A Very Brief History of Video Games

Some of those 8-bit Nintendo (NES) games from the 80s were really hard to beat. I remember losing myself in those worlds with my friends in the neighborhood when we weren’t playing outside, or playing D&D.

In order to knock out Mike Tyson, I needed to immerse myself in that world. I needed to focus 100% of my attention on the game; I had to be in the zone. The same was true whether I was gliding over a vine as Princess Toadstool (Super Mario 2), or guiding Raphael and Leonardo through a maze to find Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

Even some of the Atari 2600 games I’d had a chance to play with a few years earlier had the ability to grab all of my attention, although since graphics were much more limited, immersion took more willpower.

Today, you can put on a VR headset and be attacked by Zombies in a post-apocalyptic world, have real-time conversations with characters in the world, and immersion is almost instantaneous. You’re there, whether you focus on it or not. The world …