Video Games Impact On American Culture

The very first ‘Video Game’ was invented by Edward U. Condon in 1940, At first it was a simple game called ‘Nim’. In nim players try to avoid picking up the last match. Thousands of people played it, although the computer won at least 90% of the games. Around ten years later in 1950, a new computer program was created by Claude Shannon for the game of chess. In autumn of 1972 the first gaming console was released by ‘Magnavox’ and they called it the Odyssey. Three years later, the next big gaming console arrived when Sears sold the first ‘Atari Pong.’ This was the beginning of a long partnership between Atari and Sears. This relationship lasted multiple years, and Sears sold several successful games. Multiple years later in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System. This new gaming console dominated the Gaming Industry and grew Nintendo’s Company. Nintendo created several gaming console legends, such as the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advanced, Nintendo Gamecube, Gameboy Advanced SD, and Nintendo DS, all of which made a huge impact on everybody’s childhood from 1985 to 2005. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century Playstation and Xbox also started releasing consoles. They are still to this day making successful Gaming Consoles, and individual games, as well as Xbox and Playstation.

Video game effects are relatively new in modern society. Even though these games are often entertaining, the content of the game has been increasingly more and more violent as technology becomes more prevalent. The popularity of violent video games has caused an increase in controversy. Parents and experts feel that some games are just too violent and they demand the government to regulate the sales of these games. However, violent video games do not cause an increase in aggression, in adolescents. The forceful plan by the government is caused by an exaggeration of the effects of violent video games and this plan are indeed pointless.

Video games have been around since 1958, when physicist William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two to entertain guests for the Brookhaven national Laboratory. MIT arguably created the first real and widely known video game in the late 1960s, Spacewar!. Many people think that the first commercially available game is Pong!, this on the other hand, is not true. The first commercially available video game was called Computer Space. It was an arcade game much like Spacewar!, the only difference being that Computer Space used more processing power and new technology, and that it was the first arcade game as well, not available to personal computers or home televisions. The Magnavox Odyssey was the first home console that was available for the general public. It featured a controller much like the one that pong would eventually make, except that its two dials controlled vertical and horizontal, rather than just vertical. The Magnavox Odyssey as a console was eventually a huge failure, leaving tens of thousands unsold. Games continued to be produced for households, with the most noticeable violent game releasing on August 18, 1995. The game was called Mortal Kombat, the game depicted two

Around the middle of the 20th Century man cultures started to grow beyond what they previously were thanks to different mediums (such as television and music) helping to push boundaries; with this came the birth of pop culture. Considering pop culture is a shortened version of popular culture it’s clear that many of the things in pop culture would be short lived. The short lived trends and happenings are labeled as “fads”. Strangely enough, some fads are made to transform and actually become a mainstay in the varying international cultures. One such example might be familiar as it is common in today’s society. This example is, indeed, video games.

“During the 1940s and the 1950s, computers took up entire rooms and were so expensive that only universities and large companies could afford them” (Behring 1). Being as that, computers were too expensive to obtain to be able to create a game, “students Steve Russell and his friends” used their school’s computer to create the “dueling game between two spaceships”, called “Spacewar”. (Behring 1) They game began to be used at other universities that also had computer programs. Ralph Baer who was an engineer, considered using the television to play video games on. Baer then created the first video games for the television in 1967(Behring2). Once the first games were created more games followed. Then what would be known as the gaming industry by a “Nolan Bushnell”, who wanted to use they games for retail. The industry would grow within a short span of time in which the sales declined until evolved games would once again rise sales and future advancements.

Over time, America has evolved both positively and negatively. In fact, our country has changed in more of a negative way than positive. Violent video games and movies are a source of entertainment which includes violence that is causing the American culture to decline. The American culture has become very violent through entertainment.

This video game was actually backed by the department of Energy, and used an oscilloscope (an electric testing device, commonly used to detect brainwaves or cardiac pulses) as the display. The 1960’s gave rise to one of the first widely acceptable titles, “Spacewar!” along with the invention of the light gun. However, when the 1970’s arrived, video games began to take off. In 1971 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin operated version of “Spacewar!” Called “Computer Space.” These two men would later found Atari in 1972. The first game published by Atari was also the first video game to garner media attention, the insanely popular “PONG.” “PONG” was a major turning point in the industry, but it was the Taito Corporation that ushered in the “golden age of arcade games” with “Space Invaders” in 1978. The 1970’s also saw the rise of the first video game consoles, with the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.

