The video game culture has played one of the many roles in popular culture. “Video game culture is a form of new media culture that has been influenced by video games” (Wikipedia, 2009). Over the past few years video games have been very popular among people of all ages, races, religions, cultures (Jones, 2007), but that was not always the case. In the late 1970’s and throughout the 1990’s videogames were seen as a subculture and a substitute for physical activity. In 1972 a game called Pong was created and it became the first pop culture phenomenon amongst video games. The video game Pac Man was introduced around the world in 1981 and it too was a hit among video game enthusiast (Wikipedia).
Videogames have had a major influence in our world. The Music industry has used the sounds and beats within the games and these have been incorporated into the various artistic works of recording artists. Movies based on videogames such as Resident Evil and Super Mario Bros. have also been replicated and were a box office draw across generations of movie goers (Wikipedia).
Online gaming has become one of the major steps that the videogame culture has taken. In the early 1980’s players could only play multiplayer online games with people in their state or country, but now with an internet connection players can interact with other players from all over the world (Wikipedia, 2009). According to Jones (2007), “College students comprise an active video, computer, and online gaming community. Seventy percent (70%) of college students reported playing video, computer or online games at least once in a while and men tend to play more computer and online games than women” (p. 375).
I feel that video gaming has gotten much better than when I first started playing them. When I first started playing video games the graphics were not as good as they are now and the technology that is used to create them now was nonexistent. With improvements in video game technology and game machines there are more techniques that a player uses within the games that give the game that extra edge. Video games may cross the line between, “real and virtual, or a mix of the two, so that players finally cannot tell where reality ends and virtual reality begins” (Cowlishaw, 2007, p. 391). With the proper marketing and advertisement (i.e., word-of-mouth and print ads), of videogames, not only will sales increase, but also the popularity for those who are passionate about electronic games.
Cowlishaw, B. (2007). Playing war: The emerging trend of real virtual combat in
current video games. In M. Petracca & M. Sorapure (Eds.), Common Culture (5th ed.). (pp. 385-398). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Jones, S. (2007) Let the games begin: Gaming technology and entertainment among
college students. In M. Petracca & M. Sorapure (Eds.), Common Culture (5th ed.). (pp. 372-385). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Wikipedia. (2009). Video Game Culture. Retrieved April 24, 2009, from: Wikipedia
This is going to give away my age but I had the original Pong (I was VERY young, though). It used to be that video games were just something that everyone lost interest in, for the most part, around our high school years. You mentioned the use of college students. My son and I recently made a half dozen college visits and virtually all of the dorm rooms had video games set-up (X-Box was the most popular). It seems like now regular video game usage is popular for people (especially males) well into their 30's.
ReplyDeleteOne of the last comments you made are that video games have gotten better through graphics and technology. I do agree to that statement, but I also find previous games that I used to love I still enjoy playing. At the same time there are games I used to enjoy that I get bored with easily now. I think that because of the better graphics and enhanced technology we may be losing interest in some of the previous games that we used to find fun. At some point video games may have to drasticly change in order to hold our attention.
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