Computer and video game culture
Encyclopedia
Video game culture is a form of new media
culture
that has been influenced by video games. As computer and video games have increased exponentially in popularity over time, they have caused a significant influence upon popular culture
. This form of entertainment has spawned many fad
s. Video game culture has evolved in time, particularly in connection with internet culture. Today, the impact of computer and video games can be seen in politics
, television, popular music
, and Hollywood.
, console
and home computer
games continue playing now on current systems. The gender distribution of gamers is reaching equilibrium, according to a 2011 study showing that 58% of gamers are male and 42% female. As of 2011, ESA reported that 71% of people age six to forty-nine in the U.S. played video games, with 55% of gamers playing on their phones or mobile devices. The average age of players across the globe is mid to late 20s, and is increasing as older players grow in numbers.
One possible reason for the growing increase in players could be attributed to the growing number of genres that require less of a specific audience. For example, the Wii
console has widened its audience with games such as Wii Sports
and Wii Fit
. Both require more activity from the user and provide more reasons to play including family competition or exercise. It could also be because people who played video games when they were young are now growing older and still have that interest in video games. Currently, the largest entertainment industry for children is gaming. According to a recent survey, over 70% of children between the ages of 8 and 18 own a video game console.
The Everquest Fan Faires for instance, provide weekends of socializing and playing, at a large gathering (an event of several thousands) of dedicated game fans. Terry Flew
in his book Games: Technology, Industry, Culture also emphasises the Online Gaming Communities- “where players aren’t physically located in the same space, but still socializing together”. This raises the notion of Wark’s “Global Village
”, as people are able to transcend their physical limitations and communicate with people, possessing a similar interest, from all around the world. Shapiro also stresses the possibility of “Using technology to enhance one’s social life”, as friendships no longer have to be structured by physical proximity (e.g. neighbours, colleagues). Shapiro states that “the net (Online Gaming Communities) gives individuals the opportunity to extend their social network in a novel way, to communicate and share life experiences with people regardless of where they live and form online relationships”. Thus, such online communities satisfy a genuine need for affiliation with like-minded others.
s and on college mainframes
from the 1970s and 1980s. MUD
s offered multiplayer competition and cooperation but on a scope more geographically limited than on the internet. The internet allowed gamers from all over the world - not just within one country or state - to play games together with ease. With the advent of Cloud Gaming high-performance games can now be played from low-end client systems and even TVs.
One of the most groundbreaking titles in the history of online gaming is Quake, which offered the ability to play with sixteen, and eventually up to thirty-two players simultaneously in a 3D world. Gamers quickly began to establish their own organized groups, called clan
s. Clans established their own identities, their own marketing
, their own form of internal organization, and even their own looks. Some clans had friendly or hostile rivalries, and there were often clans who were allied with other clans. Clan interaction took place on both professionally set competition events, and during normal casual playing where several members of one clan would play on a public server
. Clans would often do their recruiting this way; by noticing the best players on a particular server, they would send invitations for that player to either try out or accept membership in the clan.
'Clan'- or 'guild'-based play has since become an accepted (and expected) aspect of multiplayer gaming, with several games offering cash-prize tournament-style competition to their players. Many clans and guilds also have active fan-bases, which, when combined with the 'tournament' aspect, contribute in turning clan-based gaming into a semi-professional sport.
Clans also allow players to assist each other in simulated combat and quests in game advancement, as well as providing an online family for friendly socialising.
From Quake, gaming grew beyond first-person shooters and has impacted every genre. Real-time strategy
, racing game
s, card game
s, sports game
s can all be played online. Online gaming has spread from its initial computer roots to console gaming as well. Today, every major video game console
available offers degrees of online gaming, some limited by particular titles, some even offer up entire virtual communities.
Certain words and phrases have been invented by, or have become popular with, the gaming community as a whole. Internet slang
is similar to Leetspeak although the Internet Slang has been derived over time from Leetspeak. Some terms are used to describe large gaming events, games themselves, or aspects of games. Many games, especially online games, have their communities create neologisms to refer to specific events, situations, actions, or people in the games. Common phrases include "lol" ("laughing out loud"), "n00b" (deragoratory term for "new beginner") and after a multiplayer match has concluded, "gg" ("good game"). Also glhf (Good Luck and Have Fun). Other words such as "sick", "diesel", "legit" and "beast" have become very popular terms used to express how amazing or awesome something is. Some other terms used in positive manners to congratulate one another are "ftw" (for the win), "pwn
", "pwnage" or "pwned" as in "You pwned (meaning to 'own' or 'shut down') him!" or "That's total pwnage man!"
and game support facilities which allow the producers of the Massively-multiplayer online game to gain player feedback about the games. Titles like World of Warcraft
and RuneScape
have millions of players. Within this population base, gamers are divided into servers of tens of thousands of people, often called realms. The importance this virtual world has is highly varied among gamers. Some gamers spend as much free time as possible, while others play much more casually. Massively multiplayer online games have become so important that virtual economies
have sprung up that allow players to pay real money for virtual property and items, commonly known as RMT (Real Market Trading). One game, Second Life
, has its entire focus on the usage of real-life currency for everything in the game world. Some gamers make a living "farming
" items and selling them on auction sites like eBay
. Since most, if not all, online games issue 'Terms of Service' documents that specifically prohibit such transactions, any players that are proven to be selling any game assets (items, weapons, etc.) will have their game account closed and may face legal action.
Jody Berland argues the assertion that “social construction of technological systems stimulates a desire for human connectedness creates a paradoxical situation”. The Web offers a sense of place and community in the new wired “spaces” of the web. “Webness” assures Derrick de Kerchove (1998) is “connectedness”. However, Berland highlights the irony that “personal depression increases in direct proportion to Web time!”. She describes that in an industry sponsored study, internet use made family members isolated and depressed, and actually decreased the size of their social networks (Kraut et al., 1998). The researchers concluding that, “we are surprised to find that what is such a social network has such anti-social consequences”. People are communicating more, just as the McLuhanites claim, yet feeling less “in touch” than ever.
David Marshall argues against the rich source of “effects” based research, finding that games are “deliberating and anti-social forms of behaviour”. Rather suggesting that “the reality of most games is that they are dynamically social- the elaborate social conversations that emerge from playing games online in massive multi-player formats" (MMOG). Exemplifying ‘The Sims Online
’, he states “has built up entire political and social structures in given communities’ that provide an elaborate game life for participants”. Gamers in these online worlds participate in many-to-many forms of communication and one-to-one correspondence. The games are not only massive; they are also “intimate and social”.
Gosney argues that Alternate Reality Gaming is also inherently social, drawing upon Pierre Levy’s (Levy 1998) notion of Collective Intelligence
. He states that the game relied upon an “unprecedented level of corroboration and collective intelligence to solve the game”. The issue of collective and corroborative team play is essential to ARG, thus are anything but a solitary activity.
Hans Geser further rejects the mainstream media view that video gaming is an anti-social activity, asserting “there is considerable empirical evidence that Second Life
serves mainly to widen the life experience of individuals who have already a rich “First Life”, not as a compensating device for marginal loners.” Thus highlighting the “fantastic social possibilities of Second Life
”, as the intangible reward of social belongingness is of paramount importance. Bray and Konsynski also argue the ability of the technology to “to enrich their lives”, as most Millennials report: “No difference between friendships developed in the real world vs. friendships developed online, and most use the internet to maintain their social networks and plan their social activities”.
suggests that gamers who gather together to play possess a shared language, engage in collective rituals and are often interested in cultural artifacts such as gaming paraphernalia. Cronin and McCarthy (2011) have also explored a liminal, hedonic food culture to be present among these socially connected actors. The commensal consumption of energy dense low nutrient foods is considered to be appropriated during long stretches of gameplay to contribute to the community and hedonistic aspects of social gaming.
In response to the central importance that food plays in the collective enjoyment of social gaming, various websites have been created which allow gamers to rate their favourite foods to accompany play.
The presence of rituals, shared discourse, collective action and even a liminal food culture among gaming communities gives credence to the concept of these cohorts existing as self defining sub-units within mainstream culture. However due to the ephemeral and transient nature of their rituals, and also the possibility of virtual interaction through online participation, these cohorts should be considered 'postmodern subcultures'. Gaming communities have social elements beyond physical interaction and have come to a stage where online and offline spaces can be seen as ‘merged’ rather than separate.
This is what he calls "identity tourism", a form of hopping from one person to another, for which there usually is a stereotypical discourse associated with the protagonist. This is seen in the case of males who assume the personas of the female gender, and the character’s representation of her gender being overly sexualized and/or passive, ‘…this tends to perpetuate and accentuate existing stereotypes of…women…’ (Nakamura).
