n2.1 times ten to the power of 170. The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe is around\nten to the power of 80. Go contains more possible states than the square of all the atoms in the\nuniverse. This mathematical complexity is why Go resisted computer solution for decades after chess\nhad been conquered. In March 2016, Google DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol four games to one.\nAlphaGo had not been taught Go: it taught itself through reinforcement learning, playing millions of\ngames against itself until it developed strategies no human had ever conceived. A 2016 survey found\nover 46 million people worldwide who know how to play Go, with 1,300 years of unbroken professional\npractice in Japan.",[96,539,540],{},[99,541,545],{"href":542,"ariaDescribedBy":543,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":544},"#user-content-fn-9",[103],"user-content-fnref-9","9",[82,547,549],{"id":548},"competition-and-commerce","Competition and Commerce",[87,551,552,555,556],{},[495,553,554],{},"The Ancient Olympics"," were first held in 776 BCE at Olympia in Greece, continuing every four years\nuntil 393 CE: over 1,100 years of quadrennial competition. The first thirteen Olympiads featured one\nevent: the stadion footrace of roughly 200 meters. The program expanded to include wrestling, boxing,\nthe pentathlon, chariot racing, and pankration. The games were not primarily athletic: they were\nreligious. Olympia was a sacred site dedicated to Zeus, and winners received not money but an olive\nwreath. City-states provided lifelong subsidies to their champions. Up to 40,000 spectators attended\nat peak. The four-year interval, called an Olympiad, served as a unit of time measurement for Greek\nhistorians coordinating chronologies across different city-states.",[96,557,558],{},[99,559,563],{"href":560,"ariaDescribedBy":561,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":562},"#user-content-fn-10",[103],"user-content-fnref-10","10",[87,565,566,569,570],{},[495,567,568],{},"Chess"," began as chaturanga in northern India in the sixth or seventh century CE, representing the\nfour branches of the Indian military: infantry (pawns), cavalry (knights), war elephants (bishops),\nand chariots (rooks). It crossed into Persia, where \"Shah\" became \"check\" and \"Shah mat\" (the king\nis helpless) became \"checkmate.\" Arab scholars produced theoretical manuscripts on chess strategy\nbefore Europe had heard of the game. Chess reached Europe around 822 CE via Islamic Spain, and by\n1200 CE was played throughout Britain and Scandinavia. The Lewis chessmen, carved from walrus ivory\nand found on the Isle of Lewis, date to the twelfth century. The modern rules crystallized around\n1500 CE when the queen gained her current powers and pawns could advance two squares. On May 11,\n1997, IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in a six-game match: the first time a machine defeated\nthe best human practitioner of a complex strategic game in formal competition. Chess is played today\nby an estimated 600 million people worldwide.",[96,571,572],{},[99,573,577],{"href":574,"ariaDescribedBy":575,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":576},"#user-content-fn-11",[103],"user-content-fnref-11","11",[87,579,580,583,584],{},[495,581,582],{},"Playing cards"," were invented in Tang Dynasty China (618 to 907 CE), made possible by woodblock\nprinting. The earliest written reference dates to 868 CE. The standard 52-card deck in four suits\nreached Europe via Mamluk Egypt. Around 1480, French card makers simplified the suits into the modern\nform: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. The French system's simplicity reduced printing costs and\nbecame the world standard. One detail about playing cards has no parallel in the history of any other\ngame: Nintendo was founded in 1889 in Kyoto specifically to produce Japanese playing cards. The\ncompany that would later create Mario and Zelda began by supplying gambling equipment to organized\ncrime.",[96,585,586],{},[99,587,591],{"href":588,"ariaDescribedBy":589,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":590},"#user-content-fn-12",[103],"user-content-fnref-12","12",[87,593,594,597,598],{},[495,595,596],{},"Games went commercial"," in the industrial era. Edmund Hoyle published his treatise on Whist in 1742,\na bestseller whose title gave the language the phrase \"according to Hoyle.\" The Landlord's Game was\npatented in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie as a political education tool illustrating land taxation theory.