Electronic Games & American Culture

The Role of Electronic Games in American Culture

• Electronic games have become intertwined with American cultural life
• These games have the power to create immersive experiences and often depict current controversies and issues
• Society rates video games similar to music and movies

Violence in Video Games

• Violence in video games has been a controversy since the earliest days
• Death Race, released in 1976, had drivers run over stick figures, sparking controversy despite claims the figures were not human
  • Made national news on Donahue and on 60 Minutes
• Video games added the ability to simulate murder
• In the 1990s, companies used enhanced realism for increasingly violent games to target older demographics
• The 1999 Columbine High School massacre was linked to teenage perpetrators' enthusiasm for video games
  • Victims' families sued 25 video game companies
• In 2008, a 17-year-old killed his mother after his video game system was taken away
• In 2008, 6 teens reenacted scenes from Grand Theft Auto during attempted carjacking and robbery
• Studies have linked aggression to video games, but critics argue violent individuals are drawn to violent games
• Violent games are designed for adults, thus parents should enforce stricter standards for their children
• The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rates video games; the two most restrictive ratings are M (Mature; 17+) and AO (Adults Only; 18+)
  • M may contain mature sexual themes, more intense violence, and/or strong language
  • AO may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence
• An AO label can devastate game sales
• The distribution system and culture surrounding video games is largely youth-oriented

Video Game Addiction

• In the early 1990s, stories surfaced of individuals dropping out of college or getting divorced, due to game addiction
• Overuse can result in painful repetitive stress injuries
• Two deaths were linked to the video game Berzerk in the early 1980s
  • The players, both in their late teens, suffered fatal heart attacks while struggling to achieve top scores
• The World Health Organization added "gaming disorder" to the International Classification of Diseases in 2018
• The American Psychiatric Association's manual, DSM-5, has not
• The American Medical Association (AMA) uses "video game overuse" to describe when gaming affects relationships and health
• Socially marginalized people have a higher tendency to overuse games, especially online role-playing games like World of Warcraft
• Patterns of time usage and social dysfunction are similar to other addictive disorders
• Online Gamers Anonymous developed a 12-step program
• In 2010, South Korea imposed an online gaming curfew for people under 18
  • Excessive game use was problematic enough that the South Korean government imposed an online gaming curfew for people under the age of 18
    • This followed the death of a 3-month-old baby who was starved while her parents played an online game at an internet café
• Jim Rossignol's book, This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, describes his job as a journalist and growing involvement with Quake III
• Rossignol trained a team for virtual tournaments losing his job and spending more time on the game until he was hired by a games magazine

Sexism and Racism in Video Games

• A Washington Post headline highlights issues of racism, misogyny, and death threats in the gaming industry
• Modern video gaming often involves multiplayer games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Call of Duty, and Overwatch
  • Online games have teams of random players communicating via headsets, leading to cordial interactions or negative instances
• Young adult men make up the majority of video gamers
  • A 2009 study showed 60% of gamers were male with an average age of 35
  • In 2020, men made up 59% of gamers
• Sexism in video games has been present since the early days with games such as Tomb Raider and Dead or Alive Xtreme being criticized for demeaning depictions of women
• Custer's Revenge (1982) centered on the rape of an Indigenous American woman
• NES games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda featured male figures rescuing damsels
• Dead or Alive released a spin-off game tilted Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball to showcase well-endowed female characters in swim attire
• Defenders argue demeaning portrayals aren't unique to video games
• Many male video game characters are depicted lewdly in games like God of War and Mortal Kombat
• Violence and aggression in video games affect men more than women, leading to higher levels of male aggression
• Sexual stereotyping affects both genders negatively
• Women make up less than 12% of game designers and programmers
• "Gamergate" in 2014 involved independent game-makers and critics subjected to obscenities, harassment, and death threats for advocating greater inclusion
• Race presents other challenges with Black and Latinx characters being stereotyped or absent
• Tanya DePass, founder of I Need Diverse Games, suggests diverse staff and leadership or hiring outside experts to review game content

Trends in Electronic Games

• Games have become integrated with American culture
• Games have driven the evolution of the industry and the embrace of gaming as part of our culture