Bias of gender exists in games. Terry Flew(2005) writes that generally representations of gender in digital games are stereotyped. In many games, male characters are portrayed as hard bodied, muscled men, and female characters are portrayed as soft bodied, nearly naked women with large breasts. Such depiction can be observed in games such as StarCraft and World of Warcraft. In StarCraft, female characters are not as strong as male characters in battle and are designed to cure damaged soldiers, but not to fight. Nonetheless they appear as tall, slender, long haired human females. Similarly, male characters in World of Warcraft are big, masculine and have hard muscled bodies. In addition, Terry Flew(2005) also believes that female characters in games are usually portrayed in a narrowly stereotypical manner. Females are usually constructed as visual objects who wait for male rescue and need to be protected, whereas men are portrayed with more power. Such depiction of females in games reflects underlying social ideas of dominance of male over female and themes of masculinity. Although not all video games contain such stereotypes, there are enough to make it a general trait. Ultimately, Flew ends with the statement of the broad demographic's excessive demands, in that '...different genders have different gaming.'
However, it can be argued that video games do not conform to traditional gender roles such as the male being dominant and the female being submissive. One such example would be the protagonist Lara Croft
in the Tomb Raider
video game series, who is presented as a beautiful, clever, athletic, and brave English archaeologist-adventurer. Lara Croft
has achieved popularity with both males and females as an action-heroine, although depending on what feminist perspective is applied she can either represent 'a positive role model for young girls' or a 'combination of eye and thumb candy for the boys'Helen W. Kennedy (December, 2002) Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis. Recently the emergence of female gamers and developers in the industry has led to overall changes in video games to accommodate this demographic, In the context of Lara Croft, her traditional 'DD' cup size and distorted female figure has been toned down to a more modest 'C' cup and with more realistic proportions in Tomb Raider:Legend Lara's curves reduced to appeal to female gamers May 21, 2005. While there are video games which emphasize a hyper-masculine identity for male characters, this may in fact reflect current [gender roles] and [stereotypes] found in Western society and should not be a generalization of video games as a whole but rather reflecting cultural norms. For example, video games originating from Asia with narrative RPG
elements and anime
influences often include male characters with androgynous physical characteristics with narrow bodies, softer faces, big eyes, porcelain skin and long hair often associated with femininity
, such as the iconic characters of Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII
and Link in the Legend of Zelda.
of video game entities is a major issue in video game culture. On one side, players, especially who played with avatars for several years, have treated the avatars as their own property. On the other hand, publishers claim ownership of all in-game items and characters through the EULA (End User License Agreements). Terry Flew recognises this problem writing, "Intellectual property is much better suited to conventional 'texts' that are fixed or finished, rather than ongoing collaborative creations like games...". He also highlights that these issues will only get worse, with more interactive games emerging, issues of regulation, ownership, and service will only get more problematic. In this case, governments are supposed to establish the pertinent laws. In 2011, SONY decided that gamers using it's Playstation 3 console we not the owner of the said hardware, nor software and were instead granted licenses to use the hard/software.
content in video game is often a source of criticism, which again according to Terry Flew is related to the subject of ‘moral panic
’. Terry Flew
writes that the ‘effects-based’ research which gives rise to the ‘computer games cause violence’ discourse is mostly psychology-based research, influenced particularly after horrific events such as the shooting of schoolchildren at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. He says that the assumption behind such research, cause-effect behaviouralist models of communication, is a flawed one. Several studies show a correlation between violent content conveyed through media (including videogames) and violent or aggressive behavior, while others (Vastag 2004) consider that the evidence for such conclusions is thin and highly contestable.
Fox News reported that Montreal shooting case in Canada was carried out by the criminal Kimveer Gill, who is a player of Super Columbine Massacre, whose narrative attaches with strong violence sense. On the other hand, some people who hold social determinism theory assert technology is neutral, but it is the way that humans manipulate technology which brings about its social impact.
Numerous clans and guilds were created among StarCraft players and they would gather around in online space to compete or to talk about strategy. Consequently, companies like SK Telecom held StarCraft competitions and these were broadcasted full-time on three cable channels, which continues to this day. Id ‘SSam-Jang’ was the first professional online game player who gained fame, publicity and fortune by winning many StarCraft competitions such as ‘Battle.net’ competition and also he was a winner of the "StarCraft" world competition in 1999. He became a celebrity and also did a TV commercial. He still remains a legendary gamer that created number strategies such as ‘under tank drop ship’. Online, his fans created many fan blogs and web sites which were dedicated to him. These people would also go to competitions where ‘SSam-Jang’ would compete to support him. http://cafe.daum.net/SSamjang is a fan page that is still remaining. In addition, he influenced many gamers to become professional gamers or full-time gamers and introduced the idea of considering full-time gamers as a professional job in Korean society.
Subsequently, online games like Lineage, Kart-rider, Ragnarok and World of Warcraft are those few games which became national online games since StarCraft. There are many online web sites created by players to post information about online games, record diaries of daily adventures, chat-rooms to talk about personal adventure story of online games and more. For example, often Ragnarok players would meet up in chat-rooms to decide when they would log in to meet up online to trade weapons, medicines and others things they need in-game.
Online gaming culture grew as games like ‘StarCraft’ and ‘Lineage’ contributed to the birth of other new online games where people not only play games but also to meet and communicate online where it created almost a new society where it can be seen as imagined community. Moreover, the Korean internet and computer industry believe the popularity of online gaming contributed in many ways to develop a very robust and profitable infrastructure. In South Korea, the Online game industry is currently quite profitable and even enjoys government subsidies.
, while games targeted toward teenagers and adults are advertised on MTV
, G4
, Comedy Central
and in NFL Network
.
, Pong
became the first video game pop-culture phenomenon. This was followed by Pac-Man
in 1981
. Other video games labeled as pop-culture phenomena include Final Fantasy, Halo
, Metal Gear
, The Legend of Zelda, Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto
, Call of Duty
, Pokémon
, Guitar Hero
, and the Mario
games.
As games became realistic, issues of questionable content arose. The most notable early example is NARC
, which through its use of digitized graphics and sound and its adult-oriented theme quickly became a target of the press. These same issues arose again when Mortal Kombat
had debuted, particularly its home video game console release on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo
systems (due to Nintendo's strict content-control guidelines, that system's version of Mortal Kombat was substantially re-worked to remove any 'extreme' violence). In response to these issues (and in parallel to similar demands made upon the music and movie industries), the ESRB was established to help guide parents in their purchasing decisions. 1993
's Doom caused quite a stir, with its detailed 3D graphics and copious amounts of blood and gore. In the 1999 Columbine shootings
, violent video games were for a time directly blamed by some for the incident, being labeled "murder simulators". Some serious psychological problems have been attributed to desensitization
to violence in video games combined with their often addictive
nature, though debate has yet to be conclusive about game addiction
and other related issues.
In 2001
, Grand Theft Auto III
was released, which started the controversy over again. The main issue was that the graphics had advanced much, which made the game seem to have a greater potential impact.
Today, video gaming is viewed as a serious industry (and in a non-biased standpoint, since despite multiple outlets reporting on the information above, many of them also report on positive and/or neutral news, such as advancing technology and highly anticipated games) comparable to the movie industry or the music industry. News outlets cover video game console releases in the same manner as they cover the release of a highly-anticipated movie.
.
The first television channel dedicated to video gaming and culture, G4
, was launched in 2002. However, over the years, the channel has moved away from video game shows, and more towards male-oriented programs. X-Play
, one of the channel's most popular shows and the highest rated video game review show, is still produced at G4.
There are also video game shows that appear on other channels, such as Spike TV
, Fuel TV
and MTV
.
In Korea, there are two cable TV channels fully dedicated to video games, Ongamenet and MBCGame, broadcasting professional game leagues that are held in Korea.
In Germany, there is one digital cable and satellite channel fully dedicated to video games: GIGA Television
. It is also seen via internet stream by a lot of viewers.
In Australia, there is one TV show that is based on gaming and games. Good Game
on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) which broadcasts on channel ABC2
. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes.
In Russia, there are one satellite, the "Perviy Igrovoy" (Gaming First) and one cable, "Gameplay TV", gaming TV channels. Channels have internet streams.
, a fictional series chronicling the life and adventures of Jeremy, a self-proclaimed "pro gamer" has helped define gaming culture with its popularization of gaming lingo such as "BOOM Headshot!"
Red vs. Blue
(made by Rooster Teeth), is a machinima
(machine-cinema) filmed within many different video games. They consist of hundreds of short episodes with characters acting out short, comedic sections of their lives in their own video game universes.
Consolevania
, a game review/sketch show produced in Glasgow
, Scotland
. Unusually, the show was developed into a broadcast series, videoGaiden
on BBC Scotland
.
Button Mashers, an original gaming news show for website Gamezombie.tv. It is shot at a $1 million HDTV studio and has millions of viewers all across the internet.