\nParker Brothers acquired the rights and published a modified version called Monopoly in 1935, removing\nthe political content while leaving the mechanism Magie had designed to demonstrate how landlords\nextract wealth from renters. Monopoly remains the best-selling board game in the world by total copies\nsold. Magic: The Gathering, launched in 1993, created the collectible card game category and the first\ngame to generate a financial market in its own components, with individual cards selling for tens of\nthousands of dollars.",[96,599,600],{},[99,601,605],{"href":602,"ariaDescribedBy":603,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":604},"#user-content-fn-13",[103],"user-content-fnref-13","13",[82,607,609],{"id":608},"the-digital-revolution","The Digital Revolution",[87,611,612,613],{},"The first video game patent was filed in 1947 by Thomas Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann for a\ncathode-ray tube device that was never commercially produced. In 1962, Spacewar! appeared on a DEC\nPDP-1 at MIT: two spaceships orbited a star, controlled by two players trying to destroy each other\nwith torpedoes while managing fuel and avoiding the star's gravity. The game spread through\nuniversities as DEC delivered new machines. On October 19, 1972, Rolling Stone sponsored the first\norganized video game tournament in history, the \"Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics\" at Stanford.\nPlayers competed for a year's subscription to the magazine. The event established the template for\nwhat would become esports: public competition, an audience, a prize, and a social identity built\naround demonstrated mastery.",[96,614,615],{},[99,616,620],{"href":617,"ariaDescribedBy":618,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":619},"#user-content-fn-14",[103],"user-content-fnref-14","14",[87,622,623,624],{},"Nolan Bushnell had played Spacewar! as a technician in Utah. His adaptation for arcade play, Pong,\nwas installed at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California in August 1972. Two weeks later, the bar\ncalled to report a breakdown. When a technician opened the machine, the coin mechanism had jammed\nwith quarters: it was earning an estimated $35 to $40 per day, four times the revenue of any other\nmachine in the building. The technical failure was a commercial proof of concept.",[96,625,626],{},[99,627,631],{"href":628,"ariaDescribedBy":629,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":630},"#user-content-fn-15",[103],"user-content-fnref-15","15",[400,633,635],{"id":634},"digital-era-milestones","Digital Era Milestones",[138,637,638,651],{},[141,639,640],{},[144,641,642,645,648],{},[147,643,644],{},"Year",[147,646,647],{},"Game or Event",[147,649,650],{},"Significance",[154,652,653,663,674,684,694,704,714,724,734,744,754,764],{},[144,654,655,657,660],{},[159,656,273],{},[159,658,659],{},"Pong",[159,661,662],{},"First commercially successful arcade game",[144,664,665,668,671],{},[159,666,667],{},"1977",[159,669,670],{},"Atari 2600",[159,672,673],{},"First cartridge-based home console; established the platform model",[144,675,676,678,681],{},[159,677,289],{},[159,679,680],{},"Space Invaders",[159,682,683],{},"First game to out-earn the highest-grossing film of its era",[144,685,686,688,691],{},[159,687,297],{},[159,689,690],{},"Pac-Man",[159,692,693],{},"First game character with a 94% cultural recognition rate",[144,695,696,698,701],{},[159,697,305],{},[159,699,700],{},"Video game crash",[159,702,703],{},"US market falls from $3 billion to ~$100 million in two years",[144,705,706,708,711],{},[159,707,313],{},[159,709,710],{},"Nintendo NES",[159,712,713],{},"Recovered the market; established the licensing model used by every console today",[144,715,716,718,721],{},[159,717,321],{},[159,719,720],{},"Doom",[159,722,723],{},"Created modding culture; coined deathmatch; installed on more PCs than Windows 95",[144,725,726,728,731],{},[159,727,329],{},[159,729,730],{},"Super Mario 64",[159,732,733],{},"Defined 3D game grammar: analog movement and independent camera",[144,735,736,738,741],{},[159,737,337],{},[159,739,740],{},"Deep Blue defeats Kasparov",[159,742,743],{},"First machine to defeat the best human at a complex strategic game",[144,745,746,748,751],{},[159,747,345],{},[159,749,750],{},"World of Warcraft",[159,752,753],{},"Peak 12 million subscribers; demonstrated games as social infrastructure",[144,755,756,758,761],{},[159,757,353],{},[159,759,760],{},"Minecraft alpha",[159,762,763],{},"Best-selling game of all time; 350 million copies sold",[144,765,766,768,771],{},[159,767,361],{},[159,769,770],{},"AlphaGo defeats Lee Sedol",[159,772,773],{},"AI teaches itself a game through self-play; develops strategies no human conceived",[87,775,776,778,779],{},[495,777,680],{}," launched