Computer games have been continually evolving since they have emerged on our market. During the era of Asteroids, Galaga, and Pong, no one could have possibly imagined how quickly this industry would evolve. Now, games have become so complex that you can control almost every aspect of gameplay, buttons are pressure sensitive, and even the graphics look painstakingly close to real life.
One computer game that I remember playing in my childhood was a game called “Lemmings”. In this game you controlled a tribe of these creatures, and your goal was to get them from one point to another. These Lemmings would walk in a continual path, and the user would control them with a variety of different actions that could be applied to each one. You had to get a certain number of Lemmings to the finish point so that you could move on to the next level. When you applied an action to a Lemming, the Lemming would complete a specific task. Some of these tasks included digging tunnels, building bridges, bombing certain areas, and climbing walls. The format of the game was very linear in multiple aspects. The lemmings always walked on a straight path, and the goal was always the same.
As technology advances, the possibilities of gaming increase exponentially. The more recent game called Warcraft III is based on some of the same principles of Lemmings, but it is much more complex. In Warcraft, your goal is to destroy your enemies in battle, by whatever means possible. While these two games might seem different, they have many similarities. First of all, in both games you are controlling a large group of individual units. Each unit is capable of completing different tasks, and you play the role their leader, controlling everything. Warcraft is a lot less linear than Lemmings in the fact that you can have your units move any direction in a 3D space. Both of these games have a relatively similar interface though. In both, the game play window rests on top of another window that contains commands, a map, and status information. This is essentially where you command your troops in both games. Warcraft’s interface was definitely influenced by Lemmings and other games of a similar vein.
Overall, these two games are an interesting comparison in the evolution of the video game and the virtual environment. There are many similar aspects in both of these games, including the interface, the basic goals, and the way that you interact with the game.