Video game console Essay Example for Free

Video game console Essay Abstract The video games industry has been through a total transformation in recent years. We can easily find in the market a wide range of video games, such as computer games (PC), console games or even interactive games with various contents. Video games industry had its annual revenue growth rate of 9. 1% ranking itself as the 3rd fastest growing segment of the Entertainment and Media market (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2007). Especially, within the industry home video game consoles played an important part in contributing to the national economy. Besides talking about the benefits of playing video games, some critics also criticized the bad effects which video games had caused to each of individual person and to the entire society. Do video games take responsibility of all the problems involved in interacting with the computers? The intention of this report is to represent, analyze, and critically evaluate this dynamic global industry based on its benefits and drawbacks from a scientific perspective. Video Games The history of video games development is a long and intricate story. Up to now, games industry has been climbing to its peak and becoming one of the biggest commercial field. Besides, video games are becoming common entertainment. Therefore, video games importance in economy and lives is undeniable. Nonetheless, the answers for the controversies whether video games impose consummate or dreadful impact on people, especially children, have not shown up yet for a long time. However, playing video games is a two-sided affair. No one can tell if it is good or bad. If played at an appropriate time and in an acceptable period, video games are such beneficial tools. Otherwise, they can become the sharpest knife shorting your time and limiting many abilities. History of video games Video games were developed long time ago by an engineer worked in the US military. The first game had it function with a simple game engine, the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) technology. In 1950s, video games were created some were created, giving people a way to entertain. Tennis for Two was the pioneer in the sport game segment. The game contained a tennis ball† bounces off a horizontal line at the bottom of a oscilloscope screen, with a vertical line in the center of the screen representing a tennis net (BMI Gaming, 2002). Players controlled the game with a small handheld metal box equipped with a dial and a push button. It was important in the history of video games as being one of the first electronic games to use a graphical display. In the second generation 1970s, game industry was then strongly developed with the exist of famous games such as Odyssey, the world’s first home video game system and Pong – a huge success of Atari which was the best-selling during winter season. Pong quickly became a huge hit and its success led to the start of the modern video game industry as we know of today (Michael, 2005). The Golden Era of Video Games was a time of great technical breakthroughs and game design creativities in arcade games. Video arcade games were designed in a wide variety of genres. This era also saw the rapid spread of video arcades and game rooms across North America, Europe and Japan. Today’s video games transform to be complex and graphically realistic. They are not just the childish stuffs anymore, with more game-playing adults among their intended audience. With strong configuration, nice graphics and interesting gameplay, the evolution of gameplay devices including Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii will lead the game industry to a new generation of video games. Overview of game industry Every year, the game industry brings lots of profit to the national economy. Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) predicted that the game industry would continuously grow in the coming years; focusing on revenues to increase from $31. 6 billion to $48. 9 billion USD between 2007 and 2011 (Scanlon, 2007). In the line with the â€Å"Product Life Cycle Curve† the game industry is currently at its mature stage in developed country and growth phase in developing country, as a result, many companies have to establish marketing plans to adapt to the developed but competitive international market (Daniels, Radebaugh, Sullivan, 2009). Moreover, the income does not only come from the game selling, it also comes from the technology advancement such as sound cards, graphic cards, some software like applications, update features and websites. Writing software is such a great way to make money, a good writer can sell hundreds of thousands copy for each of their popular games. In general, the development of game industry is totally dominating the market, successful in leading other involved segments to prosperity. Throughout history, many game companies were born and made a huge influence in the industry. Nowadays, there are three well-known game companies dominating the game industry: Sony with the PS3, Nintendo with the Wii console and Microsoft with a variety of range in computer devices and Xbox 360. Each year they all establish popular games and bring back billion dollars for game selling and game devices (ESA, 2008). They have different methods in creating their own games and applications, which enables them to hold separated market share in different segments. However, there is a change in relationship between game companies. Instead of competing in every field and genre of games, they are moving to cooperate with each other in order to fully dominate the market from other small game companies. Benefits of playing video games Establishing connections. Nowadays, video games players around the world, especially coupled gamers, may feel more reasonable to enjoy their hobbies because the playing activities can build up their relationship effectively. This benefit is more believable when a research conducted by Stony Brook University proves that there are two crucial key factors which affect the success of a relationship: the promotion