in Japan in July 1978. Designer Tomohiro Nishikado spent approximately one\nyear in near-solitary development, writing the code and developing the custom hardware himself. By\n1979, the game had earned $1 billion globally. For comparison, Star Wars, then the highest-grossing\nfilm in history, had earned $486 million. Space Invaders earned more than four times that from\ncoin-operated machines alone. One of its most important features was unintentional: as aliens were\ndestroyed, the processor ran faster because it had fewer objects to render, making the remaining aliens\nmove faster. A hardware constraint became the central difficulty mechanic. The Atari 2600 home port\nquadrupled Atari 2600 sales: the first \"killer app\" in video game history.",[96,780,781],{},[99,782,786],{"href":783,"ariaDescribedBy":784,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":785},"#user-content-fn-16",[103],"user-content-fnref-16","16",[87,788,789,791,792],{},[495,790,690],{}," arrived in 1980. Designer Toru Iwatani was 24 years old at Namco, and his stated goal was\nto create a game appealing to women and families, not the young male audience that defined the arcade.\nWithin one year, Pac-Man had sold 100,000 machines and grossed over $1 billion. By 1982, the estimated\nactive US player base was 30 million per week. A 2009 Guinness record listed Pac-Man as the most\nrecognizable video game character in the US, with a 94% recognition rate.",[96,793,794],{},[99,795,799],{"href":796,"ariaDescribedBy":797,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":798},"#user-content-fn-17",[103],"user-content-fnref-17","17",[87,801,802,805,806],{},[495,803,804],{},"The Atari crash"," of 1983 saw the US video game market fall from $3 billion to approximately $100\nmillion in two years. Atari's release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, programmed in approximately six\nweeks, produced 4 million cartridges and sold approximately 1.5 million. The surplus was buried in a\nlandfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico: dismissed as an urban legend for decades until a 2014 excavation\nconfirmed it. Nintendo's recovery was deliberate: the hardware was redesigned to look like a toy, and\na licensing agreement gave the platform owner control over all software through a hardware\nauthentication chip. Unlicensed cartridges simply failed to run. This model is the foundation of\nevery console business in operation today. By 1989, the US game market had recovered to $5 billion.",[96,807,808],{},[99,809,813],{"href":810,"ariaDescribedBy":811,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":812},"#user-content-fn-18",[103],"user-content-fnref-18","18",[87,815,816,818,819],{},[495,817,720],{},", released on December 10, 1993, attracted approximately 10,000 simultaneous download attempts\nwithin hours, crashing the distributing server. Within two years it had been installed on more\ncomputers worldwide than Windows 95. John Carmack designed Doom's file format explicitly to allow\nmodification, and the first fan-made level editor appeared 47 days after release. Doom created the\nmodern modding community. It also coined \"deathmatch,\" establishing online multiplayer as a\ncompetitive practice distinct from cooperative play.",[96,820,821],{},[99,822,826],{"href":823,"ariaDescribedBy":824,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":825},"#user-content-fn-19",[103],"user-content-fnref-19","19",[87,828,829,831,832],{},[495,830,730],{}," (1996) was the first game to demonstrate that movement in 3D space could feel\nnatural to a mass audience. The Nintendo 64's analog stick allowed 360-degree directional input with\npressure-sensitive speed control. The independent camera allowed players to navigate 3D space while\nchoosing what to look at. Every 3D game made since that uses a free camera owes that system directly\nto this design decision. Dan Houser of Rockstar Games said: \"Anyone making 3D games who says they\nhaven't borrowed from Mario or Zelda is lying.