Guitar Hero Art Guitar Hero Video Game Screen Shots

x.4 The Impact of Video Games on Civilization

Learning Objectives

Describe gaming culture and how it has influenced mainstream culture.
Analyze the ways video games have affected other forms of media.
Describe how video games can be used for educational purposes.
Identify the arguments for and against the depiction of video games as an art.

An NPD poll conducted in 2007 found that 72 percent of the U.S. population had played a video game that yr (Faylor, 2008). The increasing number of people playing video games means that video games are having an undeniable consequence on culture. This consequence is clearly visible in the increasing mainstream acceptance of aspects of gaming culture. Video games have as well changed the fashion that many other forms of media, from music to film, are produced and consumed. Education has likewise been changed by video games through the utilize of new technologies that help teachers and students communicate in new ways through educational games such as Encephalon Age. As video games have an increasing influence on our culture, many have voiced their opinions on whether this grade of media should be considered an fine art.

Game Culture

To fully understand the furnishings of video games on mainstream culture, it is important to empathise the development of gaming civilization, or the civilization surrounding video games. Video games, like books or movies, take avid users who have fabricated this course of media central to their lives. In the early 1970s, programmers got together in groups to play Spacewar!, spending a dandy bargain of time competing in a game that was rudimentary compared to modern games (Make). Every bit video arcades and home video game consoles gained in popularity, youth culture chop-chop adjusted to this type of media, engaging in competitions to gain loftier scores and spending hours at the arcade or with the home panel.

In the 1980s, an increasing number of kids were spending time on consoles playing games and, more importantly, increasingly identifying with the characters and products associated with the games. Sat morning cartoons were made out of the Pac-Homo and Super Mario Bros. games, and an array of nongame merchandise was sold with video game logos and characters. The public recognition of some of these characters has made them into cultural icons. A poll taken in 2007 constitute that more Canadians surveyed could place a photo of Mario, from Super Mario Bros., than a photo of the current Canadian prime number minister (Cohn & Toronto, 2007).

Every bit the kids who start played Super Mario Bros. began to outgrow video games, companies such as Sega, and after Sony and Microsoft, began making games to appeal to older demographics. This has increased the average historic period of video game players, which was 35 in 2009 (Entertainment Software Association, 2009). The Nintendo Wii has fifty-fifty plant a new demographic in retirement communities, where Wii Bowling has become a popular class of entertainment for the residents (Wischnowsky). The gradual increment in gaming historic period has led to an acceptance of video games as an acceptable form of mainstream amusement.

The Subculture of Geeks

The acceptance of video games in mainstream culture has consequently inverse the mode that the culture views certain people. "Geek" was the name given to people who were proficient at technology but lacking in the skills that tended to make i popular, like fashion sense or athletic ability. Many of these people, because they often did not fare well in social club, favored imaginary worlds such as those found in the fantasy and scientific discipline fiction genres. Video games were appealing considering they were both a fantasy world and a ways to excel at something. Jim Rossignol, in his 2008 book This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities, explained part of the lure of playing Quake Iii online:

Cold mornings, adolescent disinterest, and a nagging hip injury had meant that I was banished from the sports field for many years. I wasn't going to be able to indulge in the camaraderie that sports teams felt or in the extended fizz of victory through dedication and cooperation. That entire swathe of experience had been cutting off from me by brutal circumstance and a expert dose of self-defeating apathy. Now, all the same, at that place was a possibility for some kind of redemption: a sport for the quick-fingered and the figurer-bound; a space of possibility in which I could mold friends and strangers into a expert gaming team (Rossignol, 2008).

Video games gave a group of excluded people a manner to gain proficiency in the social realm. Every bit video games became more of a mainstream miracle and video game skills began to be desired by a large number of people, the pop idea of geeks inverse. Information technology is now common to come across the term "geek" used to mean a person who understands computers and engineering science. This former slur is also prominent in the media, with headlines in 2010 such as "Geeks in Vogue: Pinnacle 10 Cinematic Nerds (Abrupt, 2010)."

Many media stories focusing on geeks examine the means in which this subculture has been accustomed by the mainstream. Geeks may have become "cooler," merely mainstream culture has besides go "geekier." The acceptance of geek culture has led to acceptance of geek aesthetics. The mainstreaming of video games has led to acceptance of fantasy or virtual worlds. This is evident in the popularity of picture/book serial such as The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Comic book characters, emblems of geek civilization, have become the vehicles for blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man and The Dark Knight. The idea of a fantasy or virtual world has come to appeal to greater numbers of people. Virtual worlds such equally those represented in the Grand Theft Car and Halo series and online games such as World of Warcraft have expanded the thought of virtual worlds so that they are not mere means of escape but new means to interact (Konzack, 2006).

