The value of technological invention or innovation is usually determined by the extent to which individuals understand and use innovation. This means that it is important to have an effective and appropriate deployment strategy when dealing with technological inventions or innovations. Examples of key elements used to achieve an effective deployment strategy include marketing, timing, distribution, pricing, and licensing. This paper seeks to answer questions about why companies need to craft an effective deployment strategy in the US video gaming industry.
What factors do you think enabled Sega to break Nintendos near-monopoly of the US video game console market in the late 1980s?
There are numerous factors that explain why Sega managed to break Nintendos near-monopoly in video game industry in the U.S. Nintendos near-monopoly can be linked to the lower prices charged by the company and enactment of very strict policies in licensing. These policies limited the number of titles that a given developer could produce in one year. It also restricted developers from developing similar games. However, Sega broke this monopoly by introducing the 16-bit Genesis video game in the U.S. market which had a higher performance than the 8-bit system. In addition, Sega ensured that all its arcade games were leveraged to the 16-bit Genesis. At the same time, they were compatible with the earlier 8-bit system games. By 1989, Sega had managed to produce 20 Genesis game titles.
Why did Nintendo choose not to make its early video game consoles backward compatible? What were the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy?
The main reason why Nintendo was against its early video game consoles was that the company feared cannibalizing the sales of its 8-bit system. This was also based on the views of the companys developers who assumed that the technological advantages of the the16-bit system were extremely less than that of the 8-bit system. According to them, there was no reason for giving a lot of attention to the 16-bit system. This move turned out to be very advantageous to Sega since it was compelled to increase its sale of consoles to approximately 600,000 in the year 1989 while NES sales were only 200,000. In the following years, both companies increased their individual game titles, and Sega managed to realize more sales than that of the competitor.
Nintendos strategy had both advantages and disadvantages. It is important to note that the advantages of this strategy were less than the disadvantages. In terms of the advantages, the company was only able to maintain its current sale of the 8-bit system. On the other hand, the disadvantages included a reduction in sales of its 16-bit system and reduced customer awareness. By failing to introduce the 16-bit system in the United States, it meant that customers could only purchase the 16-bit system produced by Sega. Consumers became used to Segas 16-bit system to an extent that they did not shift to Nintendos new system even after being introduced to the U.S. market. Nintendo exited the market in the year 1991 because it failed to catch up with Sega. By 1994, Segas performance had greatly increased thereby making the company become the market leader in the United States.
What strengths and weaknesses did Sony have when it entered the video game market in 1995?
Sony had both strengths and weaknesses when it entered the video game market in 1995. One of the strengths was the ability of the company to enter the video game industry by introducing an advanced 32-bit system. The company also invested heavily especially in game development and leveraged its clout with the distributors. A major weakness of the company was its inability to predict new competitors (like Microsoft) who were emerging in the industry.
What strengths and weaknesses did Microsoft have when it entered the video game market in 2001?
Just like Sony, the major strength of Microsoft was its ability to enter the video game with a highly advanced 128-bit system in late 2001. This system was higher than the 32-bit system that had earlier been introduced by Sony in 1995. Other strengths of the company included the availability of advanced machines and equipment and the minimal time spent on games and marketing. It is worth to mention that Microsofts Playstation2 sales were more than one million units. The only weakness of the company was its inability to handle the increasing number of hits on its website.
Comparing the deployment strategies used by the firms in each of the generations, can you identify any timing, licensing, pricing, marketing, or distribution strategies that appear to have influenced firms success and failure in the video game industry?
The different deployment strategies used by companies in all the generations had an effect on the company in terms of both success and failure. For example, Nintendo adopted the use of lower prices and strict licensing policies. This move contributed to the companys success because lower prices helped it to increase the demand for video games. On the other hand, the enactment of strict licensing policies made it difficult for new entrants to gain access to the industry. This meant that Nintendo enjoyed the availability of a ready market until the emergence of competitors such as Sega. When Sega entered the industry, it embarked on extensive advertising in order to increase consumer awareness of its products. In addition, Sega established favorable licensing arrangements. This move attracted several developers who had an interest to develop game titles for the company. The introduction of the 32-bit system by Philips failed to achieve the set objective because the system was quite complex and had unclear technical specifications.
Video games are well-suited for promoting a more extensive product in the sports industry, especially among the younger demographic. For example, Formula 1 uses official F1 games to introduce young fans to the sport (Walker, 2017). This decision is seemingly paying off, as Formula 1 steadily takes the younger audience away from NASCAR (Moriello, 2021). The following project management plan adapted from Verzuh (2021) describes the development stages of a NASCAR video game. The plan attempts to draw the features and gameplay mechanics by replicating the thought process of a potential player.
Initiation
The game would feature three NASCAR divisions: Truck Series, Xfinity Series, and Cup Series. The optimal genre is a combination of a racing simulator and an arcade. Children and teenagers, the core audience, should be able to have fun at an average difficulty level. Finally, the game would be released on PC and consoles, the two main gaming platforms.
Preproduction
The feature list would include several game modes, such as single race, championship, career, and multiplayer. An immersive career mode where a player would be able to create their own team and rise through the ranks to win the Cup championship would be a priority. The gameplay would be neither too realistic nor too simplistic. A top-level car should let players compete for wins even on harder difficulties.
Production
Designers and artists would create immersive, realistic-looking models of tracks and cars. The programmers would make a moderately challenging and aggressive AI that would become brutal only on the hardest difficulty. The list of core mechanics would include stage racing, timely cautions, a semi-realistic damage model, and a rival mechanic when AI drivers would try to retaliate if a player races them too aggressively.
Testing
Before release, the game should be adequately tested and well-optimized for consoles and medium- and high-end PCs. The testers should play the game on all difficulties and race length percentages and examine all career modes. Evaluating AI behavior at various racetracks and circumstances would be a priority.
Release
The marketing campaign would go on for several months before release to the public. At this stage, the game should be well-advertised and ready for release. Bug fixing and patching would continue following the release, according to feedback from the player base.
Post Mortem
At the final stage, the team would assess the feedback and draw a list of potential improvements for the next installment in the series.
Barlett, Christopher, et al. Video Game EffectsConfirmed, Suspected, and Speculative: A Review of the Evidence. Simulation & Gaming, vol. 40, no. 3, 2009, pp. 377-403.
According to Barlett et al., when it comes to discussing the potential effects of playing video games, it is important to understand how they can be properly categorized. The authors suggest that the effects of playing video games can be classified as confirmed, suspected and speculative.
Given the fact that there is indeed a logically sound rationale to such a suggestion, throughout the course of conducting my study, I remained thoroughly observant of the articles classification-related suggestions, in regards to the effects of peoples exposure to video games.
De Lisi, Richard and Jenifer Wolford. Improving Childrens Mental Rotation Accuracy with Computer Game Playing. Journal of Genetic Psychology, vol. 163, no. 3, 2002, pp. 272-282.
In their study, De Lisi and Wolford aimed to test the hypothesis that childrens continual exposure to video games helps them to address mental tasks, associated with the spatial arrangement of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects. After having conducted a number of field experiments over the sampled participants, the authors concluded that, as opposed to what it is being the case with video game non-players, game players appear more effective in tackling these tasks. De Lisi and Wolford succeeded in ensuring the studys methodological soundness, and their conclusions can be referred to as such that represent an objective scientific value.
Gentile, Douglas and Ronald Gentile. Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 37, no. 2, 2008, pp. 127-141.
In their study, Gentile and Gentile strived to identify the possible predictors of childrens violent behavior, in regards to the qualitative subtleties of their exposure to pro-social video games, on the one hand, and to violent video games, on the other.
According to the authors, there is indeed a dialectical link between childrens tendency to exhibit violent attitudes and the strength of their commitment to playing violent video games. Nevertheless, given the fact that Gentile and Gentile addressed the subject matter in question from a clearly behaviorist perspective, their studys conclusions cannot be regarded ideologically neutral.
Golden, Bernard. Healthy Anger: How to Help Children and Teens Manage Their Anger. Oxford UP, 2003.
The foremost thesis of Goldens book can be formulated as follows. In order for children to be able to grow into psychologically stable individuals, they must be provided with an opportunity to learn how to release their anger in a socially appropriate manner.
Golden considers the activity of playing video games as such that is being thoroughly consistent with the basic provisions of the majority of anger management strategies. Given the fact that, throughout the books entirety, Golden succeeded in supporting his line of reasoning logically, this book can be indeed considered as such that contains a number of valuable clues, as to what may account for the beneficial effects of playing video games.
Green, Shawn and Daphne Bavelier. Action Video Game Modified Visual Selective Attention. Nature no. 423, 2003, pp. 534-537.
In their study, Shawn and Bavelier performed the empirical testing of the hypothesis that the activity of playing video games enhances peoples ability to successfully address a variety of different visual tasks. According to the studys empirical findings, this hypothesis can indeed be considered thoroughly legitimate.
