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The 25 Smartest Moments in Gaming
gorgon_123 writes "GameSpy has been running a feature on the 25 Smartest Moments in Gaming. The feature has been in progress all week, and comes exactly one month after another special series, the 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming." This set of accomplishments are shrewdly divided into 'Smart Move!' ("This is your standard issue smart business decision."), 'Good Prediction' ("Someone had a vision."), and 'Blind Luck!' ("Somebody was in the right place at the right time and did something that just clicked.") Quake's multiplayer innovations, the Playstation, and, of course, Nolan Bushnell and Pong make the Top 5, but what's missing from this list, and why?
When I was a teenager, in a darkened arcade, I accidentally put a $10 in the $1 changer. I didn't realize my mistake until I got home and couldn't find my $10.
My smartest moment was the one and only time I beat Dragon's Lair.
Oh, they meant 10 dumbest/smartest moments that actually meant something to someone other than me!
(semi-on-topic first post, y'all...)
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
1) Joseph Syzlaki invents the joystick in 1974. Never files patent, commits suicide after visiting a video game arcade in early 1980s.
2) An engineer at Xerox PARC realizes that a 3D graph on his monitor looks like a pair of pyramidal breasts, leave position to form Core and make Tomb Raider.
3) Microsoft puts Freecell and Solitaire into Windows 98 instead of XBill.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Try going to your preferences (on the lefthand side). You can block posts from simoniker, block posts on games.slashdot.org, or both. Go Slashcode!
Simoniker is the Games editor, I don't think he's ever posted a story outside the section. Just turn him off completely if you don't like this stuff.
...gaming best/worst moments?
IMO, they wouldn't know the difference between a good or a bad game from a pile of Dog Poop.
Dolemite
_____________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
I mean, I liked EverQuest as much as the next guy, but Delsyn (who had comments at the bottom of that page) was a bit on the generous side when talking about their customer service.
CS was never perfected in EQ. Rather, it was pretty damn close about a year after release, at which point Sony Online showed back up, put certain people (George Scotto, for example) in key positions, and proceeded to give EQ CS the ass reaming it had been waiting for. To say that the Star Wars Galaxies team has forgotten all those lessons verges on senility. The SWG CS method (filing CS tickets which get answered later whether the player is online or off) is far more efficient, and the only reason CS seems worse in SWG is that SWG is new, and the number of CS tickets filed is way up. Once things settle, CS will likely be slightly better in SWG than in EQ, despite the lack of a volunteer-supported CSR corps.
What about the creation of the original game boy and the decision to go for battery life over system power? The GB wouldn't have won back then otherwise and the GBA wouldn't be the most popular system in the world today
:)
And what about the decision by Rare to pick up the Goldeneye license? It made them the company they are today and changed console FPS games forever, well the game not the deicision... but the decision was still some smart thinking
Smartest #23, 1993: Namco and Sega Bring Arcades Home, seems to be the most depressing "advance" for me. As noted in the editor comments, designing arcade games for future home use pretty much spelled the end of the 1980s arcade culture.
In the 80s, you had mom-n-pop arcades in little hole-in-the-wall spots. My favorite was one in downtown Tulsa that you'd never have found unless you happened to walk past and look inside. That's the one where I lost my $10 (see my lame-o attempt to First Post this article). Another was across the street from the grocery store I worked at, and was a great place to wind down after bagging groceries in the days before "paper or plastic?"
Now, it's virtually impossible to support a stand-alone arcade. Oh, you can drive down any street in Texas (at least) and see video parlors, but they're devoted to Cherry Master and Video Poker, not Pac-Man and Asteroids. The only place you can find a real game selection is at the mall or the movie theater. I wasn't into the mall scene as a teen, and I'm even less inclined that way in my 30s.
Although I did manage to embarass my daughter at DDR. She tried it out, but was wearing the wrong shoes and bailed. So I hopped on, much to her embarassment, but to the amusement of the rest of the teenyboppers. I don't think she's forgiven me yet...
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Was I the only one who found both lists kind of boring?
All the events discussed were pretty much no brainers for inclusion.
I would have preferred some more controversial selections, eg. N64 as a dumbest moment, downloadable patches for PC games as a smartest momemt, etc.
You know, something to stir up some conversation.
I also found the editorial remarks pretty inane.
They left out the first RPGs. What about the first time characters improved as the game progressed? Or the first game you could save a game? When was the first time stats were used in a game? What about the first time an influencable plot was added to a game?
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Hmmm...some of mine, in no particular order:
* Wil Wright invents the "software toy" or "sandbox" type of game with SimCity
* The VGA card cements the PC as the gaming computer of the future and closes the door on the Atari ST, the Apple IIGS and the Amiga
* Square realizes they are getting a raw deal, breaks off relations with Nintendo and embraces the PlayStation
...how many of the original Playstations were defective in their first season.
"Derp de derp."
Well, this article is much less interesting than their recent 25 DUMBEST moments. I'd suggest you read that one first, and then read the NES one, which is an entirely fascinating article for someone like me, who is ready to admit that their childhood was closely linked to the history of the NES.
Tomb Raider or Resident Evil
Myst pushes CD-ROM sales. I can't remember how many times I sat through a 5 to 20! (Return to Zork) disk install of many games in the early 90's. Not only that, but I bet the CD-ROMs helped curb casual piracy. I mean, everybody had copies of Doom and Doom2 floppies, right? ;)
DirectX/Glide drivers. This is way overlooked. I was talking to a co-worker the other day and the most hated word from my youth came up. QEMM. Remeber that high memory loader for DOS? How you *needed* it to play any decent game from about 1991 to 1995? It didn't matter how much RAM yoh had in your system, you would always need to load stuff into high memory. I remember being on the verge of a mental breakdown trying to get Sim City 2000 and Aces Over Europe to run under DOS. I had 8 megs of ram, what else did I need? ;)
Some of the other items on the list are pretty questionable. Sure, the 'Mortal Monday' advertising campaign was pretty cool, but all it did was stir up the hornet's nest of parents and elected officials. I think most of the kids I knew were going to buy it, even without any press. I don't think it really changed anything. Same deal with the Madden series moment. Now gaming companies expect gamers to throw down $50 a year for a few new features and updated rosters for many sports games. And gamers blindly do this.
This post is worthless without links to pics
What about Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British) and the early Ultima series? Those had to have been some of the best RPGs of their time and gave birth to RPGs on the PC.
And I know Elite had a great impact on me, "An Apple 2 can do this?!?"
..me deciding to read that instead of play halo.