\"",[96,833,834],{},[99,835,839],{"href":836,"ariaDescribedBy":837,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":838},"#user-content-fn-20",[103],"user-content-fnref-20","20",[87,841,842,844,845],{},[495,843,750],{}," (2004) demonstrated that play could function as social infrastructure. Players\nformed guilds with internal hierarchies, shared schedules, and their own cultures. Relationships\nformed in the game extended into the physical world through friendships, marriages, and business\npartnerships. For some players, it was not an entertainment product. It was a place. In 2005, an\nin-game disease called \"Corrupted Blood\" escaped its intended dungeon through a coding bug and spread\nto populated cities. Epidemiologists studied it as a model for real-world disease spread. It has since\nbeen cited in academic papers on pandemic preparedness.",[96,846,847],{},[99,848,852],{"href":849,"ariaDescribedBy":850,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":851},"#user-content-fn-21",[103],"user-content-fnref-21","21",[87,854,855,858,859],{},[495,856,857],{},"Minecraft"," entered public alpha on May 17, 2009, built by one person: Markus Persson, a\n29-year-old programmer in Stockholm. It sold 1 million copies before its official release and passed\nTetris to become the best-selling game of all time, with total sales now exceeding 350 million copies.\nMicrosoft acquired Persson's company for $2.5 billion in 2014. Minecraft established the early access\nfunding model, in which players pay for unfinished software, and the user-generated marketplace, in\nwhich players sell content to other players through an official storefront. Minecraft Education Edition\nused the game's mechanics to teach computational thinking, with students building functional logic\ngates and circuits using in-game components.",[96,860,861],{},[99,862,866],{"href":863,"ariaDescribedBy":864,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":865},"#user-content-fn-22",[103],"user-content-fnref-22","22",[82,868,870],{"id":869},"the-science-of-play","The Science of Play",[87,872,873,874,877,878],{},"In 1975, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi published ",[91,875,876],{},"Beyond Boredom and Anxiety",", his first major work on\nflow: the mental state of complete absorption in which a person is fully engaged, loses track of time,\nand experiences the activity as intrinsically rewarding. He found that humans can process approximately\n110 bits of information per second. During flow, all 110 bits concentrate on the task at hand. This\nis why people in flow states cannot hold a conversation: they are using all available bandwidth.",[96,879,880],{},[99,881,129],{"href":126,"ariaDescribedBy":882,"dataFootnoteRef":104,"id":883},[103],"user-content-fnref-3-2",[87,885,886],{},"The phenomenon extends across every domain where humans operate at the edge of their ability. Formula\n1 driver Ayrton Senna described a qualifying lap at Monaco in 1988 in terms that match\nCsikszentmihalyi's descriptions precisely: \"I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a\ndifferent dimension.\" He posted a lap 1.4 seconds faster than any driver had ever managed at that\ncircuit. He was in flow at 200 kilometers per hour through the narrowest streets on the calendar.",[87,888,889],{},"Games are unusual among human activities in being explicitly designed to produce flow. Level designers\ncalibrate difficulty. Enemy AI adjusts to player performance. Progression systems manage the\nchallenge-to-skill ratio across dozens of hours of play. The craft of game design is, at its core,\nthe craft of constructing and sustaining flow states.",[87,891,892],{},"The science Csikszentmihalyi published in 1975 describes what game designers had been doing\nintuitively since Senet. Clear goals: the soul navigates 30 squares to reach the afterlife. Immediate\nfeedback: the sticks fall. Balanced challenge: your opponent plays with equal information and equal\nconstraints. Csikszentmihalyi was careful to note that flow is not straightforwardly good. \"Flow can\nbecome addictive,\" he wrote, \"at which point the self becomes captive of a certain kind of order.\"\nThe edge between productive engagement and compulsive avoidance is the edge that game designers have\nalways been navigating, whether or not they had the vocabulary to name it.",[87,894,895],{},"Huizinga's claim in 1938, that play precedes culture, gains its full meaning here. Play is compelling\nbecause it produces a state that humans are wired to seek. The tools change. The state they produce\nis constant. Senet worked for the same reason Minecraft works: clear goals, immediate feedback,\nchallenge calibrated to skill. Five thousand years of games, and one mechanism behind all of them.",[897,898,901,906],"section",{"className":899,"dataFootnotes":104},[900],"footnotes",[82,902,905],{"className":903,"id":103},[904],"sr-only","Footnotes",[907,908,909,927,947,972,990,1003,1015,1027,1039,1057,1070,1087,1105,1123,1136,1148,1160,1172,1190,1203,1215,1232],"ol",{},[910,911,913,914,919,920],"li",{"id":912},"user-content-fn-1","Johan Huizinga, ",[99,915,93],{"href":916,"rel":917},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FHomo_Ludens",[918],"nofollow"," (1938). ",[99,921,926],{"href":922,"ariaLabel":923,"className":924,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-1","Back