Video Games: Overview

Introduction

The term “video game” refers to any electronically enacted game played using an input controller (such as joysticks, keypads, or motion sensors) to interface with a display device or platform (typically showing video imagery). Video games span a wide range of genres, from action and adventure to sports to puzzles to simulations and role-playing games. The earliest video games were created by computer scientists and hobbyists and were played on dedicated devices, such as mainframe computers, that allowed very few options for game play. Today, video games may still be played on standalone hardware, such as a console or arcade machine, but many others are available on personal computers or mobile devices. Some modern games are dynamic multimedia experiences with a high standard of production quality (such as expensive cinematography, professional voice actors, and soundtracks) that rival live-action motion pictures.

In the twenty-first century, the video-game industry grew into a multibillion-dollar business. Much of this growth can be attributed to hardware improvements that allow for increased graphical fidelity and gameplay complexity, as well as improvements in communications technologies that allow for online game play. Video games have become hugely popular, with major influence in pop culture and beyond. Many gamers play casually, but highly organized competitions have also gained a strong following, giving rise to the lucrative esports industry. Aside from entertainment, video games have also been used as aids in education, science, medicine, art, and business. The various elements of video-game production and development have also become popular educational and professional pursuits, significantly shaping trends in academia, the workforce, and the economy as a whole.

Like virtually all forms of popular entertainment and technology, however, video games have often proved controversial. Health experts have raised concerns about their addictive potential, especially for young people. Related issues include the gambling-like nature of gameplay in certain examples and accusations of exploitative marketing targeting children, especially around in-game purchases. One of the most common and high-profile criticisms of video games, however, focuses on their depictions of violence (as well as other controversial content such as profanity and sexuality). Critics argue that video games can desensitize people to violence and even promote violent behavior in real life, although research on the subject has mostly been inconclusive. Video games are rated by independent ratings boards to determine the appropriateness of their content.

Understanding the Discussion

Adventure games: A video-game genre in which players enact an adventure story or quest.

Avatar: The graphic representation of a user in a virtual setting; in video games, it is often interchangeable with the term "player character."

Controllers: Devices used to control the action within a video game. Types of controllers include joysticks, optical and motion sensors, steering wheels, and mice and keyboards.

First-person shooter (FPS): A popular video-game genre referring to the player's first-person perspective from the exact viewpoint of their character, as well as the gameplay focus on using guns and other weapons. A similar genre is the third-person shooter, in which the player sees their character on-screen while playing.

Fighting games: A video-game genre in which players control characters who engage in combat, usually in a hand-to-hand style that is often modeled on martial arts. Sometimes considered distinct from the similar "beat 'em up" or "brawler" genre, in which the player's character fights numerous computer-controlled opponents.

Platforms: In the context of video games, the hardware systems on which games are played. Types of platforms include personal computers, arcade machines, consoles (computers designed specifically for playing video games), and many other devices not specifically made for the playing of games, such as mobile telephones and tablets.

Ratings: In the context of video games, country-specific classifications of a game's appropriateness for certain audiences. In North America, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which was established in 1994, rates games as appropriate for E (Everyone) through AO (Adults Only 18+).

Role-playing video games (RPGs): A video-game genre in which players take on the persona and attributes of a character (or characters) in an adventure. They are usually based on story-driven gameplay, much like tabletop role-playing games.

Simulations (Sims): Games that replicate a real-life experience, such as flying or combat, or a fictional situation, such as living in a simulated neighborhood or fantasy world.

History

The earliest video games were developed by computer scientists and programmers after World War II. Patented in 1948, the first device generally considered a video game was a “cathode-ray tube entertainment device” that simulated missiles fired at flying objects. Over the next two decades, several other rudimentary video games appeared, many of them based on either rocket-and-missile games or a tennis match. The first commercial arcade video games were introduced in 1971, but it was Pong—a table tennis simulator released by the company Atari in 1972—that proved the market viability of such games. Meanwhile, the first home video game console system, the Magnavox Odyssey, was also introduced in 1972.