Grand Theft Auto

• The first game in the GTA series was released in 1997 for PC and Sony PlayStation
• Players steal cars and commit crimes to achieve goals
• Variety of options was the game's appeal
• Violence could be taken to any extreme the player wished, including stealing cars, killing pedestrians, and engaging the police in a shoot-out
• The game is known as a sandbox game, or open world The series evolved over the past decade by increasing realism, options, and content.
• Some of the games make the lists of bestsellers of all time
• Newer games expand on open video world allowing players to manage businesses, play minigames, and listen to in-game content
• Increasing freedom also results in increasing controversy, as players can solicit sex workers, visit strip clubs, perform murder sprees, and assault law enforcement
• Lawsuits have attempted to tie the games to real-life instances of violence, and GTA games are routinely the target of political investigations into video game violence

Fortnite

• Was released in 2017
• The game took advantage of the time's technology and user base
• Battle Royale" can pit 100 players against one another in the usual fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic, zombie world
• The game is free and offers regular updates that introduce new characters, weapons, and features
• Rather than one purchase, Fortnite makes money from micro-purchases
• In its first 10 months, it gained an audience of 125 million players and netted $1.2 billion in revenue
• The Fortnite App launched on iPhone in April 2018, reportedly made $2 million a day
• Epic's business model caused an uproar over financial terms of their app stores with Apple and Google
• It offered parity across multiple devices, and no matter which device you play Fortnite, you will always be playing the same game
• The popularity of Fortnite pushed Sony to reverse its stance on cross-platform play and let PlayStation players join matches with Xbox owners for the first time
• After Fortnite began the cross-platform trend last year, games like Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat also reworked their games to bridge devices.

World of Warcraft (WoW)

• Released in 2004, is a massively multiplayer, online role-playing game (MMORPG) loosely based on the Warcraft strategy franchise of the 1990s
• The game is conducted entirely online through software and players purchase playing time
• Each player chooses a character that belongs to one of several races: orcs, elves, and humans
• Characters spend their time by completing quests, learning trades, or simply interacting with other characters
• As characters gain experience, they obtain skills and earn virtual money
• Players choose whether they can attack other players without prior agreement by choosing a PvP (player versus player) server If both players consent, can a normal server allows players to fight each other. Otherwise restricted
• Reserved for those players who want to role-play, or act in character should use the Third server
• Guilds are groups organized by the players within the WoW universe and not the developers
• There are specific codes of conduct and work together to complete tasks of guilds
• Guilds have their own unique identity and social rules
• The game allows them to speak to each other as they complete missions and increases the social bonding voice communication technology
• WoW has taken the medium of video games to unprecedented levels
• Allows people to literally live their lives through a game
• Players can earn virtual gold by doing things
• Many wealthy players choose to buy this gold with actual dollars
• Entire real-world industries have developed from this trade in gold
• Chinese companies employ workers, or “gold farmers,” who work 10-hour shifts finding gold
• Other players make money by finding deals on virtual goods and then selling them for a profit one WoW player even “traveled” to Asian servers to conduct a virtual import-export business
• The unlimited possibilities in such a game expand the idea of what a game is
• WoW challenges conventional notions of what a game is by allowing the players to create their own goals
• The goal may be to gain a high level for their character, others may be interested in role-playing, whereas others are focused on making a profit
• This kind of flexibility leads to the development of scenarios never before encountered in game-play such as the development of economic classes

Call of Duty

• The Call of Duty series is known as a first person shooter games are notable for its record breaking success but also for its commitment to Violence and killing
• Released in 2003, it first focused on plots set in world war II
• Call of Duty modern warfare 2 was released in 2009 Achieved great success and a great deal of controversy
  • It Included a 5 minute sequence in which the player as A CIA agent infiltrating a terrorist cell takes part in a massacre of innocent civilians
• The player was not required to shoot civilians and could skip the sequence
• Proponents argue that it has a mature rating and is not meant to be played by minors and also point out that the games are less violent than many modern Movies
• The debate has continued escalating as far as the United Kingdom's House of Commons but the game is not likely to stray from its Foundation
• In the 2020s Call of Duty remains the best-selling first person shooter game series and one the most successful video game franchises of all time