As opposed to the studys participants that were required not to play video games for duration of two weeks, the studys partakers that were encouraged to indulge in playing these games for the same period of time, did exhibit a considerable improvement to their ability to cope with the tasks of visual recognition.
Given the fact that, while conducting their study, the authors did succeed in ensuring the methodological appropriateness of the hypothesis-testing; the obtained data can be referred to as being implicationally objective.
Griffith, Jerry, et al. Differences in Eye-Hand Motor Coordination of Video-Game Users and Non-Users. Perception and Motor Skills vol. 57, 1983, pp. 15558.
In his study, Griffith wanted to test the validity of the hypothesis that video game-players have better hand-eye coordination, as compared to their non-playing peers. After having evaluated the sampled participants (31 game-players and 31 non-players) motor skills, Griffith confirmed the legitimacy of the studys initial hypothesis.
Because Griffiths study does not contain any speculative statements, while being methodologically sound, there can be very little doubt as to the fact that it does contain a number of discursively relevant analytical insights.
Levin, Diane and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. Marketing Violence: The Special Toll on Young Children of Color. The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 72, no. 4, 2003, pp. 427-437.
In their article, Levin and Carlsson-Paige argued that one of the reasons why American society is becoming ever more violent is that, ever since their early years, Americans (especially the people of color) never cease being exposed to graphically portrayed media-violence. In particular, both authors emphasize the socially dangerous effects of playing video games with a violent content.
Nevertheless, even though Levin and Carlsson-Paiges article does contain a number of valuable observations, relevant to our studys subject matter, the overall line of argumentation, deployed throughout the articles entirety, does not stand much ground, due to its an essentially speculative nature. The fact that, in their article both authors had made a point in utilizing a pretentiously sophisticate politically correct terminology, undermines the extent of their discursive argumentations credibility even further.
Michael, David and Sandra Chen. Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Course Technology, 2005.
In their book, Michael and Chen strived to promote the idea that, whereas, playing pro-social video games can indeed be considered thoroughly beneficial to the concerned individuals psychological well-being, the same cannot be said about the activity of playing violent video games.
Even though that both authors did succeed in presenting their line of argumentation in a thoroughly analytical manner, they nevertheless failed at understanding the simple fact that people are being primarily motivated to play video games for entertainment-related purposes and not for the purpose of becoming more educated.
Walker, Jesse. Birth of a Medium. Reason, vol. 35, no. 3, 2003, p. 57.
In his article, Walker aimed to expose the growing popularity of video games as such that has been predetermined by the very laws of history. Therefore, according to the author, it is specifically the lessened extent of some peoples intellectual advancement, which causes them to adopt a strongly defined negative attitude towards the activity of playing video games.
The Walker articles foremost feature is the fact that, along with being thoroughly analytical, this article also represents a high rhetorical value. Moreover, the reading of Walkers article reveals what may account for the discursive significance of video games in the future. This is the reason why I think this particular article should be recommended for reading by just about anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the video games phenomenological essence.
Williams, Dmitri, et al. Can you hear me now? The impact of voice in an online gaming community. Human Communication Research, vol. 33, no. 4, 2007, pp. 427-449.
In their article, Williams et al. argued that peoples exposure to video games does teach them how to socialize. The authors explore the validity of this suggestion in regards to the fact that, as of today, the overwhelming majority of modern video games allow players to use voice, while communicating with each other.
In its turn, this naturally causes players to strengthen the integrity of their communicational skills. Given the fact that, while presenting readers with their line of argumentation, in this respect, William et al. had referred to a number of discursively relevant academic studies, their articles conclusions can be considered scientifically legitimate.
Works Cited
Barlett, Christopher, et al. Video Game EffectsConfirmed, Suspected, and Speculative: A Review of the Evidence. Simulation & Gaming, vol. 40, no. 3, 2009, pp. 377-403.
De Lisi, Richard and Jenifer Wolford. Improving Childrens Mental Rotation Accuracy with Computer Game Playing. Journal of Genetic Psychology, vol. 163, no. 3, 2002, pp. 272-282.
Gentile, Douglas and Ronald Gentile. Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 37, no. 2, 2008, pp. 127-141.
Golden, Bernard. Healthy Anger: How to Help Children and Teens Manage Their Anger. Oxford UP, 2003.
Green, Shawn and Daphne Bavelier. Action Video Game Modified Visual Selective Attention. Nature no. 423, 2003, pp. 534-537.
Griffith, Jerry, et al. Differences in Eye-Hand Motor Coordination of Video-Game Users and Non-Users. Perception and Motor Skills vol. 57, 1983, pp. 15558.
Levin, Diane and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. Marketing Violence: The Special Toll on Young Children of Color. The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 72, no. 4, 2003, pp. 427-437.
Michael, David and Sandra Chen. Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Course Technology, 2005.
Walker, Jesse. Birth of a Medium. Reason, vol. 35, no. 3, 2003, p. 57.
Williams, Dmitri, et al. Can you hear me now? The impact of voice in an online gaming community. Human Communication Research, vol. 33, no. 4, 2007, pp. 427-449.
FIFA 10, also known as FIFA Soccer 10, was developed by Electronic Arts (EA) Canada and released by EA worldwide in different regions of the world from 2nd October. This is the 17th label in the EA FIFA series of soccer game series and is available for PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendos Wii. Portable editions were also released for the iPhone, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable (PSP), and mobile phones. FIFA 10 is an improvement of its predecessor, FIFA 09, and gives the players a new level of game control through enhanced gameplay responsiveness, individual team settings, pre-match scouting news, advanced goalkeeping tactics, and a new Russian league. Upon its release, FIFA 10 was given high approval ratings by various game review agencies such as Metacritic, GameRankings, and IGN UK, it even ranked higher than its closest competitor, Konami Pro-Evolution Soccer 2010 (Konami PES 2010). The game features 31 leagues with more than 500 teams.
Discussion
FIFA 10 addressed numerous issues and criticisms that had arisen in its previous versions, some of the features unique to this title are discussed below.
Gameplay
FIFA 10 features a more complex ball control and improved physical interactions among players; it offers gamers a 360-degree control and this was its major giving (Bramwell, para. 3). A gamer can make runs, shots, and passes precisely; greater ball control is partly due to the improved ball physics. A new feature, the Total Football Experience was added to this edition and allows players to access football news from all the clubs participating in a tournament or league. A player can use an Assistant Manager to prepare his team for upcoming matches, for example, if the next match pits the team against a strong opponent, he will choose the most outstanding players. Pre-season friendlies have been added to some versions of this edition and give the manager a chance to prepare the team for the upcoming league season.
When a player chooses to simulate a game, the results are based on the teams strengths unlike in earlier editions where the scores were randomly assigned. Many improvements were made in the gameplay regarding minor offenses, for example, unintended handballs and players making tackles after the ball has been released can go unpunished. This was not possible in FIFA 09. Besides, the referee may play an advantage in case of these fouls and the game is only halted when a player is seriously hurt. Quick free kicks are also a feature of FIFA 10. Other game modes include Be a Pro and Virtual Pro, other worthy features include the Player Experience and Growth System and Live Season. Generally, FIFA 10 is easier to play and more enjoyable than the earlier editions due to these additional gameplay options.
Realism
FIFA 10 scores highly in its attempt to make the gameplay close to the real action. The main one is the ability of a player to dribble in a 360-degree manner unlike in earlier titles where the players were limited to an eight-point axis that limited their ability to move in any direction. Ball physics have been enhanced, loop and through balls can be played very precisely as the ball moves as expected, passes and spin shots too are accurate (Leyton, 2009, para. 4). Player capabilities have been minimized to acceptable levels, for example, in previous editions, a tall player, such as Peter Crouch, who struck a header in the box score, or a top-notch striker scored in most cases where he was on a one-to-one with the keeper. FIFA 10 developers understood that not all headers by tall players will go in as the player may be under pressure and may head wide or the keeper might block it. The top-notch striker might also encounter a good keeper or fail to gain proper control of the ball, thus failing to score. Long-range or last-minute goals are also rare (Yin-Poole, 2009, para. 4).
Another realism feature is the visuals, the likenesses of the players, stadia, and spectators are very strong albeit with a few mistakes as in the case of Luka Modrich. Player movements too are very swift and devoid of jerky movements as in PES 10, there is a slight delay when a player turns due to practical momentum that comes into play. Ball passing is also real as the ball makes contact with the player, when playing previous FIFA editions and PES 10, it is common to see a player pass the ball at an impossible angle (Bramwell, 2010. para. 7).
FIFA 10 has a highly refined audio system, for example, the drumming by the spectators is heard and commentary is rarely repeated. However, on the flipside, there is a lack of reaction to closely missed chances or when the referee books a player.