These early video games were expensive and often proved difficult to sell directly to consumers. However, coin-operated arcade games like Pong and Tank became very popular in neighborhood taverns, restaurants, gas stations, and supermarkets. This eventually gave rise to the so-called golden age of arcade games, which lasted from the late 1970s until the early 1980s. Popular video games of this era include Namco’s Pac-Man and Galaga, Midway’s Space Invaders, and Atari’s Battlezone.

Home console systems, which allowed players to switch cartridges to play different games on their television sets, became more popular throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Following the original Magnavox Odyssey system came several other products for the home market, including the Atari 2600 and 5200, Mattel’s Intellivision, the Odyssey2, ColecoVision, and the Sega SG-1000. Many of the games available in arcades were also available for home play.

The North American video-game industry crashed in 1983–84. The most common reasons given for this are market saturation with too many game consoles and poor-quality games distributed by companies hoping to cash in on the booming game market. However, the industry revived a few years later, driven by more advanced game systems from Japanese manufacturers, including the highly successful Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Meanwhile, another branch of video games developed as increasingly powerful personal computers provided an alternative platform to consoles and arcade machines. Indeed, some observers considered "computer games" as a separate category from the video games produced for dedicated gaming hardware, but usage often varied, and any distinction blurred further as technologies matured.

Continuous technological and content improvements continued to drive the video-game industry over the following decades. In the 1990s, video and computer technology underwent a series of rapid improvements that helped video games grow from a relatively niche interest to a mainstream entertainment staple. Gamers enjoyed more complex controllers, more sophisticated graphics and display monitors, and many features unavailable to early gamers, such as game cheats and modification capabilities (in which programmers may either improve games or create new games from the program code of other games). Especially influential was the ability to communicate with and play against other players online over the internet, which began in rudimentary forms but became ever more seamless as systems evolved. Game content also became more sophisticated; text-based adventure games gave way to semirealistic adventure games, for instance, while other games allowed players to perform complex movements at rapid speeds.

Another important trend was the development of many popular video games into franchises, often including not only sequel games but also crossovers in other media and merchandise. Examples of popular franchises that began in the 1980s and 1990s include Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon, Konami’s Metal Gear, and Capcom’s Street Fighter. Popular franchises that debuted in the early twenty-first century include Bungie’s Halo, Activision’s Call of Duty, Electronic Arts’ The Sims, and FromSoftware’s Dark Souls. The popularity of such franchises helped further cement video gaming in popular culture and, accordingly, as a powerful socioeconomic force. One sign of this was the proliferation of video-game production curricula in colleges and universities around the world from the late 1990s on.

Despite the steady trends of market growth and mainstream acceptance, however, video games were often the subject of public scrutiny and backlash. From their popular emergence in the 1970s, video games were beset with controversy over certain content, particularly depictions of violence. For example, the game Death Race was pulled from the market in 1976 over concerns about its simple images of gravestones appearing when characters were run over. Complaints about violence and sexualized material increased sharply in the 1990s as graphics became more realistic, and in 1993 the US Congress held hearings about fighting games like Mortal Kombat. As a result, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was founded in 1994 to oversee a voluntary ratings system for video games. Another wave of criticism followed high-profile school shootings in the late 1990s (particularly the Columbine, Colorado, school shooting in 1999), as some people argued that violent video games were inspiring violent real-life behavior among young people. Legal cases struggled to establish a causal link, however, and a 2001 report by the US Surgeon General found little evidence that media violence in general had any substantial impact on youth violence.

Allegations that video games can cause violence remained common over the following decades, often triggered by violent incidents by individuals known to be fans of first-person shooters or other violent games. Various legislation aimed to address this concern by banning sales of certain games to minors, including the federal Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act introduced in Congress in 2003, but these efforts typically failed to pass or were later struck down in the courts on First Amendment freedom of expression grounds. Studies also continued to investigate the relationship between video games and real-life violence. Most experts continued to hold that no causal relationship could be easily confirmed, pointing to the fact that millions of people played violent games, even from a young age, yet very few went on to engage in criminal violence. However, critics of video games cited certain studies to back their claims, including some evidence for an association between video-game violence and aggressive behavior in children younger than age ten. Even if violent video games are not the direct or main cause of mass shootings, critics argued, such games may still be one of the many factors that contribute to violent acts in society.

