Role-playing games (RPGs) became popular
again with the 1996 release ofDiablo, an action RPG.
The player guides a lone hero through sixteen dun-
geon levels to face the demon Diablo. In 1998,
Baldur’s Gate, one of the greatest single-player RPG
games ever, was released. This game revolves around
a child who makes moral choices in battle and mis-
fortune. First released in 1996 in Japan,Pokémonwas
Nintendo’s RPG series for the Game Boy. This game
of capturing and training Pokémon (short for
“pocket monsters”) creatures started a craze upon
arrival in the United States in 1998.
Finally, the maturation of the World Wide Web
brought video games to the Internet. Although
media elements were limited by bandwidth, game
designers could distribute their work more freely
than ever before. Variations of the early arcade
games often reappeared in this new setting. In ad-
dition to downloadable games, some games could
be played on the Web by utilizing plug-ins for Web
browsers. The first commercially successful mas-
sive multiplayer online game was Ultima Online
(1997), followed by Asheron’s Calland EverQuest
in 1999.Impact In the 1990’s, video game hardware and
software became more sophisticated, and video
games became firmly established as a lucrative in-
dustry, with best sellers in various genres. The fifth
generation (32- and 64-bit era) of game systems oc-
curred and the sixth generation (128-bit) began.
Nintendo’s Game Boy sold millions of units. In 1999,
video game industry sales reached $6.9 billion in the
United States.
Although ubiquitous and profitable, video games
caused concerns about their social and psychologi-
cal effects. In 1993, in response to the ultraviolent
Mortal KombatandNight Trap(1992), the Senate
launched an investigation. Consequently, the Enter-
tainment Software Rating Board was established in898 Video games The Nineties in America
Players compete in a video game World Series at the Nintendo headquarters in Redmond, Washington, in 1994.(AP/Wide World
Photos)