The Effects of Video Games on Other Types of Media

Video games during the 1970s and '80s were often derivatives of other forms of media. E.T., Star Wars, and a number of other games took their cues from movies, television shows, and books. This began to modify in the 1980s with the development of cartoons based on video games, and in the 1990s and 2000s with live-activity characteristic films based on video games.

Television

Television set programs based on video games were an early phenomenon. Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Q*bert were among the blithe programs that aired in the early 1980s. In the afterward 1980s, shows such equally The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and The Legend of Zelda promoted Nintendo games. In the 1990s, Pokémon, originally a game developed for the Nintendo Game Boy, was turned into a television series, a card game, several movies, and even a musical (Cyberspace Picture Database). Recently, several programs have been developed that revolve entirely around video games—the spider web series The Club, for example, tells the story of a group of friends who collaborate through an unspecified MMORPG.

Nielsen, the company that tabulates television ratings, has begun rating video games in a similar fashion. In 2010, this data showed that video games, as a whole, could be considered a kind of fifth network, forth with the television networks NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox (Shields, 2009). Advertisers utilize Nielsen ratings to make up one's mind which programs to support. The utilize of this system is changing public perceptions to include video game playing as a habit like to telly watching.

Video games have also influenced the fashion that television receiver is produced. The Rocket Racing League, scheduled to be launched in 2011, volition characteristic a "virtual racetrack." Racing jets will travel along a virtual track that can only be seen past pilots and spectators with enabled equipment. Applications for mobile devices are being developed that volition allow spectators to race virtual jets aslope the ones flight in real time (Hadhazy, 2010). This type of innovation is only possible with a public that has come up to demand and rely on the kind of interactivity that video games provide.

Pic

The rising in film adaptations of video games accompanies the increased age of video game users. In 1995, Mortal Kombat, a live-activeness movie based on the video game, grossed over $70 million at the box office, placing it 22nd in the rankings for that year (Box Role Mojo). Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, released in 2001, starred well-known actress Angelina Jolie and ranked No. ane at the box office when it was released, and 15th overall for the year (Box Office Mojo). Films based on video games are an increasingly common sight at the box function, such as producer Jerry Bruckheimer'due south Prince of Persia, or the recent sequel to Tron, based on the idea of a virtual gaming loonshit.

Another attribute of video games' influence on films is how video game releases are marketed and perceived. The release engagement for predictable game Thousand Theft Auto Four was announced and marketed to compete with the release of the film Iron Man. M Theft Auto 4 supposedly beat Atomic number 26 Man by $300 million in sales. This kind of comparison is, in some ways, misleading. Video games price much more than a ticket to a movie, and so higher sales does not mean that more people bought the game than the picture. Also, the distribution appliance for the 2 media is totally different. Movies can only be released in theaters, whereas video games can be sold at any retail outlet (Associated Press, 2008). What this kind of news story proves, however, is that the full general public considers video games as something akin to a pic. It is also important to realize that the scale of production and profit for video games is like to that of films. Video games include music scores, actors, and directors in add-on to the game designers, and the budgets for major games reflect this. Yard Theft Car Four cost an estimated $100 meg to produce (Bowditch, 2008).

Music

Video games have been accompanied by music ever since the days of the arcade. Video game music was originally express to computer beeps turned into theme songs. The design of the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and Sony PlayStation made it possible to use sampled audio on new games, meaning songs played on physical instruments could be recorded and used on video games. Beginning with the music of the Final Fantasy series, scored by famed composer Nobuo Uematsu, video game music took on film score quality, consummate with full orchestral and vocal tracks. This innovation proved beneficial to the music industry. Well-known musicians such as Trent Reznor, Thomas Dolby, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani were able to create the soundtracks for popular games, giving these artists exposure to new generations of potential fans (Video Games Music Big Hit, 1997). Composing music for video games has turned into a profitable means of employment for many musicians. Schools such equally Berklee College of Music, Yale, and New York Academy have programs that focus on composing music for video games. The students are taught many of the same principles that are involved in film scoring (Khan, 2010).

Many rock bands have allowed their previously recorded songs to exist used in video games, similar to a striking vocal being used on a movie soundtrack. The bands are paid for the rights to use the song, and their music is exposed to an audition that otherwise might not hear information technology. As mentioned earlier, games like Stone Band and Guitar Hero have been used to promote bands. The release of The Beatles: Rock Band was timed to coincide with the release of digitally remastered reissues of the Beatles' albums.

