Video Games Have On Culture

Tom Bissell, in his essay, “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” has described video games and how they are unique and different from movies, books, or even interactive films. Bissell says “I came to accept that games were incompetent with almost every aspect of what I would call traditional narrative.” This is showing the readers that even though there is a plot and story line, as characters can control and alter the story line or outcome by what you do or see throughout the game.

Video games have become a massive icon that has spanned decades, technology and even cultural boundaries. Whether you play on a computer, tablet, phone, or console: at some point in your life, video games have been a part of what you do. Strike up a conversation about games and you can make lasting friendships or bitter enemies. Even if they might not know the specific game, everyone knows what the genre is, and because of this, video games have taken their lasting place in our pop

Video games have been unloved or hated ever since they have came out. Video games are excellent for kids because they will improve their work with others, help them think more faster, and will help kids become more intelligent.

Video games are a big part of life in modernized countries. It is one of the biggest entertainment money makers and of the things people enjoy doing. They are now mostly played inside the comfort of your home, with a console or computer. But things weren 't always like this. About 40 years ago you would most likely go to the arcade to play. The consoles they had out were either expensive or not good enough to compete with the arcade ones. Classic video games were made with 4-bit pixels and in very low resolution than modern day games. Over the decades, game machines continuously evolved and become more and more powerful, capable of stunning visuals and graphics. In the 21st century, social media, smart phone and tablet technology entered the gaming scene. Casual games become the norm attracting previously non-gamers into the market. However, if those low-quality games were never made, the games would not have evolved into the games they are today. In this article, I will cover main game a platform from the 1970’s to present day explaining what they are, their key development dates, features and limitations.

The author initiates this argument by stating how some factors in many video games are erroneous; this includes lasers, which should be invisible, and the inaccurate speed measurements in racing games. Poole refutes this viewpoint by saying that changing a game to make it realistic would remove the fun experienced by gamers; some aspects of a video game are made unreal on purpose. These imaginary factors serve to create a fantasy world which is to be enjoyed by the player. Also included are the game developers’ intentional use of deformed characters, with smaller bodies and larger heads. For example, Poole explains how intentionally deformed characters such as Crash Bandicoot and Sonic the Hedgehog have engaged players successfully, while more realistic characters such as those of Final Fantasy VIII have received much criticism. The author believes that the reason for a player’s more successful engagement with deformed characters lies in the fact that cuter, unreal characters help the player to escape into the unreal world, while realistic characters fail to do so. Overall, unreal factors help to carry out the main purpose of a video game by engaging the player with the world, which in turn will cause the player to be engaged with the game

Around the middle of the 20th Century man cultures started to grow beyond what they previously were thanks to different mediums (such as television and music) helping to push boundaries; with this came the birth of pop culture. Considering pop culture is a shortened version of popular culture it’s clear that many of the things in pop culture would be short lived. The short lived trends and happenings are labeled as “fads”. Strangely enough, some fads are made to transform and actually become a mainstay in the varying international cultures. One such example might be familiar as it is common in today’s society. This example is, indeed, video games.

Due to this “possibility space,” people can not only imagine different scenarios, but they can be involved in and create them. Gamers expand their people skills learning “creativity, community, self-esteem, and problem-solving” because they are able to “create and interact with elaborately simulated worlds, characters, and story lines.” Thus, video games have become a vehicle for self-expression. Moreover, in the near future, these games will adjust themselves in accord with who the players are and what they like. “And more than ever, games will be visible, external amplification of the human imagination” (279-283).

Video games are a profound art form, incorporating trades and mediums that span the artistic spectrum and beyond. To refute this is to ignore decades of rich history, disregard hours of artful labor, and discredit the immeasurable devotion of many whom worked to perfect this art form. Although video games may not suit every individual’s tastes, one cannot claim with credibility they possess no artistic merit.

The term pop culture can be defined as ‘The culture of the people’ a culture that flourishes through social interaction and mass media that is most actively involved in by the public. Pop culture can cover a wide range of materials and as such should be looked at as a topic open to discussion, interpretation as to why it is popular and what makes it popular. Since pop culture includes an expansive spectrum of subjects I am going to be focusing on one of those and that is Video games. In this essay I will be exploring the ideas and theories of why I believe video games have made a shift into mainstream pop culture.

