Video game

A video game, also called a computer game, is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to create visual feedback on a display device. This is most often shown as video on a television set, computer monitor, flat-panel display or touchscreen on handheld devices, or a virtual reality headset. Most modern video games are audiovisual, with sound played through speakers or headphones. Some also give other kinds of feedback, such as haptic technology that provides tactile sensations. Some games also allow microphone and webcam inputs for in-game chatting and livestreaming.

Video games are usually sorted by their hardware platform. Traditional platforms include arcade video games, console games, and computer games, which include LAN games, online games, and browser games. More recently, the video game industry has expanded into mobile gaming on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. It has also grown into virtual and augmented reality systems and remote cloud gaming. Games are also grouped into many genres based on their style of gameplay and target audience.

The first video game prototypes in the 1950s and 1960s were simple extensions of electronic games. They used video-like output from large, room-sized mainframe computers. The first consumer video game was the arcade game Computer Space in 1971, which took inspiration from the earlier 1962 computer game Spacewar! In 1972 came the now-iconic video game Pong and the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The industry grew quickly during the "golden age" of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Companies like Atari, Mattel, and Coleco also released very successful consoles for the home market. However, loss of publishing control and too many consoles on the market led to the crash of the North American video game market in 1983.

After the crash, the industry matured and became more varied. By the late 1980s, video game consoles were dominated by Japanese companies such as Nintendo, Sega, and later Sony. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems (and MS-DOS before it) increasingly came to dominate computer gaming. Multiplayer online PC games helped start the early eSports scene. Arcades steadily lost their technological edge and popularity by the end of the 1990s, especially in North America and Europe. In handheld games, Nintendo became dominant with the Game Boy line. By the 2000s, Sega had left the console business, and the "big three" console makers, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, have dominated it since. The industry also increasingly focused on "AAA" games, which left less room for riskier, experimental, and lower-budget games. Together with faster Internet and digital distribution, this gave independent video game development (or "indie games") a bigger role into the 2010s. Since then, the commercial importance of the video game industry has been growing. Emerging Asian markets and the spread of smartphone games have changed who plays, toward casual and cozy gaming. They have also increased monetization by using games as a service.

Today, making a video game requires many skills, a clear vision, teamwork, and liaisons between different groups. These include developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, hardware manufacturers, and other marketers, all working to bring a game to its players. As of 2020, the global video game market had estimated yearly revenues of US$159 billion across hardware, software, and services. That was three times the size of the global music industry and four times that of the film industry in 2019, making it a major force in the modern entertainment industry. The video game market also strongly influences the electronics industry. Sales of personal computer parts, consoles, and accessories, along with players' demands for better game performance, have been powerful forces driving hardware design and innovation.

Origins

Main articles: Early history of video games and Early mainframe games

Further information: History of arcade video games

Ralph H. Baer and Nolan Bushnell have each been described as the "Father of Video Games" for their work in the field.

Early video games used interactive electronic devices with different kinds of displays. The earliest example dates to 1947, when a "cathode-ray tube amusement device" was patented. Other early examples include the Nimrod computer, Tennis for Two in 1958, and Spacewar! in 1962. Each game showed its play in a different way, from a panel of lights to a simple graphical display.

These inventions laid the foundation for modern video games. In 1966, Ralph H. Baer created a basic table tennis game that could be played on a television screen. Later, the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, became the first home video game console. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney made the arcade game Computer Space in 1971, and in 1972 Bushnell's company Atari, Inc. released the hit game Pong. The success of the Odyssey and Pong launched the video game industry.

Terminology

The term "video game" was created to describe electronic games played on a video display, rather than on a teletype printer, audio speaker, or similar device. It also set these games apart from handheld electronic games such as Merlin, which often used LED lights. Other names include "computer game," which is common in the United Kingdom and Western Europe, and "digital game," used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. "Computer game" can also mean PC games, which are played mainly on personal computers, to tell them apart from console games, arcade games, or mobile games. In the 1970s and early 1980s, games for home gaming consoles that connect to a television set were also called "television game," "telegame," or "TV game." In Japan, makers such as Toshiba and Sharp Corporation made these consoles, and "TV game" is still used there into the 21st century. The term "video game" first appeared around 1973. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1973 article in BusinessWeek as the first printed use, though a letter dated July 10, 1972, may show it appeared even earlier. Ed Adlum, who worked with Cashbox and later founded RePlay, is credited with naming these games. He borrowed a word from Billboard and started calling the new machines "video games." Before the early 1970s, amusement arcades mostly had non-video games such as pinball machines and electro-mechanical games.

