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Counter-Strike series

GamesGoldSrcCounter-Strike (Beta • Patches • Xbox) Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (Deleted Scenes • Development)SourceCounter-Strike: Source • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Beta)Source 2Counter-Strike 2 (Limited Test)Spin-offsGoldSrc*Counter-Strike Neo* • Counter-Strike OnlineSourceCounter-Strike Online 2DevelopersActiveValve Corporation • Hidden Path Entertainment • Turtle Rock Studios • NEXON Corporation • Gearbox SoftwareDefunctBarking Dog Studios • Ritual Entertainment • Rogue Entertainment

[e][h]Counter-Strike 2

Game Information

Developer:

Valve Corporation

Release Date(s):

Summer 2023

Platforms:

Microsoft Windows

Links

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00:05/01:44

Counter-Strike 2 (abbreviated CS2) is an upcoming online first-person shooter developed by Valve Corporation. It is the fifth official game in the main Counter-Strike series and the eigth game in all, being the successor to Global Offensive. The game is currently in a "Limited Test" for Microsoft Windows after being announced to the public on March 22, 2023, with a release date set for Summer 2023.

Game Modes

CS2 features the same five game modes for online and offline play as Global Offensive.

Deathmatch

Deathmatch is a versus mode featuring instant respawning with the ability to purchase any primary and secondary weapons with no regards to the money economy. Each match lasts 10 minutes and can be played on all CS:GO maps regardless of their original intended game mode. The team with the highest points wins the round.

Arms Race

Arms Race is a gun-progression mode featuring instant respawning and many close-quarter combat situations. After registering two kills with each weapon, players receive their next one immediately as they work their way through each weapon in the game. Getting one kill with the final weapon, a golden knife, will make the final killer win the match.

Demolition

In the Demolition mode, the teams take turns attacking and defending a single bombsite in a series of maps designed for fast-paced gameplay. Players are automatically granted a starting weapon, and advance through a sequence of firearms when they register a kill. If you’re up for the challenge, you can try to get a kill each round and reach the ultimate weapons, powerful sniper rifles!

Classic modes provide 5 versus 5 competition in a best-of-30 rounds match in either Defuse or Hostage missions. In the beginning of each round, players can purchase weapons and gear with money earned from various actions from killing an opponent to completing an objective. In the Casual mode, players automatically receive body armor and defuse kits.

• Competitive

Competitive mode puts players in a competitive game in which they can rank up or down. The player is labeled as "Unranked" until achieving their first 10 wins in the gamemode. Prior to reaching this, each two games won will give the player a temporary cooldown for 21 hours. It is in a first to 16 out of 30 rounds format (16/30.) Ranks range from Silver I which is the lowest rank to The Global Elite which is the highest rank.

• Defuse Mode

In the Defuse mode, players compete against each other in a bomb defusal game. If time runs out prior to planting the bomb, the bomb is defused, or if all the terrorists are dead before the bomb was planted, the Counter-Terrorists win. If the bomb is successfully blown up or if all the CTs are killed prior to time running out, the Terrorists win.

• Hostage Rescue

In Hostage Rescue, players go against each other in a hostage rescue mission. If hostages are harmed, the player who inflicted the damage loses money. CS:GO introduces the ability to carry the hostages, where older titles had the hostages simply follow the player. Once a hostage is picked up, the round receives additional time. If the hostages are rescued or if the terrorists are killed before time runs out, the Counter-Terrorists win. If the Counter-Terrorists die, the Terrorists win.

Wingman

The Wingman game mode consists of 2 versus 2 Competitive matches on modified maps with only one bombsite in a best-of-16 game.

In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally generated, three-dimensional world with virtually infinite terrain and may discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures, earthworks, and machines. Depending on their chosen game mode, players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. Game modes include a survival mode (in which players must acquire resources to build in the world and maintain health) and a creative mode (in which players have unlimited resources and access to flight). There is also a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities.

Minecraft has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and later being cited as one of the greatest video games ever created. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions played prominent roles in popularizing the game. The game has also been used in educational environments to teach chemistry, computer-aided design, and computer science. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Several spin-offs have also been made, including Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft Earth, and the upcoming Minecraft Legends.

Gameplay

Minecraft is a 3D sandbox game that has no required goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.[17] However, there is an achievement system,[18] known as "advancements" in the Java Edition of the game, and "trophies" on the PlayStation ports.[19] Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of a third-person perspective.[20] The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can "mine" blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things.[21] Many commentators have described the game's physics system as unrealistic.[22] The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems.[23]

An example of Minecraft's procedurally generated terrain, including a village and the default skin Steve

The game world is virtually infinite and procedurally generated as players explore it, using a map seed that is obtained from the system clock at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player).[24][25][26] There are limits on vertical movement, but Minecraft allows an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane. Due to technical issues when extremely distant locations are reached, however, there is a barrier preventing players from traversing to locations beyond 30 million blocks from the center.[i][obsolete source] The game achieves this by splitting the world data into smaller 16 by 16 sections called "chunks" that are only created or loaded when players are nearby.[24] The world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields;[27][28] the terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and bodies of water or lava.[26] The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes.

When starting a new world, players must choose one of five game modes, as well as one of four difficulties, ranging from "Peaceful" to "Hard". Increasing the difficulty of the game causes the player to take more damage from mobs, as well as having other difficulty-specific effects. For example, the Peaceful difficulty prevents hostile mobs from spawning, and the Hard difficulty allows players to starve to death if their hunger bar is depleted.[29] Once selected, the difficulty can be changed, but the game mode is locked and can only be changed with cheats.

Some of Minecraft's monsters, displayed from left to right: a zombie, a spider, an enderman, a creeper, and a skeleton

New players are given a randomly selected default character skin out of 9 possibilities, including Steve or Alex,[30] but the option to create custom skins was made available in 2010.[31] Players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures.[32] Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the daytime, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves.[26] Some hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear.[33] Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks).[34] There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively.[35]

Minecraft has two alternative dimensions besides the Overworld (the main world): the Nether and the End.[34] The Nether is a hell-like underworld dimension accessed via player-built obsidian portals; it contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the Overworld, due to every block traveled in the Nether being equivalent to 8 blocks traveled in the Overworld.[36] Water cannot exist in the Nether, as it will vaporize instantly.[37] The Nether is mainly populated by pigman-like mobs called piglins and their zombified counterparts, plus floating balloon-like mobs called ghasts.[38] The player can also build an optional boss mob called The Wither out of materials found in the Nether.[39]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:End Poem

The End is reached by underground portals in the Overworld. It consists of islands floating above a dark, bottomless void. A boss dragon called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island.[40] Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which upon entering cues the game's ending credits and a poem (the "End Poem") written by Irish novelist Julian Gough.[41][j] Players are then teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely.[43]

Game modes

Survival mode

The crafting menu in Minecraft, showing the crafting recipe of a stone axe as well as some other blocks and items in the player's inventory

In survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items.[26] Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter at night.[26] The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events.[44] Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game (except in peaceful difficulty).[44][45] If the hunger bar is depleted, automatic healing will stop and eventually health will deplete. Health replenishes when players have a nearly full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful difficulty.[45][46]

Players can craft a wide variety of items in Minecraft. Craftable items include armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or axes), which allows monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or hoes), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. Players can construct furnaces, which can cook food, process ores, and convert materials into other materials.[47] Players may also exchange goods with a villager (NPC) through a trading system, which involves trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa.[48][32]

The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items.[49] Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be reset by sleeping in a bed (in the overworld)[50] or using a respawn anchor(in the Nether).[51] Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they disappear or despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, breeding animals, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons.[29] Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects.[29]

Creative mode

In creative mode, players have access to nearly all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or remove them instantly.[52] Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters do not take any damage and are not affected by hunger.[53][54] The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance.[52]

Other game modes

Minecraft includes other game modes such as spectator mode, which allows players to fly through blocks. Hardcore mode is a survival mode variant in which, upon death, the player may only view the world in spectator mode or return to the game’s menu. This is only available in Java edition, however. Adventure mode is a survival mode variant with possible restrictions added by a creator of a map.[55][56][57]

Multiplayer

See also: Minecraft server

Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, LAN play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted).[58] Players can run their own servers, use a hosting provider, or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live. Single-player worlds have local area network support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup.[59] Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server.[58] Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players.[60][61] Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players.[62] Many servers have custom plugins that allow actions that are not normally possible.