The video game industry continued to grow and evolve rapidly alongside further major technological advances in the 2000s. The widespread adoption of such innovations as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and high-speed internet enabled the rise of online gaming, which drew much attention for its societal implications as people worldwide could interact in new ways. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), such as Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft (introduced in 2004), and virtual worlds, such as Linden Labs’ Second Life (launched in 2003), allowed tens of thousands of players at a time to interact within simulated worlds, forming groups and sharing goods. Such environments often combined virtual economies with real economies, sometimes proving quite lucrative not only for the developers or companies involved but also for some skilled and innovative users. Sociologists also showed particular interest in MMORPGs and virtual worlds for the complex use of customized avatars.

Video games that offered creative modes or tools also became wildly popular in the twenty-first century. Two of the best-known examples of this genre were Minecraft, which had its first full release in 2011, and Roblox, which debuted in 2006 but spiked in popularity (especially with children) in the mid-2010s. These "sandbox" games allow players wide leeway in creating virtual items, environments, characters, and even entire sub-games. Some researchers and advocates suggested that such games could have substantial benefits for players, especially young people, by fostering creativity and critical thinking, among other skills.

Video game hardware also expanded in new directions. One notable development was the growing market for motion-sensing controllers that allowed players to be more active while gaming, such as Nintendo's Wii Remote, which became one of the most popular console items of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Other motion-tracking products included exercise bicycles and dance stages. Such systems challenged the stereotype of gamers as physically inactive. They also proved effective in providing physical therapy for older adults and users with disabilities, thus widening the market for video gaming. Perhaps most important in terms of hardware, however, was the rise of smartphones. This meant that millions of people worldwide now carried powerful computers with them at virtually all times, and developers were quick to both adapt existing games for mobile devices and create new games specifically for the platform.

The mobile gaming boom provided opportunities for smaller and independent game companies, who could now more easily market and distribute games directly to consumers. It also brought growth in alternative revenue models beyond single-time software purchases, such as ad support, "freemium" (in which players are charged for premium game features), and subscription services. The “games as a service” model, in which developers continuously add content and other features to promote user engagement beyond the initial release window of a game, became exceedingly popular. Games such as Fortnite (first launched in 2017) highlighted the power of free-to-play games, which cost nothing to download but often implement microtransactions, or small in-game purchases such as new character appearances and other cosmetic items, to generate revenue; Fortnite pulled in millions of players and more than $9 billion dollars in revenue in its first two years of operation alone.

Video Games Today

By the 2020s, video games were firmly entrenched as a key form of entertainment for many people and the backbone of a massive global industry. Many observers noted that the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 only boosted the popularity of gaming, as people often turned to video games for both entertainment and socialization when lockdowns restricted other activities. According to the Entertainment Software Association, by 2023 there were more than 212 million video game players in the US alone. The average age of gamers in the country was thirty-two years old, but gaming was popular across age ranges, with 62 percent of people over eighteen and 76 percent of those under eighteen reporting that they played video games. The hobby cut across gender lines, too, with 46 percent of players identifying as female and 53 percent identifying as male in 2023. Of those polled, 96 percent of gamers felt that video games were beneficial and reported numerous benefits from their gameplay, including mental stimulation, better problem solving, and social connection with friends or family members, as well as personal enjoyment and relaxation.

However, despite their popularity, video games remain a controversial subject for many. Debate over their potential for causing violent behavior has continued to garner attention. In addition, concerns over problematic content have expanded beyond violence and other explicit material. Some activists have criticized certain popular video games for perpetuating harmful stereotypes, including racist and sexist tropes, in their gameplay. Critics have also taken issue with perceived inequality within gamer culture at large. This issue was highlighted by the so-called Gamergate controversy that made headlines in the mid-2010s, in which right-wing gamers waged an online harassment campaign against feminist and progressive influence in the community.

Meanwhile, many professional health organizations began treating video game addiction as a legitimate disorder, recognizing the similarities between compulsive gaming and other problematic behaviors. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) added “gaming disorder” as a behavioral addiction to its International Classification of Diseases in 2019. Clinics dedicated to treating video game addiction opened in the United States as well as China and some other countries. Some observers questioned whether video games could truly be considered addictive in the usual sense, however, or whether the problematic behavior seen in some gamers could be attributed to other, complex social factors.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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