Flaws in FIFA 10
Despite the many praises heaped upon this game, it suffers some weaknesses. It is common to see a player like Rooney, with his low center of gravity and great stamina, easily pushed off the ball by a lean right back, or a big-bodied player tackles a small striker such as Arshavin viciously but the referee does not intervene. FIFA 10 performs poorly on close-up details of players, as there is little facial detail (Squiddo, 2010, para. 10). A lack of consistency is evident in the various versions of this game as FIFA 10 played on a PC lacks the realism that is exhibited when the game is played on XBOX 360 and PS3 (Ahearn, 2009, para. 8). The lack of reaction by the spectators on crucial decisions is also a shortcoming. However, these are minor details and one is bound to enjoy the game on any platform.
Conclusion
EA Canada did excellent work in the development of this game by perfecting the procedure laid down when the game first came out and as a result, this is one of the most enjoyable games on any platform. The improvements might seem little on this paper but on the console, it is a different experience altogether; the minute improvements work together to produce a beautiful game experience that is bound to engage the gamer for one-to-many hours. The numerous modes enable the gamer to approach FIFA 10 from many different perspectives, besides, the addition of more leagues to this latest edition means there is more to be played. As game lovers enjoy FIFA 10, they can only ask themselves whether EA Sports will keep up to its standards in the forthcoming titles. Improving on the current version is going to be a great challenge.
The complex development of video games and their entry into the market for ordinary consumers began in the 1970s. However, even before the 1970s, the first developments of the simplest and most well-known games appeared. The first mention of the creation of such games dates back to the 1940s, but it was in 1952 that Alexander Shafto Sandy Douglas officially presented his dissertation at the University of Cambridge. The application to the dissertation was the game OXO or tic-tac-toe, but after a successful defense, the game never got on sale.
Five years later, William Willy Higinbotham, in New York, demonstrated his brainchild called Tennis for Two. The explosion was less than ten years away, but in 1962 Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created the first game that multiple computers could play (History.com Editors, 2019). This game was called Spacewar! and was based on the principle of space combat. University workers and students could only play this game since it could only run on the large, complex computers that universities usually purchased.
In the second half of the 1960s, Ralph Baer created a console prototype called the Brown Box, which ultimately turned the still barely-born video game industry. For the first time, this prototype made it possible to think that video games could be at home and not require a purposeful trip to the club, bowling, or karaoke from the players. Baer decided to sell the prototype to Magnavox, which sold the system under a different, more resounding name, Odyssey. In 1972, Odyssey became incredibly popular, although it had the most uncomplicated graphics and even required overlays on the TV to play.
In the same year, Atari, led by Nolan Bushnell, created the Pong game, which gained popularity among the players and became the foundation for subsequent successful products. It is how the Atari 2600 system was born in 1977, allowing players to change many cartridges and not worry about monotony. Magnavox Odyssey was compatible with cartridges but did not store any game program on them; the console determined a set of games (28 pieces). In the meantime, things were not rosy, and in parallel with successful creations, some developers had no problem riveting low-quality games (The Gamer, 2021, 06:13-08:29). In addition, the number of consoles offered to customers gradually increased. Cartridges came to consumers in large quantities and obviously contained fragility and limited use.
By the end of the 1970s, the Japanese Pak Man entered the US market and made a splash among the players. Japan introduced the first developments of Nintendo, and the fans learned about the Nintendo Donkey Kong. The arrival of Nintendo in the US market was not easy, as, in 1983, researchers stated total satiety with consoles. There was no standard algorithm by which they could work, which created difficulties in use. A vast number of different consoles complicated the joint games. Often people, without an agreement, bought other consoles and only then realized that the games offered by the program did not fit with those of their friends. In 1985, the world saw the NES: Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom). The system was assembled to a much higher quality than anything on the market, and the developers used 8-bit graphics, making the games brighter and more colorful (Wirtz, 2020). Subsequently, Nintendo made it their philosophy to produce fewer games but deliver high quality to rival competitors.
Cartridges kept their niche, but for collectors and avid gamers, there was a difficult question about their storage. Nintendo even offered a promotion when buying cartridges as a gift with an empty cardboard box. In 1989, the popularity of cartridges allowed Nintendo to release several essential games: Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. Considering its popularity and authority, Nintendo began to deal with the low quality of games (Tyson, 202). Low-quality games continued to flood store shelves and became the leading cause of inappropriate cartridge usage.
8- and 16-bit Consoles
Nintendo was one of the most recognized companies that led the 8- and 16-bit era. One of the most popular consoles that impacted the game industry was the Gameboy and Nintendo 64. Players around the world could take their games anywhere and play them to their hearts content. Game Boy sold over 120 million units around the world. The man who invented the Gameboy was Gunpei Yokoi, which also created the Metroid video game series. He got the idea of a portable gaming system after watching a businessman playing with his calculator. He worked with the Nintendo research and development team to refine his idea. Even though there were electronic handheld games before the game boy, they werent as popular due to the rudimentary design and limited choice. The Gameboy was first released in April 1989, in Japan. After three months, it was released in the United States. When the game boy was first introduced, Tetris was added to the Gameboy due to the success that it has in arcades and home computers.
Nintendo later added Tetris as one of the games that were sold with the Game Boy system. Due to this, Tetris became one of the most popular video games ever, which led to 35 million units sold. There were other games that were also popular on the Gameboy, including Legend of Zelda, Kirby Dream Land, and Super Mario Land. Even though Nintendo was very successful, it was surpassed by Sega Consoles. One of the most popular games that was developed by Sega was Sonic. Sea developed the first CD-quality game soundtracks, which changed everything about the gaming industry. The 16-bit era was able to allow developers to tell stories of greater complexity and resonance. Which later led to the creation of the Sega Genesis. Sega Genesis was released in order to compete against the aging 8-bit Nintendo Systems. The Sega Genesis became super popular when Sega Breakthrough hit video game called; Sonic the Hedgehog gained worldwide momentum. Because of this breakthrough, Nintendo saw this as a threat, and later developed a system called Super Nintendo in order to compete against Sega consoles. This Console war between Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis led to the 8- and 16-bit era during the 1990s. Both gaming systems advanced the gaming industry and led to the development 32- and 64-bit consoles later in the 2000s.
3D to Modern Consoles
In the early 90s, Nintendo and Sony collaborated on a project to produce CD-ROMs for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. CD-ROMs were an alternative storage type that were cheaper to produce and were capable of holding up to 650 MB of data. This new project that was eventually scrapped would have allowed the SNES to read both cartridges and CD-ROMs that would be used to store games. Following this failure, Sony decided to produce its own console, the Sony PlayStation, also known as the PSone. The Sony PlayStation was released in Japan in December 1994 and released in America in September 1995. The PlayStation was a 32-bit console that used CDs instead of cartridges. 32 bit consoles were able to hold more memory which allowed the consoles to run faster and would allow games to make the jump to full three-dimensional polygon graphics rather than 2.5D polygon graphics that was used prior to allowing games to feel as if they were 3D. Utilizing the larger storage capabilities that CD-ROMs provided, game developers could create more complex games that were longer than games released in the past and could add cinematics to enhance the gaming experience. Some of the most famous games that helped make the PlayStation a success is Square Enixs Final Fantasy VII , Capcoms Resident Evil and Naughty Dogs Crash Bandicoot . Sonys PlayStation would mark the beginning of what is known as the fifth generation of video game consoles.
Following the release of the Sony PlayStation, the next fifth-generation gaming console would be created by Nintendo, who released their response to the PlayStation in the form of the Nintendo 64, a cartridge-based system in Japan in June 1996 and released in America in September 1996. The Nintendo 64 was the successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which had a 64-bit CPU capable of new levels of three-dimensional polygon graphics. Nintendo chose to utilize cartridges instead of CDs which were quickly becoming the standard in the industry due to the advantages ROM cartridges had over CDs, which were that ROM cartridges had faster load times when compared to games on CD and because cartridges were more successful in preventing piracy. Both the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation marked the beginning of the shift to analog-style controllers that remains the standard today. Analog-style controllers utilized analog sticks as an input devices for a controller that would allow for more movement capabilities beyond the traditional standard of up , down , left , and right that were provided on a directional pad or d-pad. The Nintendo 64 controller was also the first controller to utilize force feedback vibration in the Rumble Pak accessory that was released alongside Star Fox 64 in 1994. Force Feedback Vibration was a feature that caused the control to vibrate in response to actions that occurred in the game if the game supported the feature. This feature would become a built-in feature to controllers that would be released in the future. Some of the bestselling games of Nintendo 64 that are among the most iconic games in history are Super Mario 64 , and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time .
Prior to the release of the Nintendo 64, another fifth-generation console was released called the Sega Saturn. Released in November 1994 in Japan and May 1995 in North America, the Sega Saturn was the successor to the Sega Genesis. The Sega Saturn was intended to compete with the Sony PlayStation and utilized a newer CPU, Video Display Processor, and CD-ROM drive to handle the requirements of three-dimensional games. Unfortunately, while the Sega Saturn was initially a success in Japan due to the popularity of the Virtua Fighter series and Panzer Dragoon series, a surprise release four months early in North America failed to match the sales in Japan. The console was also regarded as a complex system to develop for and as a result, had limited third-party support. This factor and the release of the Nintendo 64 caused the Sega Saturn to be regarded as a failure and was discontinued in 1998.