Today's technology no longer allows video games to consist of simple characters of simple colors doing simple things. The technology of today's video games has gone beyond the older generation's wildest imagination. The older generation of video gamers would not have thought that the characters could stop to smell the flowers or have a conversation with a dinosaur. However, the children of today cannot imagine their video games without these virtual-reality worlds that provide them with a different experience every time they play. Children are lured into these games because of the look and feel of the lifelike characters that have movie screen qualities. These high-tech three-dimensional games allow children to experience the virtual characters as if the child were really inside the game (Moltenbery 1-2). Children who become addicted to video games do so because of the feel of being in a virtual-reality world, which allows them to be one of two kinds of viewers. The first one is a third-person viewer, where the player sees the acts performed by the character. The other kind is the first-person viewer, which allows the player to see through the eyes of the character. Some of the top selling first-person games are: Star Fox Adventure, Top Gun, and Mortal Combat. These first-person games are the most sought after because the children love the feel

I recall waking up at my grandmother’s house, a striking image of the beige curtains slightly ajar, the glimmer of the well-known star radiantly giving warm life to the living room, my small six year old body running into the living room, turning on the monster of a television set, carefully powering on the Gamecube system, and carefully listening to the peaceful hum of the game disc spinning while I rest on the heavy wooden chair. Being able to be a protagonist who can explore different worlds, meet strange, or beautiful characters; it led me to buy more video games and enhanced my ability for my imagination to soar like a phoenix.Today, I log much of my time in video games that bear countless hours of open adventure, that allow you to make choices that affect your protagonist and the universe around them, and grant the capability to design your own

You're bored it's winter no ones available and there's nothing on TV. You love to experience a good story , but you don't know what type of story you want to see a video game or a movie.Video games and movies something nobody thought could happen 20 years ago, but video games have grown a lot and have more mature Audiences and they have a matured Themselves with amazing stories and complicated plots.Is there a chance that video games can take on megalith movies in terms of story.Movies are and have been a staple of entertainment for a century. It shows having worked its way into pop culture, but lately one video games have grown in power.Video games the once small form of entertainment made for kids has grown into a booming industry where new advancements in technology have lead to some really interesting video games stories with deep characters and plenty of plot.Because video games are getting better and bigger at filling themselves to the brim with content, but are they now better at telling a story

Video games have come a long way since Pong rid children of their quarters in 1972. In the past few years, a dramatic shift in the publics’ view of games has occured. What was once considered a kid’s toy capable of turning brains into mush is now enjoyed by the average age of 35 (Essential Facts). In recent times, another paradigm shift has begun for gaming: the road to becoming an art form. Today, museum curators from across the globe continue to accept video games into their collection, adding to its legitimacy. However, just as movies struggled to be considered art in the 1970s, the path for video games has not been smooth sailing. Many critics, such as the late Roger Ebert, have been increasingly vocal about their reasoning for why a

Video games have been known to play a part in the childhood of many people. Although there is much debate about what video game was really made first, Spacewar!, made by Steve Russell and first premiered for the public in 1962, is one of the many games people list as the first real video game. Later, in 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney teamed up to create the Atari company, which would produce coin-operated video games such as their first big hit, Pong. Little by little, gaming technology became more complex and in 1972 the Magnavox Odyssey was released by Ralph Baer as a video game console for home use. However, at that time Atari’s video game system had become one of the most successful systems on the American market, until the market

Many video games use visuals to mentally immerse gamers into a virtual world filled with seemingly living, breathing people, animals, or cities. According to Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey, game designers for Tale of Tales, video games increasingly develop into a true medium of artistic expression (Lamb). In just forty years, video games transformed from an abuse of the new computer for entertainment purposes into a sophisticated form of popular art. The development of video games recently produced results that arguably equal other similar, representational arts. Video games share many qualities with other forms of art, but they are also artistically significant in their own way. “This seems to be something