The third and final effect of computer gaming is the community that it builds. This effect is one of the more recent effects in the history of computer gaming, but it is shaping up to be one of the more important effects of computer gaming. Already, people are creating entire organizations around their favorite computer games, whether they are clans for First Person Shooters, guilds for MMORPGs, or even just groups of friends that get together on a semi-regular basis to game (such as the Nova Tech Committee). Since the first MUD was created in 1979, computer games have been changing the ways that people relate to one and other and interact, in America and in the rest of the world. If the current trends in the popularity of online games are any indication, the interaction provided by these games will only continue to grow and improve in quality, making it both easier and more gratifying to link up with friends and play online. Soon, we may even have whole virtual worlds like the one proposed in Neal Stephenson?s novel, ?Snow Crash?, accommodating billions of people in the same world all living out their virtual lives as if they were their real lives. The possibilities are endless?
Resources
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http://www.acc.umu.se/~oscar/pinball/history/pinhist.html
http://habitantes.elsitio.com/flippers/pinball_history.htm
http://www.gamecabinet.com/deeperDrawers/Traditional.html
http://www.atari-history.com/mainmenu.html
http://www.e-businessworld.com/english/crd_doom_376542.html
http://www.emuunlim.com/doteaters/
http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/stone/rolling_stone.html
http://www.pong-story.com/
http://www.enteract.com/~enf/lore/spacewar/spacewar.html
http://www.gamespy.com/
http://www.senate.gov/member/ct/lieberman/general/bio.html
http://www.allgame.com/
http://www.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/9906.Sherry.video.html
http://www.killology.com/
http://www.stomped.com/shared/nsystem/read_archived_comment.php?news_id=17575&location=1
PCGamer Magazine, July 1997-June 1999
Computer Gaming World Magazine, November 1997, May 2001
New York Times, Monday, May 28, 2001
Zork (Computer Game)
Doom (Computer Game)
Wolfenstein 3d (Computer Game)
SimCity (Computer Game)
Lady’s Cage MUSH (online roleplaying world)
WarGames (Movie)