Working Title 11.27.08: Working Title #100 - Working Milestone

Posted by Jordan Williams on 11.27.2008

It's been two years and now it's been 100 columns. The longest running video game column on 411 celebrates the big 100 with a look back at the gaming milestones in the industries history as well as bringing in a few guest writers from Working Title's past and present.


Welcome to the #1...

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Thanks for D-Dub @ [e-mail] for the new banner

Welcome to the #100 Column named WORKING. FUCKING. TITLE. It's been two long years and finally Working Title has hit the coveted #100, which is a pretty damned big milestone. So how do we celebrate something big like this? I have no idea. I just figured for such a milestone in my journalistic/idiot who writes weekly career that I'll just talk about other milestones in gaming. I'm just going to go on a limb and say that most of the people who read this column are in their 20s and early 30s so they have seen their fair share, if not ALL of the video game milestones that have happened.

You witnessed first hand the jump from 2D to 3D, the rise of the RPG and the fall of the Arcade, the girl gamer, geek gamer, PC gamer, and anti-gamer movements. You saw Mario become a worldwide phenomenon and Mortal Kombat become a worldwide controversy. The world of video gaming has hit a ton of milestones on its own, and I'll look at the ones that have changed the (gaming) world as we know it.

In honor of such a special occasion I'll also be putting in personal milestones from myself, Jis the Editor, and Toddo as well as links to some of my personal 'milestone' columns over the last two years. Because everyone knows who can't have a #100 column without having some ego stroking to go with it.

Note: Some of the older columns I'm linking to may have non-working or broken images

Working Title #100: Working Milestones

The world of gaming as seen many changes in its 30 years of use here. For what has started out as a simple attraction at the local bar or bowling alley has finally hit the level of movies and TV shows in its mainstream appeal. But like with any pop culture phenomenon they go through their trends and their stages and gaming is do different, there were some significant jumps in the world of gaming that changes gaming as we know it for everyone forever.


See you in...THE NEXT DIMENSION

If you got that reference, congratulations. If you didn't get that reference then I am ashamed of you. Utterly ashamed.

Anyway, I decided I'll start off with the most obvious here. When people look back at gaming despite how good the story is and how revolutionary the gameplay is people will see one thing.

The Graphics.

When gaming first started the only eye candy we had was a black background with white shapes, then eventually those shapes began to get color, then they moved to full animations with actual details but at this point movies and TV shows were already hopping on the brand new Computer Generated 3D bandwagon, and we knew it was only going to be a matter of time before gaming did the same and when it did it literally blew the fucking collective worlds mind.

The jump from 2D to 3D actually changed a lot more than the looks of gaming; it changed the feel and the landscape of gaming as well. Video Games at the time were always looked at as a kid's toy at that point, because in order to make a game look good with the outdated 8-bit and 16-bit systems you had to make everything look cartoony. It didn't matter how many times you had a blood sucking vampire run at you in Castlevania or try to defend yourself from Imps on Doom everything would still look like a cartoon to the naked eye of the non-gamer and thus get written off as "Bah, it's for kids".

But when 3D finally hit the market you finally got some atmosphere with the graphics. No only could you get a full game in 3D but you also had all of the other luxuries that the movies had. Games had lighting, ambient moods, realistic character models and dynamic camera angles. Instead of looking at the gaming world from the side, top, or in some rare cases the bottom you now had full control over it. You could see the gaming world as an actual world instead of looking at it through a window.



This started to bring more people in and change their perceptions. If you sat someone down and had them watch you play an old school Mario game and after while they might get bored watching you pretty much just run from end of the screen to another. But if you sat that same person down and had them watch you play Super Mario 64 you'd see they were a lot more interested. They could see that the game you were playing had a living, breathing, fantastic world built within it. This is something that only got better as the years go on, given how immersive games are NOW you can see that the jump from 2D to 3D only scratched the surface.

Working Milestone: Massive Effect

And we'll start this look back at some of my older columns with Massive Effect. This was a fairly recent column, about a few months ago when I looked at random forms of media and tried to turn them into an MMORPG. It was one of the hardest columns I've had to write because not only did I have to arm chair book a whole fucking genre but I also had to find a way to make it all make sense in the end. I mean who the hell else would be able to turn POWER RANGERS into a decent MMORPG? I still load it up and read it from time to time because I think one of these days if I ever get enough cash I might actually try to put one of those ideas in motion.

Portable is Possible

All of the Milestones aren't going to go in order, but they are all equally important. Portable gaming has always been treated as a bit of a second class citizen even with the inventions of the DS and the PSP, but remember when Portable Gaming wasn't a citizen at all?

