photo by RickRey
In this article, Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, cites Breakout as his all-time favorite video game. Bushnell believes the game is a metaphor for breaking down barriers between people; something its creator, Steve Jobs–Atari employee number thirteen (who imfamously cheated Woz out of a bonus when Woz designed the prototype for him)– would later take beyond mere metaphor with his founding of Apple, a truly pioneering technology company that democratized personal computing and continues to break down barriers.
Apparently Bushnell doesn’t think much of modern video games which, sounding more like Abe Simpson than the founder of Atari, he dismisses out-of-hand as ”pure unadulterated trash”. Bushnell would like to see more emphasis placed on social gaming and a return to simpler games that involve the whole family, which is a problem his new venture, uWink, purports to solve. However, when I talk to my friends who have an XBox 360 (I have a PS3 and a Wii), one of the main benefits for them, whether the game is the new Halo 3 or Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, is the social interaction they get through online co-op play.
The reality is that there is a market for both types of games and, for as many different types of games as now exist, there are probably an equal number of different types of gamers. For proof, look no further than the breakout success of the Nintendo Wii, beloved by all, ages 2-102; casual gamers can bowl or play tennis or indulge in retrogaming while hardcore gamers can kill zombies.
What all of these games have in common is that they bring people together in real or imagined spaces for fun. The amazing richness and diversity of modern gaming is something that should be celebrated not denigrated. It’s unfortunate then when one of the true fathers of computer video games doesn’t recognize this and won’t speak to his children.