of the other partner’s success and nurture an interesting life together (Daniel, 2010). During the playing process, they have many opportunities to share exciting experiences and increase trust. Therefore, after an exciting activity, the connection between two people is formed. The feeling of sharing achievement at the end is really valuable for building or maintaining a relationship. Additionally, video games also help people to support relationship in some other cases. For instance, in marriage, men sometimes get bored with their wives very quickly. Thus, women have to find some way to prevent external effects from their husbands. One recommendation is bought him a Xbox 360 or PS3 to at least keep him at home with her (Smith, 2009). IQ Increase The cognitive effects of playing video games are not only surprising but also last some years. However, there are some people who cast doubt on these benefits of that activity. In spite of that, they may change their mind after reading a research which was conducted by Ray Perez, program officer for the Office of Naval Research’s warfighter performance department (Stephen, 2010). â€Å"We have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players†, he said. Perez also stated â€Å"we know that video games can increase perceptual abilities and short-term memory†. For examples, Minesweeper is one of the most favorite intelligent games for many people. We usually play it in our spare time for two purposes: spend time to relax and practice our brains. While playing that game, the ability to concentrate and memorize will be strengthened. In addition, psychologists have found out that after eight weeks playing some kinds of games which are especially designed for gamers to totally use their thinking to play, there will be a dramatic increase in IQ. To be more specific, scientists studied 600 children who played an online game called â€Å"Junglememory†. As a result, their abilities to solve mathematical and verbal problems are amazingly improved and their IQ scores also rise by 10 after the research (Skeptics, 2012). Education Some games could bring to gamers a lot of educational skills. For example, most detective games and puzzle games require an ability to remember and think critically. The Federation of American Scientist reveal that student absorb up to 90% info when taught using simulations compare with 10% via reading (Forbes, 2012). Moreover, teamwork and leader skill maybe built and improved through some kind of games according to Ian Bogost, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and founder of software maker Persuasive Games. â€Å"Look at ‘World of Warcraft’: You’ve got 11-year-olds who are learning to delegate responsibility, promote teamwork and steer groups of people toward a common goal. † he said (ABC News, 2011). Not only remember and teamwork skill, the most apparent benefit that this type of entertainment could bring to student is faster response. Famous game brand names in World Cyber Game tournament (WCB) Counter Strike, Dota, Call of Duty and FIFA provide an environment to improve and practice response seed and timing ability. Building relationship In some way, games play an essential point in supporting society and building multi-level relationship. Instantly, people from far distance place will know and get access thanks to many games on Facebook. If someone does not want to communicate with strange people, he can set up a team with someone he knows in teamwork games such as League of Legend, Tactic games. By that way, children, team, and even adults have opportunities to share understanding and feeling with each other in such a convenient and relax environment. Parents and their children also get a lot of benefits from game industry. According to the ESA, 45 percent of parents played computer video games with their children at least once a week. This number had increased from 36 percent in 2007 (ESA, 2008). Following the world mainstream, parents pay many time in enjoying comedy or educational games like Neighbour From Hell or Worm Book. An another research show that 97 per cent of teens aged 12-17 play video games, and that their gaming activity had become an essential part of their social experience (Kate, 2008). Moreover, the study which was released last in 2008 also found out that 52 per cent of teenagers played games in which they considered moral and ethical issues; 43 per cent played games in which they made decisions about the way a community, city or nation should be drive; and 40 per cent played games in which they learned about a social issue. As the result, the significant high rate of social game may bring us optimistic consideration in the benefit of video game in our world. Drawbacks of Playing Video Games Violence exposure Another effect of video game is that it makes people commit violent behavior. Although there is not enough statistical evidence to find out if violent video game is the reason for major crimes such as murder or robbery, many researches have stated that playing too much brutal games with an enormous amount of time can affect our psychological state, thus influencing our actions. This could be true for people with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). ASPD is a mental health condition in which a person has a pervasive pattern of disregard for, exploiting or violating the rights of others. This disorder begins in early time of ones life and may continue when a human is grown up. Individual high in hostility tends to be more offensive after playing violent video games while another one low in hostility is less likely to be (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh, 2004). In the book Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson (2008), they concluded that people who played mature-rated games had a higher chance of aggressive actions, such as getting into a fight, bullying, damaging school’s properties, than those didn’t play any games of that kind . Nowadays, there is not a completely reliable research that defines the link between violent video games and major crimes. However, many criminal incidents connected