Rene A. Castro



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Castro


Rene A. Castro

Poncy-2


English 12

October 24, 2013

Video Games

Sixty-seven percentages of U.S. households play video games and the average gamer plays eight hours a week. Video games are one of the biggest industries in the world and still growing. Video games are entertainment that you decide what to do with a push of a button. Video games have now been around for at least fifty-five years with first game in 1958 called “Tennis for Two”, by William Higinbotham. It was made for a computer at that time. Then, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Badney created the first home video game system called Atari with its first game on there was “Pong” in 1975. Throughout the years, video games have evolved to a global empire around the world. The playing field has been changing for years with other systems coming out, which to buy, or what games it has on that system. There has been competition from different companies for years; many play videogames from all ages, such as eight year olds and people over fifty. Throughout the years, people have had different views of videogames, such as causing violence to becoming a work of art and storytelling. Video games are much more than just pure violence; there is more to them; they tell many different stories and about going on many great open world adventures.



Children these days are all about videogames and they love them. Some others think it is brainwashing children, but at the end of it, it is not. In a quote from an article about children being brain washed from this perspective, it states, “It is horrifying to learn that such measures are being used to brainwash the minds of young people”(Caviness). This writer Marie T. Caviness writes on about Austrian and German students in Europe. She was saying that these children are being corrupt and comparing it to being a Nazi. Like “the Holocaust was not a game” (Caviness). Of course it was not a game; people make these games for entertainment, not to brain wash children. It was not meant for people to go along with the game at all. Also, “Today, it may begin with a student playing a computer game where winning is determined by the number of people killed in gas chambers” (Caviness). Yes, people do kill each other with the most kills in video games but in a competition sense. Well, this article was written in 1991, but still, some games do revolves around Nazis, but not about doing the same thing out in reality; it’s just entertainment. The games they make today is all on the company on what they decide to make by throwing a few ideas. Regular people has to just deal with the game the make, but then again companies do little community searches on what they can do to fix a game or add in. Every day the companies make decisions on what to make and what to change on a game. Then they release some sort of advertisements to sell on what they made so people could buy to play. Not everybody’s mind thinks the same thing what’s in the game that they could apply in real life.

Some people think that adults are too old for video games, but not Luis Trujillo. Trujillo is thirty-nine, married, and has three sons, and stills playing video games. He spends at least sisty dollars every month on a new video game and every couple years on the next line of consoles. Trujillo plays video games at least two hours per day. He stated, “I like video games because it's the same thing as reading a book: It takes you to another world”(Conci). He usually is not the only person who thinks like that too. They have lots of conventions just about video games each year all across the U.S. and out of the country. Trujillo’s generation really likes the games now than the ones before. He stated, “They say they love this generation of video games for their constantly changing scenarios, the intellectual challenges and the decision-making involved in play” (Conci). There has many age ranges for example with statistics “Forty percent of American adults played video games, according to an Associated Press-AOL games poll in 2006” (Conci), and older people with statistics “24 percent of Americans over age 50 played video games in 2007” (Conci). Also the average gamer’s age is thirty-three and also adults play more than teenagers. The older people who play video games usually play Nintendo Brain Age to help with their memories and to spend their time to play video games with their grandchild. Companies make games to appeal to teenagers and adults; they do. Even like Guitar Hero when it came out it had old school music even farther back like the forties and fifties. Adults would buy more than a teenager, ranger of buying the gamers were from twenty dollars to about sixty and consoles price ranging from two hundred dollars to up to four hundred dollars. “Trujillo, buys a new system every other year, says he cares about having the latest technology” (Conci). What is also extraordinary was when the Nintendo Wii system came out the first year was selling like hotcakes because it was it the first system that had games to use a motion controller and players became active from using the system and people of all ages were using it. In a quote from a best buy employee name Crystal Stroupe “the Wii is a multigeneration system… It’s attractive to adults too, not like an Atari”(Conci). It was on the bestselling system for all ages. There also was a huge amount of gamers who play online such as forty-nine percent of all gamers. They also connect to other players around the world. Some online games, players could become who they would want to be like a wizard to how a person lifestyle works out in a simulation and still make decisions. Time Herbert, senior director of market research at CEA says “the video game industry has kept its customers through adulthood by upgrading platforms and releasing new versions of hit games” (Conci). Also according to ESA says “36 percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. What's more, eighty percent of those also do it with their kids” (Conci). Even parents still play video games even with their children as family and you can’t say that’s not family bonding is there. Trujillo also stated says “My children are lucky because most kids have to beg their parents to play … But since I'm the biggest kid of all, they play my games. I have about 400 of them” (Conci). Many people play video games from all ages of life.