The Guild
, a web series in which the cast are members of a guild that plays an MMORPG
similar to World of Warcraft
.
ians in many ways. The earliest example was the electronic music
band Yellow Magic Orchestra
's self-titled album, released in 1978, which utilized Space Invaders
samples
as instrumentation. In turn, the band would have a major influence on much of the video game music produced during the 8-bit
and 16-bit eras
. During the golden age of video arcade games in the early 1980s, it became common for arcade game
sounds and bleeps
to be utilized, particularly in early hip hop music
, synthpop
, and electro music. Buckner & Garcia
's Pac-Man Fever
, released in 1982, featured songs that were both about famous arcade games like Pac-Man
, Donkey Kong, and Berzerk
, and also used the sound samples from the games themselves as instrumentation. In 1984, former Yellow Magic Orchestra member Harry Hosono
produced an album entirely from Namco
arcade game samples, entitled Video Game Music.
Aphex Twin
, an experimental electronic artist, under the name "PowerPill" released the Pacman EP in 1992 that featured a heavy use of Pac-man sound effects. An entire music genre called chiptune
s, or sometimes gamewave
, have artists dedicated to using the synthesizer sets that came with past video game consoles and computers, particularly the Commodore 64
and the Nintendo Entertainment System
. These bands include Mr. Pacman
, 8 Bit Weapon
, Goto 80, 50 Hertz and Puss
. The influence of retro video games on contemporary music can also be seen in the work of less purist "Bitpop
" artists, such as Solemn Camel Crew
and Anamanaguchi
. Moreover, many gamers collect and listen to video game music, ripped from the games themselves. This music is known by its file extension and includes such formats as: SID
(Commodore 64), NSF
(NES) and SPC
(SNES). Cover band
s like Minibosses
have been founded recently that perform instrumentations, and groups like The Protomen
have written rock operas inspired by the Mega Man
video games.
A comedy sub genre has developed increasing the popularity of several musicians including Jonathan Coulton
, famous for the song Still Alive featured in the credits of Valve Software's title Portal, and Jonathan Lewis, songwriter and composer credited with the Half Life themed parody album titled Combine Road.
Full orchestras, such as the Symphonic Game Music Concert
tour North America, the United States, and Asia performing symphonic versions of video game songs, particularly the Final Fantasy
series, the Metal Gear
series, and Nintendo
themed music, such as the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live
Concert. In Japan, Dragon Quest
symphonic concerts are performed yearly, ever since their debut in 1987.
, which featured John Leguizamo
and Dennis Hopper
. Most film adaptions of other video games have been rated unfavorably as well, and the adaptions often fail at the box office too. 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
was successful at the box office, despite poor reviews ($274,703,340 USD gross revenue). Director Uwe Boll
has become well known for his film adaptions of video games, notorious for being poorly reviewed box office flops. This was the case with BloodRayne
which was reviewed terribly by critics and only grossed $3,650,275 USD, a fraction of its $25 million budget. The contributing factors to the unsuccessful transition from home television to theatre screens are attributed to: a dramatic re-envisioning of the video game that provides a disconnect from the game's plot, the game itself lacking a plot rich enough to provide a decent script (particularly with versus fighting games), a substantially altered plot to make the movie more "mainstream" (Doom), and an emphasis on using celebrity actors over actors that would fit the part.
Examples: Street Fighter
, Mortal Kombat
, BloodRayne
, Doom
, House of the Dead
, Alone in the Dark
, Resident Evil
, Silent Hill
, Tomb Raider
, a computer mistakes a fictional computer game called Global ThermoNuclear War for reality. Also in 1982, Tron
featured a programmer who was transported into a computer and had to directly take part in the games he had created. In the 1984 film, The Last Starfighter
, a stand-up arcade video game is used as a test to find those "with the gift", who are recruited to pilot actual Starfighter spacecraft in the conflict between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire. 1989's The Wizard
, starring Fred Savage
is the first film about a real video game. The plot revolves around about adolescents who compete at games for the Nintendo Entertainment System
. The film was also a first look at the mega-hit Super Mario Bros. 3
. The main character from 2006's Grandma's Boy was a game tester who developed his own game on the side. The film made multiple references to video game culture and featured the game Demonik, which was cancelled by its publisher shortly after the film's release. The most current example of a film of this type is 2006's Stay Alive
, a horror film about a next-generation video game that is so realistic that it kills its players in the same way their avatars were killed.
s in the mid 1990s, primarily because of the increased capacity offered by the laserdisc
format. Interactive movies started out on arcade machines in 1983, but quickly expanded to computers and video game consoles such as the Sega CD, the Phillips CD-i
and the Panasonic 3DO. The games are characterized by more emphasis on cinematic sequences, using full-motion video and voice acting. Interactive movie games have been made in a number of genres, including adventure game
s, rail shooters, and role-playing game
s.
The first interactive movie game was Dragon's Lair
, originally released in the arcades in 1983, making it the first game to use a laserdisc and animation by Don Bluth
, a man who worked for Disney on features like Robin Hood
, The Rescuers
, and Pete's Dragon
, but later worked for other film companies like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
(All Dogs Go to Heaven
) and Universal Studios (The Land Before Time
). In Dragon's Lair, you control the actions of a daring knight named Dirk, to save a princess from an evil dragon, hence the name of the game. Since the dawn of this exact game, more and more companies were influenced by the technology used, and decided to make their own interactive movie games for arcades and consoles.
The birth of the 'interactive movie' genre was studded with unimpressive flops, though the genre later came into its own; at the time, video-capture technology was still in its infancy, with short (and often grainy and low-quality) video segments being the norm for games of any length.
Notable examples – Xenosaga
, Bioforge
, Night Trap
, Sewer Shark
, Under a Killing Moon
, Rebel Assault, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace
, Heavy Rain
In the history, the Television engineer Ralph Baer, who conceived the idea of an interactive television
while building a television set from scratch created the first video game. Video games are now also being exploited by pay-TV companies which allow you to simply attach your computer or console to the television cable system and you can simply download the latest game.
Games act in television, with the player choosing to enter the artificial world. The constructed meanings in video games are more influential than those of traditional media forms. The reason is that 'games interact with the audience in a dialogue of emotion, action, and reaction'. The interactivity means this occurs to a depth that is not possible in the traditional media forms.
Computer games have developed in parallel to both the video game and the video arcade game. The personal computer and the new console machines such as the Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube
, PlayStation 2
and Xbox
offered a new dimension to game playing. They have now largely been replaced by the Xbox 360
, Wii
and, the PlayStation 3
.
Games are the first new computer-based media form to socialize a generation of youth in a way that traditional media forms have in the past. Therefore, the ‘MTV
generation’ has been overtaken by the ‘Nintendo
generation’; however, some refer to the current generation as the 'iPod Generation
'.
Because they straddle the technologies of television and computers, electronic games are a channel through which we can investigate the various impacts of new media and the technologies of convergence.
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
that has been influenced by video games. As computer and video games have increased exponentially in popularity over time, they have caused a significant influence upon popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. This form of entertainment has spawned many fad
FAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
s. Video game culture has evolved in time, particularly in connection with internet culture. Today, the impact of computer and video games can be seen in politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, television, popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, and Hollywood.
Demographics
As of 2011, the average age for a video game player is 37, a number slowly increasing as people who were children playing the first arcadeArcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
, console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
and home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
games continue playing now on current systems. The gender distribution of gamers is reaching equilibrium, according to a 2011 study showing that 58% of gamers are male and 42% female. As of 2011, ESA reported that 71% of people age six to forty-nine in the U.S. played video games, with 55% of gamers playing on their phones or mobile devices. The average age of players across the globe is mid to late 20s, and is increasing as older players grow in numbers.
One possible reason for the growing increase in players could be attributed to the growing number of genres that require less of a specific audience. For example, the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
console has widened its audience with games such as Wii Sports
Wii Sports
is a sports game developed and published by Nintendo as a launch title for the Wii video game console , and part of the Touch! Generations. The game was first released in North America along with the Wii on November 19, 2006, and was released in Japan, Australia, and Europe the following month...
and Wii Fit
Wii Fit
is a video game developed by Nintendo for the company's home video game console, Wii, designed by Hiroshi Matsunaga. It is an exercise game consisting of activities using the Wii Balance Board peripheral...
. Both require more activity from the user and provide more reasons to play including family competition or exercise. It could also be because people who played video games when they were young are now growing older and still have that interest in video games. Currently, the largest entertainment industry for children is gaming. According to a recent survey, over 70% of children between the ages of 8 and 18 own a video game console.