Minecraft Realms

In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own.[63][64] Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use IP addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time.[65] The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps.[66] Minecraft Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps.[65] At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016,[67] with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017,[68] and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play.[69] Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018.[70]

Customization

See also: Minecraft modding

A smeltery within the mod Tinkers' Construct

The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms.[71][72] The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as minimaps,[73] waypoints, and durability counters,[74] to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds.[75] Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) which often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play.[76] Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012[77] and "command blocks" in October 2012,[78] which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new advancements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, world generation settings, and biomes‌.[79][80]

The Xbox 360 Edition supports downloadable content, which is available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contain additional character skins.[81] It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combines texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface.[82] The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise.[83] Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition does not support player-made mods or custom maps.[84] A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016.[85] A mash-up pack based on Fallout was announced for release on the Wii U Edition.[86] In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game.[87][88] Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive.[88][87] Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself",[87] and would only run when the image containing the skin itself was opened.[89]

In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the "Discovery Update" to the Bedrock version of the game.[90] The update includes a new map, a new game mode, the "Marketplace", a catalogue of user-generated content that gives Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game", and more.[91][92][93]

Development

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson at the GDC in 2016

Minecraft lead designer and creative director Jens "Jeb" Bergensten in 2011

Java Edition major update release timelinePre-release years in red2009Pre-ClassicClassicSurvival Test2010IndevInfdevAlphaBeta2011Beta1.0: "Adventure Update"20121.11.21.31.4: "Pretty Scary Update"20131.5: "Redstone Update"1.6: "Horse Update"1.7: "The Update that Changed the World"20141.8: "Bountiful Update"201520161.9: "Combat Update"1.10: "Frostburn Update"1.11: "Exploration Update"20171.12: "World of Color Update"20181.13: "Update Aquatic"20191.14: "Village & Pillage"1.15: "Buzzy Bees"20201.16: "Nether Update"20211.17: "Caves & Cliffs: Part I"1.18: "Caves & Cliffs: Part II"20221.19: "The Wild Update"20231.20: "Trails & Tales"

Before coming up with Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer with King through March 2009, at the time serving mostly browser games, during which he learnt a number of different programming languages.[94] He would prototype his own games during his off-hours at home, often based on inspiration he found from other games, and participated frequently on the TIGSource forums for independent developers.[94] One of these personal projects was called "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but as an isometric three dimensional game like RollerCoaster Tycoon.[95] He had already made a 3D texture mapper for another zombie game prototype he had started to try to emulate the style of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.[96] Among the features in "RubyDung" he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper but at the time, felt the graphics were too pixelated and omitted this mode.[96][97] Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, but otherwise kept working on his prototypes.[98][97][99]

Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, sparked Persson's inspiration for how to take "RubyDung" forward.[96] Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals.[96] However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements.[100]

The original edition of Minecraft, now known as the Java Edition, was first developed in May 2009. Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of Minecraft.[96][101] The base program of Minecraft was completed by Persson over a weekend in that month and a private testing was released on TigIRC on 16 May 2009.[102] The game was first released to the public on 17 May 2009 as a developmental release on TIGSource forums.[103] Persson updated the game based on feedback from the forums.[94][104] This version later became known as the Classic version.[105] Further developmental phases dubbed as Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev were released in 2009 and 2010.[97]

The first major update, dubbed Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010.[106][107] Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later quit in order to work on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version of the game expanded.[108] Persson continued to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. These updates included new items, new blocks, new mobs, survival mode, and changes to the game's behavior (e.g. how water flows).[108] To back the development of Minecraft, Persson set up a video game company, Mojang, with the money earned from the game.[109][110][111] Mojang co-founders included Jakob Porser, one of Persson's coworkers from King, and Carl Manneh, jAlbum's CEO.[94]

On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft was entering its beta testing phase on 20 December 2010.[112] He further stated that bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free.[113] Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees to work on the project.[114]

Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011.[115] On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer.[116] On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the popular "Bukkit" developer API for Minecraft,[62] to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications.[117] This acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod which enables the use of Bukkit,[118] although the validity of this claim was questioned due to its status as an open-source project with many contributors, licensed under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License.[119]

On 15 September 2014, Microsoft announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of the Minecraft intellectual property.[120][121][122] The deal was suggested by Persson when he posted a tweet asking a corporation to buy his share of the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end-user license agreement (EULA), which had been present in the EULA in the prior three years.[123][124][125] According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts.[125] The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires".[126][127][128][125]

Since the first full release of Minecraft, dubbed the "Adventure Update", the game has been continuously updated with many major updates, available for free to users who have already purchased the game.[129] Early updates frequently introduced gameplay-altering mechanics while more recent updates tend to enhance the game through additional content or tweaks to existing features.[130][better source needed] The most recent major update to the game was "The Wild Update", which released in June 2022 and added new creatures, biomes, and items.[131]

The original version of the game was renamed to Minecraft: Java Edition on 18 September 2017 to separate it from Bedrock Edition, which was renamed to just Minecraft by the Better Together Update.[132]

The Bedrock Edition has also been regularly updated, with these updates now matching the themes of Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game such as the various console editions and Pocket Edition were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and as such have not received further updates.[132]

On 16 April 2020, a beta version of Minecraft implementing physically based rendering, ray tracing, and DLSS was released by Nvidia on RTX-enabled GPUs.[133] The final version was released on 8 December 2020.[134]

Minecraft: Pocket Edition

In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the Xperia Play on the Android Market as an early alpha version. It was then released for several other compatible devices on 8 October 2011.[135][136] An iOS version of Minecraft was released on 17 November 2011.[137] A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang.[138] The port concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game and does not contain all the features of the PC release. On his Twitter account, Jens Bergensten said that the Pocket Edition of Minecraft is written in C++ and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java.[139] However, there now exists a way to play Java Edition on both Android and iOS devices.[140][141]

On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1.[142] In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition.[143] On 19 December 2016, the full version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

Pocket Edition was replaced by Minecraft: Bedrock Edition in 2017, enabling cross-platform play with the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch Editions.[144]

Legacy Console Editions

An Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by 4J Studios, was released on 9 May 2012.[145][146] On 22 March 2012, it was announced that Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called Arcade NEXT.[146] The game differs from the home computer versions in a number of ways, including a newly designed crafting system, the control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and the ability to play with friends via Xbox Live.[147][148] The worlds in the Xbox 360 version are also not "infinite", and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls.[148] The Xbox 360 version was originally similar in content to older PC versions, but was gradually updated to bring it closer to the current PC version prior to its discontinuation.[145][149][150] An Xbox One version featuring larger worlds among other enhancements[151] was released on 5 September 2014.[151]

Versions of the game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 were released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014 respectively.[7] The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was eventually delayed.[152][153] A version for PlayStation Vita was also released in October 2014.[154] Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios.[155]

On 17 December 2015, Minecraft: Wii U Edition was released. The Wii U version received a physical release on 17 June 2016 in North America,[156] in Japan on 23 June 2016,[157] and in Europe on 30 June 2016.[158] A Nintendo Switch version of the game was released on the Nintendo eShop on 11 May 2017, along with a physical retail version set for a later date.[159] During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is only compatible with the "New" versions of the 3DS and 2DS systems and does not work with the original 3DS, 3DS XL, or the old 2DS.[14]

On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update was released on the Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile versions of the game, which used the Pocket Edition engine to enable cross-platform play between each of these versions. This version of the game eventually became known as the Bedrock Edition.[160] Shortly after, the Bedrock Edition was also ported to the Nintendo Switch.

On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as Legacy Console Editions.[161]

On 15 January 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft received its final update, effectively becoming discontinued as well.[162]

The PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft was updated in December 2019 and became part of the Bedrock Edition, which enabled cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account.[163]

Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education (known as Minecraft: Education Edition until December 2022)[164] is an educational version of the game, designed specifically for use in educational establishments such as schools, and built off of the Bedrock Edition codebase. It is available on Windows 10, MacOS, iPadOS, and ChromeOS.[165][166] It includes a Chemistry Resource Pack,[167] free lesson plans available online, and two free companion applications: Code Connection and Classroom Mode.[168]

An initial beta test was carried out between 9 June and 1 November 2016.[169] The full game was then released on Windows 10 and MacOS on 1 November 2016.[170] On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018.[171] On 27 March 2019, it was announced that it would be operated by JD.com in China.[172] On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020.[166]

Minecraft China

On 20 May 2016, Minecraft China was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang.[173] The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017.[174][175][176] The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile version is based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 300 million players by November 2019.[177]

Other PC versions

Apart from Minecraft: Java Edition, there are other versions of Minecraft for PC, including Minecraft for Windows, Minecraft Classic, Minecraft 4K, and a version for the Raspberry Pi.

Minecraft for Windows

Minecraft for Windows is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on July 29, 2015.[178]

After nearly one and a half years in beta, Microsoft fully released Minecraft for Windows on December 19, 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs.[179] This version has the ability to play with Xbox Live friends, and to play local multiplayer with owners of Minecraft on other Bedrock platforms. Other features include the ability to use multiple control schemes such as a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen (for Microsoft Surface and other touchscreen-enabled devices). Virtual reality support has been implemented, as well as the ability to record and take screenshots in-game via the Windows built-in GameDVR.[180]

As of 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft for Windows were merged into a single title for purchase; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game modes would otherwise remain separate.[181]

Minecraft 4K

Minecraft 4K is a simplified version of Minecraft similar to the Classic version that was developed for the Java 4K Game Programming Contest "in way less than 4 kilobytes".[182] The map itself is finite—composed of 64×64×64 blocks—and the same world is generated every time. Players are restricted to placing or destroying blocks, which consist of grass, dirt, stone, wood, leaves, and brick.[183]

Raspberry Pi

A version of Minecraft for the Raspberry Pi was officially revealed at Minecon 2012. The Pi Edition is based on an alpha version of Pocket Edition with the added ability of using text commands to edit the game world. Players can open the game code and use the Python programming language to manipulate things in the game world.[184] It also includes a scripting API to modify the game, and server software for multiplayer. The game was leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off.[185] It was officially released on 11 February 2013.[186] Mojang stopped providing updates to Minecraft: Raspberry Pi Edition in 2016. It is preinstalled on Raspberry Pi OS and can be downloaded for free from the official Minecraft website.[187]

Music

Main article: Music of Minecraft

Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418.[188] The background music in Minecraft is instrumental ambient music.[189] On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game.[190] Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011.[191] On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game.[192][193] A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015.[194][195] In addition to Rosenfeld's work, other composers have contributed tracks to the game since release, including Samuel Åberg, Gareth Coker, Lena Raine, and Kumi Tanioka.[196][197][198][199]

Variants

Main article: Minecraft (franchise)

For the tenth anniversary of the game's release, Mojang remade a version of Minecraft Classic in JavaScript and made it available to play online.[200][201] It functions much the same as creative mode, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server. Environmental hazards such as lava do not damage players, and some blocks function differently since their behavior was later changed during development.[202][203][204]

Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, there had been collaboration between Mojang and The Lego Group to make a Lego brick-based Minecraft game to be called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson had worked on the preliminary version of this game, which he had named "Project Rex Kwon Do" based on the joke from Napoleon Dynamite. Lego had greenlit the project to go forward, and while Mojang had put two developers on the game for six months, they later opted to cancel the project, as Mojang felt that the Lego Group were too demanding on what they could do, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. The Lego Group had considered buying out Mojang to complete the game, but at this point Microsoft made its offer to buy the company for over $2 billion. According to the Lego Group's Ronny Scherer, the company was not yet sure of the potential success of Minecraft at this point and backed off from acquisition after Microsoft brought this offer to Mojang.[205]

Virtual reality

Early on, Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a port of Minecraft. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled plans noting "Facebook creeps me out."[206] A community-made modification known as Minecraft VR was developed in 2016 to provide virtual reality support to Minecraft: Java Edition oriented towards Oculus Rift hardware. A fork of the Minecraft VR modification known as Vivecraft ported the mod to OpenVR, and is oriented towards supporting HTC Vive hardware.[207] On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for Minecraft on Windows 10.[207] Upon its release, the Minecraft VR mod was discontinued by its developer due to trademark complaints issued by Microsoft, and Vivecraft was endorsed by the community makers of the Minecraft VR modification due to its Rift support and being superior to the original Minecraft VR mod.[207] Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition.[208] Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 version of the game would be getting PlayStation VR support in the same month.[209] The only officially supported VR versions of Minecraft are the PlayStation 4 version, Minecraft: Gear VR Edition and Minecraft for Windows 10 for Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.[210][209]

The games follow the misadventures of the hapless Guybrush Threepwood as he struggles to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean, defeat the plans of the evil undead pirate LeChuck and win the heart of Governor Elaine Marley. Each game's plot usually involves the mysterious Monkey Island and its impenetrable secrets.

The first game in the series was created by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert worked on the first two games before leaving LucasArts. Grossman and Schafer, who also worked on the first two games, enjoyed success on other games before they both left LucasArts. The rights to Monkey Island remained with LucasArts, and the third and fourth games were created without direct involvement from the original writing staff. Dave Grossman was the project leader of the fifth game in the series and Gilbert was involved with the first design of the game. Gilbert's studio developed the sixth game, Return to Monkey Island, with Grossman assisting.

Background

Ron Gilbert's two main inspirations for the story were Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides.[1] The book was the inspiration for the story and characters, while the ride was the inspiration for the ambiance. Gilbert said in interview that "[the POTC Ride] keeps you moving through the adventure but I've always wished I could get off and wander around, learn more about the characters, and find a way onto those pirate ships. So with The Secret of Monkey Island I wanted to create a game that had the same flavor, but where you could step off the boat and enter that whole storybook world".[2]

Media

Games

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Release timeline1990*The Secret of Monkey Island1991Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge1992–19961997The Curse of Monkey Island1998–19992000Escape from Monkey Island2001–20082009Tales of Monkey IslandThe Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition2010Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition2011–20212022Return to Monkey Island*

The Secret of Monkey Island

Main article: The Secret of Monkey Island

The series debuted in 1990 with The Secret of Monkey Island on the Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari ST and Macintosh platforms; the game was later ported to FM Towns and Mega-CD (1993). A remake version with updated graphics and new voiceovers was released for PlayStation Network, PC Windows, Xbox Live Arcade[3] and OS X. An iPhone version was also released on July 23, 2009.

The game starts off with the main character Guybrush Threepwood stating "I want to be a pirate!" To do so, he must prove himself to three old pirate captains. During the perilous pirate trials, he meets the beautiful governor Elaine Marley, with whom he falls in love, unaware that the ghost pirate LeChuck also has his eyes on her. When Elaine is kidnapped, Guybrush procures crew and ship to track LeChuck down, defeat him and rescue his love.

Main article: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

The second game, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge from 1991, was available for fewer platforms; it was only released for PC MS-DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, and later for FM Towns. A Special Edition version, in a similar style as The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, was released in July 2010 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

As Guybrush, with a treasure chest in hand, and Elaine hang onto ropes in a void, he tells her the story of the game. He has decided to find the greatest of all treasures, that of Big Whoop. Unwittingly he helps revive LeChuck, who is now in zombie form. Guybrush is eventually captured by his nemesis, but escapes with help from Wally and finds the treasure only to find himself dangling from a rope, as depicted at the beginning of the game. As Guybrush concludes his story, his rope breaks and he finds himself facing LeChuck, whom he finally defeats using voodoo. The surrealistic ending is open to a number of interpretations. In the manual of The Curse of Monkey Island, it is stated that Guybrush falls victim to a hex implemented by LeChuck.

The Curse of Monkey Island

Main article: The Curse of Monkey Island

The Curse of Monkey Island, the third in the series, was exclusively available for PC Windows in 1997 after a 6-year hiatus. The Curse of Monkey Island was released after what could be said to be the biggest technological change in the gaming industry. This new era saw the advent of digital audio, CD-ROM technology, and advancements in graphics.

Monkey Island I and II were originally released on floppy discs with text dialog only. The visuals of the third installment was also an advance over the old game, using a cel animation style. The Curse of Monkey Island is the only game in the series to feature this style of animation; subsequent games used 3D polygon animation.

Guybrush unwittingly turns Elaine into a gold statue with a cursed ring, and she is soon stolen by pirates. He tracks her down before searching for a ring that can lift the curse. LeChuck appears in a fiery demon form, and is on the heels of Guybrush until a stand-off in LeChuck's amusement park ride, Monkey Mountain.

Escape from Monkey Island

Main article: Escape from Monkey Island

Escape from Monkey Island, the fourth installment, was released in 2000 for PC Windows, and in 2001 for Macintosh and PlayStation 2.

When Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley return from their honeymoon, they find that Elaine has been declared officially dead, her mansion is under a destruction order, and her position as governor is up for election. Guybrush investigates and unearths a conspiracy by LeChuck and evil real estate developer Ozzie Mandrill to use a voodoo talisman, "The Ultimate Insult", to make all pirates docile in order to turn the Caribbean into a center of tourism.

Tales of Monkey Island

Main article: Tales of Monkey Island

Tales of Monkey Island is the fifth installment within the series, co-developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts, with a simultaneous release both on WiiWare and PC. Unlike other installments, Tales is an episodic adventure consisting of five different episodes. The first episode was released on July 7, with the last one released on December 8, 2009.[4]

During a heated battle with his nemesis, the evil pirate LeChuck, Guybrush unwittingly unleashes an insidious pox that rapidly spreads across the Caribbean, turning pirates into zombie-like monsters. The Voodoo Lady sends Guybrush in search of a legendary sea sponge to stem the epidemic, but this seemingly straightforward quest has surprises around every corner.[5] Tales of Monkey Island was also released on PlayStation Network as a bundle for US$20.00.

In November 2011, when CEO of Telltale games Dan Conners was asked a question about another season of Monkey Island, he replied: "I wish we had the rights to do more Monkey but we don't. Right now what I gather is LA is focused on building AAA titles internally but honestly we don't talk much these days".[6]

There had also been some speculation on Telltale Games forums about a possible sequel to Tales of Monkey Island, although this was dismissed by Gilbert, who stated: "Basically, when we were working on Tales, I understood that ... I'm too old for that job now" in an interview with Edge in March 2010. The Tales team claims that, despite a considerably increasing fanbase since 2009–10, there were not any plans to continue the series within the next five-year interval.[7] In 2018 Telltale Games closed down.[8][9]

Return to Monkey Island

Main article: Return to Monkey Island

With the purchase of LucasArts by the Walt Disney Company in 2012, the rights to the franchise are now property of Disney.[10] In the second half of 2010s, Disney Interactive ceased the production on gaming and transitioned to a licensing model. Gilbert wrote on Twitter that he was interested in buying the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion properties.[11] Fans of the series launched an online petition asking Disney to sell the franchise to Gilbert; by December 2021, the petition had gathered about 29,000 signatures.[12]

Return to Monkey Island, the sixth Monkey Island installment, was released on September 19, 2022 on the Nintendo Switch and Windows, coming to other formats later.[13] It is a collaboration between Gilbert's Terrible Toybox studio and Lucasfilm Games, and published by Devolver Digital.[13] A frame story in the game serves to explain and continue from the ending of LeChuck's Revenge, while the main narrative takes place after the other games in the series.[13] Ron Gilbert has expressed his desire to tell a simple and focused pirate story in the game, whilst also redefining the adventure game user interface and incorporating an increased emphasis of meat pies into the greater lore. In addition to Gilbert, Grossman returns as co-writer, with music from veteran series composers Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian, and Dominic Armato, Alexandra Boyd, and Denny Delk reprising their roles as Guybrush, Elaine, and Murray.[14][13] Jess Harnell replaces the retired Earl Boen as the voice of LeChuck.[15][16]

Other appearances

In Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Guybrush can be accessed as a playable character via a cheat code; in addition, a Monkey Island-themed secret room can be found in the game's final level.[17] Guybrush also appears in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II as a playable skin for Starkiller named "Guybrush Threepkiller".[18]

Guybrush is paid homage in the Naughty Dog video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, where a pirate with major similarities to Guybrush is featured as one of the twelve pirate captains that founded Libertalia. Although he remains unnamed throughout the game, the resemblance is uncanny and his sigil is represented by a monkey. His portrait can be seen in the Libertalia treasury with the other founders and though his name is partly scratched out, the letters still visible spell out the truncated name "Guy Wood".[19]

Several elements from the Monkey Island series appear in Sea of Thieves as part of its June 2021 "A Pirate's Life" update. Developed in collaboration with Disney and primarily themed after Pirates of the Caribbean, multiple references to the characters and locales from the Monkey Island franchise can be found in journals by Kate Capsize scattered around the wreckage of The Headless Monkey during the update's first Tall Tale, accompanied by an original arrangement of the Monkey Island theme. According to the journals, Guybrush and Elaine Threepwood are celebrating their honeymoon somewhere upon the Sea of Thieves.[20]

In an update to Hitman 3, a new pirate-themed map was added, which featured an Easter Egg referencing Monkey Island in the form of a gravestone in the environment reading "G Threepwood, Mighty Pirate", a clear reference to Guybrush.[21]

Stan's used coffins is also referred to in one of the levels of the game "Outlaws", also by Lucasarts.

