English Research Paper: Final.docx



Anonymous

Mrs. Doll

English 3

26 November 2012

Evolution of Gaming Culture: Wild Idea to Major Industry

“We are more than stereotypes. We are adventurers and doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs, journalists and lawyers, scientists and students. We are smart, ambitious, and competitive. We are gamers” (Plott). Culture is all around us, from home, to school and friends. Culture, however, is typically overlooked in everyday life. How is culture developed? What types of cultures are there? These are only some of the questions a person may have when thinking about culture. Culture is the passing down of ideals, arts, etc. A culture that is seen today is video gaming. What gamers did in the past helps determine what the culture of gaming will be in the future.

To start looking at a culture, a person must look at the origins of that idea that would be later passed down. “Humans are very interested in telling stories and sharing stories, and games are just another way of doing that...” (Coulton). For the early gamers, their games came from Japan with hits like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, etc. in 1985. The release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, from Nintendo in 1985 filled the void that the American games companies left when it collapsed during the 80’s (History). The gamers of that time would then grow up and want their youth to play their original games to get a feel for their experiences. The problem is that the children of today can’t play the same games the same way the older generation played them originally (Burns). In the 1980’s it was hard for a child to imagine a world without companies like Nintendo or Atari (Brentalfloss). Even though the culture was just starting, there were the beginnings of non gamers disliking gamers’ actions.

Like all cultures, there are those who do not like what that group passes on. For Bushnell, when he attempted to sell the home version of Pong to toy companies, the toy companies turned him down because Pong was too associated with bars and taverns. Bushnell had to go around the dislike for his game by selling Pong to Sears sporting goods (Video Game Revolution). A professional League of Legends player’s parents did not like letting their son playing the game so much. The son, Carlos Rodriguez, also known as Ocelote, managed to convince his parents that he had this calling in him to play the game. He now supports his family financially with his earnings from the game (Europe’s). Others think that violent video games contribute to violent people, often trying to link crime with video games. Studies, however, have shown that violent video games do not lead to crime or violent people. The main concern for everyone, even those who make the games, is that the game is being played by the right age group (Video Game Culture). Many families have the same issue with their own children spending too much time on something that seems meaningless. The only problem is that for these gamers, the games are not just a toy, they are a part of them, unable to fully separate them (Derrick). As games matured, competition grew and rivalries were made between companies for the hold on the gaming industry.

The fight for control of the gaming industry started mainly with Nintendo vs SEGA. Many people relate to Nintendo for their original game company. However, a game company by the name of SEGA attempted to overthrow the power that Nintendo had. SEGA pushed their NES rival system the Megadrive onto the market. The Japanese, still gripped by Nintendo, did not take the Megadrive; however, the American market was a prime place for SEGA to try their system out (Donovan 213-215). The Megadrive found success and it was difficult for Nintendo to combat the company who was watching for so long. Nintendo decided not to attempt at overdoing SEGA, but to continue their own things. Nintendo’s way of getting back at SEGA was obtaining the rights to Street Fighter 2, previously an arcade game that was following many major titles to game consoles. SEGA couldn’t find an answer to the hit fighting game, and the gamers without a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES, had to beg to play the games. Nintendo won out again, but the struggle between these companies and their players would end, not even to this day. (System) The storytelling that people want to do, as said by Jonathan Coulton, urged people to say that their story is better, adding some live to the culture. The struggle of console games continues when other companies push their versions forward.

With Nintendo, players had great games for stories that took the place of movie theaters for many people. As Jonathan Coulton said, the gamers want something to talk about and to pass on, so these games were being changed to fit that desire (Coulton). Dr. Henry Jenkins said that when games moved to consoles in the first place, there had to be a sense of a long term investment. The gameplay changed from being a fast twenty-five cent game to focusing on narrative. He also drew a parallel between cinemas and games, where games are the future of what cinemas did for people (Jenkins). A struggle between consoles can be described with this quote: “For people who don't own an Xbox 360, the killer app for the Xbox 360 isn't any one game. The killer app is Xbox Live” (Case). In order for gamers to choose one console over another, the console has to have something that others don’t, drawing people to that product. Compared to the former consoles, Xbox is the first to have some form of professional play. Founded in New York, Major League Gaming, or MLG, has provided these Xbox gamers a way to communicate between each other and schedule competitions (MLG). A close competitor to the Xbox is Playstation. Playstation offers relatively the same power and processing of Xbox, a different game selection, and a better multimedia/online experience. Overall, they are about the same, it just depends on personal preference. (Xbox) These fights between SEGA, Nintendo, Xbox, and Playstation are vital to the culture, they add life to talks about each one. However, the place where video gaming “officially” began was on the computer.