Four years later, Sega would release another console that would mark the beginning of the sixth generation of video game consoles. The Sega Dreamcast was the successor to the Sega Saturn and was released in November 1998 in Japan and in September 1999 in North America. The console was designed with the intent to reduce production costs and utilized common parts such as the Hitachi SH-4 CPU and the NEC PowerVR2 GPU and was advertised as the first 128-bit console. This decision would lead to the consoles failure as the components were less powerful than the components used by competitors and game developers had little to no experience with the hardware, which made it hard to develop games. After a disappointing release in Japan, hopes of a successful North American release were dashed when Entertainment Arts, the largest third-party game publisher, declared that they would not develop games for the Dreamcast. Sega collaborated with many different companies in order to make the North American release a success and this effort, alongside games like Sonic Adventure and Soulcalibur would lead to what was known at the time as the largest sales record with 225 thousand units sold in the first 24 hours of release. However, this could not help the Dreamcast overtake the PlayStation and its successor, the PlayStation 2, leading to the Dreamcast to be discontinued in 2001 and for Sega to withdraw as a console developer and restructure as a third-party publisher. Even though Dreamcast was a failure, it did change the gaming industry as it was the first console to include a built-in modem for internet access and online play.
In the year 2000, Sony released their successor to the PlayStation and a sixth-generation console of their own in the form of the PlayStation 2 or PS2. The PlayStation 2 was released in March 2000 in Japan and October 2000 in North America. The 128-bit console utilized a custom-designed CPU created by Sony and Toshiba and a cushion-designed GPU capable of rendering 75 million polygons per second. Games for the PS2 were stored on DVD-ROMs rather than the CD-ROMs games were stored on for the PSone. The PS2 was backwards compatible with PSOne controllers and games and was capable of playing DVDs and CDs. These built-in features allowed the console to be used as more than just a gaming device, expanding the consoles audience to more than just gamers as DVD players at the time were known to cost more than a PS2. Due to these features and the games released on the PS2, the console was a massive success, becoming the best-selling console of all time, a feat that remains in 2022 with over 125 million units sold. Some of the games that contributed to the PS2s success are Gran Turismo and Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas .
The next sixth-generation console to be released was the Nintendo GameCube. The Nintendo GameCube was the 128-bit successor to the Nintendo 64 and was released in September 2001 in Japan and in November 2001 in North America. This system was the first Nintendo-released system to use discs rather than cartridges. GameCube games were stored on MiniDV-style discs that were capable of storing up to 1.5 GB of data. Save data was saved onto Memory Cards that could be plugged into the two memory card ports on the console. The system had a mixed reception as while it was praised for its controller and games, it lacked the multimedia features like DVD and CD playback present in its competitors that made its competitors be seen as better options for home entertainment devices. Some of the games found on the GameCube are Super Mario Sunshine , Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Kart: Double Dash . The console also had limited support for online gaming and was capable of connecting to a Game Boy Advance through the use of a link cable.
Microsoft would join Nintendo and Sony as First Party console developers with the release of the Xbox. The Xbox was Microsofts first console, released in November 2001 in North America and February 2002 in Japan. Witnessing the success of the PS2, Microsoft feared that the PS2 would overtake the personal computer as an entertainment device and so created the Xbox. The Xbox was built around standard computer computers such as a custom Microsoft Windows and DirectX operating system and a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III processor. Like its rival the Sony PS2, the Xbox had the ability to playback CD-ROMs and DVDs. It also was the first console with a built-in hard drive. The Xbox had direct support for broadband with an integrated Ethernet port. Microsoft would change the gaming industry a year after the launch of the Xbox with the release of Xbox Live. Xbox Live was a fee-based service that allowed real time online gaming. Xbox had a massively successful launch in North America with over 1.5 million units sold thanks to its launch title Halo: Combat Evolved , one of the most iconic and impactful games in the gaming industry. While the Xbox was a massive success in North America, it did not sell well in Japan and due to its expensive manufacturer costs, Microsoft lost over $4 billion during the consoles lifespan.
The Seventh generation of video game consoles began with the release of Microsofts Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 was the successor to the Xbox that was released in November 2005 in North America and December 2005 in Japan. Using the Xbox 360, Microsoft expanded Xbox Live and supported it with constant updates. Xbox Live now has a free and subscription-based service that allows users to play games online with others and download and purchase games, music, videos, free game demos and media streaming services. The Xbox 360 included wireless controllers that were powered by AA batteries and Microsoft would eventually release the Kinect motion-sensing camera, a device that contained RGB cameras, microphones, infrared projectors, and detectors that had real-time gesture recognition that allowed players to control the system and input action with body movements and voice commands. The Xbox 360 was also capable of HD video and had built-in HDMI output. Some top-selling games on the Xbox 360 were Halo 3 and Gears of War .
Following the release of the Xbox 360, Sony would release their successor to the PS2 in the form of the PlayStation 3 or PS3. Released in November 2006 in Japan and North America, the PS3 was the first console to use Blu-Ray discs to hold games and was the first PlayStation system to use the PlayStation Network, Sonys response to Xbox Live. The system was also the first console to be controllable through remote connectivity with the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation Vita. Initial consoles came with built-in backward compatibility, though the feature was removed in later models. The PlayStation 3 had built-in Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi networking and was capable of 1080p HD. Similar to the Xbox Kinect, Sony would release their attempt at motion control with the PlayStation Move. The PlayStation Move was a motion controller shaped like a wand that used inertial sensors to detect motion while the controllers position was tracked with a PlayStation Camera. Top-selling games on the PS3 were Naughty Dogs The Last of Us and Rockstars Grand Theft Auto V .
The last seventh-generation system to release was the Nintendo Wii. The Wii was the successor to the Nintendo GameCube and was released in November 2006 in North America and December 2006 in Japan. Nintendo decided to avoid competing with the Xbox and PS3 and chose to focus instead on targeting a broader player base through a unique feature. The Nintendo Wii was the first console to utilize motion controls, with the Nintendo Wii mote as the main control option. With traditional controls and motion sensing, the wireless Wii mote could be pointed at a sensor above or below a television that would track the Wii motes movement and gestures and translate those gestures as input. This new control type was a factor in the Wiis success and would later be an inspiration for Microsoft and Sony to create their motion-sensing technology. The Wii was the first Nintendo Console to have built-in Internet support and a digital marketplace, the Wii Shop Channel, where games and media applications could be purchased and downloaded onto the console or onto a SD card. Thanks to the backward compatibility function, GameCube games and controllers could be played on the Wii. The Wii was the bestselling seventh-generation console and helped Nintendo return to its place as one of the top gaming companies. Some of the bestselling Wii games were Wii Sports , Mario Kart Wii and Super Mario Galaxy .
The Eighth generation of video game consoles began with the release of the Wii U. Released in November 2012 in North America and in December 2012, the Wii U was the successor to the Nintendo Wii. Intended as an update to the Nintendo Wii, the Wii U was the first Nintendo console to support HD graphics and was backward compatible with all Wii games and accessories. Nintendo continued its trend of releasing unique features for their consoles with the primary controller called the Wii U Gamepad. The Wii U Gamepad had a built-in touchscreen, camera, microphone, 6-inch display, and traditional controls and could be used as an alternative display or as a second screen to support certain functions in certain games. The Wii U was not a success and had limited games and third-party support. Some of the top-selling games on the system were Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U .
Sonys eighth generation console was the PlayStation 4 or the PS4. The PS4 was the successor to the PlayStation 3 and was released in November 2013 in North America and February 2014 in Japan. Using an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit that was a combination of an AMD64 CPU and GPU, the PS4 was capable of supporting HDR10 video and 4K resolution. With its new DualShock 4 controller, featuring an integrated touchscreen that functioned as an additional button, a headphone jack, motion sensors, and upgraded analog sticks and buttons, games were able to be controlled in new ways. The PS4 also featured an improved Remote Play function that could allow PS4 games to be streamed and played on a PlayStation Vita or PC as well as the ability to stream games online to viewers or to a friend who could control the game as if they were sitting beside the player through the use of Share Play. The PS4 was also a given cloud streaming late into its lifespan. Cloud Streaming allows for games to be played from the cloud, a remote server controlled by the console creators, that does not need to be downloaded and can be played on your console. The PS4 was a massive success and is the second bestselling home game console of all time, second only to the PlayStation 2. Some of the top-selling games that helped achieve this are Naughty Dogs Uncharted 4 and Insomniacs Spider-Man . In November 2020, Sony released their successor to the PS4, the PlayStation 5. The console features a custom solid-state drive and an AMD GPU capable of 4k resolution at 120 frames per second with real-time ray tracing. Its redesigned controller, called the Dual Sense is more ergonomic than the DualShock 4 and has a haptic feedback feature. The console is backward compatible with the PS4 and its cloud streaming service PSNOW.