Cancelled film

Shortly after Pixar, a spinout from Lucasfilm, found success with the first Toy Story film in 1995, there had been a push across Hollywood for more digitally animated films. Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), in the midst of transitioning from practical to digital effects, offered its services for producing these films to other studios. One of the first projects they tried to work on was with Universal Pictures to revive the Universal Classic Monsters line with a film called Frankenstein and the Wolfman. While several scripts and preliminary art was produced for this film, shake-ups at Universal due to the financial failure of Babe: Pig in the City led to changes in leadership for the film and ultimately its cancellation.[22]

David Carson, who had been set to direct Frankenstein and the Wolfman but left after the Universal shake-up, came back to ILM with the idea of an animated film based on the first Monkey Island game around 2000. With initial support from ILM, Carson worked an initial script with Corey Rosen and Scott Leberecht as to pitch the idea to Amblin Entertainment, the production company owned by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had told Carson that he had previously told George Lucas that he should have made a Monkey Island movie years before, and other meetings with Amblin went well to proceed to further screenwriting work. The rest of ILM's story department was brought in to help write, including Steve Purcell, but this team worked separately from the writers that were developing the actual games, creating a disconnect between story the film was going with and the narrative already established in the video game series. As they continued to work out the screenplay, the direction of the film continued to veer further from the video game series, including at one point where Spielberg had suggested the game be about the monkeys on Monkey Island instead of the pirates. According to Carson, the lack of a creative direction at this point led to the film being shelved at ILM.[22]

Details about the film were first revealed publicly in 2011 as part of the Monkey Island Special Edition Collection which included some of the film's concept art, storyboards, and scripts.[22][23]

It had been rumored that Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio had been involved in the writing of the Monkey Island script which they subsequently used as the basis for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. Both Elliott and Rossio had been to ILM and were shown parts of the Monkey Island script, around the same time they were working on their script for Pirates. When Pirates was released, many fans of the Monkey Island series made comparisons of parts of the film to the games, and when news of the cancelled film first arose in 2011, the potential connection of Elliott and Rossio to the Monkey Island script started. Both Carson and Rossio stated that many of the tropes in both Monkey Island and Pirates are based on the classic pirate movies and that there was no direct reuse of the cancelled Monkey Island film in Pirates.[22]

The Secret of Monkey Island

None of the first five games explicitly reveal the "Secret of Monkey Island". The team behind Escape from Monkey Island attempted to resolve the issue by showing that the Giant Monkey Head was actually the control room of a Giant Monkey Robot. The cut-scene in which the revelation was made is called "The Real Secret of Monkey Island".[24]

Gilbert stated that he never told anyone what the true secret of Monkey Island is.[25][26] Gilbert stated in a 2004 interview that when the game was originally conceived it was considered "too big", so they split it into three parts. He added that he "knows what the third [part] is" and "how the story's supposed to end", indicating that he had a definite concept of the secret and a conclusive third game.[27]

The true nature of the secret acts as the focus of Return to Monkey Island, with several characters competing with one another to find "the Secret" and debating as to its nature. The game's conclusion reveals the secret to be a novelty T-shirt earned as a prize at a pirate-themed amusement park, which has acted as the setting for all of Guybrush's previous adventures. Guybrush, as the game's narrator, is intentionally ambiguous as to whether this is the actual secret, suggesting that the secret is different things to different people, and putting forth the notion that the story of the journey and the joy of speculating about the secret with others is more valuable than the reward itself.

After the release of "Return to Monkey Island," Ron Gilbert stated in a successive interview that the true secret, as conceived during development of the first installment of the series, was that Guybrush was in fact in a pirate-themed amusement park.[28]

https://opensea.io/assets/0xf0e178a6B3e300B15dd8FFc344a970353a84A6b9/2

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football match was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone and specified the size and shape of the football. The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game, although its rules were developed independently from those of Camp. Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football. The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States in terms of broadcast viewership audience. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high-school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high-school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually. The National Football League, the most popular American professional football league, has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events in the world. The league has an annual revenue of around US$15 billion, making it the most valuable sports league in the world. Other professional leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball.

Etymology and names

Main article: Football (word)

In the United States, American football is referred to as "football".[4] The term "football" was officially established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season, when the sport first shifted from soccer-style rules to rugby-style rules. Although it could easily have been called "rugby" at this point, Harvard, one of the primary proponents of the rugby-style game, compromised and did not request the name of the sport be changed to "rugby".[5] The terms "gridiron" or "American football" are favored in English-speaking countries where other types of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.[6][7]

History

Main articles: History of American football and American football in the United States

Part of the American football series on theHistory of American footballOrigins of American football

• Early history

• Modern history

• First game

• First pro league

• First pro player

• Walter Camp

Close relations to other codes

• Australian

• Boston game

• Canadian

• Medieval

• Old division

• Rugby league

• Rugby union

• Soccer

Topics

• Black players in professional football

• Canadian football comparison

• Concussions

• Glossary

• Hall of Fame (College)

• Hall of Fame (Pro)

• Homosexuality

• Rugby league comparison

• Rugby union comparison

• Years

  • College seasons

  • NFL seasons

• American football Portal

• v

• t

• e

Early history

American football evolved from the sports of rugby and soccer. Rugby, like American football, is a sport in which two competing teams vie for control of a ball, which can be kicked through a set of goalposts or run into the opponent's goal area to score points.[8]

What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams. They consisted of 25 players per team and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, with the objective being to advance it into the opponent's goal. Rutgers won the game 6–4.[9][10] Collegiate play continued for several years with matches played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19, 1873, to create a standard set of rules for use by all schools. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet (122 m × 76 m) were specified. Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball.[10] After playing McGill University using both American (known as "the Boston game") for the first game and Canadian (rugby) rules for the second one,[11][12] the Harvard players preferred the Canadian style of having only 11 men on the field, running the ball without having to be chased by an opponent, the forward pass, tackling, and using an oblong instead of a round ball.[13][14]

An 1875 Harvard–Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two Princeton athletes who were impressed by it. They introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to "selling refrigerators to Eskimos".[10] Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia then agreed to intercollegiate play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system.[15] These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879. Yale player Walter Camp, now regarded as the "Father of American Football",[15][16] secured rule changes in 1880 that reduced the size of each team from 15 to 11 players and instituted the snap to replace the chaotic and inconsistent scrum.[15] While the game between Rutgers and Princeton is commonly considered the first American football game, several years prior in 1862, the Oneida Football Club formed as the oldest known football club in the United States. The team consisted of graduates of Boston's elite preparatory schools and played from 1862 to 1865.[17]

Evolution of the game

A photograph of Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", taken in 1878 when Camp was captain of Yale's football team

The introduction of the snap resulted in an unexpected consequence. Before the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position. However, a group of Princeton players realized that as the snap was uncontested, they could now hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, in a game between Yale and Princeton, both teams used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records. Each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0–0 tie. This "block game" proved extremely unpopular with both teams' spectators and fans.[15]

A rule change was necessary to prevent this strategy from taking hold, and a reversion to the scrum was considered. However, Camp successfully proposed a rule in 1882 that limited each team to three downs, or tackles, to advance the ball 5 yards (4.6 m). Failure to advance the ball the required distance within those three downs would result in control of the ball being forfeited to the other team. This change effectively made American football a separate sport from rugby, and the resulting five-yard lines added to the field to measure distances made it resemble a gridiron in appearance. Other major rule changes included a reduction of the field size to 110 by 53+1⁄3 yards (100.6 m × 48.8 m) and the adoption of a scoring system that awarded four points for a touchdown, two for a safety and a goal following a touchdown, and five for a goal from the field. Additionally, tackling below the waist was legalized,[15] and a static line of scrimmage was instituted.[18]

1908 cartoon (by W.C. Morris) highlighting the dangers that were associated with the sport

Despite these new rules, football remained a violent sport. Dangerous mass-formations like the flying wedge resulted in serious injuries and deaths.[19] A 1905 peak of 19 fatalities nationwide resulted in a threat by President Theodore Roosevelt to abolish the game unless major changes were made.[20] In response, 62 colleges and universities met in New York City to discuss rule changes on December 28, 1905. These proceedings resulted in the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, later renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).[21]

The legal forward pass was introduced in 1906, although its effect was initially minimal due to the restrictions placed on its use. The idea of a 40-yard-wider field was opposed by Harvard due to the size of the new Harvard Stadium.[22] Other rule changes introduced that year included the reduction of playing time from 70 to 60 minutes and an increase of the distance required for a first down from 5 to 10 yards (4.6 to 9.1 m). To reduce infighting and dirty play between teams, the neutral zone was created along the width of the football before the snap.[23] Scoring was also adjusted: points awarded for field goals were reduced to three in 1909[16] and points for touchdowns were raised to six in 1912.[24] Also in 1912, the field was shortened to 100 yards (91 m) long, two 10-yard-long (9.1 m) end zones were created, and teams were given four downs instead of three to advance the ball 10 yards (9.1 m).[25][26] The roughing the passer penalty was implemented in 1914, and eligible players were first allowed to catch the ball anywhere on the field in 1918.[27]

Professional era

Pudge Heffelfinger, widely regarded as the first professional football player

A team from the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home, 1896.

