Apart from consoles, the Internet is another "supply" of computer games. Any person who has access to the Internet can play simple games like Bomberman or Pac Man for free. There are also membership web sites that provide high-quality games, similar to the Sega or Nintendo games. The price may vary from a web site to another but in general they are cheaper than console games. There are also games on CD-ROMs on sale that can be played in any computer that has a CD-ROM drive. These games are of the same quality as console games, if not better, and they cost as much as them. The only advantage is that you do not need to spend the money in buying a console to play the game. The Internet has also brought about a massive change in multiplayer gaming. In the past you could only play multiplayer games if you were playing someone in the same room as you. With the arrival of broadband Internet, this has changed. All over the Internet you can find thousands of different places to play multiplayer games online. Anytime, any day, you can go on the Internet and play people you’ve never met before. This technological advance has taken video gaming to a new level. Instead of needing a friend to play games with, you have access to thousands of strangers who want to play.
As mentioned earlier, one of the main audiences of video games are children and many studies have been made in order to find out how much time children spend in playing games and if this factor affects their health and social life.
Recent studies of television watching by children have included measures of the time children spend playing video games. In 1967 the average school pupil watched 2.8 hours of television per day. Data from 1983 indicated that pupils watched 4.7 hours of television per day, and spent some additional time playing video games.
A recent study (Funk, 1993) examined video game playing among 357 school pupils. The adolescents were asked to identify their preference among five categories of video games. The two most preferred categories were games that involved fantasy violence, preferred by almost 32% of subjects, and sports games, some of which contained violent sub themes, which were preferred by more than 29%. Nearly 20% of the pupils expressed a preference for games with a general entertainment theme, while another 17% favoured games that involved human violence. Fewer than 2% of the adolescents preferred games with educational content.
The study found that approximately 36% of male students played video games at home for 1 to 2 hours per week, 29% played 3 to 6 hours and 12 % did not play at all. Among female students who played video games at home, approximately 42% played 1 to 2 hours and 15% played 3 to 6 hours per week. Nearly 37% of females did not play any video games. The balance of subjects played more than 6 hours per week. Results also indicated that 38% of males and 16% of females played 1 to 2 hours of video games per week in arcades; and that 53% of males and 81% of females did not play video games in arcades.
Video game designers and advertisers often take toys or products originally designed for boys and paint them pink in order to market them to girls as well. An early example of this strategy was Pac-Man. This pioneering video game was as popular 20 years ago as Pokemon is today. In order to appeal to a female market, designers created Ms. Pac-Man. She resembled the traditional Pac-Man in every way except she wore a pink bow on top of her head. In other words, producers appealed to girls by making the game's appearance girl-friendly. A more current example is Nintendo's Game Boy, available in bright pink for girls, which has sold 100 million units worldwide. While these marketing practices have been successful, they do not maximize girls' continued engagement because the games themselves do not include components that appeal to them.
A lot of people tend to think that the majority of video game users are children, but a congressional testimony by Interactive Digital Software Association denies this and points out that 77 percent of the most frequent consumers are adults. (57 percent-over18, 20 percent-over 36). The kids that were around when the first games consoles came out have now grown up and are still playing video games. Also, kids nowadays are getting hooked and will grow up playing games. And yet, even though those adults account for most of the users, the remaining 23 percent of the consumers are still under 18, and shouldn't be overlooked, especially when researches have found that many games contain at least some form of violence. One research has sampled 33 popular Nintendo and Sega games, and came to the conclusion that close to 80 percent of them have at least some aggression or violence. Another research shows that 85 percent of the games that are inspected embrace a lot of acts involving killings. Some people would argue that any violence at all is more than is acceptable, while others may argue that due to the lack of gore and the obvious "cartoon" like appearance of the characters the violence is not a high degree at all. But with the passing of time, new hardware and programming techniques have made the cartoon appearance much more realistic. For example, in a more recent and very popular game, Goldeneye 007, bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed; instead they perform an elaborate manoeuvre when killed. Since Goldeneye 007 is a shooting game, manoeuvres performed by dying enemy solders, varies depending on where they get shot. In another game called Unreal Tournament, when characters get shot there is a large spray of blood that covers the walls and floor near the character. As long as boys dominate the audience for video games, violence will continue to be present. The emergence of these violent games is the main reason for keeping the interest of ageing gamers. When video games were first invented, there were no violent games. As the first generation of ‘gamers’ grew older, the style of games available changed. The adults wanted to play games but needed a more mature theme. When girls, who tend to stay away from violent games, enter the video game market there will be a corresponding trend in the increase of non-violent games as game designers try to capture this new market.
In order to control the use of violent video games, rating systems similar to that of movies have been introduced. This can occasionally deter sales and for some gamers with strict parents this may cause them to not play the game at all. Currently there are two rating systems for video and computer games that are similar to each other. Most North American video games manufacturers have adopted the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) system. The personal computer industry has adopted the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) system. These rating systems classify games according to the amount of violence, crude language, nudity and drug use in their contents. These stand as warnings, like in a movie theatre, but are not enforced. Game companies are encouraged to submit their products are rated but there is no government policy at this point (Media Awareness Network, 1999).
The biggest change in terms of provision of video games is the move from the arcade into the home. Consoles have allowed people to play whenever they wish in the comfort of their home. Handheld consoles, such as the Nintendo Gameboy, have meant that people can play on the move. The popularity of games have lead to mobile phones including more and more sophisticated games to satisfy the demands from ‘gamers’ to play while out and about. With broadband Internet changing the face of PC gaming, there will be more shifts in gaming styles in the years ahead. There will be less emphasis on purely home gaming and more on gaming wherever you want.
When video games first came out, they were seen as something to entertain children. This was because of the type of games available, which was not very sophisticated and so lacked any real appeal for the older market. As the ‘kids’ grew up so did the themes of games. The children got older but still wanted to play games but were no longer interested in the simplistic games they played when they were younger. Over time games have become more and more complex and there are now more and more violent games. This reflects the producers responding to the demand from the older market. That is not to say that games for children are no longer produced, more that game producers recognise that there is more than one market to produce for.
Bibliography
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Jenkins, Henry, and Cassell, Justine (eds.), 1999, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: gender and computer games, Cambridge, The MIT Press.
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