thread: 2012-03-15 : Monster Mania Con
On 2012-03-17, Amphiprison wrote:
Ooh! Game history! Story time!
People had plenty of time in the Twenties, so had lots of opportunities to play games- due to wealth before the Depression, and due to unemployment after. Once World War II hit, the US didn't feel like playing games so much- other stuff to do, less raw materials (and less Workers due to Bullets and Going Abroad To Shoot Them!) available to make games.
Once all those vets came home, they kinda needed something to occupy their time so they didn't dwell on their past experiences and become all shell-shocked. And there were a *lot* of vets- enough to come home and make enough babies to saddle us with the Baby Boomer generation. Boom, like the sound a Bomb makes in Wartime, or the sound of 70 million retirees slamming into the Social Security system.
Anyway. Some vets generally did the sort of things they did before. Others generally did Wargaming (which spawned RPGs) and Historical Re-Enactment (which arguably had something to do with LARPing). Some others did Hobbies, which are like Games but not so much. Hobbyists and Gamers have a lot in common because both are historically Time-Intensive Leisure Activities that lend themselves to an obsessive level of interest.
But anyhow. TV is easier, cheaper, and minute by minute offered more entertainment to people than bridge or Monopoly or whatever. Only recently are US game designers rolling up their sleeves and making games that are fun enough to compete with the Magical Sound And Picture Box. (German game designers, who had far more free time on their hands due to a Completely Borked Postwar Economy, have been working hard on games for quite some time, just not the kind where you pretend to be an Elf.)
On the downside, the economy is kinda circling the bowl. On the upside, that means people have more free time, and ever since people found out that letting the Magic Box raise your kids makes them Weird and Hyper, games suddenly seem like a great idea! People are even figuring out that games where you Settle Islands and Trade Nicely With Others are probably better for kids (and more fun to play with kids) than games where you Give Headshots to Aliens or Drive Everyone Else Bankrupt.
If you think people like playing Games now, just you wait till the 2.3 million folks who are just getting back from War in Iraq and Afghanistan make some babies! It doesn't sound as cool as 70 Million Babies, until you figure that the declining US birth rate is going to skew those numbers around quite a bit. You want a readymade audience, prep some games for those kids...