On November 12, 1892, Pudge Heffelfinger was paid $500 (equivalent to $15,080 in 2021) to play a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association in a match against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. This is the first recorded instance of a player being paid to participate in a game of American football, although many athletic clubs in the 1880s offered indirect benefits, such as helping players attain employment, giving out trophies or watches that players could pawn for money, or paying double in expense money. Despite these extra benefits, the game had a strict sense of amateurism at the time, and direct payment to players was frowned upon, if not prohibited outright.[28]

Over time, professional play became increasingly common, and with it came rising salaries and unpredictable player movement, as well as the illegal payment of college players who were still in school. The National Football League (NFL), a group of professional teams that was originally established in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, aimed to solve these problems. This new league's stated goals included an end to bidding wars over players, prevention of the use of college players, and abolition of the practice of paying players to leave another team.[29] By 1922, the NFL had established itself as America's premier professional football league.[30]

The dominant form of football at the time was played at the collegiate level. The upstart NFL received a boost to its legitimacy in 1925, however, when an NFL team, the Pottsville Maroons, defeated a team of Notre Dame all-stars in an exhibition game.[31] A greater emphasis on the passing game helped professional football to distinguish itself further from the college game during the late 1930s.[29] Football, in general, became increasingly popular following the 1958 NFL Championship game, a match between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants that is still referred to as the "Greatest Game Ever Played". The game, a 23–17 overtime victory by the Colts, was seen by millions of television viewers and had a major influence on the popularity of the sport. This, along with the innovations introduced by the new American Football League (AFL) in the early 1960s, helped football to become the most popular sport in the United States by the mid-1960s.[32]

The rival AFL arose in 1960 and challenged the NFL's dominance. The AFL began in relative obscurity but eventually thrived, with an initial television contract with the ABC television network. The AFL's existence forced the conservative NFL to expand to Dallas and Minnesota in an attempt to destroy the new league. Meanwhile, the AFL introduced many new features to professional football in the United States: official time was kept on a scoreboard clock rather than on a watch in the referee's pocket, as the NFL did; optional two-point conversions by pass or run after touchdowns; names on the jerseys of players; and several others, including expansion of the role of minority players, actively recruited by the league in contrast to the NFL. The AFL also signed several star college players who had also been drafted by NFL teams. Competition for players heated up in 1965, when the AFL New York Jets signed rookie Joe Namath to a then-record $437,000 contract (equivalent to $2.91 million in 2021[33]). A five-year, $40 million NBC television contract followed, which helped to sustain the young league. The bidding war for players ended in 1966 when NFL owners approached the AFL regarding a merger, and the two leagues agreed on one that took full effect in 1970. This agreement provided for a common draft that would take place each year, and it instituted an annual World Championship game to be played between the champions of each league. This championship game began play at the end of the 1966 season. Once the merger was completed, it was no longer a championship game between two leagues and reverted to the NFL championship game, which came to be known as the Super Bowl.[34]

College football maintained a tradition of postseason bowl games. Each bowl game was associated with a particular conference and earning a spot in a bowl game was the reward for winning a conference. This arrangement was profitable, but it tended to prevent the two top-ranked teams from meeting in a true national championship game, as they would normally be committed to the bowl games of their respective conferences. Several systems have been used since 1992 to determine a national champion of college football. The first was the Bowl Coalition, in place from 1992 to 1994. This was replaced in 1995 by the Bowl Alliance, which gave way in 1997 to the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).[35] The BCS arrangement proved to be controversial, and was replaced in 2014 by the College Football Playoff (CFP).[36][37]

Teams and positions

Main article: American football positions

A football game is played between two teams of 11 players each.[38][39][40] Playing with more on the field is punishable by a penalty.[38][41][42] Teams may substitute any number of their players between downs;[43][44][45] this "platoon" system replaced the original system, which featured limited substitution rules, and has resulted in teams utilizing specialized offensive, defensive and special teams units.[46]

Individual players in a football game must be designated with a uniform number between 1 and 99. NFL teams are required to number their players by a league-approved numbering system, and any exceptions must be approved by the commissioner.[38] NCAA and NFHS teams are "strongly advised" to number their offensive players according to a league-suggested numbering scheme.[47][48]

Although the sport is played almost exclusively by men, women are eligible to play in high school, college, and professional football. No woman has ever played in the NFL, but women have played in high school and college football games.[49] In 2018, 1,100 of the 225,000 players in Pop Warner Little Scholars youth football were girls, and around 11% of the 5.5 million Americans who report playing tackle football are female according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.[50] Women can also serve as officials; Sarah Thomas became the NFL's first female official in 2015.[51]

Offensive unit

The role of the offensive unit is to advance the football down the field with the ultimate goal of scoring a touchdown.[52]

A diagram of a typical pre-snap formation. The offense (red) is lined up in a variation of the I formation, while the defense (blue) is lined up in the 4–3 defense. Both formations are legal

The offensive team must line up in a legal formation before they can snap the ball. An offensive formation is considered illegal if there are more than four players in the backfield or fewer than five players numbered 50–79 on the offensive line.[39][53][54] Players can line up temporarily in a position whose eligibility is different from what their number permits as long as they report the change immediately to the referee, who then informs the defensive team of the change.[55] Neither team's players, except the center (C), are allowed to line up in or cross the neutral zone until the ball is snapped. Interior offensive linemen are not allowed to move until the snap of the ball.[56]

A quarterback for the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes under center, ready to take the snap

The main backfield positions are the quarterback (QB), halfback/tailback (HB/TB) and fullback (FB). The quarterback is the leader of the offense. Either the quarterback or a coach calls the plays. Quarterbacks typically inform the rest of the offense of the play in the huddle before the team lines up. The quarterback lines up behind the center to take the snap and then hands the ball off, throws it or runs with it.[52]

The primary role of the halfback, also known as the running back or tailback, is to carry the ball on running plays. Halfbacks may also serve as receivers. Fullbacks tend to be larger than halfbacks and function primarily as blockers, but they are sometimes used as runners in short-yardage situations[57] and are seldom used in passing situations.[58]

The offensive line (OL) consists of several players whose primary function is to block members of the defensive line from tackling the ball carrier on running plays or sacking the quarterback on passing plays.[57] The leader of the offensive line is the center, who is responsible for snapping the ball to the quarterback, blocking,[57] and for making sure that the other linemen do their jobs during the play.[59] On either side of the center are the guards (G), while tackles (T) line up outside the guards.

The principal receivers are the wide receivers (WR) and the tight ends (TE).[60] Wide receivers line up on or near the line of scrimmage, split outside the line. The main goal of the wide receiver is to catch passes thrown by the quarterback,[57] but they may also function as decoys or as blockers during running plays. Tight ends line up outside the tackles and function both as receivers and as blockers.[57]

Defensive unit

Dallas Cowboys defensive players force Houston Texans running back Arian Foster to fumble the ball

The role of the defense is to prevent the offense from scoring by tackling the ball carrier or by forcing turnovers (interceptions or fumbles).[52]

The defensive line (DL) consists of defensive ends (DE) and defensive tackles (DT). Defensive ends line up on the ends of the line, while defensive tackles line up inside, between the defensive ends. The primary responsibilities of defensive ends and defensive tackles are to stop running plays on the outside and inside, respectively, to pressure the quarterback on passing plays, and to occupy the line so that the linebackers can break through.[57]

Cornerback Brent Grimes of the Hamburg Sea Devils intercepts a pass

Linebackers line up behind the defensive line but in front of the defensive backfield. They are divided into two types: middle linebackers (MLB) and outside linebackers (OLB). Linebackers are the defensive leaders and call the defensive plays. Their diverse roles include defending the run, pressuring the quarterback, and guarding backs, wide receivers and tight ends in the passing game.[61]

The defensive backfield, often called the secondary, consists of cornerbacks (CB) and safeties (S). Safeties are themselves divided into free safeties (FS) and strong safeties (SS).[57] Cornerbacks line up outside the defensive formation, typically opposite a receiver to be able to cover them. Safeties line up between the cornerbacks but farther back in the secondary. Safeties are the last line of defense and are responsible for stopping deep passing plays as well as running plays.[57]

Special teams unit

Kicker Jeff Reed of the Pittsburgh Steelers executes a kickoff

The special teams unit is responsible for all kicking plays. The special teams unit of the team in control of the ball tries to execute field goal (FG) attempts, punts and kickoffs, while the opposing team's unit will aim to block or return them.[52]

Three positions are specific to the field goal and PAT (point-after-touchdown) unit: the placekicker (K or PK), holder (H) and long snapper (LS). The long snapper's job is to snap the football to the holder, who will catch and position it for the placekicker. There is not usually a holder on kickoffs, because the ball is kicked off a tee; however, a holder may be used in certain situations, such as if wind is preventing the ball from remaining upright on the tee. The player on the receiving team who catches the ball is known as the kickoff returner (KR).[62]

The positions specific to punt plays are the punter (P), long snapper, upback and gunner. The long snapper snaps the football directly to the punter, who then drops and kicks it before it hits the ground. Gunners line up split outside the line and race down the field, aiming to tackle the punt returner (PR)—the player who catches the punt. Upbacks line up a short distance behind the line of scrimmage, providing additional protection to the punter.[63]

