VIDEO GAME by Newton Paul

Video Games these days have improved from what we knew it to be to what it is now. Recently I was playing Tomb Raider: A Survivor is Born (2013) and my friend who was watching thought it was a movie until I made a silly mistake which killed Lara Croft then the “game over” write-up flooded my TV screen, this unveiled the movie to be a game.

A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word ‘video game’ traditionally referred to a raster display device but more contemporarily, it implies any type of display device that can produce two or three dimensional images. The electronic system(s) used to play video games are known as platforms. Examples of these are Personal Computers (PCs), PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, etc.

The input device primarily used to manipulate video games is called a game controller which ranges from a button and a joystick to a dozen buttons and one or more joysticks which most times provide vibrating feedback to the player . Video games typically use additional means of providing interactivity and information to the player. Audio is almost universal using sound reproduction device such as speakers and headphones.

Janet Murray, a professor in the school of Literature, Media and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology calls video game “Cyber-drama”. That is to say, video game “is a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction and also a medium in which we get to become another person and to act out in another world”.

 

 

 The player has a surrogate in the simulation (game), namely the virtual character or characters he or she controls in the virtual world (e.g., Artyom in Metro Last Light, Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, a Sim family in The Sims, or citizens, soldiers, and buildings in Rise of Nations). Through these character/characters the player acts and interacts within and on the simulation. The player discovers or forms goals within the simulation, goals that the player attributes to his or her surrogate in the world. In order to reach these goals, the player must recognize problems and solve them from within the inside of the simulated world. This essentially means that the player must figure out the rule system (patterns) that constitutes the simulation (the rules that the simulation follows thanks to how it is designed). The player must discover what is possible and impossible (and in what ways) within the simulation in order to solve problems and carry out goals. Achieving these goals constitutes the win state for the player. (Source: ‘Why are video games good for learning?’ by James Paul Gee, page 2)

Although, it is indeed clear that video game has lots of controversies and censorship due to the depiction of graphic violence, sexual themes, advergaming (a form of advertisement in games) consumption of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, propaganda, profanity in some games.
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is responsible for rating software for certain age groups with certain warning. Most video games display their rating on the front side and backside of their packaging.

The three largest producers of and markets for computer and video games (in order) are North America (US and Canada), Japan and the United Kingdom. Other significant markets include Australia, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, France and Italy. Both India and China are considered emerging markets in the video game industry and sales are expected to rise significantly in the coming years. The Irish are the largest per capita consumers of video games.

As of 2009, the Japanese gaming industry was worth $20 billion from console game sales and $2 billion from mobile game sales. The global market for console games has seen an average of 6.9 percent compound annual growth rate and is expected to become a $34.7 billion market in 2012.

Take Heavy Rain as an example. Heavy Rain is a video game developed by Quantic Dream and Published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the Playstation 3. In 2010, the video game was a critical and commercial success; winning multiple ‘Game of the year’ awards and selling over two million copies (and still selling) worldwide. The game is a film noir thriller; the player interacts with the game by performing actions highlighted on screen related to motions on the controller and in some cases performing a series of quick time events during fast-paced action sequences. The player’s decision and actions during the game will affect the narrative. The main characters can be killed, and certain actions may lead to different scenes and endings. (Look forward to my Review on Heavy Rain)

 

 David Cage the Writer and Director of Heavy Rain says the video game cost £16.7million to make, with marketing and distribution added the total spent was £40million. Research tells us that the game generated over £64 million ($100 million) in its first year. Still doubting Video Game is just a waste of time?

 

When a new game is released on Ps3 platforms, sometimes the price range from $59.99(Ps3) which it’s equivalence is about N 9,600 (Nigeria); while shipping plus other charges makes it range from N10,000 to N15,000. Initially, I said its crazy attaching such price tag for a video game disc I can finish in a day or two (depending because there are some really long, difficult games due to puzzles or horror e.g. Dead Space Series) but I got to think of this: ‘How can a game be so detailed that you can choose several responses or gestures, view thoughts on the character’s mind?’ Developers create moves for every possible mistake, quick-time events (method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen prompt), cut-scenes (a sequence in a video game over which the player has only limited or no control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot), including sound mix, dialogue, human motion sequence and so on; still burning it into a Blu-ray Disc which can be played and viewed with an LED screen or in 3D. OMG!!! It’s more than awesome! Although older Discs can be sold from $29.99, the Nigerian markets hardly recognise old (game) CDs as long as the pack is not torn. But the fairly used CDs are sold according to the year of release and sometime the demand. Fairly used Disc in Nigeria ranges from N5,000 to N7,000 while sometimes, swapping makes the whole thing better therefore reducing the price to N2,000 depending on the bargain and dealer. As for the price of the game consoles, they vary according to the memory size of the console (in Gigabyte), now that Ps4 and Xbox 1 are in the market, maybe the prices of other consoles might reduce. But have it in mind that Xbox cost $100 higher than Ps3.

Does it not surprise you how games these days pull more interest compared to movies? They are even rated more than movies because of the dynamic plot, graphic contents, as well as the ability of syncing the controller with the scene. Dead Space 2 made me scared like an abandoned baby due to its realism.

  Game is simply a best way to improve one’s senses and also creative power. Let me share a testimony with you. I was late to church one Sunday, I was mobile that day but I wasn’t quite familiar with the road. On getting to the usual road I knew, it was blocked (due to security reasons) leaving me to do the math on how to connect my way to the other side of the blocked road. Then I remembered my experience in Batman: ‘Arkham City’ which I applied immediately. It was like a film trick for me though, but I realised I solved the puzzle right when I arrived at my church venue. Interesting right?

VIDEO GAMES ARE GOOD FOR LEARNING

Video games are good for learning because, among other reasons, they have the following features:

• They can create an embodied empathy for a complex system.
• They are action-and-goal-directed preparations for, and simulations of, embodied experience”.
• They involve distributed intelligence via the creation of smart tools.
• They create opportunities for cross-functional affiliation.
• They allow meaning to be situated.
• They can be open-ended, allowing for goals and projects that meld the personal and the social.

None of this is to say that video games do these good things all by themselves. It all depends on how they are used and what sort of wider learning systems (activities and relationships) they are made a part of.

I urge you to play video games once in a while, gone are the days of the make-believe like “Video game spoils TV”, “Video games are for small children”. If you are a parent get one for your kid, watch how yours and their thinking abilities grow rapidly. As for me, video game is my greatest source of creativity and all these ‘mad’ concepts you see me pull. Expecting Ps4 console as my birthday gifts if not, some badass Ps3 game CDs would do (LOL).

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Edited by: Ovuson John
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