The only time you could get your fix for gaming is if you had to go to local arcade or if you were lucky enough to own a console at home. Eventually game makers decided that people should have the right to play games whenever they want to and started making very basic hand held games. You know, the ones made by Tiger?

Even though these games were mostly horribly and featured little to no graphics they were still the stepping stone for what portable gaming has come to today. When the Gameboy launched it brought a revolution with it. No longer did developers have to sink a ton of many into a game to be released on consoles only to HOPE it would hit big. Now they had the option of throwing the middle finger up to the console and making games straight for the handheld market. And for those few lucky ones who managed to get games to hit big on the consoles they could make handheld versions of them and STILL rake in the money.


When you think about it, The Gameboy wasn't that big...

At first the handheld was only seen to be a gimmick, a short passing trend due to most of it's games having little or no depth and most people just looked at it as an excuse to always have Tetris in your pocket, but then a lot of games started getting longer, deeper, more immersive and then there was the one game who literally changed handheld gaming forever.

You know the one. I'm not even going to mention the game because if I start talking about it I'll be talking about it forever. If you are that dense and you don't know which game single handedly changed handheld gaming forever you deserved to get kicked in the pokeballs.

After all of the money and souls that game racked it in was pretty much a wrap, handheld gaming had found its home among the consoles and then everything just got better. The Gameboy became the Gameboy Color which became The Gameboy Advance which became The Nintendo DS. Sega and Sony both threw their hats into the ring with the GameGear and the PSP respectively. And now there are people who completely forgo the console experience and stick with handhelds and have the same amount of fun. While portable gaming was once looked at as that thing you did when you were away from a TV, it's not looked at like an important part of the overall world of gaming and technology as a whole.

Working Milestone: Jis the Editor

It wouldn't be a celebration if I didn't bring back some of the old skool Working Title alumni. Those of you that have been since the first year notice that Jis the Editor used to be my official...well...editor. She was actually a big reason how I got into the site due to a hilarious feud with the writers over at Hidden Highlights (at the time). While she moved on from Working Title after while she still drops in occasionally and does a few things, and for the special WT100 she actually wrote in with her personal Working Milestone of her own.

Jis the Editor

Milestones? Aren't those the elongated green signs with numbers on them on the highway?

... "Mile markers"? Poppycock.

My favorite video gaming milestone came in the summer of 2005. I purchased my very first Nintendo DS, affectionately known as the DS Phat. What came with this DS were not only a stylus and an AC wall adapter but also my first glimpses into the world of greedy, girly gaming. It was different from fighting over the Nintendo 64 to play rented games from Blockbuster on the weekend, and it was certainly different from having a Gameboy Color that was a hand-me-down for the sole purpose of playing Pokemon Yellow. This opened the floodgates to play the second Animal Crossing game, GBA games on the cheap, and several Harvest Moon titles at my leisure.

Sure, I bought the Phattie used (making it a sort of hand-me-down), but it was all mine. It was my precious little baby without the stretch marks and fussing about the best daycares. I could play whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, WHEREVER I wanted. It sounds selfish, but with siblings, you make the most of what you can get.

Working Milestone: Working Gamer

Another Working Milestone was a crossover column I did a year ago with Damian Sarcoma's Angry Gamer. At the time we were both looked at as the two biggest columns in Games (...because at the time we were the only two). We decided one week that we were going to do a crossover of our columns and Working Gamer and Angry Title were born. In order to spice it up we had a little competition of who could do the better rant while still sticking to a certain mixed criteria with little hints thrown in. It was one of the funniest columns I've written here because I had to do a full rant while still making fun of Tonobu Itagaki.

And anytime I can make fun of Tonobu Itagaki is a damned good time.

Out of the Arcade and into the Internet

It's no secret that The Arcade is dead and a lot of people have tried to find out an exact reason as to why the Arcade bit the big one. Many people blame the rise of the consoles and increased graphics and immersion, but I think a big factor to do with it was online. Sure, Online Gaming is was always around with the PC, but it was only a bit of a niche thing given that PC gaming was actually on a bit of a decline but then online gaming came to the console. And that's when the shit hit the fucking fan. Halo 2 launched and online gaming kicked off and never looked back. People were getting sick of playing against the PC and the same few friends all of the time so the online world gave them a chance to experience new players and content.

Which also means if you played Starcraft at all it meant that you found a personal non-racist hate for Koreans.



But the invention of Online Console Gaming didn't only affect multiplayer capabilities, but it also helped out on the front of delivering game content. Even though it's still recent actually having the capability to have demos, full games, and other content sent directly to your console actually was the thing that did Arcades in, because a lot of Arcades in my area actually had demo booths set up to play games before they came out and we all know that went the way of the dinosaur as well.