Rules

Main article: American football rules

Scoring

A player for the Navy Midshipmen (dark jersey) scores a touchdown while a defender from the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (in white) looks on. The goal line is marked by the small orange pylon

In football, the winner is the team that has scored more points at the end of the game. There are multiple ways to score in a football game. The touchdown (TD), worth six points, is the most valuable scoring play in American football. A touchdown is scored when a live ball is advanced into, caught in, or recovered in the opposing team's end zone.[52] The scoring team then attempts a try or conversion, more commonly known as the point(s)-after-touchdown (PAT), which is a single scoring opportunity. A PAT is most commonly attempted from the two- or three-yard line, depending on the level of play. If a PAT is scored by a place kick or drop kick through the goal posts, it is worth one point, typically called the extra point. If it is scored by what would normally be a touchdown it is worth two points, typically called the two-point conversion. In general, the extra point is almost always successful, while the two-point conversion is a much riskier play with a higher probability of failure; accordingly, extra point attempts are far more common than two-point conversion attempts.[64]

A field goal (FG), worth three points, is scored when the ball is place kicked or drop kicked through the uprights and over the crossbars of the defense's goalposts.[65][66][67] After a PAT attempt or successful field goal, the scoring team must kick the ball off to the other team.[68]

A safety is scored when the ball carrier is tackled in his own end zone. Safeties are worth two points, which are awarded to the defense.[52] In addition, the team that conceded the safety must kick the ball to the scoring team via a free kick.[69]

Field and equipment

Main article: American football field

A football field as seen from behind one end zone. The tall, yellow goal posts mark where the ball must pass for a successful field goal or extra point. The large, rectangular area marked with the team name is the end zone

Football games are played on a rectangular field that measures 120 yards (110 m) long and 53+1⁄3 yards (48.8 m) wide. Lines marked along the ends and sides of the field are known as the end lines and sidelines. Goal lines are marked 10 yards (9.1 m) inward from each end line.[70][71][72]

Weighted pylons are placed the sidelines on the inside corner of the intersections with the goal lines and end lines. White markings on the field identify the distance from the end zone. Inbound lines, or hash marks, are short parallel lines that mark off 1-yard (0.91 m) increments. Yard lines, which can run the width of the field, are marked every 5 yards (4.6 m). A one-yard-wide line is placed at each end of the field; this line is marked at the center of the two-yard line in professional play and at the three-yard line in college play. Numerals that display the distance from the closest goal line in yards are placed on both sides of the field every ten yards.[70][71][72]

Goalposts are located at the center of the plane of the two end lines. The crossbar of these posts is 10 feet (3.0 m) above the ground, with vertical uprights at the end of the crossbar 18 feet 6 inches (5.64 m) apart for professional and collegiate play, and 23 feet 4 inches (7.11 m) apart for high school play.[73][74][75] The uprights extend vertically 35 feet (11 m) on professional fields, a minimum of 10 yards (9.1 m) on college fields, and a minimum of 10 feet (3.0 m) on high school fields. Goal posts are padded at the base, and orange ribbons are normally placed at the tip of each upright as indicators of wind strength and direction.[73][74][75]

The football itself is an oval ball, similar to the balls used in rugby or Australian rules football.[76] At all levels of play, the football is inflated to 12+1⁄2 to 13+1⁄2 pounds per square inch (86 to 93 kPa) and weighs 14 to 15 ounces (400 to 430 g);[75][77][78] beyond that, the exact dimensions vary slightly. In professional play the ball has a long axis of 11 to 11+1⁄4 inches (28 to 29 cm), a long circumference of 28 to 28+1⁄2 inches (71 to 72 cm), and a short circumference of 21 to 21+1⁄4 inches (53 to 54 cm).[79] In college and high school play the ball has a long axis of 10+7⁄8 to 11+7⁄16 inches (27.6 to 29.1 cm), a long circumference of 27+3⁄4 to 28+1⁄2 inches (70 to 72 cm), and a short circumference of 20+3⁄4 to 21+1⁄4 inches (53 to 54 cm).[75][77]

Duration and time stoppages

Football games last for a total of 60 minutes in professional and college play and are divided into two halves of 30 minutes and four quarters of 15 minutes.[80][81] High school football games are 48 minutes in length with two halves of 24 minutes and four quarters of 12 minutes.[82] The two halves are separated by a halftime period, and the first and third quarters are followed by a short break.[80][81][83] Before the game starts, the referee and each team's captain meet at midfield for a coin toss. The visiting team can call either "heads" or "tails"; the winner of the toss chooses whether to receive or kick off the ball or which goal they wish to defend. They can defer their choice until the second half. Unless the winning team decides to defer, the losing team chooses the option the winning team did not select—to receive, kick, or select a goal to defend to begin the second half. Most teams choose to receive or defer, because choosing to kick the ball to start the game allows the other team to choose which goal to defend.[84] Teams switch goals following the first and third quarters.[85] If a down is in progress when a quarter ends, play continues until the down is completed.[86][87][88]

Games last longer than their defined length due to play stoppages—the average NFL game lasts slightly over three hours.[89] Time in a football game is measured by the game clock. An operator is responsible for starting, stopping and operating the game clock based on the direction of the appropriate official.[80][90] A separate play clock is used to show the amount of time within which the offense must initiate a play. The play clock is set to 25 seconds after certain administrative stoppages in play and to 40 seconds when play is proceeding without such stoppages. If the offense fails to start a play before the play clock reads "00", a delay of game foul is called on the offense.[86][91][92]

Advancing the ball and downs

Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme (number 17) in the motion of throwing a forward pass

There are two main ways the offense can advance the ball: running and passing. In a typical play, the center passes the ball backwards and between their legs to the quarterback in a process known as the snap. The quarterback then either hands the ball off to a running back, throws the ball, or runs with it. The play ends when the player with the ball is tackled or goes out-of-bounds or a pass hits the ground without a player having caught it. A forward pass can be legally attempted only if the passer is behind the line of scrimmage; only one forward pass can be attempted per down.[68] As in rugby, players can also pass the ball backwards at any point during a play.[93] In the NFL, a down also ends immediately if the runner's helmet comes off.[94]

The offense is given a series of four plays, known as downs. If the offense advances ten or more yards in the four downs, they are awarded a new set of four downs. If they fail to advance ten yards, possession of the football is turned over to the defense. In most situations, if the offense reaches their fourth down they will punt the ball to the other team, which forces them to begin their drive from farther down the field; if they are in field goal range, they might attempt to score a field goal instead.[68] A group of officials, the chain crew, keeps track of both the downs and the distance measurements.[95] On television, a yellow line is electronically superimposed on the field to show the first down line to the viewing audience.[96]

Kicking

Tampa Bay Buccaneers placekicker Connor Barth attempts a field goal by kicking the ball from the hands of a holder. This is the standard method to score field goals or extra points.[97][98]

There are two categories of kicks in football: scrimmage kicks, which can be executed by the offensive team on any down from behind or on the line of scrimmage,[99][100][101] and free kicks.[102][103][104] The free kicks are the kickoff, which starts the first and third quarters and overtime and follows a try attempt or a successful field goal; the safety kick follows a safety.[100][105][106]

On a kickoff, the ball is placed at the 35-yard line of the kicking team in professional and college play and at the 40-yard line in high school play. The ball may be drop kicked or place kicked. If a place kick is chosen, the ball can be placed on the ground or a tee; a holder may be used in either case. On a safety kick, the kicking team kicks the ball from their own 20-yard line. They can punt, drop kick or place kick the ball, but a tee may not be used in professional play. Any member of the receiving team may catch or advance the ball. The ball may be recovered by the kicking team once it has gone at least ten yards and has touched the ground or has been touched by any member of the receiving team.[107][108][109]

The three types of scrimmage kicks are place kicks, drop kicks, and punts. Only place kicks and drop kicks can score points.[65][66][67] The place kick is the standard method used to score points,[97] because the pointy shape of the football makes it difficult to reliably drop kick.[97][98] Once the ball has been kicked from a scrimmage kick, it can be advanced by the kicking team only if it is caught or recovered behind the line of scrimmage. If it is touched or recovered by the kicking team beyond this line, it becomes dead at the spot where it was touched.[110][111][112] The kicking team is prohibited from interfering with the receiver's opportunity to catch the ball. The receiving team has the option of signaling for a fair catch, which prohibits the defense from blocking into or tackling the receiver. The play ends as soon as the ball is caught and the ball may not be advanced.[113][114][115]

Officials and fouls

See also: Official (American football), Chain crew, and Penalty (gridiron football)

Officials use the chains to measure for a first down. Here, the ball is just short of the pole and therefore short of a first down.

Officials are responsible for enforcing game rules and monitoring the clock. All officials carry a whistle and wear black-and-white striped shirts and black hats except for the referee, whose hat is white. Each carries a weighted yellow flag that is thrown to the ground to signal that a foul has been called. An official who spots multiple fouls will throw their hat as a secondary signal.[116] The seven officials (of a standard seven-man crew; lower levels of play up to the college level use fewer officials) on the field are each tasked with a different set of responsibilities:[116]

• The referee is positioned behind and to the side of the offensive backs. The referee is charged with oversight and control of the game and is the authority on the score, the down number, and any rule interpretations in discussions among the other officials. The referee announces all penalties and discusses the infraction with the offending team's captain, monitors for illegal hits against the quarterback, makes requests for first-down measurements, and notifies the head coach whenever a player is ejected. The referee positions themselves to the passing arm side of the quarterback. In most games, the referee is responsible for spotting the football prior to a play from scrimmage.