Video games are described as needing some interactivity that affects the visual display. This sets them apart from interactive films of the 1980s, such as Dragon's Lair, which used full motion video with only limited user interaction. Most video games have some winning condition, such as a score or a final boss fight. Games like walking simulators (adventure games) such as Gone Home, and empathy games such as That Dragon, Cancer, have no such goal, which has raised questions about what counts as a game. In 2021, the lack of an industry definition came up in Epic Games v. Apple, which involved games on the iOS App Store, including Fortnite Creative and Roblox, which create metaverses. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said video games appear to require some interaction and are usually drawn or animated rather than recorded live. Most games begin at a title screen, are divided into levels, and involve scoring points, collecting power-ups, and defeating enemies. A user interface, such as a heads-up display, shows this information. Taking damage lowers health, and losing all lives leads to the "game over" screen, unless the player gains an extra life or "1-UP". Many levels end with a boss, and save points let players store a saved game. Software bugs can appear as glitches that players may exploit, which is the basis of speedrunning. Hidden cheat codes, Easter eggs, and cheat cartridges or trainers can also change a game.

Components

To tell video games apart from other electronic games, a video game usually needs a platform. A platform is the electronic components or computer hardware that process what the player does and show the results on a screen. Platforms include PC games played on a personal computer, home consoles that connect to a television set, handheld game consoles, and arcade video games found in video arcades. Games can also be played in a browser game or as a mobile game on smartphones and tablet computers, through cloud gaming, or with virtual reality headsets. Games are usually made for one platform or a few, and they may be changed to run on other platforms as ports. An emulator lets games from older systems be played on modern ones.

Players use input devices such as a game controller, with gamepads, joysticks, touchscreens, and motion detection sensors. Main article: Game controller

Classifications

See also: Gameplay

Video games are usually sorted into genres by how they are played, not by their story or setting. A shooter game is still a shooter game whether it takes place in a fantasy world or in outer space. The horror game genre is an exception, used for games based on horror fiction, the supernatural, and psychological horror. Genre names usually describe the play, such as action game, role playing game, or shoot 'em up. Some names come from famous games, such as roguelikes from Rogue. Games can also be sorted by mode. The main difference is between single-player video games and multiplayer video games. Multiplayer games can be played on one device, over a local network at LAN parties, or online, and some massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) support hundreds of players at once. A few zero-player games let the player set things up and then simply watch.

Most video games are made for entertainment. Casual games are designed to be easy to understand and to suit a mass market audience, while serious games put a non-entertainment purpose first, such as teaching or training. Video games can also be rated for age. Ratings, which may be required by national or international rules, suggest the age group that a ratings board thinks is right for a player. Most reviews look at violence and how graphic it is, along with content that may not suit young children. Major rating systems include the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in the United States, Pan European Game Information (PEGI) in Europe, the Australian Classification Board, the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) in Japan, and Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) in Germany. Until 2018, Germany refused to rate games that showed Nazi imagery, so developers often replaced it. In China, games must pass strict government review, which keeps out content such as showing the Chinese Communist Party in a bad light.

Development

See also: Video game industry practices

Main article: Game studies

Making a video game is, like making a movie or TV show, a team effort. Video game developers include programmers, graphic designers, sound designers, musicians, other technicians, and a game designer, and producers manage all of these roles. In the early days, one person often did everything. Today, larger teams are needed for more powerful platforms, though small games are still common in casual and handheld markets, where limits such as RAM or no dedicated 3D graphics on some devices (for example, some PDAs) keep games small. Games are programmed like other computer software. By 1975, low-cost microprocessors let developers make more detailed games. Developers use commercial and open source tools, and many games are built around a game engine with a physics engine, plus middleware for features such as network-oriented code, matchmaking, and game development kits. Games usually go through quality testing to find bugs or glitches, and developers often release patches and updates. Team sizes have grown, and in May 2009, Assassin's Creed II was reported to have a staff of 450. Bigger teams and pressure to release games quickly have led to missed deadlines and unfinished products. Since the mid-2000s, indie game development by small teams outside direct publisher control has grown. These games are smaller than those from large "AAA" studios and are often experiments.