Another phenomenon relating to music and video games involves musicians covering video game music. A number of bands perform only video game covers in a variety of styles, such as the popular Japanese grouping the Black Mages, which performs rock versions of Final Fantasy music. Playing video game themes is not limited to rock bands, notwithstanding. An orchestra and chorus called Video Games Live started a tour in 2005 dedicated to playing well-known video game music. Their performances are often accompanied by graphics projected onto a screen showing relevant sequences from the video games (Play Symphony).

Machinima

Recently, the connection between video games and other media has increased with the popularity of machinima, blithe films and series created by recording grapheme deportment inside video games. Starting time with the brusque film "Diary of a Camper," filmed inside the game Convulse in 1996, fans of video games have adopted the technique of machinima to tell their own stories. Although these early movies were released only online and targeted a select niche of gamers, professional filmmakers accept since adopted the process, using machinima to storyboard scenes and to add together a sense of individuality to computer-generated shots. This new form of media is increasingly condign mainstream, as TV shows such as Southward Park and channels such equally MTV2 accept introduced machinima to a larger audience (Strickland).

Video Games and Education

Figure 10.7

Educational video games take proven to be useful tools for educators.

I sign of the mainstreaming of video games is the increase of educational institutions that comprehend them. As early as the 1980s, games such every bit Number Munchers and Discussion Munchers were designed to help children develop basic math and grammar skills. In 2006, the Federation of American Scientists completed a study that canonical of video game use in education. The study cited the fact that video game systems were present in near households, kids favored learning through video games, and games could exist used to facilitate belittling skills (Feller, 2006). Some other study, published in the science journal Nature in 2002, found that regular video game players had better developed visual-processing skills than people who did non play video games. Participants in the test were asked to play a offset-person shooter game for i hour a day for 10 days, and were and so tested for specific visual attention skills. The playing improved these skills in all participants, simply the regular video game players had a greater skill level than the non–game players. According to the study, "Although video-game playing may seem to be rather mindless, information technology is capable of radically altering visual attention processing (Green & Bavelier, 2003)."

Other educational institutions have begun to embrace video games equally well. The Boy Scouts of America have created a "belt loop," something akin to a merit badge, for tasks including learning to play a parent-approved game and developing a schedule to balance video game time with homework (Irish potato, 2010). The federal government has also seen the educational potential of video games. A commission on balancing the federal budget suggested a video game that would brainwash Americans most the necessary costs of balancing the federal budget (Wolf, 2010). The military has similarly embraced video games every bit training simulators for new soldiers. These simulators, working off of newer game technologies, present several different realistic options that soldiers could face on the field. The games have also been used as recruiting tools by the U.Southward. Ground forces and the Army National Guard (Associated Press, 2003).

The ultimate result of video game utilize for education, whether in schools or in the public arena, ways that video games accept been validated past established cultural authorities. Many individuals even so resist the idea that video games can be benign or accept a positive cultural influence, but their embrace by educational institutions has given video games validation.

Video Games as Fine art

While universally accepted equally a grade of media, a debate has recently arisen over whether video games can be considered a grade of art. Roger Ebert, the well-known motion picture critic, has historically argued that "video games can never be art," citing the fact that video games are meant to be won, whereas art is meant to exist experienced (Ebert, 2010).

His remarks accept generated an outcry from both video gamers and developers. Many indicate to games such equally 2009'south Blossom, in which players control the period of flower petals in the wind, as examples of video games developing into fine art. Flower avoids specific plot and characters to allow the histrion to focus on interaction with the landscape and the emotion of the game-play (That Game Company). Likewise, more than mainstream games such every bit the pop Katamari series, released in 2004, are built around the idea of creation, requiring players to pull together a massive dodder of objects in gild to create a star.

Video games, once viewed as a mindless source of amusement, are at present beingness featured in publications such as The New Yorker magazine and The New York Times (Fisher, 2010). With the evolution of increasingly circuitous musical scores and the advent of machinima, the boundaries between video games and other forms of media are slowly blurring. While they may not be considered art by everyone, video games have contributed significantly to modern creative culture.

Primal Takeaways

The aesthetics and principles of gaming culture accept had an increasing upshot on mainstream culture. This has led to the gradual acceptance of marginalized social groups and increased condolement with virtual worlds and the pursuit of new means of interaction.
Video games have gone from beingness a derivative medium that took its cues from other media, such as books, films, and music, to beingness a form of media that other types derive new ideas from. Video games have also interacted with older forms of media to change them and create new means of entertainment and interaction.
Educational institutions take embraced the apply of video games as valuable tools for teaching. These tools include simulated worlds in which of import life skills can exist learned and improved.
While video games may not be accepted by everyone as a grade of art, there is no doubt that they contribute greatly to artistic media such as music and motion-picture show.