• The umpire is positioned in the defensive backfield, except in the NFL, where the umpire is positioned lateral to the referee on the opposite side of the formation. The umpire watches play along the line of scrimmage to make sure that no more than 11 offensive players are on the field before the snap and that no offensive linemen are illegally downfield on pass plays. The umpire monitors contact between offensive and defensive linemen and calls most of the holding penalties. The umpire records the number of timeouts taken and the winner of the coin toss and the game score, assists the referee in situations involving possession of the ball close to the line of scrimmage, determines whether player equipment is legal, and dries wet balls prior to the snap if a game is played in rain.

• The back judge is positioned deep in the defensive backfield, behind the umpire. The back judge ensures that the defensive team has no more than 11 players on the field and determines whether catches are legal, whether field goal or extra point attempts are good, and whether a pass interference violation occurred. The back judge is also responsible for the play clock, the time between each play, when a visible play clock is not used.

• The head linesman/down judge is positioned on one end of the line of scrimmage. The head linesman/down judge watches for any line-of-scrimmage and illegal use-of-hands violations and assists the line judge with illegal shift or illegal motion calls. The head linesman/down judge also rules on out-of-bounds calls that happen on their side of the field, oversees the chain crew and marks the forward progress of a runner when a play has been whistled dead.

A modern down indicator box is mounted on a pole and is used to mark the current line of scrimmage. The number on the marker is changed using a dial.

• The side judge is positioned twenty yards downfield of the head linesman. The side judge mainly duplicates the functions of the field judge. On field goal and extra point attempts, the side judge is positioned lateral to the umpire.

• The line judge is positioned on the end of the line of scrimmage, opposite the head linesman. They supervise player substitutions, the line of scrimmage during punts, and game timing. The line judge notifies the referee when time has expired at the end of a quarter and notifies the head coach of the home team when five minutes remain for halftime. In the NFL, the line judge also alerts the referee when two minutes remain in the half. If the clock malfunctions or becomes inoperable, the line judge becomes the official timekeeper.

• The field judge is positioned twenty yards downfield from the line judge. The field judge monitors and controls the play clock, counts the number of defensive players on the field and watches for offensive pass interference and illegal use-of-hands violations by offensive players. The field judge also makes decisions regarding catches, recoveries, the ball spot when a player goes out of bounds, and illegal touching of fumbled balls that have crossed the line of scrimmage. On field goal and extra point attempts, the field judge is stationed under the upright opposite the back judge.

• The center judge is an eighth official used only in the top level of college football. The center judge stands lateral to the referee, the same way the umpire does in the NFL. The center judge is responsible for spotting the football after each play and has many of the same responsibilities as the referee, except announcing penalties.

Another set of officials, the chain crew, are responsible for moving the chains. The chains, consisting of two large sticks with a 10-yard-long chain between them, are used to measure for a first down. The chain crew stays on the sidelines during the game, but if requested by the officials they will briefly bring the chains on to the field to measure. A typical chain crew will have at least three people—two members of the chain crew will hold either of the two sticks, while a third will hold the down marker. The down marker, a large stick with a dial on it, is flipped after each play to indicate the current down and is typically moved to the approximate spot of the ball. The chain crew system has been used for over 100 years and is considered to be an accurate measure of distance, rarely subject to criticism from either side.[95]

Safety and brain health

See also: Protective equipment in gridiron football and Health issues in American football

Vince Agnew wearing a helmet. Shoulder pads and thigh pads are visible under his uniform

Football is a full-contact sport, and injuries are relatively common. Most injuries occur during training sessions, particularly ones that involve contact between players.[117] To try to prevent injuries, players are required to wear a set of equipment. At a minimum players must wear a football helmet and a set of shoulder pads, but individual leagues may require additional padding such as thigh pads and guards, knee pads, chest protectors, and mouthguards.[118][119][120] Most injuries occur in the lower extremities, particularly in the knee, but a significant number also affect the upper extremities. The most common types of injuries are strains, sprains, bruises, fractures, dislocations, and concussions.[117]

Repeated concussions (and possibly sub-concussive head impacts[121]) can increase a person's risk in later life for CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and mental health issues such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, and depression.[122] Concussions are often caused by helmet-to-helmet or upper-body contact between opposing players, although helmets have prevented more serious injuries such as skull fractures.[123] Various programs are aiming to reduce concussions by reducing the frequency of helmet-to-helmet hits; USA Football's "Heads Up Football" program aims to reduce concussions in youth football by teaching coaches and players about the signs of a concussion, the proper way to wear football equipment and ensure it fits, and proper tackling methods that avoid helmet-to-helmet contact.[124] However, a study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that Heads Up Football was ineffective; the same study noted that more extensive reforms implemented by Pop Warner Little Scholars and its member teams were effective in significantly reducing concussion rates.[125]

A 2018 study performed by the VA Boston Healthcare System and the Boston University School of Medicine found that tackle football before age 12 was correlated with earlier onset of symptoms of CTE, but not with symptom severity. More specifically, each year a player played tackle football under age 12 predicted earlier onset of cognitive, behavioral, and mood problems by an average of two and a half years.[126][127][128]

Leagues and tournaments

The National Football League (NFL) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) are the most popular football leagues in the United States.[129] The National Football League was founded in 1920[130] and has since become the largest and most popular sport in the United States.[131] The NFL has the highest average attendance of any sporting league in the world, with an average attendance of 66,960 during the 2011 NFL season.[132] The NFL championship game is called the Super Bowl, and is among the biggest events in club sports worldwide.[133] It is played between the champions of the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC), and its winner is awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.[134]

A high school football game

College football is the third-most popular sport in the United States, behind professional baseball and professional football.[135] The NCAA, the largest collegiate organization, is divided into three Divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III.[136] Division I football is further divided into two subdivisions: the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).[137] The champions of each level of play are determined through NCAA-sanctioned playoff systems; while the champion of Division I-FBS was historically determined by various polls and ranking systems, the subdivision adopted a four-team playoff system in 2014.[138]

High school football is the most popular sport in the United States played by boys; over 1.1 million boys participated in the sport from 2007 to 2008 according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). There is a stark contrast in youth football participation between boys and girls. Only one youth football league exists in the United States for girls, the GFL. The NFHS is the largest organization for high school football, with member associations in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. USA Football is the governing body for youth and amateur football,[139] and Pop Warner Little Scholars is the largest organization for youth football.[140]

Other professional leagues

Several professional football leagues have been formed outside the auspices of the NFL.

Rival leagues

The most successful league to directly compete with the NFL was the American Football League (AFL), which existed from 1960 to 1969. The AFL became a significant rival in 1964 before signing a five-year, US$36 million television deal with NBC. AFL teams began signing NFL players to contracts, and the league's popularity grew to challenge that of the NFL. The two leagues merged in the 1970 season, and all the AFL teams joined the NFL. An earlier league, the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), was in play from 1946 to 1949. After it had dissolved, two AAFC teams, the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers, became members of the NFL; another member, the Baltimore Colts joined the league, but folded after just a year in the NFL.[141]

Other attempts to start rival leagues since the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970 have been far less successful, as professional football salaries and the NFL's television contracts began to escalate out of the reach of competitors and the NFL covered more of the larger cities. The World Football League (WFL) played for two seasons, in 1974 and 1975, but faced such severe monetary issues it could not pay its players. In its second and final season the WFL attempted to establish a stable credit rating, but the league disbanded before the season could be completed.[142] The United States Football League (USFL) operated for three seasons from 1983 to 1985. Originally not intended as a rival league, the entry of owners who sought marquee talent and to challenge the NFL led to an escalation in salaries and ensuing financial losses. A subsequent US$1.5 billion antitrust lawsuit against the NFL was successful in court, but the league was awarded only $1 in damages, which was automatically tripled to $3 under antitrust law.[143]

Complementary national leagues

The original XFL was created in 2001 by Vince McMahon and lasted for only one season. Despite television contracts with NBC and UPN, and high expectations, the XFL suffered from low quality of play and poor reception for its use of tawdry professional wrestling gimmicks, which caused initially high ratings and attendance to collapse.[144] The XFL was rebooted in 2020.[145] However, after only five weeks of play, the league's operations slowly came to a close due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,[146] and filed for bankruptcy on April 13.[147] The United Football League (UFL) began in 2009 but folded after suspending its 2012 season amid declining interest and lack of major television coverage.[148] The Alliance of American Football lasted less than one season, unable to keep investors.[149]

International play

Players with one of the youth divisions of the Borregos Salvajes football program of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City

American football leagues exist throughout the world, but the game has yet to achieve the international success and popularity of baseball and basketball.[150] It is not an Olympic sport, but it was a demonstration sport at the 1932 Summer Olympics.[1] At the international level, Canada, Mexico, and Japan are considered to be second-tier, while Austria, Germany, and France would rank among a third tier. These countries rank far below the United States, which is dominant at the international level.[151]

NFL Europa, the developmental league of the NFL, operated from 1991 to 1992 and then from 1995 to 2007. At the time of its closure, NFL Europa had five teams based in Germany and one in the Netherlands.[152] In Germany, the German Football League (GFL) has 16 teams and has operated for over 40 seasons, with the league's championship game, the German Bowl, closing out each season. The league operates in a promotion and relegation structure with German Football League 2 (GFL2), which also has 16 teams.[153] The BIG6 European Football League functions as a continental championship for Europe. The competition is contested between the top six European teams.[153]

The United Kingdom also operated several teams within NFL Europe during the League's tenure.[154] The resulting rise in popularity of the sport brought the NFL back to the country in 2007 where they now hold the NFL International Series in London, currently consisting of four regular season games.[155][156] The continuing interest and growth in both the sport and the series has led to the possible formation of a potential NFL franchise in London[157][158][159]

