Being born in the Canadian Midwest (Winnipeg) I assumed that critical milestones in recreation and play took place in larger East and West coast metropolitan centres. It was the development of the computer industry that created this assumption. East-coast university hackers helped create the earliest game prototypes on mainframes while the West-coast hobbyist hackers helped create Arcades/Consoles/PCs. I thought that the middle of the continent was about farming and tornadoes.
As I did research on Playstates and their origins, I discovered for myself an unexpected revelation. The Midwest (USA) played a huge role in the development of new kinds of play and recreation. Here is a list of important Playstate developments that took place in the Midwest:
| Year | Location | Details |
| 1866 | Macomb, IL | Lizzie Maggie is born and would later create the Landlord Game in 1904, the predecessor to Monopoly. (Games) |
| 1927 | Chicago, IL | Gottlieb is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games) |
| 1931 | Chicago, IL | Bally is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games) |
| 1938 | Chicago, IL | Gary Gygax is born and would later help create D&D in 1974 (Role-Play & Games) |
| 1943 | Detroit, MI | Diana Paxson is born and would later help create the SCA in 1966; The SCA was influenced by the writing of Robert E. Howard who was born in Texas (Source: Medieval Fantasy as Performance) (Role-Play) |
| 1946 | Chicago, IL | Williams is formed and begins manufacturing pinball machines (Games) |
| 1947 | Hannepin, MN | Dave Arneson is born and and would later help create D&D in 1974 (Role-Play & Games) |
| 1956 | Chicago, IL | Second City is formed through rise of Modern Improv (Role-Play) |
| 1981 | Ottumwa, IO | Twin Galaxies is formed and tracks video game records; creating the basis of eSports (Sports) |
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