So all the game's graphic violence, the blood, the fatalities -- that's what led a lot of parents and legislators to be upset specifically about Mortal Kombat. It was games like this that led to the Electronic Software Ratings Board, or ESRB. Ooh, see? That's why-- see? That-- [laughs] That right there is why we now have ratings on our video games. See?
And that's why I could only play the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat in my home and why some of my friends got the Genesis version. And let's talk about the ESRB for a second. The ESRB, much like the MPAA, is a self-regulating organisation that assigns age and content ratings to computer and video games. And, just like the MPAA, it has become the standard of the industry. Now, we're not here to talk about if this is a good thing or a bad thing but rather the fact that in 1994, it was even a thing. The ESRB's need for a rating scale showed that games were not only containing more mature content but that they were also gaining a much wider audience this website. People who weren't playing video games even knew about video games and what were in them. Like movies, comic books, and music before it, games were going mainstream, and people noticed. Speaking of more mature games, Doom was released on the PC in 1993. Once again, players and non-players reacted very differently. The game's violence and "evil" imagery caused a media uproar. For example, on CBS' Sixty Minutes, a former army colonel called the game "a mass murder simulator" and tried to connect the game directly to the 1999 school shootings in Columbine, Colorado. So Doom was controversial but no-one disputes that it was also hugely influential in the world of video game design. It was a major improvement on the first-person shooter and its wide popularity brought a lot of gamers to the genre. The game was praised for its level design and its overall gameplay but it innovated in a number of important ways. Doom was an early example of the use of 3D elements in video games. Sure, some people say the game wasn't purely 3D and had some 2D elements but the experience of running through 3D rendered hallways was new and deeply appealing to players. Doom was also one of the first games to successfully make use of network play. Players could compete over the internet. The extremely popular online arena matches were called deathmatches, now a standard term in the online FPS world. The other big innovation in Doom was the modification system. Players could edit or "mod" the levels that came with the game, or they could create levels from scratch. This was a very popular feature and it shaped the video game industry for years to come. Many game designers had their first taste of creating games while making levels for Doom. Wow, game modification, online play, fighting games, 16-bit consoles, portable systems, super fast hedgehogs! The 90s saw a number of huge leaps forward for the video game industry and we've only talked about the first half of the decade! Next week, we'll see the entry of a major new player to the console market, the adoption of CD-ROM technology and the rapid evolution of 3D gaming that would play out on the next generation of consoles. And there's another war.
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