Fast Company - March 2012

VIDEO GAMES GO HIGHBROW

the recommender What are you loving this month?

KeNNeTh PaRKs

Chief content officer, Spotify

Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, by Ezra Vogel: “What’s happening in China is amazing, and Deng set it in motion.” 24/7 Flyers/ Rangers: “i’m a philly sports junkie, and this HBO series is really well done.”

Start, early ’80s So named for the post-arcade introduction of in-home gaming systems, this era introduced humanoid characters moving in realistic motion with such games as Pitfall. Says guest curator Chris Melissinos: “The mechanics of that character laid the groundwork for design that continues generation to generation.”

8-Bit, late ’80s An oversupply of low-quality games led to the video-game crash of 1983. (Seriously.) “it destroyed consumer support,” says game designer and critic ian Bogost. “nintendo’s nES recast games as toys to regain trust.” The adventure-like gameplay and colorful environments of Super Mario Bros. 3 ruled this era and introduced the terrain seen in modern gaming.

Bit War, early ’90s familiarity with processing speeds and storage on gaming systems triggered a war of sorts—everyone wanted to be bigger, better, and faster than everyone lse. “Super nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past offered a variety of gameplay mechanics as well as a handcrafted art style,” says Melis- sinos. Adds Bogost: “it tightened that experience to the point of ascendancy.”

PeTe holMes Comedian

@oldman search: “This guy told his 82-year-old father that Twitter is Google. if ‘ Regis philbin black wife?’ and ‘the newest vegetable’ searches don’t make you laugh, i don’t know what to do with you.” canvas4life .com: “i’ve never had anyone over to my house not leave with this website written down. it can make any image printed out on a canvas as big as you’d like. My apartment looks like a weird museum of album covers and comic-book frames.”

Next Generation, 2000s Welcome to the era of photo-realism and real-time 3-D. in 2007, Portal trig- gered a new concept of in-home gameplay—physics, fantasy, puzzle, and sci-fi wrapped in one. “it offers an opening to the video games we already know, but also to undiscovered terrain,” says Bogost.

Transition, late ’90s Remember Dreamcast? Shenmue, designed by Sega’s yu Suzuki, created an environment based on real-world weather and geographical characters of the late 1980s in yokosuka, Japan. “you could interact with anything,” says Melissinos. “it was one of the most ambitious open- world games of the era.”

Conference Calendar Ke Y (oU T oF 5): lEARnABiliTy SCHMOOzABiliTy COSTABiliTy

MaRch

5: Game Developers Conference, SAN FRANCISCO nearly 20,000 game designers, programmers, artists, and producers map the future of development at the world’s largest gaming conference.

13: NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program Technical Conference, CLEVELAND Rub shoulders with nASA researchers and aeronautics experts as they talk through the results of nASA’s latest out-of-this-world projects.

19: Wall Street Green Summit, NEW YORK Clean-tech investors trade tips on renewable-energy finance, carbon trading, carbon markets, and green investment.

26: Design West Summit, SAN JOSE Engineers talk electronics design for everything from the Android platform to security systems to lED and sensor tech.

8: GaugeCon, SAN FRANCISCO Geeks join up for a meeting on metrics with the Google Analytics team.

16: MIT Energy Conference, BOSTON leaders in tech, policy, energy, and finance showcase promising approaches for the future of global energy.

19: DrupalCon 2012, DENVER Drupal developers convene for a weeklong summit on leveraging the open-source CMS across mobile and tablet devices.

27: Social Media World Forum Europe, LONDON Share advice and insight on engaging customers, building brands, and capturing untapped audiences through social-media channels.