The computer was the original device that pioneered the way for games. With the very first computers, the engineers wanted to make artificial intelligence comparable to our own. They attempted to create a computer that could beat a master chess player in a game of chess. All of their applications were made for scientific use, not enjoyment. The problem, however, was the endless number of possible games for a computer to learn to beat a person. The engineers ended up scrapping the idea for some time before they created other games that could be played with these room-sized computers (Donovan 1-10). Today, computers have evolved and connected through the internet to offer gamers many experiences like Massively Multiplayer Online Games, or MMOGs, that allow millions of players to connect and live in a community-type settings. Games like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, or SecondLife are prime examples of MMOGs (Shaw). With the increasing connectivity, games have entered over the lives of many offering places to relax and get their minds off things.

“Play keeps us sane in our daily lives. Play keeps us curious, imaginative and directed. It teaches us to learn from our mistakes, to constantly improve, and to stride forward – battling through failures on our road to success” (Plott). The connectivity of everything today gives people a chance to play these games that may have been off-limits to them before because they had no time. Keith Apicary said “I don’t know why gamer culture is so strong now a days. I think that it’s just ‘cause the video games got really good and the online aspect is really cool...” (Apicary) The MMOGs and online play give people a chance to play with their friends and make new ones that have similar interests to them. In an infographic created by , it is seen that online gaming is better for meeting people/dating than dating websites. It is seen that online gaming is a lot larger, it has a younger age group, and people go play games more often than they check dating websites (Online). Because there are so many people, that must mean that there are different types of people playing all at once.

With the internet and all these ways to play together, many different people are able to join in on the fun of games. However, the common misconception that non gamers hold is that gamers are generally teenage boys who don’t do well in school, live, etc. (Shaw) An infographic shows, however, that this is not the case. The average age for a gamer is thirty-four years old. This shows that those who were teens when the NES and other consoles came out are still playing games. The average amount of years these gamers have been playing is twelve years. Twelve years shows that these gamers have been playing for a lot of their lives. This infographic continues to say that forty percent of all gamers are females and seventy six percent of parents get involved with their children's gaming (Gamers:). This information clearly contradicts the common conception of a gamer, but what about the others that make up the gaming industry, the gamemakers?

Knowing where you have been gives you a better knowledge of where you’re going. The older generation of gamers wants the newer generation to play their original games so that the newer generation can appreciate where their games came from (Burns). The new games have elements of older ones in them, just refined and remade to be played better. Why is this? It is because the gamers of that certain time have now grown up and started making their own games and have been teaching their kids how they played their games. The gamemakers before them even used things like movies and books to create their games to draw in the fan base of that genre. ”Where it used to be developing games based on movies or books to attract fans over to the world of gaming, games have now become our primary entertainment needs, such that movies, shows, books, toys, and music are being produced based on games.” (Min) The future of games and everything will be dictated by how people before the current time are brought up and taught to think. If the gamemakers are the officials, the videogame is the game, then there must be some form of higher level play to exceed others.

If everyone plays games, isn’t it comparable to playing sports? How different are the sporting cultures different from gaming cultures? A professional gamer has the same training mentality as an athlete, they have equal passions for their sports, and they can have similar physical demands for both (Sutter). These physical demands are different, where video games require fast reflexes and quick thinking when athletes need endurance in their muscles. The professional scene isn’t easily ignored, with many watching pros playing all the time. Taking place in Galen Center Area in the University of South Carolina, the League of Legends season 2 finals had over 1,154,000 online viewers, not counting TV (League). These professional gamers then are able to live double lives, celebrity lives when with other gamers and normal lives with everyday people. (Taylor) The professional play is even comparable to the original purpose for games on machines, chess. “We believe that our game, StarCraft, is the chess of our generation” (Plott). For these players, they have gone above the everyday want for entertainment, they have placed themselves in others hearts to encourage and support.

Jonathan Coulton’s quote defines how cultures, and especially the gaming culture, came into existence. Humans want to pass down stories, they want to share their experiences with others, and games are a good way to do that. The connection of these games helps these people tell their stories better because they can play and explore together. The experiences that young gamers share then paved the way for more and better games to come. Then over time, people started to consider gaming as a form of professional competition. Gaming has come a long way, and it is still growing. “We think you should be one of us” (Plott).

Works Cited

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Burns, Burnie. Interviewed by Frank. “I AM A GAMER” Youtube. Underbelly. 1 April 2011. Web. 24 November 2012.

Case, Loyd. Interviewed by Min, Lo Ming. “The Gaming Culture Revolution.” Stanford University. Undergraduate Paper. 23, November 2012.

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Shaw, Adrienne. “Games and Culture.” Sage May 7 2011, Online Publishing. Web. 23 November 2012.

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