to reference 1",[925],"data-footnote-backref","↩",[910,928,930,935,936,941,942],{"id":929},"user-content-fn-2",[99,931,934],{"href":932,"rel":933},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FHistory_of_games",[918],"History of games","; ",[99,937,940],{"href":938,"rel":939},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FDice",[918],"Dice",". ",[99,943,926],{"href":944,"ariaLabel":945,"className":946,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-2","Back to reference 2",[925],[910,948,950,951,935,956,958,959,964,965],{"id":949},"user-content-fn-3","Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ",[99,952,955],{"href":953,"rel":954},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FFlow_(psychology)",[918],"Flow (psychology)",[91,957,876],{}," (1975). ",[99,960,926],{"href":961,"ariaLabel":962,"className":963,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-3","Back to reference 3",[925]," ",[99,966,926,970],{"href":967,"ariaLabel":968,"className":969,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-3-2","Back to reference 3-2",[925],[96,971,117],{},[910,973,975,935,980,941,985],{"id":974},"user-content-fn-4",[99,976,979],{"href":977,"rel":978},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FSkara_Brae",[918],"Skara Brae",[99,981,984],{"href":982,"rel":983},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMohenjo-daro",[918],"Mohenjo-daro",[99,986,926],{"href":987,"ariaLabel":988,"className":989,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-4","Back to reference 4",[925],[910,991,993,941,998],{"id":992},"user-content-fn-5",[99,994,997],{"href":995,"rel":996},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FShahr-i_Sokhta",[918],"Shahr-i Sokhta",[99,999,926],{"href":1000,"ariaLabel":1001,"className":1002,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-5","Back to reference 5",[925],[910,1004,1006,941,1010],{"id":1005},"user-content-fn-6",[99,1007,431],{"href":1008,"rel":1009},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FSenet",[918],[99,1011,926],{"href":1012,"ariaLabel":1013,"className":1014,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-6","Back to reference 6",[925],[910,1016,1018,941,1022],{"id":1017},"user-content-fn-7",[99,1019,447],{"href":1020,"rel":1021},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FRoyal_Game_of_Ur",[918],[99,1023,926],{"href":1024,"ariaLabel":1025,"className":1026,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-7","Back to reference 7",[925],[910,1028,1030,941,1034],{"id":1029},"user-content-fn-8",[99,1031,463],{"href":1032,"rel":1033},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMancala",[918],[99,1035,926],{"href":1036,"ariaLabel":1037,"className":1038,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-8","Back to reference 8",[925],[910,1040,1042,935,1047,941,1052],{"id":1041},"user-content-fn-9",[99,1043,1046],{"href":1044,"rel":1045},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FGo_(game)",[918],"Go (game)",[99,1048,1051],{"href":1049,"rel":1050},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FAlphaGo",[918],"AlphaGo",[99,1053,926],{"href":1054,"ariaLabel":1055,"className":1056,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-9","Back to reference 9",[925],[910,1058,1060,941,1065],{"id":1059},"user-content-fn-10",[99,1061,1064],{"href":1062,"rel":1063},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FAncient_Olympic_Games",[918],"Ancient Olympic Games",[99,1066,926],{"href":1067,"ariaLabel":1068,"className":1069,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-10","Back to reference 10",[925],[910,1071,1073,935,1077,941,1082],{"id":1072},"user-content-fn-11",[99,1074,568],{"href":1075,"rel":1076},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FChess",[918],[99,1078,1081],{"href":1079,"rel":1080},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FDeep_Blue_(chess_computer)",[918],"Deep Blue",[99,1083,926],{"href":1084,"ariaLabel":1085,"className":1086,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-11","Back to reference 11",[925],[910,1088,1090,935,1095,941,1100],{"id":1089},"user-content-fn-12",[99,1091,1094],{"href":1092,"rel":1093},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FPlaying_card",[918],"Playing card",[99,1096,1099],{"href":1097,"rel":1098},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FHistory_of_Nintendo",[918],"History of Nintendo",[99,1101,926],{"href":1102,"ariaLabel":1103,"className":1104,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-12","Back to reference 