Wii Sports and Wii Fit

• The Nintendo Wii was sold starting in 2006 and that had its dedicated Motion sensitive controller
• The company had attempted to implement similar controllers in the past including the Power Glove in 1989, but it had never based an entire console around such a device
• Was combined the Wii simple design with basic games such as Wii sports to appeal to previously and tapped audiences
• Wii Sports was included with purchase of the Wii console and served as a means to demonstrate the new Technology
• Wii included 5 games baseball Bowling boxing tennis and golf Wii Sports created a way for a group play without the need for familiarity with video games
• Close to outdoor social games, There was also nothing objectionable about it no violence no in your face intensity, just a game that even older people could access and enjoy
• Wii Bowling tournaments were sometimes organized by retirement communities, and many people found the game to be a new way to socialize with their friends and family
• Wii Fit combined the previously incompatible terms fitness and video games by using a touch sensitive platform
• Players could do aerobics strength training and yoga
• The game kept track of players, weights, acting as a kind of virtual trainer
• Use of video games to create an interactive version of an exercise machine used by Wii Fit replaced workout videos and other forms of fitness that had never before considered Nintendo a competitor
• Nintendo found most of its past success marketing to younger demographics with game that were less controversial from the 1990s first person shooters Wii Sports and Wii Fit so Nintendo playing to its strengths and expanding with family friendly games
• Wii fit encouraged multiple generations to use video games as a social Platform this campaign was so successful that it is being Imitated by rival companies Sony and Microsoft which had released the Sony PlayStation move and the Microsoft connect

Characteristics and Trends of Popular Games

• Video games have become integrated with with American culture
• Games have driven the evolution of the industry and the embrace of gaming as part of the culture
• It may be good to think first about the development of gaming culture the somewhat unique set of aesthetics and principles that characterize video games or the culture surrounding video games
• Video games like books of movies have avid users who have made this form of media central to their lives It is important to know that this Form Of Entertainment did not exist for the 1970s
• You might not be surprised to learn that the structural characteristics of video games have become the subject of academic research
• A Study in Cyber spschology and behavior found that one of the main overall findings was the important of a degree of realism that is realistic sound graphics and setting
• A Look At Our list of popular games above confirm the Academy research Trends running from the 1970s to 2020s are heightened Development of technology enhance realism Strong narratives this encourage immersion and absorption interesting characters and the flexibility to play a game against 100 strangers and sit down and play with a friend Although new games and technology will continue to developing the 2020 those new game will continue to take these Trends that have characterized games for 50 years

Future of Electronic Games in the 2020s

• Electronic games might become the dominant medium of the 2020s
• Gaming industry generated $120 billion in revenue in 2019
• More than 2.7 billion people or about one third of the global population are gamers

Streaming Gaming

• Streaming services have identified video/electronic games as the most important competitor
• Netflix CEO Reed Hastings identified Fortnite as the biggest threat to Netflix's continued dominance in entertainment
• Esports might become the dominant medium in American culture
• The World Championship for the game League of Legends drew more viewers than the Superbowl

Augmented and Virtual reality

• The virtual reality (VR) is still cumbersome and expensive in the 2020s and this decade might see mixed reality
• Games might incorporate a blend of VR and Augmented Reality (AR)
• For example players might get the sensation of touching ammo as they pick it up in the shooter game or holding the wheel of the race car for Racing game
• Games will still need to be accessible and affordable until it blends real and virtual worlds for individuals and multiplayer

Artificial Intelligence in gaming

• Artificial Intelligence may be used to create games as they are being played
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be used to create games as they are being played
• Artificial Intelligence(AI) content will cause NPCs to become more creative and add to the complexity of the games.
• AI helps video game designers by drawing scenes from deserts to futuristic cities
• Designer are experimenting with a technique with Al calls procedural content generation or contents a player's actions are used to generate the next content chosen from a variety of options so players
• The next generation of open world adventures all React to the player with emissions that SKUs to your actions and preferences with characters who simulate empathy as well as aggression and who come to know you as an individual

5G

• 5G capabilities on cellphones will greatly expand the power and popularity of games
• 5G technology increase power and appeal of mobile gaming
• Electronic games may prove to be the dominant medium of the 2020s
• 5G network slow Building will make mobile gaming better
• smartphones can stream content much faster by Designers to create Powerful games and players and to engage immediately and discuss then come into play on the phone from mixed reality to Al generated gaming
• Tech journal Builtin stated for the Gaming Industry 5G has a potential to do more than ever Gamers enable gamers to download massive titles in minutes and make lag a relic of the past
• Cellular Network could lead to a dynamic shift in how and where video games are played, with gamers able to choose between playing on traditional consoles and streaming the latest released to their smartphone tablet or TV