Microsofts eighth generation console was the Xbox One, released in November 2013. The Xbox One was the successor to the Xbox 360, which similarly to the PS4 uses an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit. The Xbox One was capable of HDR10 and 4K video playback and could play Blu-Ray discs and overlay live television. Its controller was a redesigned Xbox 360 controller with updated controls and directional haptic feedback in the triggers. A few years after release, backward compatibility with Xbox 360 titles was added to the console as well as backward compatibility with the original Xbox. Microsoft also released Xbox Game Pass, a video game subscription service that would allow users to download games from a catalog of hundreds of games or stream those games through cloud streaming. Top-selling games on the Xbox One are Halo 5: Guardians and CD Projekt Reds The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt . In November 2020, Microsoft released their currently supported consoles, the Xbox Series X/S. The Series X is capable of up to 8K resolution with real-time ray tracing and features a solid-state drive for the first time in an Xbox console. The Series S was a lower-end model of the Series X, that had a less powerful GPU and did not have a disc drive for physical games. Both consoles are backward compatible with Xbox One and Xbox Game Pass.
Handheld and Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming is a staple of the modern entertainment industry and currently holds the majority share of global annual revenue in the gaming marketplace. However, the subgenres overwhelming success has only occurred relatively recently (within the past decade); mobile gaming has been around in some form for decades.
The first recorded example of a video game being used on a cell phone dates back to 1993, when the tech company Siemens managed to run Tetris on a mobile phone. However, because a patent on mobile phone games already existed at the time, the company did not want to risk a lawsuit and convinced the concept of mobile games as a whole was an unprofitable endeavor, elected not to pursue the concept any further. In the same year, IBM released the IBM Simon phone, which included an app with a puzzle game called Scramble . Towards the end of the year, another phone called the Hagenuk MT-2000 would launch with Tetris installed on it.
These early forays into the industry were largely isolated in that it would not be until the early 2000s that advancements in technologies allowed for more sophisticated games and purpose-built devices for mobile gaming to permeate the market. Mobile consoles such as the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS were very popular in the early-to-mid-2000s. Cell phone games did exist during this era, but purpose-built mobile gaming consoles dominated the mobile gaming market throughout the course of the early 2000s.
During this time, the gaming industry as a whole was experiencing a period of rapid technological progress. Indeed, the entire genre of mobile gaming is largely a byproduct of the considerable advancements made in computing technologies during the 90s and 2000s. Such advancements allowed for higher-resolution displays, 3d graphics, longer-lasting batteries, and more complex in-game physics engines. Later, such advancements would also allow for onboard storage of game data and, eventually, the storage of entire games without the need for an external cartridge.
Circling back to cell phones, we see in the late 2000s the advent of the Apple iPhone and the release of the iOS operating system in 2007. This represented a major paradigm shift in the cell phone industry and ushered in the modern age of smartphones. With smartphones came thousands of mobile game apps and an explosion of the mobile gaming market prevalence. Touchscreen technology, solid-state drives, and an ever-expanding wireless internet network were at the forefront of these advances.
A consequence of the advent of smartphone mobile gaming was the decline of traditional mobile console gaming, as the popular perception was that such devices were rendered redundant by the versatility afforded by mobile phones.
The earliest smartphone games were diverse and included popular titles such as Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and Temple Run. Many were ported directly from older mobile console counterparts, such as the Nintendo DS. Contemporary smartphone games almost always have a multiplayer component and tend to focus on the accumulation of in-game resources. Monetization is a contentious topic in modern mobile gaming, and the subgenre gacha game is used to denote titles in which predatory business practices are used to entice the player into spending large amounts of money on a particular title.
Summary
The tremendous changes in the digital gaming market in the second half of the 20th century marked the beginning of a new round in the entertainment industry. They gave rise to the development of new and advanced consoles, portable set-top boxes, and other gaming tools. The transition from the simplest tools with primitive games to advanced consoles with a large volume of memory and realistic graphics took several decades, during which technology was continuously being improved. The emergence of the Japanese company Nintendo in the US market can be considered a breakthrough when gaming content began to have a higher resolution and offered users a wider range of games. 8-bit and 16-bit consoles are considered classics of the gaming industry today because, with their help, the world learned about such massive games as Super Mario Land or Legend of Zelda.
In the late 1990s-early 2000s, the gaming market was transformed once again when CDs replaced cartridges. Games received even higher resolution, and new devices for playing digital content appeared. So far, the competition between Sony and Xbox continues, which indicates the great attention of developers to the interests of gamers and significant funds invested in innovation in this area. The constant updating of the game base with new products has led to the fact that movements in support of specific games have appeared, and millions of fans worldwide have become involved. The final round in developing this area was optimizing the worlds favorite games on mobile devices. The adaptation of beloved projects to the iOS operating system has kept the target markets interest in gaming, and the multiplayer option has expanded the understanding of mobile games, influencing the industry significantly.
References
History.com Editors. (2019). Video game history. HISTORY; A&E Television Networks.
Video game streaming is a comparably new business sector that only starts developing, and careers of streamers are discussed and studied today as an innovative trend in the context of eSports. From this point, the career of a professional streamer is a developing business phenomenon that requires its detailed examination because of the increased interest of partners and viewers in this sphere. The main platform where professional streamers can broadcast their experience in playing online is Twitch.tv that was founded in 2011 by Emmett Shear (Hollist 829). Today, the platform has the monthly flow of visitors in more than 30 million people (Edge 1). The rise of similar platforms for streaming online game playing or tournaments during the recent years indicated the development of the new type of the Internet entertainment industry that guarantees profits not only for platform owners but also to professional players in the sphere of eSports who began to develop the career of streamers (Hollist 829). The most popular streamers are those ones who succeeded in developing the career at Twitch.tv, playing League of Legends. From this point, in spite of the fact that the Twitch.tv platform can be viewed as belonging to the live-streaming industry, the careers of streamers develop according to the traditional principles of the entertainment business.
The potential of Twitch.tv as the live-streaming platform is significant for people seeking job opportunities and having the experience of playing the online games or participating in game tournaments. The most attractive feature of this career is a possibility to do the job that is pleasant and usually discussed as a hobby. Observers note that professional players in League of Legends and similar games presented at Twitch.tv choose this platform in order to stream their online playing and receive monetary benefits (Aaron par. 2). On the one hand, people discuss the career of a streamer as the perfect opportunity to earn with few efforts. On the other hand, the building of the career of a League of Legends streamer at Twitch.tv is a rather challenging task as a development of any other professional career. The challenges include addressing Twitch.tv requirements to become a partner; the development of a strategy for gaining the revenue from such sources as advertisements, the subscription program, and viewers donations; and the improvement of the professional level of a player (Aaron par. 3-4; Hollist 829).
In addition, there is a necessity to attract viewers, support the popularity, and focus on developing the nickname as the brand, as well as gaining of the customer loyalty to increase the potential for donations (Aaron par. 3-4). In his work, Edge notes that streaming platforms like Twitch TV have created a new interactive Internet exclusive marketplace that does not require traditional broadcasting methods (1). As a result, there are many unique opportunities to gain from this type of business. From this perspective, a streamer can succeed when all these conditions of the live-streaming and eSports business are addressed.
In order to develop a career of a League of Legends streamer at Twitch.tv, a person needs to become a partner to allow Twitch.tv to set advertisements in the streamers canal and attract sponsors. Twitch.tv partnership program is the main source of developing the career in this sphere. A player needs to have more than 500 of views at his canal and broadcast during a week regularly (Aaron par. 5). The focus is on attracting concurrent viewers. This factor is important to decide about locating the advertisements at the streamers channel. When thousands of viewers watch the streamer playing online regularly, there is a potential for gaining monetary benefits. The practice of playing one or two advertisements during a playing session is usual for streamers to earn when they broadcast, and streamers usually receive $3-4 for each advertisement played to 1,000 viewers in an hour. Subscriptions are effective sources of income and motivating factors to improve the strategy for new streamers because each subscription of a viewer guarantees a streamer about $2.5 a month (Aaron par. 6). Donations are also not rare practices if professional streamers have the good reputation and recognition among the audience (Hope 89; Lee and Schoenstedt 40). Sponsorships as the source of revenues are also available to the most popular professional streamers.
Streamers who are professionals in League of Legends can play as individuals or as team members, and their earnings differ depending on the type of streaming. According to Hope, those streamers who develop the career of team players has the higher potential to gain more benefits because of sponsorships. The researcher states that many of these professional teams are already beginning to be sponsored by big brand companies from everyday life. One such company, believe it or not, is Pringles (Hope 88). Researchers and professional streamers estimated that it is possible to earn the comparable income only when the number of regular viewers is more than 4,500-5,000 people (Aaron par. 6; Hope 88). Therefore, revenues can be discussed as dependent on the success of a streamer in making its broadcasts attractive to a large number of viewers.