LAN gaming
Video games are played in a variety of social ways, which often involve domestic gatherings or even in public places. A popular method of accomplishing this is a LAN (Local Area Network) party, which if hosted at a home involves family and friends, creating a social event for people friendly with each other. LAN parties are often held in large scale events conducted in public spaces and have a great number of participants who might not usually socialise.The Everquest Fan Faires for instance, provide weekends of socializing and playing, at a large gathering (an event of several thousands) of dedicated game fans. Terry Flew
Terry Flew
Terry Flew is an associate Professor of Media and Communication in the Creative Industries faculty at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He has authored the books Games: Technology, Industry, Culture and Understanding Global Media...
in his book Games: Technology, Industry, Culture also emphasises the Online Gaming Communities- “where players aren’t physically located in the same space, but still socializing together”. This raises the notion of Wark’s “Global Village
Global Village (term)
Global Village is a term closely associated with Marshall McLuhan, popularized in his books The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man and Understanding Media . McLuhan described how the globe has been contracted into a village by electric technology and the instantaneous movement of...
”, as people are able to transcend their physical limitations and communicate with people, possessing a similar interest, from all around the world. Shapiro also stresses the possibility of “Using technology to enhance one’s social life”, as friendships no longer have to be structured by physical proximity (e.g. neighbours, colleagues). Shapiro states that “the net (Online Gaming Communities) gives individuals the opportunity to extend their social network in a novel way, to communicate and share life experiences with people regardless of where they live and form online relationships”. Thus, such online communities satisfy a genuine need for affiliation with like-minded others.
Online gaming
Online gaming has drastically increased the scope and size of gaming culture, although this has much to do with the usage of the Internet itself as a communication medium. Online gaming grew out of games on bulletin board systemBulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s and on college mainframes
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
from the 1970s and 1980s. MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
s offered multiplayer competition and cooperation but on a scope more geographically limited than on the internet. The internet allowed gamers from all over the world - not just within one country or state - to play games together with ease. With the advent of Cloud Gaming high-performance games can now be played from low-end client systems and even TVs.
One of the most groundbreaking titles in the history of online gaming is Quake, which offered the ability to play with sixteen, and eventually up to thirty-two players simultaneously in a 3D world. Gamers quickly began to establish their own organized groups, called clan
Clan (computer gaming)
In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is an organised group of players that regularly play together in a particular multiplayer games. These games range from groups of a few friends to 1000-person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members. The lifespan of a clan...
s. Clans established their own identities, their own marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
, their own form of internal organization, and even their own looks. Some clans had friendly or hostile rivalries, and there were often clans who were allied with other clans. Clan interaction took place on both professionally set competition events, and during normal casual playing where several members of one clan would play on a public server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
. Clans would often do their recruiting this way; by noticing the best players on a particular server, they would send invitations for that player to either try out or accept membership in the clan.
'Clan'- or 'guild'-based play has since become an accepted (and expected) aspect of multiplayer gaming, with several games offering cash-prize tournament-style competition to their players. Many clans and guilds also have active fan-bases, which, when combined with the 'tournament' aspect, contribute in turning clan-based gaming into a semi-professional sport.
Clans also allow players to assist each other in simulated combat and quests in game advancement, as well as providing an online family for friendly socialising.
From Quake, gaming grew beyond first-person shooters and has impacted every genre. Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
, racing game
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
s, card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
s, sports game
Sports game
A sports game is a computer or video game that simulates the practice of traditional sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, athletics and extreme sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport , whilst others emphasize strategy and organization...
s can all be played online. Online gaming has spread from its initial computer roots to console gaming as well. Today, every major video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
available offers degrees of online gaming, some limited by particular titles, some even offer up entire virtual communities.
Slang and terminology
Internet slang
Internet slang is a type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites...
is similar to Leetspeak although the Internet Slang has been derived over time from Leetspeak. Some terms are used to describe large gaming events, games themselves, or aspects of games. Many games, especially online games, have their communities create neologisms to refer to specific events, situations, actions, or people in the games. Common phrases include "lol" ("laughing out loud"), "n00b" (deragoratory term for "new beginner") and after a multiplayer match has concluded, "gg" ("good game"). Also glhf (Good Luck and Have Fun). Other words such as "sick", "diesel", "legit" and "beast" have become very popular terms used to express how amazing or awesome something is. Some other terms used in positive manners to congratulate one another are "ftw" (for the win), "pwn
Pwn
Pwn is a leetspeak slang term derived from the verb own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival, used primarily in the Internet-based video game culture to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated .In hacker...
", "pwnage" or "pwned" as in "You pwned (meaning to 'own' or 'shut down') him!" or "That's total pwnage man!"
Massively-multiplayer online gaming
The shift from console-based or "shrink-wrap" gaming to online games has allowed Massively-multiplayer online gaming today to become ubiquitous in the computer gaming realm. Due to the openness of the Internet's architecture, users become producers of the technology, and shapers of the whole network. This allowed Massively-multiplayer online gaming to expand to include gaming clan forumsClan (computer gaming)
In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is an organised group of players that regularly play together in a particular multiplayer games. These games range from groups of a few friends to 1000-person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members. The lifespan of a clan...
and game support facilities which allow the producers of the Massively-multiplayer online game to gain player feedback about the games. Titles like World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
and RuneScape
RuneScape
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
have millions of players. Within this population base, gamers are divided into servers of tens of thousands of people, often called realms. The importance this virtual world has is highly varied among gamers. Some gamers spend as much free time as possible, while others play much more casually. Massively multiplayer online games have become so important that virtual economies
Virtual economy
A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an Internet game...
have sprung up that allow players to pay real money for virtual property and items, commonly known as RMT (Real Market Trading). One game, Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
, has its entire focus on the usage of real-life currency for everything in the game world. Some gamers make a living "farming
Gold farming
Gold farming is playing a massively multiplayer online game to acquire in-game currency which is then sold to other players. People in China and in other developing nations have held full-time employment as gold farmers....
" items and selling them on auction sites like eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
. Since most, if not all, online games issue 'Terms of Service' documents that specifically prohibit such transactions, any players that are proven to be selling any game assets (items, weapons, etc.) will have their game account closed and may face legal action.
Social or anti-social technology?
There has been much debate among media theorists as to whether video gaming is an inherently social or anti-social activity. Terry Flew argues that digital games are “increasingly social, a trend that works against the mainstream media’s portrayal of players as isolated, usually adolescent boys hidden away in darkened bedrooms, failing to engage with the social world”. He asserts, rather that games are played in very social and public settings, for example computers and consoles are played in living areas of domestic homes, where people play with family or friends.Jody Berland argues the assertion that “social construction of technological systems stimulates a desire for human connectedness creates a paradoxical situation”. The Web offers a sense of place and community in the new wired “spaces” of the web. “Webness” assures Derrick de Kerchove (1998) is “connectedness”. However, Berland highlights the irony that “personal depression increases in direct proportion to Web time!”. She describes that in an industry sponsored study, internet use made family members isolated and depressed, and actually decreased the size of their social networks (Kraut et al., 1998). The researchers concluding that, “we are surprised to find that what is such a social network has such anti-social consequences”. People are communicating more, just as the McLuhanites claim, yet feeling less “in touch” than ever.
David Marshall argues against the rich source of “effects” based research, finding that games are “deliberating and anti-social forms of behaviour”. Rather suggesting that “the reality of most games is that they are dynamically social- the elaborate social conversations that emerge from playing games online in massive multi-player formats" (MMOG). Exemplifying ‘The Sims Online
The Sims Online
The Sims Online was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis's highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA-Land and major...
’, he states “has built up entire political and social structures in given communities’ that provide an elaborate game life for participants”. Gamers in these online worlds participate in many-to-many forms of communication and one-to-one correspondence. The games are not only massive; they are also “intimate and social”.
Gosney argues that Alternate Reality Gaming is also inherently social, drawing upon Pierre Levy’s (Levy 1998) notion of Collective Intelligence
Collective intelligence
Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
. He states that the game relied upon an “unprecedented level of corroboration and collective intelligence to solve the game”. The issue of collective and corroborative team play is essential to ARG, thus are anything but a solitary activity.
Hans Geser further rejects the mainstream media view that video gaming is an anti-social activity, asserting “there is considerable empirical evidence that Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
serves mainly to widen the life experience of individuals who have already a rich “First Life”, not as a compensating device for marginal loners.” Thus highlighting the “fantastic social possibilities of Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
”, as the intangible reward of social belongingness is of paramount importance. Bray and Konsynski also argue the ability of the technology to “to enrich their lives”, as most Millennials report: “No difference between friendships developed in the real world vs. friendships developed online, and most use the internet to maintain their social networks and plan their social activities”.
