Poll: Can someone please explain why Pong is good.

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Hey guys, I just saw a thread wondering why Half Life is good, and I've got a similar problem. Game webites always talk about how Pong was so "important" and "revolutionary" to gaming so I found it online to play, and it's such crap.

The graphics are pathetic, there's practically no story, it's too slow paced, the sound effects are minimal, and there's only one game mode that never changes. Can someone explain what's so great about it? Is it just me, or is Pong is a little overrated by its nostalgic fanboys?

[/totally not doing a straw-man argument here]

 

[Cridhe]

I sense many bans and warnings in this thread's future.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

Oh you crazy man you.

I kinda hope this thread takes off, Pong is pretty terrible imo.

 

[MysticToast]

This is great solely for the fact that I'm so sick of seeing those "Can someone expalain to me..." threads.

Bravo, OP

 

[FallenRainbows]

Anyone taking the bait?

 

[Captain Trek]

I may as well give this question a serious answer:

Pong is basically the same as the first cars, planes, steam locomotives, or films, which were all also primitive bits of crud, but were "revolutionary" in that they were the first to serve a particular function (Pong, for example, was the very first video game for a Hell of a lot of people), paving the way for the far, FAR superior stuff that would follow.

As for Pong itself, I personally feel that there's something to be said for the simple elegance of the game's design. Indeed, for early games such as Pac Man or Space Invaders, elegantly simple was really the ONLY way one could design a game.

If nothing else, I think the fact that you could waste five minutes playing Pong FOURTY years ago and can still equally validly waste five minutes playing Pong today says a lot. The underlying concept of games like Pong, Space Invaders, Tetris and Pac Man (the latter two especially) are so elegantly simple that it becomes impossible to render them obselete, as they are the foundations upon which virtually all other video-gaming is based.

 

[Shadu]

Well, sure, by today's standards, it is bad. If someone made it today, the creator would be laughed out of the office and put in an insane asylumn. But "back in the day," it was good, because there were few options, if any out there.

Do I play Pong now? No. Would I if I were sent back in time and it was brand new? Probably.

Aaaand I shall hold my tongue here. There are lots of other things I'd like to say, but shouldn't.

 

[Alexias_Sandar]

Why is it great? For one? You know, those games? The games you love? Without Pong and games like it they wouldn't have happened. Think about that. Was it the best game ever? No. However it was one of the first...and a necessary first step. Plus, hey, it's pretty fun, if basic. It's essentially an early sports game. It isn't supposed to be a story or plot. It's like playing, say, Madden, only an early example for table tennis. It's a short bit of fun. Nothing more...and nothing less.

 

[Cleariously]

Wow, there are people taking this thread seriously.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Subtle.

However, yes, the point is valid, you can't really hope to quantify something subjective.

Though, if the question wasn't "why is X good?" but "why do people think X is good?" and then went on to discuss, or at least mention, people's personal tastes, cultural climate PR and so on, it could worked better.

 

[are.you.the.god.its.me.vader]

Yeah, I didn't really "believe" the characters and motives.

Clearly a flawed game.

 

[Adamd1990]

I don't think anyone plans to feed this troll.

How do we report the actual thread? Am I completely overlooking a button or are the Mods pretty wary about all new threads? I've never actually known...

EDIT: It would appear I just about spoke too soon.

 

[lobster1077]

That's quality trolling. Could be a bit subtler though. =D

 

[RGman]

Haha, Pong... It's just a ripoff of the far superior Gnop.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Pong was excellent for it's time, but it got diluted with countless unwanted sequels and imitators. Its publisher started getting overzealous with re-releasing it over and over again with minor changes so much that it, along with Atari, killed the games industry. Seriously, it was dead...completely crashed. I mean, it got better, but that's because we learned our lesson.

Now we absolutely refuse to re-release the same game over and over again with minor changes. That, and we don't have major publishers that would take pride in milking something like that for all it's worth.

Anyone who says history repeats itself is wrong!

 

[Zhukov]

Someone needs to invent a way to buy someone a beer over the internet.

...

Also, yeah, at the end of the day Pong is pretty shit. After all, there isn't a single RPG element in sight!

Really, there's no denying that they dumbed it down for the console crowd,

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

its good because its fun?
anyway go troll somewhere else

 

[MPerce]

"practically no story"

That gave me a good giggle to start my day. Nice attempt at trolling, my good man, though it looks like no one took the bait.

 

[DracoSuave]

Pong's controls were crap, and should be replaced by a keyboard and mouse, the best of all control schemes.