From this point, it is important to pay attention the fact that the main barrier to starting the successful full-time career of a League of Legends streamer and gain profits is the attraction of the large audience who will become the regular viewers and even fans who will donate to the preferred streamer. In this context, the industry justifies its discussion as the eSports because the main focus is on qualities of online players that are similar to sportsmens attributes: the high-quality play, speed, and strategy (Lee and Schoenstedt 40; Quiring 3). Nevertheless, in the case of live-streaming, much attention is paid to the creativity and ability to entertain the audience in order to motivate viewers to watch the playing one more time. According to Hope, it is not unusual for some streamers of a game called League of Legends to have over 30,000 concurrent viewers at any one point in time (88). The popularity of such professional streamers is a result of their efforts in developing their unique playing strategy and image of a successful trainer among viewers. Researchers note that the reason is that the majority of visitors of Twitch.tv are inclined to learn how streamers play, what approaches they use, and how attractively their way of playing is presented (Hope 88; Lee and Schoenstedt 40). From this perspective, developing a career of a streamer, people focus on the regular efforts to improve the quality of playing and their image of a gamer.
To attract the audience, professional League of Legends streamers should develop such qualities and skills as persistence, creativity, and strategic thinking in order to develop their careers. The reason is that the profits of streamers depend on their popularity among the viewers. From this point, professional streamers need to contribute to developing their image. The business strategies used for improving the brand or name recognition and for gaining the customer loyalty are usually adapted by streamers playing League of Legends in order to expand their viewers base (Hope 89). Hollist states that in the sphere of live-streaming, the successful career can be expected by the most active gamers who demonstrate stability in broadcasting and the quality of playing in order to increase the number of subscribers who are ready to follow the streaming on a daily basis (830). As a result, the majority of streamers cannot demonstrate the required dedication in order to gain more than 2,000 viewers, and such streamers cannot build the successful careers in the industry. Therefore, it is possible to note that those streamers who have no required attributes to succeed as individual gamers can work as team members.
The launch of Twitch.tv in 2011 put the emphasis on the development of the new industry and career area. Today, the number of professional streamers who play League of Legends and other games while focusing on live-streaming is constantly increasing. This business area develops actively, and more viewers and subscribers are expected to pay for live-streaming of the high quality. As a result, those streamers who chose to play the online games try to work hard in order to attract more viewers and increase their revenues. The tendency is rather new, but it is possible to predict the appearance of more career opportunities in the sphere of online platforms similar to Twitch.tv.
Edge, Nathan. Evolution of the Gaming Experience: Live Video Streaming and the Emergence of a New Web Community. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 4.2 (2013): 1-2. Web. 2015.
Hollist, Katherine. Time to Be Grown-Ups about Video Gaming: The Rising eSports Industry and the Need for Regulation. Arizona Law Review 57.1 (2015): 823-870. Print.
Hope, Alex. The Evolution of the Electronic Sports Entertainment Industry and its Popularity. Computers for Everyone 1.1 (2014): 85-89. Web.
Lee, Donghun, and Linda Schoenstedt. Comparison of eSports and Traditional Sports Consumption Motives. ICHPER-SD Journal of Research 6.2 (2011): 39-44. Print.
Quiring, Tyler. From Voxel Vistas: Place-Making in Minecraft. Journal for Virtual Worlds Research 8.1 (2015): 1-19. Web. 2015.
For the past five years, a new issue has come up in the video game industry. Video game developers and publishers have started to add hardcore gambling mechanics into their games, and specific in-game items are locked behind a random paywall. By adding hardcore gambling mechanics to video games, game developers and publishers are taking advantage of both children and adults, as it has been proven that these techniques are habit-forming while creating a lot more money for the industry.
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Understanding Loot Boxes and Gambling Mechanics
The most common form of gambling in video games is ¨lootboxes.¨ Lootboxes are buyable items that give out random rewards to the person buying them. Inside the loot boxes are random in-game rewards that can vary in rarity, varying from common items to more rare items that are harder to get. The in-game items obtained from loot boxes could be just cosmetic customizations for the player’s character, or they could directly affect a character’s stats, giving players who buy loot boxes an advantage over players who did not buy any loot boxes. Loot boxes usually never show the chances of getting a rare item to the player, making them feel like the chances of getting something they want are much higher than they really are. Not knowing exactly what a loot box has inside of it makes it clear that this is a form of gambling, and players can get into the habit of buying them more and more in hopes of getting better in-game items.
The Prevalence of Loot Boxes
These loot boxes have been made popular by mobile games like Clash of Clans in 2012 (Burdick) and other free-to-play games in order for developers to monetize their games. Just a few years later, major game developers and publishers started adding loot boxes into their fully priced, sixty-dollar games to maximize profits from the millions of active players. Because of how much loot boxes make, developers have been adding more and more ways to make the player feel like they need to buy them in order to play all the game has to offer, often locking the most interesting items behind loot boxes.
Players can not only lose money from buying loot boxes, but they can also make money from buying loot boxes. Some popular games that have loot boxes have marketplaces directly in the game where players can sell the in-game items they gain from loot boxes for real money, or they can trade items with each other. Popular game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has one of these marketplaces directly in the game. Other games like MADDEN and FIFA have the extremely popular game mode Ultimate Team where the player collects players from packs and an auction and sell them for the in-game currency, coins. Coins are not available to buy directly. In the game, websites like Mutstore.com and fifautstore.com exist where players can buy and sell their coins for real money.
Effects on Players: Children and Adults
Lootboxes started to be a serious problem when massively popular games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six: Siege, FIFA, and MADDEN started including them in their games. There are over ¨35 million registered players across all platforms¨ (Maguid) for just Rainbow Six: Siege. Overwatch is one of, if not the most popular multiplayer games of all time, with forty-million players as of May fifteenth, 2018, gaining five-million players in just over half a year.
Overwatch and Rainbow Six: Siege both receive major game updates every few months, bringing in more and more players every month. On the other hand, the popular MADDEN and FIFA series has released new games every year, updating game mechanics and resetting the popular Ultimate Team game mode. Not only do fans of the series need to buy another sixty-dollar game every year to keep up to date, but they also need to buy loot boxes in order to get their team back to how it was in the last game.
Influence on Gameplay and Progression
Ever since EA, the game publisher for MADDEN and FIFA, realized how much money they could make from the Ultimate Team game mode, and with it being their “fastest growing mode” (EA), it has become their focus to find new ways to monetize it every year. The game mode was first added in Madden NFL 10 back in 2009. This game mode also had the same model as the games do now, but the need to buy coins was far less obvious. Ever since the mode was a huge success in 2009, EA subtly kept on making the player packs more and more important for leveling up the players’ teams. They did this by increasing the amount of coins it takes to buy player packs going from about 500 coins for a pack (GameSpot) up to 7,500, and did not change the rate you get coins. And now, in the series’ newest game Madden NFL 19, every item you could think of is locked behind the player packs and other microtransactions.
Everything from players, uniforms, playbooks, and even stadiums costs real money, or you could use the coins you have. However, now these coins can be obtained by selling the items you get from loot boxes in the auction tab. These coins could then be used to buy packs without spending any of the player’s own money. That sounds good until the player finds out that there is a limit on how many packs can be bought with coins before they need to use the money to open more. It is obvious that the packs that cost over 50,000 coins most of the time are buyable with coins to get the player hooked and make them buy more of them. With practices like this, Ultimate Team just for Madden NFL 19 is now worth over 800 million dollars (Handrahan).
Controversies and Legal Interventions
Most video games that include loot boxes in them do not tell the player exactly what they will get if they buy one. “Whenever you open [a loot box], you may get something awesome (or you may get trash). This randomness taps into some of the very fundamental ways our brains work when trying to predict whether or not a good thing would happen” (Hood). Not knowing exactly what you are purchasing when you buy a loot box is a form of gambling, and game developers make sure to hide the awful chances a player has to get an item they want.
Games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six: Siege, Destiny 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive, and Star Wars Battlefront II do not tell the player the chances of getting certain rarities of items. However, in FIFA 19, the developers actually told players the chances they had, and it was not good. The screen that they showed players stated there was a “less than 1%” (Yin-Poole) chance at getting a limited-time player that the Ones to Watch packs were advertised for having. “The wording of ‘less than one percent’ probability is clearly deliberate – it may be 0.01 percent, for all players know”(Yin-Poole). After finding out how little the chances of getting a rare card really are, players finally started to boycott the packs.
Balancing Entertainment and Ethical Concerns
Not all FIFA players were lucky enough to stop themselves from spending their money. In an interview with Eurogamer, one FIFA player tells a story about how much money he spent in just two years on the games FIFA 17 and FIFA 18. After requesting EA to send the data, they collected from him, “he was ‘gobsmacked’ to discover he’d spent over $10,000 in just two years” (Yin-Poole). Even though the info he was sent had stats for almost everything he had done in the game, it did not tell him whom he got from all of the player packs, and it did not tell what packs he had bought with the points he bought. He was lucky enough to have a healthy, disposable income, but not everybody who plays these games have money to spend on loot boxes and player packs, but they do anyways.