Social implications of video games
The advent of video games gave an innovative media technology, that allowed consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content. Consumers can use this media source as an alternative tool to gain access to information of their interest. The community aspect to videogaming has also had implications for the social interactions and collective behaviours of consumers involved in the activity.Rise of subcultures
Contemporary investigations have found that there is a prevailing social framework in place during gatherings of gaming enthusiasts or 'gamers'. Mayra (2008, p.25)suggests that gamers who gather together to play possess a shared language, engage in collective rituals and are often interested in cultural artifacts such as gaming paraphernalia. Cronin and McCarthy (2011) have also explored a liminal, hedonic food culture to be present among these socially connected actors. The commensal consumption of energy dense low nutrient foods is considered to be appropriated during long stretches of gameplay to contribute to the community and hedonistic aspects of social gaming.
In response to the central importance that food plays in the collective enjoyment of social gaming, various websites have been created which allow gamers to rate their favourite foods to accompany play.
The presence of rituals, shared discourse, collective action and even a liminal food culture among gaming communities gives credence to the concept of these cohorts existing as self defining sub-units within mainstream culture. However due to the ephemeral and transient nature of their rituals, and also the possibility of virtual interaction through online participation, these cohorts should be considered 'postmodern subcultures'. Gaming communities have social elements beyond physical interaction and have come to a stage where online and offline spaces can be seen as ‘merged’ rather than separate.
Communal living
There has been an increasing rise in the prevalence of gamers living together to save costs through sharing utilities and physical resources. Whether they are apart of a clan, guild, or other online association costs can be shared so that more time can be spent gaming. Current eSports titles that feature competitive online-play, such as LeagueofLegends, have been increasingly referring to this form of communal living as the 'game-house', as shared by Reginald from TSM gaming.MMORPG and identity tourism
Few suggests that the appeal of the "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game" lie in the idea of escapism, and the ability to assume the role of someone or something that is a fantasy in real life. He notes that ‘…for some women, [they] enjoy adopting what they feel to be an image of femininity more acceptable or desirable than their real world body…’(p. 264)This is what he calls "identity tourism", a form of hopping from one person to another, for which there usually is a stereotypical discourse associated with the protagonist. This is seen in the case of males who assume the personas of the female gender, and the character’s representation of her gender being overly sexualized and/or passive, ‘…this tends to perpetuate and accentuate existing stereotypes of…women…’ (Nakamura).
Bias of gender exists in games. Terry Flew(2005) writes that generally representations of gender in digital games are stereotyped. In many games, male characters are portrayed as hard bodied, muscled men, and female characters are portrayed as soft bodied, nearly naked women with large breasts. Such depiction can be observed in games such as StarCraft and World of Warcraft. In StarCraft, female characters are not as strong as male characters in battle and are designed to cure damaged soldiers, but not to fight. Nonetheless they appear as tall, slender, long haired human females. Similarly, male characters in World of Warcraft are big, masculine and have hard muscled bodies. In addition, Terry Flew(2005) also believes that female characters in games are usually portrayed in a narrowly stereotypical manner. Females are usually constructed as visual objects who wait for male rescue and need to be protected, whereas men are portrayed with more power. Such depiction of females in games reflects underlying social ideas of dominance of male over female and themes of masculinity. Although not all video games contain such stereotypes, there are enough to make it a general trait. Ultimately, Flew ends with the statement of the broad demographic's excessive demands, in that '...different genders have different gaming.'
However, it can be argued that video games do not conform to traditional gender roles such as the male being dominant and the female being submissive. One such example would be the protagonist Lara Croft
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
in the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
video game series, who is presented as a beautiful, clever, athletic, and brave English archaeologist-adventurer. Lara Croft
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
has achieved popularity with both males and females as an action-heroine, although depending on what feminist perspective is applied she can either represent 'a positive role model for young girls' or a 'combination of eye and thumb candy for the boys'Helen W. Kennedy (December, 2002) Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis. Recently the emergence of female gamers and developers in the industry has led to overall changes in video games to accommodate this demographic, In the context of Lara Croft, her traditional 'DD' cup size and distorted female figure has been toned down to a more modest 'C' cup and with more realistic proportions in Tomb Raider:Legend Lara's curves reduced to appeal to female gamers May 21, 2005. While there are video games which emphasize a hyper-masculine identity for male characters, this may in fact reflect current [gender roles] and [stereotypes] found in Western society and should not be a generalization of video games as a whole but rather reflecting cultural norms. For example, video games originating from Asia with narrative RPG
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
elements and anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
influences often include male characters with androgynous physical characteristics with narrow bodies, softer faces, big eyes, porcelain skin and long hair often associated with femininity
Femininity
Femininity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women. Though socially constructed, femininity is made up of both socially defined and biologically created factors...
, such as the iconic characters of Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
and Link in the Legend of Zelda.
Ownership
OwnershipOwnership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...
of video game entities is a major issue in video game culture. On one side, players, especially who played with avatars for several years, have treated the avatars as their own property. On the other hand, publishers claim ownership of all in-game items and characters through the EULA (End User License Agreements). Terry Flew recognises this problem writing, "Intellectual property is much better suited to conventional 'texts' that are fixed or finished, rather than ongoing collaborative creations like games...". He also highlights that these issues will only get worse, with more interactive games emerging, issues of regulation, ownership, and service will only get more problematic. In this case, governments are supposed to establish the pertinent laws. In 2011, SONY decided that gamers using it's Playstation 3 console we not the owner of the said hardware, nor software and were instead granted licenses to use the hard/software.
Violence narrative
ViolenceViolence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
content in video game is often a source of criticism, which again according to Terry Flew is related to the subject of ‘moral panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
’. Terry Flew
Terry Flew
Terry Flew is an associate Professor of Media and Communication in the Creative Industries faculty at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He has authored the books Games: Technology, Industry, Culture and Understanding Global Media...
writes that the ‘effects-based’ research which gives rise to the ‘computer games cause violence’ discourse is mostly psychology-based research, influenced particularly after horrific events such as the shooting of schoolchildren at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. He says that the assumption behind such research, cause-effect behaviouralist models of communication, is a flawed one. Several studies show a correlation between violent content conveyed through media (including videogames) and violent or aggressive behavior, while others (Vastag 2004) consider that the evidence for such conclusions is thin and highly contestable.
Fox News reported that Montreal shooting case in Canada was carried out by the criminal Kimveer Gill, who is a player of Super Columbine Massacre, whose narrative attaches with strong violence sense. On the other hand, some people who hold social determinism theory assert technology is neutral, but it is the way that humans manipulate technology which brings about its social impact.
Influence of ‘StarCraft’ (online gaming) in South Korea
‘PC Baang (PC방)’, which is more commonly known as an internet café, is one of the very first phenomenons which occurred because of the influence of online gaming in South Korea (Flew 2005). This phenomenon sprung in 1998, mainly from the influence of the strategy game StarCraft. In South Korea, more than five million people played the game during that time. Males from their late teens to late twenties were the main players. Game players would usually visit internet cafés to play StarCraft because people could use better computers with faster internet connections compared to the computers they owned.Numerous clans and guilds were created among StarCraft players and they would gather around in online space to compete or to talk about strategy. Consequently, companies like SK Telecom held StarCraft competitions and these were broadcasted full-time on three cable channels, which continues to this day. Id ‘SSam-Jang’ was the first professional online game player who gained fame, publicity and fortune by winning many StarCraft competitions such as ‘Battle.net’ competition and also he was a winner of the "StarCraft" world competition in 1999. He became a celebrity and also did a TV commercial. He still remains a legendary gamer that created number strategies such as ‘under tank drop ship’. Online, his fans created many fan blogs and web sites which were dedicated to him. These people would also go to competitions where ‘SSam-Jang’ would compete to support him. http://cafe.daum.net/SSamjang is a fan page that is still remaining. In addition, he influenced many gamers to become professional gamers or full-time gamers and introduced the idea of considering full-time gamers as a professional job in Korean society.
Subsequently, online games like Lineage, Kart-rider, Ragnarok and World of Warcraft are those few games which became national online games since StarCraft. There are many online web sites created by players to post information about online games, record diaries of daily adventures, chat-rooms to talk about personal adventure story of online games and more. For example, often Ragnarok players would meet up in chat-rooms to decide when they would log in to meet up online to trade weapons, medicines and others things they need in-game.
Online gaming culture grew as games like ‘StarCraft’ and ‘Lineage’ contributed to the birth of other new online games where people not only play games but also to meet and communicate online where it created almost a new society where it can be seen as imagined community. Moreover, the Korean internet and computer industry believe the popularity of online gaming contributed in many ways to develop a very robust and profitable infrastructure. In South Korea, the Online game industry is currently quite profitable and even enjoys government subsidies.
Advertising
Games are also advertised on different TV channels, depending on the age demographic they are targeting. Games targeted toward younger kids are advertised on NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
, while games targeted toward teenagers and adults are advertised on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
and in NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
.