An American football league system already exists within the UK, the BAFANL, which has run under various guises since 1983. It currently has 70 teams operating across the tiers of contact football in which teams aim to earn promotion to the Division above, with the Premier Division teams competing to win the Britbowl, the annual British Football Bowl game that has been played since 1985.[160][161][162] In 2007 the British Universities American Football League was formed. From 2008, the BUAFL was officially associated with the National Football League (NFL), through its partner organisation NFL UK.[163] In 2012, BUAFL's league and teams were absorbed into BUCS after American football became an official BUCS sport.[164] Over the period 2007 to 2014, the BUAFL grew from 42 teams and 2,460 participants to 75 teams and over 4,100 people involved.[165]

American football federations are present in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania; a total of 64 national football federations exist as of July 2012.[151] The International Federation of American Football (IFAF), an international governing body composed of continental federations, runs tournaments such as the IFAF World Championship, the IFAF Women's World Championship, the IFAF U-19 World Championship and the Flag Football World Championship. The IFAF also organizes the annual International Bowl game.[166] The IFAF has received provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[167] Several major obstacles hinder the IFAF goal of achieving status as an Olympic sport. These include the predominant participation of men in international play and the short three-week Olympic schedule. Large team sizes are an additional difficulty, due to the Olympics' set limit of 10,500 athletes and coaches. American football also has an issue with a lack of global visibility. Nigel Melville, the CEO of USA Rugby, noted that "American football is recognized globally as a sport, but it's not played globally." To solve these concerns, major effort has been put into promoting flag football, a modified version of American football, at the international level.[151]

Popularity and cultural influence

United States

Main article: American football in the United States

"Baseball is still called the national pastime, but football is by far the more popular sport in American society", according to ESPN.com's Sean McAdam.[168] In a 2014 poll conducted by Harris Interactive, professional football ranked as the most popular sport, and college football ranked third behind only professional football and baseball; 46% of participants ranked some form of the game as their favorite sport. Professional football has ranked as the most popular sport in the poll since 1985, when it surpassed baseball for the first time.[169] Professional football is most popular among those who live in the eastern United States and rural areas, while college football is most popular in the southern United States and among people with graduate and post-graduate degrees.[170] Football is also the most-played sport by high school and college athletes in the United States. In a 2012 study, the NCAA estimated there were around 1.1 million high school football players and nearly 70,000 college football players in the United States; in comparison, the second-most played sport, basketball, had around 1 million participants in high school and 34,000 in college.[171] The Super Bowl is the most popular single-day sporting event in the United States,[34] and is among the biggest club sporting events in the world in terms of TV viewership.[133] The NFL makes approximately $10 billion annually.[172] Super Bowl games account for seven of the top eight most-watched broadcasts in American history; Super Bowl XLIX, played on February 1, 2015, was watched by a record 114.4 million Americans.[173]

The Boise State Broncos are the first football team to design a blue field in 1986

American football also plays a significant role in American culture. The day on which the Super Bowl is held is considered a de facto national holiday,[174] and in parts of the country like Texas, the sport has been compared to a religion.[175][176] Football is also linked to other holidays; New Year's Day is traditionally the date for several college football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl. However, if New Year's Day is on a Sunday, the bowl games are moved to another date so as not to conflict with the typical NFL Sunday schedule.[177] Thanksgiving football is an American tradition,[178] hosting many high school, college, and professional games.[179] Steve Deace of USA Today wrote that Americans are passionate about football "because it embodies everything we love about American exceptionalism. Merit is rewarded, not punished. Masculinity is celebrated, not feminized. People of various beliefs and backgrounds – a melting pot, if you will – must unify for a common goal for the team to be successful".[180] Implicit rules such as playing through pain and sacrificing for the better of the team are promoted in football culture.[181]

The safety of the sport has also sparked national controversy in American popular culture. The 2015 film Concussion aimed to shed light on the sport's safety, specifically in the NFL by having Will Smith portray Dr. Bennet Omalu, a neuropathologist who was the first to discover and publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.

Other countries

In Canada, the game has a significant following. According to a 2013 poll, 21% of respondents said they followed the NFL "very closely" or "fairly closely", making it the third-most followed league behind the National Hockey League (NHL) and Canadian Football League (CFL).[182] American football also has a long history in Mexico, which was introduced to the sport in 1896. It was the second-most popular sport in Mexico in the 1950s, with the game being particularly popular in colleges.[183] The Los Angeles Times notes the NFL claims over 16 million fans in Mexico, which places the country third behind the U.S. and Canada.[184] American football is played in Mexico both professionally and as part of the college sports system.[185] A professional league, the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA), was founded in 2016.[186]

Opening ceremony of the 2010 NFL International Series at London's Wembley Stadium

Japan was introduced to the sport in 1934 by Paul Rusch, a teacher and Christian missionary who helped to establish football teams at three universities in Tokyo. Play was halted during World War II, but the sport began growing in popularity again after the war. As of 2010, there are more than 400 high school football teams in Japan, with over 15,000 participants, and over 100 teams play in the Kantoh Collegiate Football Association (KCFA).[187] The college champion plays the champion of the X-League (a semi-professional league in which teams are financed by corporations) in the Rice Bowl to determine Japan's national champion.[188]

A 2012 football match between national teams of Finland and Sweden at the Sonera Stadium (now Bolt Arena) in Helsinki, Finland

Europe is a major target for the expansion of the game by football organizers. In the United Kingdom in the 1980s, the sport was popular, with the 1986 Super Bowl being watched by over four million people (about 1 out of every 14 Britons). Its popularity faded during the 1990s, coinciding with the establishment of the Premier League—top level of the English football league system. According to BBC America, there is a "social stigma" surrounding American football in the UK, with many Brits feeling the sport has no right to call itself "football" due to the lack of emphasis on kicking.[189] Nonetheless, the sport has retained a following in the United Kingdom; the NFL operates a media network in the country, and since 2007 has hosted the NFL International Series in London. Super Bowl viewership has also rebounded, with over 4.4 million Britons watching Super Bowl XLVI.[190] The sport is played in European countries like Switzerland, which has American football clubs in every major city,[191] and Germany, where the sport has around 45,000 registered amateur players.[185]

In Brazil, football is a growing sport. It was generally unknown there until the 1980s when a small group of players began playing on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. The sport grew gradually with 700 amateur players registering within 20 years. Games were played on the beach with modified rules and without the traditional football equipment due to its lack of availability in Brazil. Eventually, a tournament, the Carioca championship, was founded, with the championship Carioca Bowl played to determine a league champion. The country saw its first full-pad game of football in October 2008.[192] According to The Rio Times, the sport is one of the fastest-growing sports in Brazil and is almost as commonly played as soccer on the beaches of Copacabana and Botafogo.[193]

Football in Brazil is governed by the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol Americano (CBFA), which had over 5,000 registered players as of November 2013. The sport's increase in popularity has been attributed to games aired on ESPN, which began airing in Brazil in 1992 with Portuguese commentary.[194] The popularity and "easy accessibility" of non-contact versions of the sport in Brazil has led to a rise in participation by female players.[193] According to ESPN, the American football audience in Brazil increased 800% between 2013 and 2016. The network, along with Esporte Interativo, airs games there on cable television. Football is often associated in Brazil as being the sport of supermodel Gisele Bündchen's ex-husband Tom Brady. The NFL has expressed interest in having games in the country, and the Super Bowl has become a widely watched event in Brazil at bars and movie theaters.[195]

Variations and related sports

See also: Canadian football, Arena football, and Flag football

Men playing a game of flag football

Canadian football, the predominant form of football in Canada, is closely related to American football—both sports developed from rugby and are considered to be the chief variants of gridiron football.[196] Although both games share a similar set of rules, there are several key rule differences: for example, in Canadian football the field measures 150 by 65 yards (137 by 59 m), including two 20-yard end zones (for a distance between goal lines of 110 yards),[197] teams have three downs instead of four, there are twelve players on each side instead of eleven,[198] fair catches are not allowed, and a rouge, worth a single point is scored if the offensive team kicks the ball out of the defense's end zone.[199] The Canadian Football League (CFL) is the major Canadian league and is the second-most popular sporting league in Canada, behind the National Hockey League.[199] The NFL and CFL had a formal working relationship from 1997 to 2006.[200] The CFL has a strategic partnership with two American football leagues, the German Football League (GFL) and the Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional (LFA).[201] The Canadian rules were developed separately from the American game.

Indoor football leagues constitute what The New York Times writer Mike Tanier described as the "most minor of minor leagues." Leagues are unstable, with franchises regularly moving from one league to another or merging with other teams, and teams or entire leagues dissolving completely; games are only attended by a small number of fans, and most players are semi-professional athletes. The Indoor Football League is an example of a prominent indoor league.[202] The Arena Football League, which was founded in 1987 and ceased operations in 2019, was one of the longest-lived indoor football leagues.[203] In 2004, the league was called "America's fifth major sport" by ESPN The Magazine.[204]

There are several non-contact variants of football like flag football.[205] In flag football the ballcarrie

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r is not tackled; instead, defenders aim to pull a flag tied around the ballcarrier's waist.[206] Another variant, touch football, simply requires the ballcarrier to be touched to be considered downed. Depending on the rules used, a game of touch football may require the ballcarrier be touched with either one or two hands to be considered downed.[207]

History

The studio was founded in April 2007 by Gaku Iwasa[1] and other former staff members of OLM's Team Iwasa, which Iwasa lead.[2] Their first production was the anime series Tears to Tiara. Since then, White Fox has animated shows like Steins;Gate and Re:Zero and Akame ga Kill!.

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