Stephen LaGrange English 357 9/12/2012

How Video Games Influenced Technology?

Description The timeline that I have chosen to analyze is titled How Pong Invented the Internet and comes from the November 2004 Issue of Wired Magazine. The Graphic was created by Matthew Stibbe who writes about science and technology for many popular magazines. The Info-graphic is a two page feature that describes the secret history of computer games and how they may have inadvertently helped create the internet. How Pong Invented the Internet is really just one of the many stories that is presented in this graphic craziness. I can see why Wired magazine would publish this type of graphic, because it relates to almost all types of digital entertainment. The graphic is overwhelming at first glance because there is just so much information and history packed into it. There are so many connections displayed that there is almost an infinite number of ways to interpret it. Not only does this graphic timeline connect the history of the most popular videogames, but also the organizations and people responsible for creating them. The big

point that I take away from this graphic is that video games have influenced a lot more than just the internet. They have created the networks between people that are responsible for almost all of our modern technology. Analysis Most of the images used in the graphic are very iconic logos from different games and organizations. There is also a little Icon used to represent different people that are described on the timeline. The other parts that make up the bulk of the graphic are a series of lines and colors that are used to help sort out the information. The picture on the left shows how I would classify this graphic on Scott McCloudss Abstraction Triangle. It is inbetween the range of iconic and iconic leaning more towards the iconic side. Almost everything in the graphic is a representation of someone or something in a very iconic way. The combination of the lines, colors, and shapes makes it somewhat of an abstraction. Closure Based on Scott McClouds definitions of closure it is hard to classify exactly what type of closure this graphic uses because there are multiple ways to interpret it. It is really up to the viewer to decide what way they want to read the information. When you look at the center part of the timeline and follow it in chronological order it acts like a subject to subject. As you can see in the example the pong line stays within the same idea by taking us in chronological order to the next video game Zork. When you look at one of the icons randomly and follow the line to the next icon and the next line to the next icon and so on it turns into a scene to scene closure. As you can see in the 2nd example the dotted line that shoots out of Pong takes us back across the timeline back to Atari. The closure is key here and it is mainly up to the reader to determine how each line connects to its different subjects and the significance of that connection. It is easier to describe the graphic as a combination of both closures rather than grouping it into just one category.

Subject to Subject

Scene to Scene

Word Picture Based on Scott Mclouds definitions of word picture combinations, this graphic would be best described as Picture Specific. This means that words basically add little more than a soundtrack to a visually told sequence. In this example the main overall image dominates the page and the paragraph at the beginning adds the soundtrack. I would say that the image alone could tell the whole story, but the words in the paragraph give us a nice description of how one could go about interpreting the information. It is also possible to describe this as an additive word picture combination with the paragraph amplifying the image. The paragraph gives us a more of an in depth description of some of the subjects in the image. It is hard to say that you would not make the connections described in the paragraph without it, but the paragraph could definitely not stand alone without the graphic. Time Time is represented by a straight line that runs across the center of the page. The line is marked by the dates of some of the most iconic and popular games that have ever come out. The dates that are given for those games are the basis to judge roughly where all of the other items belong in time. The graphic is not super specific about each item, but it gives you a very good idea what time period they are in. You can see in the example below how the iconic games make up the basis for the timeline

Lines + Color In this graphic lines and color really go hand and hand. There are six colors used in the graphic and each one represents a different group. Each icon in the graphic is represented by one of the six colors. This helps sort out each of the icons represented and makes it a lot easier to recognize if it is a game, organization, person, and so on. Each icon on the graphic also has lines drawn from it that connect to another icon. The lines represent a connection between the two icons. The graphic is not super specific about what that connection is, but it lets you more or less fill in the blanks. For instance it is pretty safe to assume that if a person is connected to a game, they probably had something to do with the development of the game. Also the lines used to connect the icons together are the same color as the icon they came from. For example if there is a blue line going into an orange icon that means that an organization has some

kind of a connection with a game. You can see in the example below that Nintendo has a line drawn to Mario, Nintendos most recognizable game character. There is also a dotted line that is used to describe the main idea of the article, how Pong invented the internet. The main purpose of all of this is to show graphically what and who influenced what.

Content Analysis The graphic is very successful at informing, persuading, and entertaining. The information in the graphic gives you a good idea of when all of these different things came out and gained popularity. When they are all put together in such a manner it really shows you how far the technology has come in such a short period of time. It is amazing to see the networks that have been created and what has influenced all of these people to create all of these different things. It is also very persuasive by showing how the game Pong might have actually had some influence in the creation of the internet. I would also argue that the graphic shows how some of the early video games influenced much of the games, videos, and technology that we enjoy today. The graphic is very entertaining and engaging. It is an explosion of graphics, color, and lines that makes you want to keep looking. I like to pick out one icon and follow the connecting lines with my finger like a maze. Evaluate Overall I thought this was a great representation of information. I cant think of another way to compare and connect so many different things together without using a million words. The amazing thing is besides the opening paragraph there are very few words in the entire graphic. The timeline really makes me think about why technology has gotten so advanced. Based on the timeline it seems like one of the big reasons is to make bigger and better games. These early games really sparked the computer industry and I dont believe we would have what we do now without these early touchstones. This graphic is a great representation of the history of video games and how they influenced technology and digital media.

Sources
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Northampton, MA: Tundra Pub., 1993. Print.

Stibbe, Matthew. "Wired 12.11: START." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, Nov. 2004. Web. 12 Sept. 2012. <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/start.html?pg=5>.

"MATTHEW STIBBE." Matthew Stibbe. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2012. <http://www.stibbe.net/>.