While it is still a fairly recent chapter in the evolution of gaming and it's personal milestones, the online world definitely helped shape the way gaming is looked at today.

Working Milestone: Toddo

If you read damn near anything on this site, let alone in the Games Zone you've most likely seen Todd Vote, also known as Toddo posting his ass off around here. He's been one of the few Workaholics that have been around for a long ass time, about a year as far as I can remember maybe even more. I gave Toddo a run with Working Title a few weeks ago and he did pretty well there, so I decided to once again give him the ball and let him write up the next Milestone. The Death of the Arcade.

The Death of the Arcade

Looks like we made it… wait, I didn't make it, Jordan did. Congratulations to Jordan on the 100th edition of Working Title, quite the milestone. When Jordan was putting this column together, he mentioned to me something about gaming milestones… He cited the jump to 3-D, online gaming, and even the death of the arcade as important milestones in gaming. At first thought none of the milestones he mentioned really affected my gaming habits. But the more I thought of it the more I got to thinking about how much I missed the arcades.

There was always a certain rush to be had by entering the arcade and seeing a new game. Something that wasn't there the last time you were in. In fact I was introduced to two of my absolute favorite franchises thanks to the arcade. One (Mortal Kombat) is still going strong to this day, the other (Killer Instinct) has been MIA, aside from Rare dropping hints just to fuck with me, I'm sure of it. The franchises in question are Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct. I'll never forget thinking how cool Mortal Kombat looked, and played. Then I seen the person I was playing against rip my spine out, and I was hooked. Looks of confusion were slowly followed with looks of amazement as I pumped more quarters in the slot just so this MK master could continue to mutilate me in the goriest of fashions.

All of that amazement was renewed again in 1994 when I stumbled into the arcade to find this new monstrosity… Killer Instinct…. What was this fascinating game with slick graphics, a Street Fighter style control scheme, and wicked nasty Ultra Combos? More importantly, why was I not playing it? Killer Instinct, in my opinion, took the best of the MK series, and the best of the Street Fighter series, and jam packed it all into a new game. For my money, this is the fighting game, and the only reason MK stands above it on my list is because of the lack of new installments.

My local arcade closed sometime in 1999, and I'll admit I miss it at times. The arcade offered something that technology in today's gaming world simply prevents from happening. It offered something new and exciting on nearly every trip there. With the advent of the internet, mysteries were pretty much taken away about gaming in general; any surprises we are treated to now are simply an Easter egg that the developers put in the game to reward us the loyal players. The end of arcades was definitely the end of an era in gaming. If you still have arcades in your area, do yourself a favor. Take a nostalgia trip down there, and pump a few quarters into that old WWF Superstars cabinet, waste a couple bucks on that old William's pinball machine. It's great way to kill a couple hours and remember why you love games in the first place.

Working Milestone: Gaming Goes Hollywood

In going with the old trend of all of my Working Title columns having a monthly theme. I went through and looked at what video games should be made in to movies. The columns where I actually sort of arm chair book the gaming industry are my favorite ones to do. They allow me to sort of just bullshit up a column and fill it up with any and all of my ideas and actually put them down on print and let other people enjoy them.

Working Milestone: JDL the Well Adjusted Gamer

Two weeks ago JDL commented about my Working Timetable column, he said he was a self-proclaimed 'Well Adjusted Gamer" and wanted to write a piece on it. I was originally going to let him do it was a Working Feedback, but I decided that I might as well save it for WT100, which I have.

JDL

The words "well adjusted," and "gamer," go together about as well as peanut butter and mayonnaise, but lo and behold there do exist well adjusted gamers. That's what I fancy myself as, a well adjusted, responsible gamer. I play everyday, for a minimum of three hours and max out past 10 while balancing work, school, friends, and family and (gasp!) women. This is to me is a Herculean achievement as nowadays gaming feels like a second job and it's really hard not to go into GameStop or the local Play N Trade by me (thumbs up, cheap pop!) and sign over my soul in exchange for this falls lineup.

If you're a gamer these days, there are 3 seventh generation consoles if Wikipedia is to be believed and there are 2 playable handhold devices for a total of 5 modern systems. Back in the days of yore, you used to pick a system and stick with it and its corresponding game library. While I managed to get new systems in place of birthday parties and Christmas gifts, most of my friends had just a PlayStation or just an N64 and only a select few kids wielded the One True Console Sent By God, The Sega Dreamcast (cue ominous choir)...and then we also had this poor soul named Ralph who got a Sega Saturn.