Activision Inc. is an American video game and development and publishing company and the first third-party video game developer in history. The company was found in October 1 1979. The company was form by David Crane, Robert Whitehead, Alan Miller, and Larry Kaplam. “Under the management of Atari executive Ray Kasar (who saw games as mere products rather than as artistic expression and held programmers in notoriously low esteem)”(Wolf), before when games were publish after the initial launch and revenue from sales there wasn’t much royalty or fame to the people who made the game and sixty percent of all earnings went to the Atari company which was not right. David and the other three programmers went off to start their own company Activision, they were the first to add screenshots on the back of the cover from the game and instituted the first achievement programs from accomplishing challenges within the game. Activision had been getting lawsuits and have been winning them. There are still the most successful companies in the video game industry.

The Video Game Industry have rival in films as a form of entertainment. But so far the it has been going down lately “the console industry is having a rough torrid time”(elibrary:login). Now’s a game changer this year when Sony and Microsoft releasing their as new next generation console’s Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s XboxOne. The shift in development for the video game industry has been on mobile games and digital game buying. The customers are leaning a little more to mobile games because its cheaper but not better than playing a game on a big screen and seeing the latest and greatest graphics on the consoles. The rivalry in the game industry is heating up to put their products in your hand and/or in the living room.

Some video games are getting the blame on because they are the cause of violence. One incident was when an eight year old boy killed his eighty-four year old care giver with a gun. Law enforcement did not know the motive but, “made mention of the kid’s video-gaming habits. Namely, how he was playing Grand Theft Auto IV just before the shooting” (Milne). This wasn’t the first time that games were blame for an act of aggression and violence. There has been good points from playing video games “study discovered that gamers had better vision and stronger cognitive ability to make quick decisions” (Milne). There are a learning aspects from video games like solving a puzzle and thinking up strategies to face of your enemies. Well first of all parents or guardians show at least know what kind of games the kids play to whether allow to play it or not. To questions first is how did an eight year old gets his hands on a loaded gun.

A governor Rod Blagojevich talk on the manner of underage children buying and stores selling mature games for underage children. “to a task force that will advise him on implementing his plan to bar minors from buying or renting violent or sexually explicit video games”( Governor picks video game panel - Chicago Tribune). There is already policies for stores like Gamestop having to have a state license or to have a parent with if it’s okay for them to play. They have a rating system called ESRB which shows what’s in the game and what age range of people who could play or buy. Still kids could play eighteen plus games as long you bring a parent or guardian to verify and it’s okay for them to play. Many stores does still ask still for id if the person who is buying the game looks young. But not all stores say what’s in the game when it has the description of the game and its contents. But even still parents should at least take a look at what might be in the game that they think it is not right for their child to play.

Video games came a long way to just a dot on the screen to realistic looks and settings of people. The Video Game Industry is still growing large and it will especially when the recent next generations of consoles are coming in November of 2013. They are still making games for the computers and always will. The year of 2013 was an amazing year for gamers and the industry such as the newest game Grand Theft Auto V or known as GTA V made a billion dollars in just three days and the first day made eight hundred million dollars. They also won seven Guinness world records. To see much amaze of how much time and money the company Rockstar to known that someone out there has bought and enjoy there game. Taking years of development, time, and money to make the game and hundreds of people to come together to make by art, programing, storyboards, music, voice acting and yes people getting paid to test the game out to give the developers any comments on the game they need to fix or what great ides they came up. Rockstar was not the only successful game companies such as Activision, Bungie and Epic games. There were also other companies that weren’t so successful and went under just recently THQ awhile back while working on a big franchise such as Saint Row that has been given to a new team and first game launch for their company Volition and came out pretty good. There are many different companies that have work together to make the game they are releasing successful and are on shelves for anybody to enjoy. Video games evolve from cartridges to disc and all digital from a wireless network to download on anything. Millions of dollars and hundreds of people working on big AAA titles like Call of duty to World of Warcraft and other great games, let’s not forget any Nintendo Mario games. Video games people have different perspectives but not the blame of starting violence, there always have been much more to like storytelling and going on a vast adventure in mysterious worlds with a big open world to do. Many of people play video games and the vast empire that was created with thousands of games made including hundreds of companies who makes games that people make for a living. They never wanted to cause violence, they wanted to make something they love and entertaining for people. Video games were meant for greatness.

Works Cited

Caviness., Marie T.. "Video `Games` - Chicago Tribune." Featured Articles From The Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 25 May 1991. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Conci, Pilar, and COLUMBIA NEWS SERVICE. "Video games aren't just child's play - Chicago Tribune." Featured Articles From The Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 7 Sept. 2008. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

"Governor picks video game panel - Chicago Tribune." Featured Articles From The Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 31 Dec. 2004. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Milne, Carly. "Stop Blaming Gun Violence on Video Games." News & Lifestyle Coverage on Important Topics Like Food, Environment, Social Justice, Animal Rights, Education & Health | TakePart . TakePart/Participant Media, 26 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Wolf, Mark J. P.. Encyclopedia of video games the culture, technology, and art of gaming. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2012. Print.



"eLibrary: Login." eLibrary: Login. The Economist Newspaper, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

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