Gaming as portrayed by the media
From the 1970s through even the 1990s, video game playing was mostly seen as sub-culture hobby activity and as a substitute for physical sports. However, during several times in its early history, video gaming caught the attention of the mainstream news outlets. In 19721972 in video gaming
-Events:*Pong was the first commercially successful video arcade game, as well as the first video game to be subject to a lawsuit*Following the poor sales of Computer Space, Nolan Bushnell leaves Nutting Associates to move his coin-op engineering and design firm with Ted Dabney in to a full fledged...
, Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
became the first video game pop-culture phenomenon. This was followed by Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
in 1981
1981 in video gaming
-Events:* November -** The British video game magazine Computer and Video Games starts.** Game & Watch - released in Sweden.* Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel found Electronic Games, the first magazine on video games and generally recognized as the beginning of video game journalism.-Notable releases:*...
. Other video games labeled as pop-culture phenomena include Final Fantasy, Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
, Metal Gear
Metal Gear (series)
is a series of stealth video games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for the MSX2. The player takes control of a special forces operative Solid Snake who is assigned to find the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear", a...
, The Legend of Zelda, Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
, Call of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
, Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
, Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...
, and the Mario
Mario (series)
The video game series, alternatively called the series or simply the series, is a series of highly popular and critically acclaimed video games by Nintendo, featuring Nintendo's mascot Mario and, in many games, his brother Luigi. Gameplay in the series often centers around jumping on and...
games.
As games became realistic, issues of questionable content arose. The most notable early example is NARC
NARC (video game)
NARC is originally a 1988 arcade game designed by Eugene Jarvis for Williams Electronics and programmed by George Petro. It was one of the first ultra-violent video games and a frequent target of parental criticism of the arcade game industry. The object is to arrest and kill drug offenders,...
, which through its use of digitized graphics and sound and its adult-oriented theme quickly became a target of the press. These same issues arose again when Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat (video game)
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...
had debuted, particularly its home video game console release on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
systems (due to Nintendo's strict content-control guidelines, that system's version of Mortal Kombat was substantially re-worked to remove any 'extreme' violence). In response to these issues (and in parallel to similar demands made upon the music and movie industries), the ESRB was established to help guide parents in their purchasing decisions. 1993
1993 in video gaming
-Events:*March — In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY starts. The original name is Super Power.*Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993....
's Doom caused quite a stir, with its detailed 3D graphics and copious amounts of blood and gore. In the 1999 Columbine shootings
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
, violent video games were for a time directly blamed by some for the incident, being labeled "murder simulators". Some serious psychological problems have been attributed to desensitization
Desensitization (psychology)
In psychology, desensitization is a process for mitigating the harmful effects of phobias or other disorders. It also occurs when an emotional response is repeatedly evoked in situations in which the action tendency that is associated with the emotion proves irrelevant or unnecessary...
to violence in video games combined with their often addictive
Behavioral addiction
Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction which does not rely on drugs or alcohol. Increasingly referred to as process addiction or non-substance-related addiction ) behavioral addiction includes a compulsion to repeatedly engage in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences...
nature, though debate has yet to be conclusive about game addiction
Game addiction
Video game addiction, or more broadly used video game overuse, is excessive or compulsive use of computer and video games that interferes with daily life. Instances have been reported in which users play compulsively, isolating themselves from family and friends or from other forms of social...
and other related issues.
In 2001
2001 in video gaming
-Events:* Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts John Carmack of id Software to the AIAS Hall of Fame...
, Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 open world action computer and video game developed by DMA Design in the United Kingdom, and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first 3D title in the Grand Theft Auto series. It was released in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2, May 2002 for Microsoft Windows,...
was released, which started the controversy over again. The main issue was that the graphics had advanced much, which made the game seem to have a greater potential impact.
Today, video gaming is viewed as a serious industry (and in a non-biased standpoint, since despite multiple outlets reporting on the information above, many of them also report on positive and/or neutral news, such as advancing technology and highly anticipated games) comparable to the movie industry or the music industry. News outlets cover video game console releases in the same manner as they cover the release of a highly-anticipated movie.
Television channels
The first video game TV show was GamePro TVGamePro TV
GamePro TV was a syndicated weekly video game television show that ran from 1990 through 1991. The show was a low-budget partner to GamePro magazine.-First-run syndication version:...
.
The first television channel dedicated to video gaming and culture, G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
, was launched in 2002. However, over the years, the channel has moved away from video game shows, and more towards male-oriented programs. X-Play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
, one of the channel's most popular shows and the highest rated video game review show, is still produced at G4.
There are also video game shows that appear on other channels, such as Spike TV
Spike TV
Spike is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network , a joint venture of WSM, Inc...
, Fuel TV
Fuel TV
Fuel TV is a U.S. cable and satellite specialty channel that launched on July 1, 2003. It focuses on the cultures of such extreme sports as skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, motocross, surfing, BMX and FMX. It is a unit of Fox Cable Networks and is currently available to 26-million...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
In Korea, there are two cable TV channels fully dedicated to video games, Ongamenet and MBCGame, broadcasting professional game leagues that are held in Korea.
In Germany, there is one digital cable and satellite channel fully dedicated to video games: GIGA Television
GIGA Television
GIGA was the brand name of a digital TV channel and several German television shows. The channel ceased operations in 2009.-Early Days:...
. It is also seen via internet stream by a lot of viewers.
In Australia, there is one TV show that is based on gaming and games. Good Game
Good Game
Good Game is an Australian video gaming talk show television programme created by Janet Carr and Jeremy Ray currently on ABC2. It premiered on ABC on 19 September 2006...
on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) which broadcasts on channel ABC2
ABC2
ABC2 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 7 March 2005, it is the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television division, and is available nationally to digital television viewers in Australia...
. The show is also available as a podcast on iTunes.
In Russia, there are one satellite, the "Perviy Igrovoy" (Gaming First) and one cable, "Gameplay TV", gaming TV channels. Channels have internet streams.
Internet shows
Pure PwnagePure Pwnage
Pure Pwnage was an Internet-distributed, mockumentary series from ROFLMAO Productions. The fictional series purports to chronicle the life and adventures of Jeremy , a Canadian and self-proclaimed "pro gamer"...
, a fictional series chronicling the life and adventures of Jeremy, a self-proclaimed "pro gamer" has helped define gaming culture with its popularization of gaming lingo such as "BOOM Headshot!"
Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is a set of related comic science fiction video series created by Rooster Teeth Productions and distributed through the Internet and on DVD...
(made by Rooster Teeth), is a machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
(machine-cinema) filmed within many different video games. They consist of hundreds of short episodes with characters acting out short, comedic sections of their lives in their own video game universes.
Consolevania
Consolevania
Consolevania is a video games TV show filmed in and around Glasgow, Scotland. It is notable as one of very few online TV shows to make the leap onto broadcast TV as the show videoGaiden, which has had three series shown on BBC Scotland....
, a game review/sketch show produced in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Unusually, the show was developed into a broadcast series, videoGaiden
VideoGaiden
VideoGaiden is a Scottish computer games television show broadcast by BBC Scotland. Its creators and presenters, Robert Florence and Ryan Macleod, are responsible for the internet-distributed videogaming show Consolevania, upon which the show is based...
on BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
.
Button Mashers, an original gaming news show for website Gamezombie.tv. It is shot at a $1 million HDTV studio and has millions of viewers all across the internet.
The Guild
The Guild
The Guild is an American comedy web series created and written by Felicia Day, who also stars as Cyd Sherman . It premiered on YouTube on July 27, 2007. Subsequent webisodes premiered on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace, Zune Marketplace, and MSN Video. The webisodes were later made available on...
, a web series in which the cast are members of a guild that plays an MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
similar to World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
.
Influences on music
Video game music has been utilized by popular musicPopular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
ians in many ways. The earliest example was the electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
band Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
's self-titled album, released in 1978, which utilized Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
as instrumentation. In turn, the band would have a major influence on much of the video game music produced during the 8-bit
History of video game consoles (third generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of both the Nintendo Family Computer and Sega SG-1000...
and 16-bit eras
History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's PC Engine...
. During the golden age of video arcade games in the early 1980s, it became common for arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
sounds and bleeps
Beep (sound)
A beep is a single tone onomatopoeia, generally made by a computer or a machine.-Use in computers:In some computer terminals, the ASCII character code 7, bell character, outputs an audible beep. The beep is also sometimes used to notify the user when the BIOS is not working or there is some other...
to be utilized, particularly in early hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
, and electro music. Buckner & Garcia
Buckner & Garcia
Buckner & Garcia was a duo consisting of Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia from Akron, Ohio. Their first collaboration was in 1980, when they wrote a novelty Christmas song, "Merry Christmas in the NFL", imagining Howard Cosell as Santa Claus...