With the abundance of systems and new releases, it's almost impossible to get every new release when it comes out. Between the 5 systems (remember we're omitting PC games) there are lots of releases each month for each system and at least one "MUST HAVE IT" game is released per month when averaged out. That means at least five games you want are coming out every month. Think for a minute, this fall sees the release of some big name games: Chrono Trigger DS, Smackdown Vs. Raw 09, Fable 2, Silent Hill Homecoming, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, Guitar Hero World Tour, Rockband 2 and Wii Music (okay, the Internet is not on fire for this one). You can shave off a few games that don't interest you, and another one or two that Lord Yahtzee Croshaw saves us from (Don't know who he is? Wait 'til Wednesday then Google his name, that ought to keep your computer busy for a little bit).

So how do I keep from going nuts and buying every game in sight? I have a really good taste in games and I tend to pick games with a high replay value. The Orange Box is probably one of the greatest things to ever happen to gaming, Portal is both unique and charming and I play Team Fortress 2 every day, without exception. Fable 2 is really awesome for whenever I want to feel like a warrior in the Dark Ages. My set up works for me very well right now, and I'm curious to find out if there are any other gamers out there that play the same way.

On the other hand, if you're playing a MMORPG on top of all this gaming, then forget everything I said, because you're FUCKED.

The Future

Sure, this isn't that much of a milestone. But it's something we can all look forward to. The future of the gaming world is bright as ever. Gaming went from being something that you only did once in awhile at a bar, to being the thing that only geeky kids do to a multi BILLION dollar industry. If you would've told some of the naysayers 30 years ago that gaming would be the second biggest entertainment industry in the world then they would've probably called you a jive turkey.

Gaming has gone mainstream; we have movies based on games, songs based on games, music videos and whole albums based on games. We have actual televised gaming competitions and celebrity events. We have some games that have a more star studded roster than blockbuster movies.

We are in an age where people some of the biggest celebrities on the planet are people named Link, Cloud Strife, Marcus Fenix, Lara Croft, and Master Chief. These people AREN'T REAL yet they can force people to line up outside around the corner in Times Square just so they can get their hand on their latest game. In an age where we have people camping outside to get the newest Harry Potter or see the newest Star Wars flick we have even MORE people camping out to get their hands on Halo 3 or Gears of War 2.



Many people look at the current generation and have a feeling of "Holy shit. This is it. We've hit the wall" and I understand why some people look at it this way, graphics in games look photorealistic and we are even tapping into motion sensitive gaming where you are actually IN the game. But if this means anything it doesn't mean that we've hit the wall, it means that we've finally hit the point we've all been dreaming about and talking about. We've hit that point where Video Games are part of our culture and our history. When you think about 30 years from now when and think that this next generation of kids won't be able to remember a time when there was no Mario or Sonic. They won't be able to remember a time when there wasn't a Playstation or an Xbox just like we can't fathom a time before TV. If video killed the radio star then it's goddamn true that video games killed the television.

And that's a pretty big fucking milestone if you ask me.


Working Milestone: Underrated/Overrated - RPGs

And now we bring it to close with another column I had a lot of fun writing. I wrote this series about two years ago and what it did was take Overrated and Underrated games and I pretty much talked about them. Just like any controversy monger my Overrated RPG to rant about was Final Fantasy VII, a decision I still hold to this day. The reason why this column was memorable is not for the column itself, but for what actually happened after it. I got SO MUCH FUCKING HATE MAIL and some good mail that I devoted the whole next week's column to answering it. I got an astounding 57 EMAILS (we didn't have comments back then) regarding my decision and I actually still got random emails about it for at least five months afterwards. That was the first time I saw that people actually paid attention to what I wrote and actually cared enough to bitch me out about it. It was awesome.

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Working Feedback

This weeks Working Feedback is a bit special. I posted a thread on the 411mania.com Forums in regards to Gaming Milestones and this week all of the feedback will feature the responses I got from that thread. Rather than waste time and actually just copy and paste exactly what they've said, I'll link you directly to the thread so maybe even then you can add your own to the list...which brings me to this weeks...



Working Question

I think this Working Question will be fairly obvious...but I'll have to say it anyway.

What are your gaming milestone? What changed gaming for you forever?


One more time, a big thanks to Jis the Editor, Toddo, and JDL. It might not look like it but their contributions were extremely huge. I had to cut Toddo and JDL's in half or else I would've gone over the size limit for the column. Either way they are still a big help and are welcome to fill in for me on WT anytime if they feel like it.

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and for two years and 100 columns this bitch STILL doesn't have a goddamn name!