Exercises

Think almost the ways in which video games accept influenced and affected other forms of media. And then consider the following questions:

Are in that location things video games volition never exist able to offer?
Write down several examples of means in which other forms of media are non replicated past video games. Then speculate on means video games could eventually emulate these forms.

References

Associated Press, "'Grand Theft Automobile IV' Beats 'Iron Human being' by $300 Million," Fob News, May 9, 2008, http://world wide web.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354711,00.html.

Associated Press, "War machine Training Is Merely a Game," Wired, October 3, 2003, http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2003/10/60688.

Bowditch, Gillian. "Thousand Theft Auto Producer is Godfather of Gaming," Times (London), Apr 27, 2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article3821838.ece.

Box Office Mojo, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=tombraider.htm.

Box Role Mojo, "Mortal Kombat," http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mortalkombat.htm.

Brand, "Space War."

Cohn & Wolfe Toronto, "Italian Plumber More Memorable Than Harper, Dion," news release, November xiii, 2007, http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/mmnr/Super_Mario_Galaxy/index.html.

Ebert, Roger. "Video Games Can Never Be Art," Chicago Sun-Times, April 16, 2010, http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html.

Entertainment Software Clan, Essential Facts About the Reckoner and Video Game Industry: 2009 Sales, Demographic, and Usage Information, 2009, http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2009.pdf.

Faylor, Chris. "NPD: 72% of U.Due south. Population Played Games in 2007; PC Named "Driving Force in Online Gaming," Shack News, April two, 2008, http://world wide web.shacknews.com/onearticle.10/52025.

Feller, Ben. "Group: Video Games Can Reshape Education," MSNBC, October 18, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15309615/from/ET/.

Fisher, Max. "Are Video Games Art?" Atlantic Wire, Apr 19, 2010, http://world wide web.theatlanticwire.com/features/view/feature/Are-Video-Games-Art-1085/.

Green, C. Shawn. and Daphne Bavelier, "Action Video Game Modifies Visual Selective Attending," Nature 423, no. 6939 (2003): 534–537.

Hadhazy, Adam. "'NASCAR of the Skies' to Characteristic Video Game-Like Interactivity," TechNewsDaily, April 26, 2010, http://world wide web.technewsdaily.com/nascar-of-the-skies-to-characteristic-video-game-like-interactivity–0475/.

Internet Movie Database, "Pokémon," http://www.imdb.com/.

Khan, Joseph P. "Berklee is Education Its Students to Compose Scores for Video Games," Boston Earth, January 19, 2010, http://www.boston.com/news/education/college/articles/2010/01/nineteen/berklee_is_teaching_students_to_compose_scores_for_video_games/.

Konzack, Lars. "Geek Civilization: The 3rd Counter-Culture," (paper, FNG2006, Preston, England, June 26–28, 2006), http://www.scribd.com/md/270364/Geek-Culture-The-tertiary-CounterCulture.

Murphy, David. "Boy Scouts Develop 'Vide Game' Merit Bluecoat," PC Magazine, May 2, 2010, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363331,00.asp.

Play Symphony, Jason Michael Paul Productions, "About," Play! A Video Game Symphony, http://www.play-symphony.com/about.php.

Rossignol, Jim. This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2008), 17.

Sharp, Craig. "Geeks in Vogue: Top Ten Cinematic Nerds," Film Shaft, April 26, 2010, http://www.filmshaft.com/geeks-in-vogue-top-10-cinematic-nerds/.

Shields, Mike. "Nielsen: Video Games Approach 5th Network Condition," Adweek, March 25, 2009, http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i4f087b1aeac6f008d0ecadfeffe4a191.

Strickland, Jonathan. "How Machinima Works," HowStuffWorks.com, http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/machinima3.htm.

That Game Visitor, "Flower," http://thatgamecompany.com/games/bloom/.

Video Games Music Large Hit, "Video Games Music Large Hit," Wilmington (NC) Morning Star, Feb 1, 1997, 36.

Wischnowsky, "Wii Bowling."

Wolf, Richard. "Nation's Soaring Deficit Calls for Painful Choices," U.s. Today, April 14, 2010, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-04-12-deficit_N.htm.

yosttharejes.blogspot.com

Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/10-4-the-impact-of-video-games-on-culture/