The Gamer's Influence

If you’re not into the gaming scene you probably don’t realize how influential the industry is on our lives. As nerds ourselves (a confession we are proud to share because we hope it instills some confidence in our capabilities managing your web design needs) we are a little more in tune to what carries over, everything from vocabulary (nearly the entire texting language) to a vast degree of technical innovation, programming and even design influence.

Even before the creation of email, computers were used to generate interactive gameplay. The evolution of gaming began as long ago as 1958 when a physicist for the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Willy Higinbotham (yes that was actually his name), modified an oscilloscope to play table tennis. The game was nothing more than a blip bouncing back and forth across the screen with two more blips used as paddles, but Higinbotham’s innovation caught on  as people traveled to the lab and lined up to experience his creation. The gaming universe was born.

Today, the gaming industry surpasses even Hollywood as the most lucrative and popular form of entertainment, with project budgets matching those of the highest grossing blockbuster hits and some games being reinterpreted and making it to the silver screen themselves. So what does this mean for you? Honestly, not a whole lot. Feel free to continue on with your lives no differently than before. But the next time you text your friend “lol” or any other abbreviation, see any kind of animation in an advertisement, or enjoy a movie at your local cinema, don’t hesitate to give credit to some imaginative nerd sitting at a computer screen, molding the pop culture you know and love.

And as Brandon travels to the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) this coming year, take a look back at your Spore Creative designed website and wonder just what oddball game he was playing when inspiration for your project struck.