to video games happen every year. In May 2010, French gamer Julien Barreaux hunted and stabbed a fellow player to death who had slashed Barreaux on the game Counter-Strike with a virtual knife. Alexiane Potel, the judge at his trial called him a menace to society† (Lilian Juliet, 2001). Addiction In addition, another possible downside of video games is that they may make people become addicted to them. Extreme overuse of video games can manipulate our lives and we would care about nothing but spending a lot of hours playing them. Professor Mark Griffiths, of Nottingham Trent University, revealed the results of a survey of 7,000 online gamers in a British Science Museum lecture with 12% of the majority have sign of addiction (BBC News, 2006). A person who spends an excessive amount on gaming environment may lack their skill of communication. They neglect to go outside and take part in social activities. However, if a meeting among fellow gamers is going to take place, they definitely do not want to miss that party. This maybe because they just want to talk with people with the same interests, especially the ones who share the mutual kind of games they play. Video games addiction also causes health problems. If a person is totally addicted to video games, he/she would not consider sleeping or even eating. On a long run, this causes the muscles to work less and may lead to obesity (Mayo Clinic staff, 2011). There have been many deaths because of game addiction. On July 15, Chuang, a Taiwanese teenager was dead because of playing Diablo III 40 hours straight. The report said that Chuang could stand only a few minutes when he woke up and then collapsed . The reason of his death is cardiovascular, which involves a heart or blood vessels (The Australian, 2012). Physiological Effect. Some researchers believe that playing electronic game can lead to the increase in heart rates of inexperienced gamers (Zain A Sobani, Ali Pervaiz, Mohsin Yakub, Ali Khawaja, Rehmatullah Khan, 2011). The reason is that they have no experience in playing video games; when they play, they feel like they are the characters in that game and their heart rates will increase when those characters face the problem, for example. Moreover, a person who really addicts to the video games will play it without having meals and sleeping, so the consequence is that he will lose consciousness and his health will become worse. Furthermore, some doctors believe that there are harmful rays leaving out of the screen. They are extremely harmful because they directly damage the gamers eyes. This is the reason why there is an increase in the number of people from younger generation who become short-sighted. Another bad effect causing by playing video games is arthritis. Gamers spend a long time sitting on chair, so they will be inactive. Because they only use their brain, eyes and hands, other parts of their body do not operated. In long term, it will cause the inflammation of the joints. Unreal World Syndrome Playing video games can create the gender bias (Flew Humphreysl, 2005). As people know, in lots of games, the main characters always look like heroes; the male is very tall, handsome, has big muscle and the female has the soft white skin, a beautiful outlook. Gamers, especially the younger, they think that those characters are the standard of them, so they try to live in an imaginary world. In that world, girls are objectives for boys and men to rescue. Therefore, boys usually try to prove themselves for the girls such as the heroes. This case cause extremely serious violence in school environment (Hazler Carney, 2000). All of those will lead to the stereotypes in the perception of gamers. They only see the world in video games is their ideal world. Some reports showed that they often apply the way to solve problems or troubles to the reality. As a result, changing manners happens silently and automatically. They may no longer respect their parents and teachers and may even think that those people are their enemies. Conclusion. On the bright aspect, videos games are able to help players improve dexterity, build relationships and acquire high concentration, multitasking and quick response and numerate abilities. Moreover, educators effectively use video games for educational orientation, military or medical treatment in relieving pain or stress. In addition, game industry has been proliferating stronger than ever. This young and auspicious field has contributed prodigiously to the development of the many economies. On the downside, video games can somehow cause addiction, violent behavior or even lacking social and communicational skills. Modern video games with 3D graphic, intricacy, online playing and continuously updated objectives are sources of appeals that grasp players’ attention and they cannot get their eyes off the screen. Nevertheless, the games themselves do not account for the addiction and bad effects caused to the players. People should play responsibly to get benefits from video games. Time spent on video games should be learning time besides entertaining, not a waste. There should be a balance between playing games and attending outdoor activities. Nonetheless, not all children are able to be aware that playing too much video games is a threat. They incline to keeping playing because they find games fascinating. In such situations, in lieu of thwarting their kids from playing games, parents should control and give them directions. Besides, using video games in education should be encouraged more. Educators, especially teachers, should have an open-minded attitude towards this concept. Family and school should collaborate to help children yield the most out of video games. Games producers are too involved in making educational products. References ABC News. (2011, December 26). 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Journal of Adolescent Health, 29 Mayo Clinic staff. (2011, April 2). Children and TV: Limiting your childs screen time. Retrieved from http://www. mayoclinic. com/health/children-and-tv/MY00522 Michael, M. (2005, April 1). A history of home video game consoles.