Video Games and Film

It's dark in the jungle, as Agent Stark moves slowly through trees and then he realizes that he's very low on ammo and so he reloads, crouching behind a rock before doing so. A noise from behind, he spins to see a flash of light and Agent's eyes flash red. Stark has been shot. Before he can even respond the world fades to black. GAME OVER. Don't worry, you saved his spot. This is the mentality of the video game player, a person who can jump from reality to reality with the push of a button. This false, digital world is so addictive and so competitive that constant improvements are being made to represent real life. The success of video games sales over the past thirty years has made digital animation and design on the top paying fields, grossing over 23 billion dollars a year in global revenue (Poole, Pg. 217). The drive to continue playing these games must be linked to their use of extreme forms of violence or their ability to recreate experiences of high stress and intensity within a normal living room, within the safety of one's own home. For Ellen Goodman, the video game "hooks only those people who confuse victory with slow defeat" (Loftus, Pg. 11) but for others, it is a form of entertainment and social interaction. It is time to look at how video games have altered methods and modes of entertainment, reality, and society on a larger scale. Video gaming has changed the way generations view violence, social interaction, physical activity, communication, and even other entertainment mediums such as cinema.

The video game is the second fastest growing digital medium the world has ever seen, the first being that of the Internet. With many different systems, methods, networks, and games designed specifically for entertainment, video games have spread across the globe, dominating digital industries in every First World Country. All video games combined means computer games, television adapter games (i.e. the Nintendo Entertainment System), the handheld (Gameboy), and online game (games that can only be found and played on the Internet). Pong, at the time known as Tennis for Two, was created in 1958 by Willy Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, but was not successful because the arcade was the size of a pool table with a five inch screen for the players to view through. The creation of the first video game system was first released in 1971, hitting arcades and pool halls while Magnavox licensed and released the Television Gaming Apparatus. Magnavox quickly renamed it the Odyssey Home Entertainment System, designed by Ralph Baer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It came with six game cards, all with the same controls but various colours and stick figures. Using this system as a base for every gaming production after it, the Atari system altered gaming and popularized digital games often considered the starting point for the video world. Space Invaders was the original shoot Ð''em up or "twitch game" (Darley, Pg. 25), which was released first in Japan and then moved to the U.S. after skyrocketing success. This game spawn from its creators many more twitch games, all with violence as the main focus.

In every game, a tank like machine was centered in a battle against aliens, other tanks, or foreign objects, such as Asteroids. The next major break came with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. This occurred two years after the major release of the Commodore 64, a computer that could run essential word processing and games on the same system, a breakthrough for the computer industry. The NES included two controllers and the infamous Mario Brothers game, a fantastical battle about two plumbers who had to save the beautiful princess from the evil dragon holding her in his castle, the game sold over 18 million copies in its first year (Burnham, Pg. 365). The Mario character was a carry over from Atari's Donkey Kong and since then has been a legacy for video games, now in 30 different games on 5 different gaming systems and sequels, including a major motion picture. Today, video games are accepted as a form of furniture, almost a necessity for every growing boy's living room.

The world of video games has developed at a rampant speed, becoming one of the fastest growing industries in the past 25 years. Even today, terms and definitions are still being conjured to make the digital age easier to understand. Before diving directly into theories about war, video games, and simulated reality, we must clarify some of the terms that will be used later on. The video game player can be any human being who is able to pick up a controller for any length of time and participate in any game available to them. The "Gamer" is an individual who plays repeatedly, in a competitive manner, constantly working towards improving themselves in the digital world. Because this group is almost completely male, ages 3 and up, the Gamer will be discussed in the masculine sense, referred to as him or he throughout this discussion. A network can be described in a variety of ways, especially in electronic games. There are networks now for Internet gaming, computer gaming that is independent of the Internet, gaming for individual systems, and now there is even networking for controllers. What matters is that all networks are a joining of two or more players, bringing the video game players to the same "level" (a false sense of geography, a digital meeting place) for which they can do battle and compete. It is networking, at any level that keeps the Gamer interested in continuous play by allowing more and more opportunities for competition.

With digital worlds and enemies increasing in skill and strengths, the premise for these games develop, so too does the Gamer psychologically. The mentality of the simple-minded video game player is one who can relax with a joystick in hand and use the systems for entertainment purposes only. The Gamer must constantly test and challenge himself by making new goals, reaching bonus levels, or increasing the number of enemies killed. At first, it would seem that this was specifically for the bragging rights, something that the Gamer could use in discussions with his friends at school but now with networking of various systems, the Gamer can train himself much like a boot camp or military barracks. This means that a child can mentally prepare himself for battle against others in these digital worlds, enemies he has never known before with new tactics and skills. As early as the Playstation system, video games began to incorporate a "training" level, or base camp to familiarize the player with all of the weapons, movements, and possible scenarios that might be encountered. A Gamer can learn and develop himself before ever actually entering the game itself. Preparation for