's Pac-Man Fever
Pac-Man Fever (album)
Pac-Man Fever is a 1982 concept album recorded by Buckner & Garcia. It is also the name of the first song on that album. Each song on the album is about a different classic arcade game, and uses sound effects from that game. The album was released as an LP, a cassette, an 8-track tape, and later...
, released in 1982, featured songs that were both about famous arcade games like Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, Donkey Kong, and Berzerk
Berzerk
Berzerk is a multi-directional shooter video arcade game, released in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago.-Gameplay:The player controls a green stick-figure, representing a "humanoid." Using a joystick , the player navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the...
, and also used the sound samples from the games themselves as instrumentation. In 1984, former Yellow Magic Orchestra member Harry Hosono
Haruomi Hosono
, also known as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese popular musician, best known internationally as a key member of the rock band Happy End and the pioneering electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra.-Biography:...
produced an album entirely from Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
arcade game samples, entitled Video Game Music.
Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
, an experimental electronic artist, under the name "PowerPill" released the Pacman EP in 1992 that featured a heavy use of Pac-man sound effects. An entire music genre called chiptune
Chiptune
A chiptune, also known as chip music, is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of vintage computers and video game consoles, as well as with other methods such as emulation. In the early 1980s, personal computers became cheaper and more accessible than they had previously...
s, or sometimes gamewave
Bitpop
Bitpop is a type of electronic music and also subgenre of Chiptune, where at least part of the music is made using old 8-bit computers and video game consoles. Among systems used are Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari 8-bit Home Computer, Game Boy, Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System...
, have artists dedicated to using the synthesizer sets that came with past video game consoles and computers, particularly the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. These bands include Mr. Pacman
Mr. Pacman
Mr. Pacman is a bitpop/gamewave band from Denver, Colorado. Described as a performance art project as well as a band, Mr. Pacman's live shows include martial arts fighting with monsters, outrageous 1980s-style retro-futuristic outfits, and their signature Commodore 64-inspired electronic music...
, 8 Bit Weapon
8 Bit Weapon
8 Bit Weapon is a chiptune music band created by Seth Sternberger. The instrument set of 8 Bit Weapon consists primarily of old 8-bit and 16-bit computers such as the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Commodore Amiga 500, and the Apple II, as well as game consoles such as the Nintendo...
, Goto 80, 50 Hertz and Puss
Puss (Swedish music duo)
Puss are a musical duo formed in Stockholm in 2001. They play live bitpop using two old-school chubby Game Boys and the Little Sound DJ tracker. Their name comes from the Swedish word puss meaning "small kiss". The duo consist of LayDJ and Tobi-Wan . They released their first album, entitled We...
. The influence of retro video games on contemporary music can also be seen in the work of less purist "Bitpop
Bitpop
Bitpop is a type of electronic music and also subgenre of Chiptune, where at least part of the music is made using old 8-bit computers and video game consoles. Among systems used are Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari 8-bit Home Computer, Game Boy, Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System...
" artists, such as Solemn Camel Crew
Solemn Camel Crew
Solemn Camel Crew are a British electronic music Bit-Rock band. Their music is influenced by many genres from rock, classical to dance. Incorporating 8-bit synth and sampling the end result is their own unique Bitpop - rock style....
and Anamanaguchi
Anamanaguchi
Anamanaguchi is a chiptune indie rock band from New York City that "makes loud, fast music with a hacked NES from 1985." The band has four members: lead songwriter Peter Berkman, bassist James DeVito, guitarist Ary Warnaar and drummer Luke Silas. Akin to other chiptune artists, Anamanaguchi creates...
. Moreover, many gamers collect and listen to video game music, ripped from the games themselves. This music is known by its file extension and includes such formats as: SID
MOS Technology SID
The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID is the built-in Programmable Sound Generator chip of Commodore's CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore MAX Machine home computers...
(Commodore 64), NSF
NES Sound Format
NSF is the DOS 8.3 filename Filename extension of the audio file format originally designated as NESM by the inventor Kevin Horton. This format was originally designed for playback in a custom hardware device named HardNES by the inventor...
(NES) and SPC
SPC700 sound format
An SPC700 sound file is a video game music file consisting of scores and music data from RAM used by the SPC700 sound chip on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super Famicom...
(SNES). Cover band
Cover band
A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...
s like Minibosses
The Minibosses
Minibosses is an independent progressive rock/progressive metal band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts and currently located in Phoenix, Arizona. They are known for their video game music covers, which are instrumental rock variations of the theme music from classic Nintendo video games...
have been founded recently that perform instrumentations, and groups like The Protomen
The Protomen
The Protomen is an American rock band best known for composing original concept albums loosely based on the popular video game series Mega Man...
have written rock operas inspired by the Mega Man
Mega Man
Mega Man is a video game franchise from Capcom, starring the eponymous character Mega Man, or one of his many counterparts. The series is well-known and comprises well over fifty releases, easily making it Capcom's most prolific franchise. As of December 31, 2010, the series has sold approximately...
video games.
A comedy sub genre has developed increasing the popularity of several musicians including Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...
, famous for the song Still Alive featured in the credits of Valve Software's title Portal, and Jonathan Lewis, songwriter and composer credited with the Half Life themed parody album titled Combine Road.
Full orchestras, such as the Symphonic Game Music Concert
Symphonic Game Music Concert
The Symphonic Game Music Concerts are a series of award-winning, annual German video game music concerts initiated in 2003, notable for being the longest running and the first of their kind outside of Japan...
tour North America, the United States, and Asia performing symphonic versions of video game songs, particularly the Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
series, the Metal Gear
Metal Gear (series)
is a series of stealth video games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for the MSX2. The player takes control of a special forces operative Solid Snake who is assigned to find the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear", a...
series, and Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
themed music, such as the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live
Mario & Zelda Big Band Live
Mario & Zelda Big Band Live is a recording of a live big band performance of songs based on the Mario and The Legend of Zelda game series. The performance was at Nihon Seinenkan Hall on September 14, 2003...
Concert. In Japan, Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
symphonic concerts are performed yearly, ever since their debut in 1987.
Films based on video games
As video games often have settings, characters, and plots, they have often become the basis for Hollywood movies. The first movie based upon a video game was consistently denounced by critics. It was 1993's Super Mario Bros.Super Mario Bros. (film)
Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 American action film directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. Based on the Super Mario Bros.video game and its entire franchise, the film features Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper and Samantha Mathis. It tells the story of the Mario brothers, Mario and...
, which featured John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo
Jonathan Alberto "John" Leguizamo is an Colombian-American actor, producer, voice artist, and comedian.-Early life:...
and Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
. Most film adaptions of other video games have been rated unfavorably as well, and the adaptions often fail at the box office too. 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 adventure thriller film adapted from the Tomb Raider video game series. Directed by Simon West and starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, it was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001. The film was a commercial success...
was successful at the box office, despite poor reviews ($274,703,340 USD gross revenue). Director Uwe Boll
Uwe Boll
Uwe Boll is a German director, producer and screenwriter, whose work includes several films adapted from video games. He finances his own films through his Boll KG production company. He is often cited as the worst director of all time.-Early life:...
has become well known for his film adaptions of video games, notorious for being poorly reviewed box office flops. This was the case with BloodRayne
BloodRayne (film)
BloodRayne is a 2005 action and horror film, set in 18th century Romania, and directed by Uwe Boll. The film stars Kristanna Loken, Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Billy Zane, Meat Loaf and, Matthew Davis...
which was reviewed terribly by critics and only grossed $3,650,275 USD, a fraction of its $25 million budget. The contributing factors to the unsuccessful transition from home television to theatre screens are attributed to: a dramatic re-envisioning of the video game that provides a disconnect from the game's plot, the game itself lacking a plot rich enough to provide a decent script (particularly with versus fighting games), a substantially altered plot to make the movie more "mainstream" (Doom), and an emphasis on using celebrity actors over actors that would fit the part.
Examples: Street Fighter
Street Fighter (film)
Street Fighter is a 1994 American action film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza. It is based loosely on the same-titled video games produced by Capcom, and stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Raul Julia, along with supporting performances by Byron Mann, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na...
, Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat (film)
Mortal Kombat is a 1995 American action and adventure film directed by Paul Anderson. Based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, the film was the first part of the Mortal Kombat film series...
, BloodRayne
BloodRayne (film)
BloodRayne is a 2005 action and horror film, set in 18th century Romania, and directed by Uwe Boll. The film stars Kristanna Loken, Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Billy Zane, Meat Loaf and, Matthew Davis...
, Doom
Doom (film)
Doom is a 2005 science fiction horror film, loosely based on the Doom series of video games created by id Software. It was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak....
, House of the Dead
House of the Dead (film)
House of the Dead is a 2003 action-horror film adaptation of the successful 1996 light gun arcade game of the same name produced by Sega. The film was directed by Uwe Boll. The film was universally panned by critics.-Plot:...
, Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark (2005 film)
Alone in the Dark is a 2005 horror film, loosely based on Infogrames' popular video game series of the same name. It is directed by Uwe Boll, and stars Christian Slater as supernatural detective Edward Carnby and Tara Reid as the scientist assisting him...
, Resident Evil
Resident Evil (film)
Resident Evil is a British-German 2002 horror film written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, and James Purefoy...
, Silent Hill
Silent Hill (film)
Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary. The story is an adaptation of the Silent Hill series of survival horror video games created by Konami. The film, particularly its emotional, religious and aesthetic content as well as its creature design,...
, Tomb Raider
Movies about video games
Hollywood has also created films that are about video games themselves. In the 1982 film WarGamesWarGames
WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....
, a computer mistakes a fictional computer game called Global ThermoNuclear War for reality. Also in 1982, Tron
Tron
-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...
featured a programmer who was transported into a computer and had to directly take part in the games he had created. In the 1984 film, The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
, a stand-up arcade video game is used as a test to find those "with the gift", who are recruited to pilot actual Starfighter spacecraft in the conflict between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire. 1989's The Wizard
The Wizard (film)
The Wizard is a 1989 adventure dramedy film starring Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, and Jenny Lewis...
, starring Fred Savage
Fred Savage
Fredrick Aaron "Fred" Savage is an American actor, director and producer of television and film.He is best known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series The Wonder Years and as the grandson in The Princess Bride...
is the first film about a real video game. The plot revolves around about adolescents who compete at games for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. The film was also a first look at the mega-hit Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3
, also referred to as Super Mario 3 and SMB3, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System , and is the third game in the Super Mario series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, in the United States in 1990, and in Europe in 1991...
. The main character from 2006's Grandma's Boy was a game tester who developed his own game on the side. The film made multiple references to video game culture and featured the game Demonik, which was cancelled by its publisher shortly after the film's release. The most current example of a film of this type is 2006's Stay Alive
Stay Alive
Stay Alive is a 2006 horror film directed by William Brent Bell, who cowrote it with Matthew Peterman. It was produced by McG, co-produced by Hollywood Pictures and released on March 24, 2006 in the US. In the U.S. the film was rated PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, language, and brief...
, a horror film about a next-generation video game that is so realistic that it kills its players in the same way their avatars were killed.
Interactive movies
Interactive movies as a computer and video game genre was the result of the multimedia expansion of computers and video game consoleVideo game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s in the mid 1990s, primarily because of the increased capacity offered by the laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
format. Interactive movies started out on arcade machines in 1983, but quickly expanded to computers and video game consoles such as the Sega CD, the Phillips CD-i
CD-i
CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony...
and the Panasonic 3DO. The games are characterized by more emphasis on cinematic sequences, using full-motion video and voice acting. Interactive movie games have been made in a number of genres, including adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s, rail shooters, and role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s.
The first interactive movie game was Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
, originally released in the arcades in 1983, making it the first game to use a laserdisc and animation by Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
, a man who worked for Disney on features like Robin Hood
Robin Hood (1973 film)
Robin Hood is an 1973 American animated film produced by the Walt Disney Productions, first released in the United States on November 8, 1973...
, The Rescuers
The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...
, and Pete's Dragon
Pete's Dragon
Pete's Dragon is a 1977 live-action/animated musical film from Walt Disney Productions and the first Disney film to be recorded in the Dolby Stereo sound system...
, but later worked for other film companies like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
(All Dogs Go to Heaven
All Dogs Go to Heaven
All Dogs Go to Heaven is a 1989 Irish-English animated film directed and produced by Don Bluth and released by United Artists. The film tells the story of two dogs, Charlie B. Barkin and his loyal best friend Itchy Itchiford...
) and Universal Studios (The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time is a 1988 American animated adventure film directed and co-produced by Don Bluth , and executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall....
). In Dragon's Lair, you control the actions of a daring knight named Dirk, to save a princess from an evil dragon, hence the name of the game. Since the dawn of this exact game, more and more companies were influenced by the technology used, and decided to make their own interactive movie games for arcades and consoles.
The birth of the 'interactive movie' genre was studded with unimpressive flops, though the genre later came into its own; at the time, video-capture technology was still in its infancy, with short (and often grainy and low-quality) video segments being the norm for games of any length.
Notable examples – Xenosaga
Xenosaga
is a series of science fiction video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Namco Bandai. Xenosaga's main story is in the form of a trilogy of PlayStation 2 video games. There have been three spin-off games and an anime adaptation. The Xenosaga series serves as a spiritual successor to...
, Bioforge
BioForge
BioForge is a 1995 computer role-playing game published by Origin Systems for the PC. The game was marketed as a movie-like production, because of its in-depth plot and extensive voice acting...
, Night Trap
Night Trap
Night Trap is a video game that was released in North America on October 15, 1992 originally for the Sega Mega-CD. It was filmed over a three week period in 1987 for an unreleased game entitled "Scene of the Crime"...
, Sewer Shark
Sewer Shark
Sewer Shark is a first-person rail shooter game, the first video game for a game console to use full-motion video for its primary gameplay. It was originally slated to be the flagship product in Hasbro's NEMO video game system, which would use VHS tapes as its medium. However, Hasbro cancelled the...
, Under a Killing Moon
Under a Killing Moon
Under a Killing Moon is the third installment in the Tex Murphy series of adventure games produced by Access Software. In Under a Killing Moon Tex again fights the forces of evil as he tries to stop a dangerous cult from destroying the world...
, Rebel Assault, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace
Space Ace
Space Ace is a laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and Advanced Microcomputer Systems...
, Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain is an interactive drama psychological thriller video game created by Quantic Dream exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The game is written and directed by Quantic Dream's founder and CEO David Cage....
Video game and traditional media forms
With the rapid convergence of all media types into a digital form, video games are also beginning to affect, and be affected by traditional media forms.In the history, the Television engineer Ralph Baer, who conceived the idea of an interactive television
Interactive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...
while building a television set from scratch created the first video game. Video games are now also being exploited by pay-TV companies which allow you to simply attach your computer or console to the television cable system and you can simply download the latest game.
Games act in television, with the player choosing to enter the artificial world. The constructed meanings in video games are more influential than those of traditional media forms. The reason is that 'games interact with the audience in a dialogue of emotion, action, and reaction'. The interactivity means this occurs to a depth that is not possible in the traditional media forms.
Computer games have developed in parallel to both the video game and the video arcade game. The personal computer and the new console machines such as the Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
offered a new dimension to game playing. They have now largely been replaced by the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and, the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
Games are the first new computer-based media form to socialize a generation of youth in a way that traditional media forms have in the past. Therefore, the ‘MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
generation’ has been overtaken by the ‘Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
generation’; however, some refer to the current generation as the 'iPod Generation
IPOD generation
The IPOD generation stands for Insecure, Pressured, Over-taxed, and Debt-ridden. The term was first used in the Reform report 'The Class of 2005 - the IPOD generation', written by Professor Nick Bosanquet and Blair Gibbs....
'.
Because they straddle the technologies of television and computers, electronic games are a channel through which we can investigate the various impacts of new media and the technologies of convergence.
Interactive engagement between players and digital games
Digital game is a new form of media where users interact and highly engage with. Terry Flew said unlike ‘lean-back’ type of media such as television, film and books, digital games place users into a productive relationship. In other word, a user is engaged to have relationship where he or she serves to create own text every time when engaged. Digital games are normally lacking in the elements of narrative. In games, rather than focusing it on character development or plot, usually setting is the narrative. For example, games with no plot or characters such as Tetris and Pong could keep players engaged for hours where narrative is not the most important aspect of game. Furthermore, digital games place players into a position where they have power to control. Players have power because they are the actor in the game. Again, Flew (2005) wrote ‘the engagement comes because the player is the performer, and the game evaluates the performance and adapts to it’. Emergent games are becoming a popular style of game as they offer environment and sets of rules where players’ destiny can branch in endless and various unexpected directions, occurring from the players’ own decisions. Players as users of these new forms of media, not only ingest narrative but also can more freely interact and engage in ways where they can actually create their own text.See also
- GamerGamerHistorically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
- Gamers Outreach FoundationGamers Outreach FoundationGamers Outreach Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization that works to use interactive entertainment in ways that improve the lives of others...
- List of books on computer and video games
- List of books based on computer and video games
- Video game controversyVideo game controversyViolent video game debates often center on topics such as video game graphic violence, sex and sexism, violent and gory scenes, partial or full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior, racism, and other provocative and objectionable material. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and...
- Computer and video game journalism
- Terry FlewTerry FlewTerry Flew is an associate Professor of Media and Communication in the Creative Industries faculty at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He has authored the books Games: Technology, Industry, Culture and Understanding Global Media...