A 19-year-old on Reddit went into detail about his story and how he had become addicted to gambling by playing video games for a few years. He “shared with Kotaku his bank statements and receipts proving that he had indeed spent $13500.25 in games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” (Gach) in just three years. He is only one of many players who are constantly buying loot boxes and microtransactions in video games, and he probably still would be buying them if he did not go talk to a therapist to help stop his spending habits. He went on to warn others and begged them not to make the same mistakes he did, saying that ‘It’s not just a one-time purchase. It never is'(Gach)
Monetization and Industry Profit
One of the main reasons why people spend so much money at a time in these video games is limited-time items. Every few months, games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six: Siege, FIFA, MADDEN, and Counter-Strike launch updates for the games that often only last for a few weeks or a month, with unique items available only during the events. These events also usually have a timer somewhere on the screen, giving the player a countdown of when the event will end. The timer often occurs when MADDEN or FIFA has limited edition player packs for sale. Having limited-timed items with a timer makes the players feel like they need to buy the items from loot boxes before the time runs out, and they miss the items forever.
If a player spends money on loot boxes and is lucky enough to get a popular item from it, then the player can sell it for a ridiculous amount of money in some cases. An example of this happening occurred in late January this year when a player got a Counter Strike Global Offensive skin with an autograph of a pro player on it. Days before the skin was released to loot boxes in the game, a massive tournament went on for the game, having hundreds of thousands of live viewers watching. The MVP of the tournament, ‘Skadoodle’ had his autograph put on a special gun skin for the game’s most popular gun; the AWP sniper rifle.
The autograph was put on one of the game’s rarest skins already. “Not only is a Dragon Lore skin rare on its own, but there are also the additional factors of visual quality, the Souvenir label, and the autograph”(Rose). One player lucky enough to obtain the skin from a $40 loot box was able to sell it to another player for $61,052.63 (Rose). This shows just how much money people are willing to spend on in-game items for their favorite game.
The biggest contributor to the loot box controversy is EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Before the game launched on November 17th, 2017, EA promised customers that the game would be much better than its mediocre predecessor and that it would be supported for years to come with free updates for everyone. Both Star Wars fans and fans of gaming, in general, were very excited for the game to come out and couldn’t wait for it to release. Come to find out, almost everything in the game was locked behind loot boxes. “Battlefront II’s progression system is tied to equippable items called Star Cards. These cards grant special bonuses, such as increased health and faster ability cooldowns”(Alexandra).
The only way a player can unlock new Star Cards is through loot boxes. The player could either play hundreds of games to open a few loot boxes, or they could pay money and save themselves several hours of grinding. The worst thing about the game at launch was that classic Star Wars characters like Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker were locked behind a paywall as well. The characters cost 60,000 credits to unlock, or the player could just hope to get them and their upgrades from loot boxes.
A poster on Reddit did the math, and he found out that the average amount of credits a player could get from an 11-minute match was only 275. To buy a loot box that cost 4,000 credits, it took 159 minutes of gameplay. He also found out that “it will take you 40 hours of gameplay time to earn the right to unlock one hero or villain”(Potato). That’s right; a player will need to play for forty hours without spending any credits on loot boxes just to unlock one of the main characters the game was advertising.
Games like Madden NFL 19, FIFA 19, and NBA 2K19 that have these loot boxes also have an ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) of E for everyone. This means that the ESRB allows games with predatory loot box mechanics in them to be played by anybody who wants to, with no warnings at all. So now, loot boxes are being introduced to young children who get these games from their parents who have no idea about loot boxes. Games with mechanics like this that are rated E lead children to steal credit cards from their families and spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a game without even knowing it. And since there is no limit on how much a player can spend on loot boxes, the children can keep on buying them until they get the item they want.
By adding loot boxes and other microtransactions into their games, publishers make hundreds of millions of games just from one game alone. As stated earlier, “EA’s Ultimate Team business new contributes $800 million in net revenue annually, up more than 20% year-on-year” (Handrahan). Other games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rainbow Six: Siege do not disclose how much money they make from their microtransactions and loot boxes, but it is obvious that they make several million dollars a year because they both organized their own E-Sports leagues with millions of dollars in prize money. Publishers of games like EA and Activision also own several major, sixty-dollar games with millions of players and have forced game developers to add loot boxes into them to maximize profits.
Sellable in-game items have also led to the creation of some shady businesses from third parties. There are websites like mutstore.com where players can directly buy and sell their coins made from playing Madden Ultimate Team for hundreds of dollars, but then there are some illegal websites that were mass-advertised to millions of children, urging them to spend their parent’s money for Counter Strike Global Offensive weapon skins.
Two popular YouTubers, with millions of subscribers each, owned a gambling site and advertised it to their viewers in multiple videos with millions of views each. They told the young viewers that they “found a new website” (Martin) and did not disclose the fact that they were actually the owners of the site and could rig the odds to be in their favor to make the website look better by having them constantly win. Children on youtube make their own videos, go on the website, and spend their birthday money and some of their parent’s money, just to lose all of it and not get anything they want.
The Future of Loot Boxes
Earlier this year, two Australian doctors, Dr. David Zendle and Dr. Paul Cairns, tested thousands of video game players and monitored their spending habits in video games.“The more severe a gamer’s problem gambling was, the more likely they were to spend large amounts of money on loot boxes. These results strongly support claims that loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling” (Zendle). The study also found out that the people who spent the most money on loot boxes in video games spent the most money on actual gambling at casinos.
A common saying used by the people who defend loot boxes in video games is that they have no effect on the player’s experience and give them no advantage over other players, being “just cosmetic” (Statt). This is incorrect because, in most games that include loot boxes in them, the items you obtain can give you new abilities and increase your in-game stats. Lootboxes directly upgrade the player in games like Star Wars Battlefront II and the NBA 2K, MADDEN, and FIFA series. Lootboxes are the only way for a player to upgrade their abilities or teams in these games, and there are no other options; you either buy the loot boxes or you do not upgrade yourself. Heather Alexandra put it best by saying:
“Let’s say someone spends $99.99 for a ton of crystals and opens all of their crates. By the end of that process, they will likely have acquired a few rare cards that grant noticeable bonuses and give them a competitive edge at launch. They will also increase their card levels for their classes, removing one barrier for crafting upgrades. Throughout that process, they will also get countless crafting parts to stockpile. The only thing that prevents them from crafting the best cards is their player rank. They will spend a handful of hours in multiplayer matches, already equipped with better cards than other players, and quickly increase their rank. If they’ve planned ahead and have enough crafting parts, they will immediately be able to craft the best cards in the game” (Alexandra)
Conclusion
People also say that the items are worth nothing outside of the game. This is already proven wrong because players can sell their accounts to each other and directly trade or sell in-game items either directly through the game or on a third-party site. Just one skin can cost over $60,000, and if an account has multiple rare skins, then they can sell their skins to a rich player for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Thankfully, action is being taken against loot boxes around the world. In the United States, Minnesota is now forcing games that have loot boxes in them to have a warning sign on the cover. The word ‘warning’ must be stated clearly in uppercase letters that measure at least one-half inch in size, or, in the case of a warning for an electronic purchase, in a 16-point font, centered over the body copy of the actual warning¨(HF 4460). And no game, including loot boxes, can be sold to anybody under the age of 18 years old. Other countries around the world have also taken action against loot boxes. As of November 2018,
References
“The Business of Fun: How Video Games Make Money” by Mark J.P. Wolf
“Gamers’ Pact: The Games That Make Video Games – How the Unscrupulous and Feckless are Really Behind the World’s Best Loved Art Form” by Paul Presley
“Beyond the Box: TV and the Internet” by Sharon Marie Ross
“Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences” by Stephen Anderson
Video Game usage is bad for your health. One of the major reasons it’s bad for you is health problems. It can cause problems to the eyes. Also, it can give you cataracts which means there’s a blind spot in your eye. It reduces your physical activity rate, which can have a major impact on your body. Video Games can ruin your life in many ways. They can give you anger issues; they can make your life harder on you because you constantly want to play them when you have another thing to do in life. They can take up to much of your time and make time fly by without even knowing. It can ruin your career.
Health Implications of Video Game Usage
More than 150 million Americans play video games, which make their life harder on them, and 64% of Americans households are home to at least one person who plays video games regularly. There are also very bad games that people play, and it can give them the wrong idea, especially kids at a younger age playing certain games with guns, robbery, and other types of crimes. People who play games most of the time in the day are called “GAMERS,” and they usually play for 6 hours a day. Gamers have spent over 23 billion in the last couple of years on games and game content. Also, certain games have a game chat which means if you have a mic, you can talk to other people, and they be very rude, which is called cyberbullying. They can make you very depressed and feel self-contention about yourself even though they can’t see you.
