Video games: history, impact, and cultural significance

Video Games in America

The History of and Current Economic and Social Realities of Video Games

History of video games: A book by Barrie Gunter (the Effects of Video Games on Children) explains that one of the very first video games introduced to the public was "Pong" - in 1974. Atari, the manufacturer of Pong sold 1,000 units of Pong in the following year, for $1,000 each (Gunter, 1998, p. 12). The game was found in arcades and it was a kind of electronic ping-pong game.

Following Pong, Magnavox came out with "Odyssey" which the author Gunter writes was the first video game that could be played on the home television set. This was also released in 1974. In 1975, the author continues, Atari came out with "Pong" for home video players; it had sound effects for each hit and miss, and for ever ricochet, which was exciting for players. In just a couple years home video games were being marketed by 20 companies, and by 1977 and 1978, "programmable video games for home use proliferated" (Gunter, p. 12).

By 1981, American game players were spending $5 billion annually on "coin-operated" games and another $1 billion on home video games that run through television sets. On page 13 of Gunter's book the author points out that "poorly designed games" caused a "crash in the market" between 1983 and 1985. In the late 1980s and into 1990, when computers came out, this technology allowed "a higher standard of graphics and versatility of movement on screen" (Gunter, p. 13). Nintendo controlled 80% of the video game industry early in the 1990s, but was soon seeing stiff competition from Sega.

By 1995, an estimated 40% of all homes with children had video game technologies, Gunter writes on page 14 of this book.

Today's video game industry thrives: According to an article in USA Today video game sales for the month of May alone reached $1.12 billion - which was a jump of 37% over May 2007. The top-selling video game during May of 2008 (and for most of the year) was Grand Theft Auto, and the top-selling video game console for May 2008 was Nintendo Wii, which sold 675,100 units. Sony's PlayStation 3 sold 208,700 units and Xbox by Microsoft sold 186,600 units, according to USA Today (Fehd, 2008). How are video games doing during this recession in the economy? The Dallas Morning News reports that in October, video game sales "jumped 18%" (Godinez, 2008). And moreover, the video game industry "...remains stubbornly resistant to the gloom enveloping the rest of the economy," Godinez writes.

Video games as learning tools: Video games have more applications than just entertainment, according to an article in a newspaper story in the New York Times (Rich, 2008). In fact, authors, librarians, teachers and publishers are using video games to "spark an interest in books," Motoko Rich writes in the Times. In one particular case, novelist P.J. Haarsma wrote a science fiction book for pre-teens but he also designed a video game to go along with the book. He "very calculatedly gave gamers who might no otherwise pick up a book a clear incentive to read," Rich explains. That incentive was that players can advance in the video game and score more points by answering questions with information from the novel.

In addition, the publishing group that puts out the Harry Potter books (Scholastic) recently released "The Maze of Bones," the first in a series of ten books that will be linked to a Web-based video game.

How is that that publishers and authors really expect young people who are into video games to become book readers by playing video games? The author of this article, Motoko Rich, notes "doubtful teachers and literacy experts question how effective it is to use an overwhelmingly visual medium to connect youngsters to the written word." The answer, according to "some researchers," Rich continues, is that even though children don't "read much text, they are picking up skills that can help them thrive in a visually oriented world."

How much of an influence do violent video games have in terms of making young people aggressive? An article in the scholarly journal Aggressive Behavior (Barlett, et al., 2007) (titled "Longer You Play, the More Hostile You Feel: Examination of First Person Shooter Video Games and Aggression During video Game Play") states that 70% of college students are "avid" video game players. Also, video game sales are "steadily increasing, reaching 2.9 billion dollars in 2004" (Barlett, p. 486). The most frequently rented games are violent, very often including sexual themes, the article states. Moreover there is frequently a great deal of "blood and gore" associated with these games, and adolescent children prefer violent video games to more mellow or sports-related games. Add to that the fact that video games are becoming much more realistic, some are in 3-Dimensional formats, and they have "an addictive quality," Barlett writes.

And so this is prime territory for research into just how much of an affect do violent video games have on young boys, in particular. Going back to 1980, research on video games and aggression show that adolescents who spend "the most time" in arcades where violent video games are available are the most aggressive. It should come as no surprise to parents or teachers or guardians that, as the article points out, "multiple literature reviews" and "meta-analytic work" by scholars and researchers reflects the fact that "...playing a violent video game significantly increases the aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and physiological arousal of the players" (Barlett, p. 487). This, in turn, increases the amount of aggressive behaviors that are witnessed in empirical studies involving video games.