Sony proclaimed "the third generation of games"
Game Era 1.0 belonged to the classic computer games for consoles and PCs, the era of 2.0 corresponded to the multiplayer online worlds - we live in this era so far. But now Sony has announced a new revolution and the emergence of a third generation of games that will be created exclusively on user content. Games 3.0 .
Experts, however, note that the tools for creating custom games exist on the market a long time ago and here Sony did not invent anything new. She just knit together all the necessary elements.
The first software that allowed players to create their own games, appeared back in 1983. It was a Pinball Construction Set for the Apple II and 8-bit Atari. The publisher was then a young and young company Electronic Arts. As the name implies, the set was designed to construct pinball tables, and even the laws of physics could be edited there, writes BusinessWeek .
This was just the beginning. Soon, Racing Destruction Set (1985) and Adventure Construction Set (1986) appeared to create racing simulators and adventure games.
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Perhaps the most ambitious attempt to release a set to create custom games was Activision's GameMaker in 1985. Using the GUI, users could create animated sprites, background music, and graphics. A simple programming language allowed us to tie the plot together and publish a full-fledged standalone game.
The second generation of gaming tools came out under DOS already in the 90s with the advent of PWAD and level editors for Doom. This toolkit was so powerful that a keen gamer could create not only levels and monsters, but entire individual games. Pretty soon the first example appeared - the Aliens TC game based on the Doom engine, but with a completely different storyline. However, all these modifications required quite serious programming skills.
Custom mods were much more popular with the release of the QuakeC platform, all the more so since the Internet gained popularity, so that fans were able to communicate with each other. They created vast communities, and the best fashions (such as Team Fortress) quickly became famous and spread throughout the world. Moreover, the authors of the best mods received tempting job offers. From this point on, game developers realized that in order to make the game truly iconic, it is imperative that you include the tools for creating mods.
Modifications of games by users became normal, and such mods as Counter-Strike (an amateur modification of Half-Life) won the love of millions of gamers and became almost more popular than the original games on the basis of which they were made.
The last stage in the evolution of games came with the advent of Second Life. Residents of this virtual universe can create and publish their games in ways that seemed absolutely fantastic a few years ago.
What does Sony offer?
1. User Content.
2. Simple development tools.
3. Sharing content.
4. The community around the published content.
5. Commercialization of amateur development.
6. Mainstream industry support.
Absolutely nothing new. Three or four of these points were necessarily present in every attempt to bring UGC games to the market in previous years. Three or four, but no more. For example, in Second Life there are no simple tools for developing and supporting the gaming industry.
Sony's innovation is that it combines all six necessary items into one product. The flagship product of Game Era 3.0 should be the Little Big Planet game for PS3 (below is a four-minute trailer). However, how well Sony will cope with the popularization of the new concept, with the construction of the developer community, with the creation of a platform for sharing content - remains in question.
via BusinessWeek
Experts, however, note that the tools for creating custom games exist on the market a long time ago and here Sony did not invent anything new. She just knit together all the necessary elements.
The first software that allowed players to create their own games, appeared back in 1983. It was a Pinball Construction Set for the Apple II and 8-bit Atari. The publisher was then a young and young company Electronic Arts. As the name implies, the set was designed to construct pinball tables, and even the laws of physics could be edited there, writes BusinessWeek .
This was just the beginning. Soon, Racing Destruction Set (1985) and Adventure Construction Set (1986) appeared to create racing simulators and adventure games.
')
Perhaps the most ambitious attempt to release a set to create custom games was Activision's GameMaker in 1985. Using the GUI, users could create animated sprites, background music, and graphics. A simple programming language allowed us to tie the plot together and publish a full-fledged standalone game.
The second generation of gaming tools came out under DOS already in the 90s with the advent of PWAD and level editors for Doom. This toolkit was so powerful that a keen gamer could create not only levels and monsters, but entire individual games. Pretty soon the first example appeared - the Aliens TC game based on the Doom engine, but with a completely different storyline. However, all these modifications required quite serious programming skills.
Custom mods were much more popular with the release of the QuakeC platform, all the more so since the Internet gained popularity, so that fans were able to communicate with each other. They created vast communities, and the best fashions (such as Team Fortress) quickly became famous and spread throughout the world. Moreover, the authors of the best mods received tempting job offers. From this point on, game developers realized that in order to make the game truly iconic, it is imperative that you include the tools for creating mods.
Modifications of games by users became normal, and such mods as Counter-Strike (an amateur modification of Half-Life) won the love of millions of gamers and became almost more popular than the original games on the basis of which they were made.
The last stage in the evolution of games came with the advent of Second Life. Residents of this virtual universe can create and publish their games in ways that seemed absolutely fantastic a few years ago.
What does Sony offer?
1. User Content.
2. Simple development tools.
3. Sharing content.
4. The community around the published content.
5. Commercialization of amateur development.
6. Mainstream industry support.
Absolutely nothing new. Three or four of these points were necessarily present in every attempt to bring UGC games to the market in previous years. Three or four, but no more. For example, in Second Life there are no simple tools for developing and supporting the gaming industry.
Sony's innovation is that it combines all six necessary items into one product. The flagship product of Game Era 3.0 should be the Little Big Planet game for PS3 (below is a four-minute trailer). However, how well Sony will cope with the popularization of the new concept, with the construction of the developer community, with the creation of a platform for sharing content - remains in question.
via BusinessWeek
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/6344/
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