How do video games affect the brain of the youth of America? There are actually many more ways than one might think, it affects one’s attitude, attention span, and how one might react when complimented or insulted. Video games have both positive and negative effects on a child's brain. When played to much video games become a bad thing leading to reduced social time or addiction, but in my studies when played about seven hours a week video games are actually beneficial.

The first video game was created by a man named Steve Rusell. He was short, wore glasses, and had curly hair. He made the game in 1962. It took him six months. His game was called “Spacewar.” It was a simple duel between spaceships. The controls were toggle switches. It was a two player game because the computers at that time were too slow to have artificial intelligence, which would’ve allowed the computer to act as a second player. In a later version of the game there was a background of stars. There was also a hyperspace button; a button which made

One of the first video games, Spacewar was made to show the power of the oscilloscope which is a electronic device used to measure signal voltages. Space War was a success. In 1972, Atari was invented and the gaming industry was great until the crash. Companies were putting out terrible games and people stopped buying until the NES which was made in 1985 and gaming returned.

Although there is much debate about what video game was really made first, Spacewar!, made by Steve Russell and first premiered for the public in 1962, is one of the many games people list as the first real video game. Later, in 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney teamed up to create the Atari company, which would produce coin-operated video games such as their first big hit, Pong. Little by little, gaming technology became more complex and in 1972 the Magnavox Odyssey was released by Ralph Baer as a video game console for home use. However, at that time Atari’s video game system had become one of the most successful systems on the American market, until the market crashed in 1983. There was another competitor at this point too, a family owned company called Nintendo, which produced traditional playing cards in Japan before expanding into developing other kinds of toys and video games with the help of Shigeru Miyamoto, who had a bit part in the creation of games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, and the Legend of Zelda. Today, many gaming consoles are made for at home use and are made by multiple companies, including Nintendo, Sony, and

With the video game culture taking over the youth of the nation it’s easy to forget where the beginning of this colossal enterprise started. With the lack of video games in the past the original family games started with classic board games resembling Monopoly and life. These timeless games gave birth to their own culture that allowed players to become immersed in fantasy worlds. This included the creation of games like Dungeons & Dragons which would spawn its own generation of gamers. Recently the popularity in these fantasy, and strategy based games has been growing. The reasons that is drawing groups to participate in an archaic form of gaming is unclear. It’s imperative to understand why this subculture gaining in popularity, and how it’s attracting people with the lure of mages and spells. During my initial visits to my filed location I have observed how the building was laid out, some of the unspoken rules of the community, and how different groups of board gamers frequent the location. Without knowing what to observe first during I decided that I would get a good idea on how the building was laid out.

In November, 1971 the first commercially targeted video game was released in America as an arcade machine called ‘Computer Space’ in which the aim of the game was to fly through 2D space avoiding UFO’s firing upon you and destroying them. The game sold poorly and was notoriously difficult to grasp as it was only played on university campuses.

In this era, video-games play an important role in leisure and entertaining time in every society. PlayStation arrived in 1990s, which was the start of modern videogame age and with the entrance and the development of new technology such as high speed internet, this entertaining segment becomes more and more accessible and favourable among customers. Today gaming affects billions of people around the globe and it will continue to grow. The UK games industry was worth close to £3.5bn in consumer spend in 2013, up 17% from 2012. The forecasted revenue of the industry and the daily time spent playing video games, make this industry a shining star. The forecasted revenue for video game console (1 out of 4 segments in videogame industry) will be 55.05 billion US dollars by 2018 (compared to 37.4 billion USD in 2012) (Anon., 2014)and the daily time spent playing video games per capita in the United States will be 28.3 minutes by 2015 (Anon., 2014). These numbers make this industry more attractive than its other entertaining competitors. In the Video-games Market the final product, “the gaming console” is directly associated with brands, as their content and quality generate a brand image. There are three major brands playing in this ground and no one dares to enter into the market because of the giant size of these brands, these titans are Microsoft (Xbox, ranked 198th in brand finance’s global 500 with a brand value of 6.47 billion USD) (Anon., 2014), Sony (PlayStation, ranked

Herman et all (2002) points out that history of video games begins from 1971 year, when Nutting association released 1500 machines with Spacewar video game. At the beginning it was too difficult to control the game process and playing machines had huge dimensions. But by the time with new technologies they become more compact and easier to play. According to the information given by Herman et all (2002), the period between the years of 1978-1981 is called ‘golden age’ of video game industry. In this period the arcade games ‘Football’ and ‘Space Invaders’ were released. All previously known sale records were broken by these two games with nearly equal wages. In this time interval great breakthroughs in the field of graphics were achieved,