What is Computer Gaming?
What is Computer Gaming?
Computer gaming is any interactive activity that includes the use of a computer for recreational purposes instead of business.
In the early stages of computer development, the earliest computer games centered around having machines play against humans in games of logic such as chess or checkers. This process helped early computer engineers and programmers successfully teach computers to follow logical processes.
With the advent of the home computer, gaming took on a whole new prominence becoming widely known as desktop gaming because these new computers mostly sat on the public’s desktops. With the general public having easy access to computers, programmers created games of all types stretching beyond logic games to interactive simulations ranging from space invasions and airplane flight simulations to sports-based games which challenged players physical abilities as well as their mental skills.
This technology also spawned video game consoles, smaller less powerful computers designed solely for game playing. Early forerunners included the Atari 2600, Coleco’s Colecovision and Mattel’s Intellivision in the early 1980’s. Since then consoles have evolved and thrived with today’s market being led by three prime entities, Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s X-box and Sony’s PlayStation. Games for home consoles have become amazingly complex. Sports simulations now mimic the characteristics of actual players and teams while others include complete stories, the outcomes of which can be altered based on choices the players make.
At the same time home console games arrived on the scene pinball games were being replaced in many arcades by stand-alone video games. Space Invaders and Pac Man were some of the earliest examples of this type of computer game. Today arcade games have grown to include three-dimensional displays and unique controllers such as skateboards, plastic guns and even full-sized motorcycles that players can hop on and pretend to ride giving players an experience they couldn’t otherwise have.
Meanwhile games played on regular computers have also continued to grow and change fueled by widespread Internet access. Now people from around the world participate in Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (M.M.O.R.P.G’s) like the World of Warcraft. After logging in, players take control of an avatar that exists in a fictional world set in medieval times when dragons and magic existed. Characters go on adventures, own property and even have relationships. Similar games are also available in universes made popular through the movies and television such as Start Trek and Star Wars.
The latest innovation to take the computer gaming world by storm are games played on mobile devices such as iPhones and Blackberry devices. Known as mobile gaming, players can not only play anywhere at any time, their connectivity allows them to play against other people while on the go.
One controversial type of computer gaming involves online gambling. Online poker sites allow millions of people from around the world to participate in games at all hours for stakes ranging from very small up into the millions. Many of these sites are housed in other countries as the practice is still technically illegal in the United States.
There is no doubt that as technology continues to evolve so will the ways people use it for entertainment and computer gaming will continue to be a big part of it.
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Computer gaming is a type of video game playing that is played on a personal computer, rather than a dedicated video game console. Computer gaming has shifted in popularity over the years, as prices and performance fluctuated between consoles and personal computers. In the modern day, it has largely settled into its own, with a number of games lending themselves exclusively to computer gaming, while other types of games are better suited for consoles.
Computer gaming is a type of video game playing that is played on a personal computer, rather than a dedicated video game console. Computer gaming has shifted in popularity over the years, as prices and performance fluctuated between consoles and personal computers. In the modern day, it has largely settled into its own, with a number of games lending themselves exclusively to computer gaming, while other types of games are better suited for consoles. Early computer gaming largely revolved around text adventures, as this was one area where they could differentiate themselves immediately from arcade games. Although there were early graphical computer games, such as Spacewar!, which was perhaps the first computer game ever, many of the most popular were simple text inputs. The original, and perhaps most famous, of these was the Adventure game, and later games built off of its success. Eventually graphics were added to the idea of text computer gaming, with text remaining as a command inp
