Top 5 Lists Are Back! - Top 5 Innovations in Gaming
Back on the radio we used to do these things called "Top 5 Lists" which are named thusly because 5 is better than 10, naturally. We'd go down a list of what we thought was the best of the best and we'd like to bring back the tradition with this week's list:
Frodo
- 5. Online Distribution We are really just seeing the beginning of this innovation in gaming, but I believe that games aren't going to be sold in physical form in the very near future. The ability to purchase and immediately download a game is incredibly convenient, both for consumers and developers. It saves on production and packaging costs and allows for smaller developers to get their feet wet by not having to cater to big retail markets.
- 4. Experience Points The ability to level up your character in a game, get stronger and learn new abilities was a huge leap forward. It helped with immersion, you became more invested in your character and the satisfaction of learning a new skill or getting to the highest level is excellent.
- 3. Battery Save Adding a battery save feature to home games allowed for longer games in general. With the console revolution, game developers no longer had to make games ridiculously difficult in order to sap quarters out of kids. Now they had to make games that would last, that people would want to play for long periods of time. These games required many sittings, and wouldn't be possible without the convenience of the battery save.
- 2. Serious Narrative Who would have thought that games could make you cry? Squaresoft did when they released Final Fantasy for the NES in 1990. Adding an actual storyline taken seriously was a huge step forward from the days of fighting generic aliens or jumping on anthropomorphic mushrooms (sorry, Mario).
- 1. Home Gaming When the arcade was brought home, the joystick was turned into a d-pad and we no longer had to pump quarters into the machine to have our fun is when the true gaming revolution started.
The Geek
- Honorable Mention - Downloadable Content: This one barely missed making the list because while it's totally awesome to be able to get new content for a game and therefore adding to its value, many times developers take this as a liscense to push out incomplete games and then charge you for the bits and pieces that they're missing.
- 5.Cel Shading When we moved from sprites to polygons, it was more of a new technical improvement for just more detailed graphics. But the use of cel shading gives game developers the ability to be truly artistic with their visuals instead of just more photorealistic.
- 4. Wireless Controllers Now that I own my own living residence, I prefer to sit back on the couch instead of the floor right in front of the TV. Wireless controllers give me the ability to really sit where and how I want. Plus, I don't have to worry about someone tripping over the cord. And I'm talking about the good ones developed in recent years, like the Wavebird. Not those crummy old IR ones for the NES that had a range of about 12 inches and had to pointed directly at the receiver at all times.
- 3. Portable Gaming The ability to take good, quality games anywhere you go is just plain awesome. Stuff like Game and Watch or those old Tiger Electronics games were more of a novelty, where as true handheld gaming units such as the GameBoy really brought the medium into its own.
- 2. Online Multiplayer From the early days of MUDs and old games like Doom or Command and Conquer, being able to play with complete strangers at a moment's notice or to connect with a friend across town, online gaming really expanded the reach of video games, even if it was just over a screechy 14.4k modem. But now that Microsoft has almost perfectly refined the experience with Xbox Live, online gaming is almost it's own seperate entity instead of just a neat way to play 2 Players without having the other person in the room. Many games are centered solely around it (MMOs), and some games have a fully fleshed out secondary game that are just as good as the single player(Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory).
- 1. The D-Pad Most people really don't appreciate how the simple Directional Pad has changed the way games are played. Being able to control your up/down/left/right function with just your thumb freed up the rest of your dexterity because your left hand wasn't completely wrapped around the joystick, and your right hand wasn't holding the joystick base any more. That lead to the availablity of more buttons for more functionality for both of your hands. And the ability to just easily slide your thumb around on the D-Pad allows for more precise and fluild controls than trying to yank a joystick back and forth.
White Mage
- 5. Rumble It added another dimension to the gaming experience.
- 4. Wireless controllers No one likes to be tied down.
- 3. Online gameplay Text RPGs on Compuserve, Yahoo!Games, MMOs, Xbox Live, Nintendo Wi-Fi, whatever form it takes. It allows access to more games and interaction with strangers who share your interest.
- 2. Music Having music with a game and not just sound effects.
- 1. Save Nothing frustrated me more as a kid than having to start over from the beginning every time I wanted to play Super Mario Bros. Then came The Legend of Zelda and my world changed.
Caspian
- 5. High Definition Gaming We have yet to see the full potential of this, and PC gamers have been playing with better resolution for ages, but for Consolers, this might be a revelation of sorts as the NextGen games start getting more intense.
- 4. 32 & 64 Bit Graphic Systems This really opened the flood gates for more 3D rendering in games. People started looking more realistic, environments started looking more rich, gamers started smiling.
- 3. The "More-Than-Two-Button" Controller Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo both were responsible for this. Let's face it, NES was awesome, but we all wanted more options than A & B.
- 2. Gameboy Even though all you could really do was play Tetris on it, it was still frickin' cool that you could take your gaming on the road.
- 1. The Atari Any previous gaming systems really didn't match the fun or necessity of their arcade counterparts until Atari came.
What's your Top 5 Innovations in Gaming? Do you think some of our lists are completely retarded? Post your opinions in the comments!
What say you?!