The biggest innovation in videogame history??

What do you think is the biggest thing that has changed videogames as we know it?

Mine is the introduction of disc based games. They allow so many different things to be done in games.

What do you think is the biggest innovation?

The directional pad or "D-pad." It was first introduced by the Famicom in 1983, and I felt it revolutionized gaming, as every video game console since uses it in some way.

When I first used the D-pad when I played the NES in 1986 (I was eleven years old at the time), it was something I had not experienced before as I was so used to the joystick controls in the Atari 2600 (previously Atari VCS) and Atari 5200.

Online play. I don't mean split-screen, I mean true online where you are playing people across the country/worldbamafan1359

I'd have to go with this also

Its hard to pick one. I'd say there are three innovations of equal weight.

1) Optical disks. The size/cost of development for a big budget game has greatly increased, but we are still paying less for PS3/X360 games than we paid for N64 games.

2) 3D graphics - I got nothing against 2D (Patapon is kickbutt) but the ability to approach/view something from any direction is really, really cool.

3) The internet - MS showed the world that the internet and consoles could work together. Since arcades are dead in the US, the only way to play against strangers nowadays is online. Also, the internet has offer developers a cheap means of distributing games, which has translated into the PS3 and X360 seeing more budget games (and at a lower price) than the PS1 and the PS2 (both vastly more popular systems) did in their entire existence.

~ D-pad

~ Analogue Stick

~ 3D

It'd be 3D graphics technology. While control schemes and (different means of) media storage have had big impacts, they're not nearly as big of a deal as 3D graphics technology. The 3D graphics technology has become so important that it's simply taken for granted.

You can't even get common agreement on a perferred control scheme. Many of us would rather play games using the keyboard and mouse, and that's simply a contrivance of the game being built for the PC.

Disc-based games are a great conveinence, but it wasn't an innovation because of video games. It was simply more economically viable to do what the rest of the software industry was doing.

The change from 2D games to 3D. The realism was not there, but in a few years amazing games came out for consoles and the computer.ChicaQueenWarGa

I agree

The single biggest innovation is the ability to SAVE.

Without the little battery pack in the cartridges, memory card or hard drive, no one could save their games. No saved charactors, profiles, content, games, quicksaves.

Think about it.

i wont say online gaming so much as just the internet in general. it isnt even a gaming innovation, but it has completely revolutionized gaming. all of these websites, all of the information sharing, it has grown gaming from a hobby into a full on entertainment medium.

the internet is the single biggest innovation of our lifetimes and to me it has impacted gaming in the biggest way. i tried to think of a single gaming innovation that has had an equal impact and there are really none. gaming has been mostly the same for a long long time. thats my .02 anyway.

The single biggest innovation is the ability to SAVE.

Without the little battery pack in the cartridges, memory card or hard drive, no one could save their games. No saved charactors, profiles, content, games, quicksaves.

Think about it.

JetLagz28

Cpying lengthy passwords and trying not to get 5s and Ss and Is and 1s and 0s and Os mixed up really, really sucked.

[QUOTE="JetLagz28"]

The single biggest innovation is the ability to SAVE.

Without the little battery pack in the cartridges, memory card or hard drive, no one could save their games. No saved charactors, profiles, content, games, quicksaves.

Think about it.

CarnageHeart

Cpying lengthy passwords and trying not to get 5s and Ss and Is and 1s and 0s and Os mixed up really, really sucked.

especially in 8 bit games :P

ButtensCrackerMcGee

What the hell are BUTTens?