Violent Video games have been responsible for school shootings and increased bullying. When someone says they’re bad at a certain game, they might retaliate. Also, if gamers get mad at a game, they might take out the anger on other people. Lots of bad people play video games like first-person shooter games in VR to practice with guns. From 1995-2008, video game sales more than quadrupled, but juvenile violent crimes fell 49.3%. In a number of games, even those aimed at children, there is often a degree of sexualization that is shown throughout. If allowed to play for long periods of time, some children can find it hard to differentiate between video games and reality. The greatest drawback is the risk of addiction. While these games do increase cognitive powers, they tend to make children neglect their studies and keep them from eating properly and getting enough exercise.
Conclusion
Certain studies have shown that most violence-packed games tend to induce violent behavior in kids, as they somehow become blind to the difference between real life and games on TV/computers. Such kids fail to understand that reality and the situations presented in video games do not go along. At one point, the addiction to such games becomes so intense that people start neglecting the importance of social life. They begin to isolate themselves from the company of other people and become increasingly involved in these games.
References
“Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen Time” by Victoria L. Dunckley
“Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids – and How to Break the Trance” by Nicholas Kardaras
Do video games affect the way kids think? Adam Larson (2012) said ‘some violent games lead to aggressive behavior, attention problems, or poor school performance.’ Can video games help kids in some ways too? It was said that video games improve our coordination, improves problem-solving skills, and so on. Video games can have a bad or good effect, but students can’t let the game take over them or mess up the way they think. Bravely, video games such as Call of Duty make kids become violent.
Body
The Negative Influence of Violent Video Games
There are violent games that catch a lot of kids’ attention, but they become very violent and what they do. Darcia F. Narvaez Ph.D.(2010) “states violent video games have an even more powerful influence than violent television and movies, whose detrimental effects have been documented for decades.” Kids feel like it’s not a problem, but more kids participate in bad behavior because of violent video games. Kids see the things going on in GTA or Call of Duty and think it’s cool. Kids get influenced by these violent video games all the time, but we must make sure the children population doesn’t take it into action.
Some teachers see kids’ behavior change because of violent video games. Alice Park (2014) said, “Behavioral studies have shown an increase in aggressive behavior after violent video games, and what we show is the physiological explanation for what the behavioral studies are showing.” More kids even fight because the children population thinks it’s fun and funny. Alice Park (2014) states again that “The violent-game players, meanwhile, showed similar brain activity in the baseline tests, but after a week of playing violent games, they revealed significantly less activation of their emotional brain centers.” This is becoming a serious issue, especially in schools. A large number of referrals are being written each year.
Excessive Gaming Habits and Academic Performance
Kids are spending more time playing violent video games than going outside or doing other things. Emily Hughes (2014) said, “From the quote above, it is evident that kids involved with video games are spending 13 and 14 hours a week playing them rather than just an hour here and there.” Emily Hughes (2014) also states that “Results found that” “for boys, but not for girls, a stronger preference for each of the three types of violent games was associated with lower self-competence scores in one or more developmentally important areas, including academic, interpersonal, and behavioral skills” Cesarone (1998). Spending so much time on the games messes up the kid’s grades because kids don’t do their homework. The reason for this result is kids are always in the game. The parents must get serious and command kids to do homework and stop always playing video games.
How can we solve the problems we have with kids and violent video games? Anthony Pernaci (2015) said, “Move the computer and gaming stuff out of kids’ rooms and into public spaces in the home, like the living room, so they can keep an eye on what their child is up to.” Parents can stop buying these violent games and have the kids play games that will make the children’s population more happy and not aggressive. If the parent is not home, have whoever is with the kid watch him or/ she. The time is now we can stop this violence.
Influence on Academic Performance and Social Behavior
Video games are affecting kids’ cognition or the way the kids think. More of them are becoming more violent than ever. Also, to stop all the issues, we got to have someone to watch the kid threw the time playing the video game. Parents are not even serious about the situation. Parents think it’s all right, but do they know it’s affecting the kids terribly? Always remember that violent games are not good for kids, and people need to help to ensure safety and good behavior for the kids.
Violent video games affect young boys’ grades. Anna Jacobi (2012) said, “The results show that boys at the lower academic level preferred violent games significantly more than the boys at the medium or higher levels.” violent video games are taking over boys’ thoughts which is affecting them with their school work. Anna Jacobi (2012) also states, “So the results of this study suggest that boys at the lower education level are more at risk for the negative effects of violent video games.” This makes a lot of people mad because kids are not getting the push they need to do better, and parents are letting their kids play violent games all day with their child’s grades all messed up.
However, some video games can help kids in some ways as well. Vince (2018) states, “Recent studies completed by several noted research and scientific organizations have proven that playing video games could help improve the quality of life for the disabled and mentally ill.” Video games help kids’ vision too. Brian Handwerk (2009) said, “Previous research shows that gaming improves other visual skills, such as the ability to track several objects at the same time and pay attention to a series of fast-moving events, Bavelier said.” Most importantly, after all, video games do help kids with different things other than the brain.
The Positive Aspects and Responsible Gaming
Lastly, video games have negative and positive affect on kids. Also, the parents still must watch the kids even though there’s a good effect. Kids under the age of 12 shouldn’t be playing violent games but play games that will give kids a benefit. People should sit back and think, is playing video games that important? Video games shouldn’t be more important than homework; that’s the first result. Parents just don’t realize the kids are really failing because of the negative gaming. The issues things must stop parents need to keep their children away from violent games and let the kids play some helpful, beneficial games.
Lastly, there is another thing violent video games do to kids. Kids become so aggressive in many ways. Some of these shootings in school can be because of violent video games. Tibi Puiu (2018) “Yes, it is true that those responsible for school shootings in America have been players of video games.” this is crazy because kids let a game control the kid’s minds and what the kids do which makes the children end up in a bad situation. It’s sad to say they are blaming the game for these acts, but it’s true. In fact, tibi puiu (2018) also states, “Up until now, however, we’ve yet to come across any meaningful evidence that suggests that violent video games promote excessive aggression (as mentioned earlier, any video game, sport or challenging task will invariably cause temporary aggressive thought and potential behavior issues due to frustration), let alone criminal behavior.”
Conclusion
Extremely, why are you guys waiting? Do you need to go and change this before your child becomes the next criminal? Additionally, your child can also intentionally hurt another kid from the acts they see on the violent video game. To conclude, I’m begging please watch your kids because anything can happen at any time, and you guys know that you don’t want it to be your kids, so fix it and the time is now.
References
Darcia F. Narvaez Ph.D. (2010) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moral-landscapes/201011/playing-violent-
Adam Larson(2012). https://prezi.com/lzizjhk-opia/how-do-video-games-affect-the-mind/
Alice Park (2014). http://time.com/34075/how-violent-video-games-change-kids-attitudes-about- aggression/
There are multiple ways that people can use computers, whether it is accessing information via the cloud or using a game device to interact with it. The objective for this topic is to be able to describe cloud computing and identify its uses and be able to describe the characteristics of and ways to interact with game devices, including gamepads, joysticks and wheels, dance pads, and motion-sensing controllers.
Body
Cloud Computing and Its Applications
Cloud computing is an environment that uses the internet to access it. Some examples of resources that use cloud computing include email, music, videos, websites, and games. Examples of “services that use this type of computing include online file storage, configuring an environment of servers for optimal performance (Cashman). This essentially means that instead of having them stored on a computer or other storage device, it is stored in the cloud, where you can access them almost anywhere you are. Some examples of cloud storage include “storing or accessing documents, photos, videos, and other media devices online” (Cashman). This allows people to be able to “share ideas, opinions, and content with others online” (Cashman).
Gaming Devices and Interaction Techniques
There are two main types of gaming devices and multiple ways to interact with those gaming devices. Those gaming devices that will be talked about are the game console and the handheld game device. “The game console is a mobile computing device designed for single-player or multiplayer video games. A handheld game device is a mobile device that contains a screen, speakers, controls, and game console all in one unit (Cashman). The types of ways to interact with a gaming device include gamepads, joysticks and wheels, dance pads, and motion-sensing controllers.
“A gamepad is held with both hands and controls the movement and actions of players or objects in video games or computer games. A joystick is a handheld vertical lever mounted on a base that you move in different directions to control the actions of the simulated vehicle or player. A wheel is a steering-wheel-looking device that users turn to simulate driving and will often include a gas pedal and a brake pedal. A dance pad is a flat electronic device divided into panels that users use their feet to press in a certain rhythm or instructions. A motion-sensing game controller allows users to guide on-screen elements with air gestures” (Cashman).
Conclusion
The user can interact with a computer or console in multiple ways. They can either use something called cloud computing or a gaming device. Each has its specific uses as well as utilizes each other. If a game is online, the user could use cloud computing to store their information for later retrieval. The objective of this topic is to be able to describe cloud computing and identify its uses and be able to describe the characteristics of and ways to interact with game devices, including gamepads, joysticks and wheels, dance pads, and motion-sensing controllers.
Works Cited
Cashman, Shelly. Discovering Computers and Microsoft Office 365 & Office 2016. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2017. Book.