12",[925],[910,1106,1108,935,1113,941,1118],{"id":1107},"user-content-fn-13",[99,1109,1112],{"href":1110,"rel":1111},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMonopoly_(game)",[918],"Monopoly",[99,1114,1117],{"href":1115,"rel":1116},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMagic:_The_Gathering",[918],"Magic: The Gathering",[99,1119,926],{"href":1120,"ariaLabel":1121,"className":1122,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-13","Back to reference 13",[925],[910,1124,1126,964,1131],{"id":1125},"user-content-fn-14",[99,1127,1130],{"href":1128,"rel":1129},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FSpacewar!",[918],"Spacewar!",[99,1132,926],{"href":1133,"ariaLabel":1134,"className":1135,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-14","Back to reference 14",[925],[910,1137,1139,941,1143],{"id":1138},"user-content-fn-15",[99,1140,659],{"href":1141,"rel":1142},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FPong",[918],[99,1144,926],{"href":1145,"ariaLabel":1146,"className":1147,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-15","Back to reference 15",[925],[910,1149,1151,941,1155],{"id":1150},"user-content-fn-16",[99,1152,680],{"href":1153,"rel":1154},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FSpace_Invaders",[918],[99,1156,926],{"href":1157,"ariaLabel":1158,"className":1159,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-16","Back to reference 16",[925],[910,1161,1163,941,1167],{"id":1162},"user-content-fn-17",[99,1164,690],{"href":1165,"rel":1166},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FPac-Man",[918],[99,1168,926],{"href":1169,"ariaLabel":1170,"className":1171,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-17","Back to reference 17",[925],[910,1173,1175,935,1180,941,1185],{"id":1174},"user-content-fn-18",[99,1176,1179],{"href":1177,"rel":1178},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FAtari_video_game_burial",[918],"Atari video game burial",[99,1181,1184],{"href":1182,"rel":1183},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FHistory_of_video_games",[918],"History of video games",[99,1186,926],{"href":1187,"ariaLabel":1188,"className":1189,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-18","Back to reference 18",[925],[910,1191,1193,941,1198],{"id":1192},"user-content-fn-19",[99,1194,1197],{"href":1195,"rel":1196},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FDoom_(1993_video_game)",[918],"Doom (1993 video game)",[99,1199,926],{"href":1200,"ariaLabel":1201,"className":1202,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-19","Back to reference 19",[925],[910,1204,1206,941,1210],{"id":1205},"user-content-fn-20",[99,1207,730],{"href":1208,"rel":1209},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FSuper_Mario_64",[918],[99,1211,926],{"href":1212,"ariaLabel":1213,"className":1214,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-20","Back to reference 20",[925],[910,1216,1218,935,1223,941,1227],{"id":1217},"user-content-fn-21",[99,1219,1222],{"href":1220,"rel":1221},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FCorrupted_Blood_incident",[918],"Corrupted Blood incident",[99,1224,750],{"href":1225,"rel":1226},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FWorld_of_Warcraft",[918],[99,1228,926],{"href":1229,"ariaLabel":1230,"className":1231,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-21","Back to reference 21",[925],[910,1233,1235,941,1239],{"id":1234},"user-content-fn-22",[99,1236,857],{"href":1237,"rel":1238},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMinecraft",[918],[99,1240,926],{"href":1241,"ariaLabel":1242,"className":1243,"dataFootnoteBackref":104},"#user-content-fnref-22","Back to reference 22",[925],{"title":104,"searchDepth":1245,"depth":1245,"links":1246},2,[1247,1248,1249,1250,1254,1255,1258,1259],{"id":84,"depth":1245,"text":85},{"id":135,"depth":1245,"text":136},{"id":367,"depth":1245,"text":368},{"id":394,"depth":1245,"text":395,"children":1251},[1252],{"id":402,"depth":1253,"text":403},3,{"id":548,"depth":1245,"text":549},{"id":608,"depth":1245,"text":609,"children":1256},[1257],{"id":634,"depth":1253,"text":635},{"id":869,"depth":1245,"text":870},{"id":103,"depth":1245,"text":905},"Five thousand years of play, from the temples of ancient Egypt to the bedroom studios of the indie era.","md",null,{"sync":1264},true,{"title":53,"description":1260},"PlimEiCjs0UidwXtQ27MfvPTUBSs4paWV_cyZMmbw-A",[1268,1270],{"title":49,"path":50,"stem":51,"description":1269,"children":-1},"Four lenses every game developer needs to hold simultaneously — designer, developer, marketer, and audience.",{"title":57,"path":58,"stem":59,"description":1271,"children":-1},"How genre labels work as player expectation contracts, and what breaking them means for your design.",1781007575749]