Doom, Myst, and the War for the Soul of Video Games
In the 1990s, Myst and Doom fought a war for the soul of video games. Myst sold almost twice as many copies. Within ten years, the entire industry had remodeled itself around Doom.
Special call out to Jimmy Maher at the Digital Antiquarian (https://filfre.net) whose work covering early video games I drew on extensively.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Computer Programming Used to Be Women's Work: https://www.history.com/news/coding-u..., https://www.npr.org/sections/money/20..., https://qz.com/911737/silicon-valleys...
Sierra c-founder Ken Williams on the future of the medium: https://community.telltale.com/discus...]
On the development and reception of Wolfenstein 3D: https://www.filfre.net/2020/05/the-sh...
On Doom: https://www.filfre.net/2020/06/the-sh...
On Myst: https://www.filfre.net/2020/02/myst-o...
On Doom: https://www.filfre.net/2020/06/the-sh...
Computer ownership in the 1990s: https://www.bls.gov/cex/research_pape...
Example list of the most popular games: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life...
Feminist Frequency, feminist critique of gaming and target of GamerGate: https://feministfrequency.com/
More about GamerGate: https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/..., https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/...