Video games are now part of everyday life. When I say video games I am talking generally about PC, console and other forms of gaming platforms. There are all sorts of games for all sorts of people out there. The industry has grown to an extent it encompasses the movie and music industries; and could as well overtake them in the near future. This could be because the player participates actively rather than passively as in the case of movies, TV and music. Newer games are constantly requiring faster and better processors, graphic cards, sound cards etc. May be one day we could have an actual “Holo-deck” like they have in Star Trek.
The Journey So Far
It hasn't always been this way for the video games industry in fact at one time it experienced a serious decline - a crash if you will. It took some really revolutionary games to get it back on track.
Video games have come along way since the arcade days, although there were some sorts of games before then. They had stuff like PONG which was supposed to be a table tennis game (must have been really cool in those days to play a dot from left to right on the screen). Then there were those Space Invasion games and Pac-Man and the likes. Later, companies like Atari started making console games with games like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.
Most likely it was Nintendo and Sega that contributed the most to reinvigorate the video gaming industry with there revolutionary “family oriented” console games with better graphics, memory and processing. Handheld games also came alongside the consoles with Nintendo's Gameboy, Atari Lynx and Sega Master Gear. Legendary games of this era were Contra, Shinobi and Zelda. Others were Street fighter, Mortal Kombat. With still better improvements we got games like Grand Turismo, Grand Theft Auto and Quake.
By the 21st century there were serious advances with the introduction of Sony Playstations, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, the Xbox, and Nintendo Wii. PDA's and mobile phone companies like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung also joined in with stuff like the Nokia N-Gage, Palm OS, and Windows CE. Technologies like wi-fi and Bluetooth just increased the overall playability. Exciting games of this generation were Half-life, Halo, Medal of Honour, Hitman, Max Payne and even Flight Simulator from Microsoft.
But while all these consoles were being developed, the PC had the more superior hardware and usually the PC versions of the games were much better than the console or handheld types.
Virtual Reality
There are all sorts of games depending on the player; some may like fast paced games some prefer shoot'em ups or beat'em ups. Others may prefer adventure, role playing, strategy-based and so on. Many players play more than one genre of video games though.
A person playing a game is usually immersed in a virtual world where nothing is impossible. He can take on the role of a military leader, a hero, a scientist, a wizard, a martial artist, an athlete. He can even be a criminal, a gangster, warlord, and the likes. There is no time barrier; a person can move to the past, medieval times or go into the future. All actions are possible. They can race cars on public roads (as in Need for Speed); fly all sorts of aircrafts and even military vehicles. You can die and live as many times as possible. You can command armies, build new civilizations, conquer worlds. No consequences whatsoever, a person may not worry about killing others or getting a speeding ticket.
Then Darkness
People usually get addicted and play all day and night usually in isolation resulting in sleep and food deprivation. There were stories of people dying while playing games for prolonged periods. Slowly they start to loose touch with reality. If care is not taken it could lead to loss of perception and a person may not be able to distinguish between the real world and the game. This could result in some really dramatic events with people trying out in real life what they did in the game. People get violent trying to act out martial arts moves, driving recklessly, stealing and in the worst cases murdering fellow humans (as the case in the Columbine High School Massacre).
People play games for a lot of reasons but mostly to escape reality. I think it is about the same reason people take drugs. For some it is the adventure, some to let out steam. I think it could be related to the way others take solace in rock and roll and other loud and violent forms of music and movies etc. This inevitably leads to addiction and the consequences can be dire. Video games are really enjoyable and a good form of entertainment but could easily be tainted by the “dark side”. I often hear people especially video game designers and developers say it is the individual that is to blame when things go bad and not the game. I can say from experience after spending the night racing cars (video games of course) the next morning when I drive, I usually feel that urge to over speed. Luckily I never did that nor did I ever commit any of the more drastic crimes I mentioned earlier; but I can see how easily a person (or child) with a weaker minded could easily fall victim of the darkness of the games.
Games are everywhere; virtually anything that has a screen can support a video game. As we saw earlier in this article; it could be a PC, a console, a phone, a PDA or it could even be a TV set-top box usually hosting simple games like Tetris. You could play games on any of these platforms and actually get addicted. However, this doesn't mean we should throw away the games and never touch them again but we should play with moderation. Too much of anything is bad.
