A Quick Look at The Video Game Industry
For a lot of us, video games are a huge part of shaping our lives. We get hooked by its visuals, enchanted by the emotional storyline of AAA titles, and most importantly, it is fun to play! Whether it be a single story mode or a battle with and against your friends, the recent domain of electronic games and consoles evolved into something grand and innovative to all ages of people. The industry even impacted our language by popularizing gaming terminologies such as Game Over, Players 1 and 2, D-Pad, Joystick, Handheld Gaming, 1-Up, Easter Eggs, Couch Coop, etc. It also developed quick gamer phrases usually used to flame the other players or signal them for teamfights (n00b, Pleb, Gank better, 360NoScope, Pentakill Master, Fix your Laning, Farm First, etc.). This just shows the scale of Video Games.
If one wants to enter the world of video games, they must first pick a console to play. Checking electronic outlets and the opinions of other people in online forums can inform you about the different available platforms. For the more casual type of player, mobile gaming is the way to go. If you want to be more hardcore and look further into more resource-heavy gaming, building a PC works best. For the best of both worlds, a gaming console is a way to go.
Then there are gaming libraries available in these devices for you to check what are the available titles in their platform. For physical copies, you can head back to the physical outlets with games classified by the platform they are available in, the genre they belong to, or even the price range of the title. But as time goes by, downloading a game without a need for a physical drive is more popular. Nintendo consoles have their Nintendo E-shop to check the latest first-party titles. Sony has the PlayStation Store, Xbox has their Microsoft store, and while PCs do have them also, the most popular game-providing software with tons of titles in PC is the infamous Steam.
Now, games themselves have their genres and categories: Platformers, Open World Adventures, Beat-’em-ups, FPSs, Sports Games, and Racing Games are some examples. These genres will determine their playstyle. The consumers then can check what’s the best game category for them. It depends on the mood and behavior of the aspiring gamer. Someone looking to chill will go to more laid-back games such as puzzle-oriented titles and sandbox builders. More competitive players will resort to Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) Games and Shooters to get their boost of adrenaline. Whatever the player is, there is a game suitable for them.
Sometimes, the judgment of picking a game depends on the ratings of others. Like how more established research papers have more citation merits, good games have 10/10 reviews and glowing receptions from the gamers. Apart from updating the gamers the news and updates in the development of the video game industry, news sites such as IGN, GameSpot, Machinima, and many YouTube/Twitch streamers are deemed reputable in reviewing whether a game is worth their price. Apart from that, these resources also provide walkthroughs, hints, and entertainment for the gamers, because sometimes watching someone play a game is as entertaining as playing them.
With the rich history of video games, many information resources emerged to preserve and highlight the highs and lows of the industry. What is unique in the resources is that they are fairly new and mostly rely on the internet. For an academic approach, some websites are considered libraries of collections of information in different areas of video games. GameFAQs and a bunch of other forums is a website focused on providing libraries and collections of video game cheat codes, walkthrough guides, glitches, and secret hidden aspects in games. This way, developers can check the issues of the game and fix it to make it more playable. On the other hand, one can manipulate these gaming gaps and mod the game to provide a new experience for gamers. Other websites include Kotaku, a website primarily for reporting Japanese and Western titles. Even Science Daily is considered a website for video games since it provides research on the innovations of both gaming hardware and software. To add, there are also Academic Game Collections present in different areas of the world, focused on archiving gaming artifacts and helping game companies develop the industry more. Michigan State University has its Rovi Gaming Collection, home to game labs for study and recreation. The Anderson Library at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater has its section of video game collection. There is even the Library of Congress Video Game Collection in Washington DC that aims to preserve old retro game devices and the related works. These are just a few examples. The knowledge present in these resources is a mixed bag because you have the engineering aspect of how the hardware and software work, the empirical knowledge that tackles the phenomena and trends that are caused by the industry, and even a collection of opinions around the internet regarding the quality of the games.
Who would have believed that electronic games would be like this when the origin of the industry started with a machine that outputs squares in a TV Screen? (Magnavox Odyssey). From there, other companies tried to innovate to target the new market. Pioneers such as Mattel and Atari took the machines and built arcades around them, and they also made home gaming popular, especially when Atari released the Atari 2600. From there, video games have been an integral part of the childhood lives of many, garnering fans and enthusiasts around the world supporting the craft and even being game developers themselves. It became so popular that Personal Computers made gaming a feature on their devices, whereas in the past they are purely made for work and making calculations.
If you have not picked up a controller yet, or you have strayed away from gaming because you see it as something childish, I suggest giving it another chance. It has changed the lives of many (good and bad), and I am sure it will be substantial to you as well. This is the domain of Video Games, and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.
~JF
References :
Kent, S. L. (2001). The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond : the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Video Game Studies: Home. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2020, from https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282989