Scholars also study games as art. Two main schools are ludology and narratology. Narrativists, such as Janet Murray, see games as storytelling that grew out of interactive fiction. Murray compares them to the Holodeck from Star Trek, and her idea inspired films such as Tron, eXistenZ, and The Last Starfighter. Ludologists, such as Espen Aarseth, argue that a game is first a game, defined by its rules and play, and that story is secondary. Aarseth criticized the attention given to the body of Lara Croft, the heroine of Tomb Raider, which film theorists had already analyzed a great deal. Many games rely on emergent principles, where unplanned behavior arises from simple rules, even for AI in games. Games are most commonly protected by copyright, though patents and trademarks have also been used. Video games count as copyrighted works under the Berne Convention, but gameplay itself is generally not copyrightable under the idea–expression distinction. This is why gameplay ideas are often reused. Doom (1993) and Grand Theft Auto III (2001) introduced styles that led to the first-person shooter and the Grand Theft Auto clone, respectively. Cloning has also been a problem where protection laws are weak, such as within China, which has supported a large grey market of cloned hardware and software.

Industry

The early video game industry, from the first game hardware releases through 1983, had little structure. Games became very popular during the golden age of arcade video games in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but many new companies were made up of game developers with little business experience. Many of these companies formed just to make clones of popular games. Because of lost publishing control and a crowded market, the North American home video game market crashed in 1983, with revenues falling from about $3 billion in 1983 to $100 million by 1985. Japan's game industry was briefly shaken but survived. Nintendo helped revive the industry when it released the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985. Nintendo also set up business practices to prevent unlicensed games and control game distribution, and console makers still use these methods today. After the crash, the industry became more cautious. By the 2000s, it centred on low-risk triple-A games with large budgets of at least $10 million. The internet made digital distribution possible, and independent game development, which is riskier and more experimental, grew in the late 2000s. Video games have a large network effect that involves many sectors. Key participants include publishers, who bring games to market and often handle marketing and advertising, and distributors, including digital stores like Steam and the iOS App Store. Retailers sell games, but they have performed worse since the e-commerce revolution. Hardware makers include video game console manufacturers, who often work with a contract manufacturer to build their consoles, and companies that make high-performance "gaming computer" hardware. Journalism, influencers using social media and streaming media, and esports also play a role. Trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association help the industry speak with one voice and set up major trade events and conventions such as E3. Finally, gamers who play and buy games often share feedback that companies use to improve their products.

The industry grew out of both the United States and Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, and it now includes a much wider world. Today, major companies in North America, Europe, and southeast Asia, including Japan, South Korea, and China, lead the industry. See also: Video game industry § International practices. Sales vary between countries. Japanese consumers buy much more handheld games than console games and PC games, and arcade games remain important in the Japanese gaming industry. In South Korea, computer games are generally preferred over console games, especially MMORPG and real-time strategy games. Computer games are also popular in China. Globally, the video game industry earned an estimated more than $159 billion in 2020, according to the market research firm Newzoo. Mobile games made up the largest share, at 48%, followed by console games at 28% and personal computer games at 23%. See also: List of best-selling video games and Golden age of arcade video games.

Effects on society

Main article: Film and television adaptations of video games

See also: Digital media use and mental health § Autism

Video game culture is a worldwide new media subculture built around games and playing them. It has grown alongside internet culture and mobile games. Many players call themselves gamers. As games become more social with multiplayer and online capability, gamers join growing social networks. Video games also appear in social media, television, film and music, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people played online with friends and family as a way of social distancing. Since the mid-2000s, people have debated whether video games are art. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that games are a protected form of speech with artistic merit. Some games have been shown in museums, such as The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Video games can also be useful for learning, and studies have linked them to hand–eye coordination. A 2020 study from Oxford University found that people who played more games tended to report greater "wellbeing."

Video games have caused concern since the 1970s. Parents and others have worried that violent video games might influence young players. The World Health Organization included "gaming disorder" in its International Statistical Classification of Diseases, while the American Psychiatric Association said there is insufficient evidence that games create violent tendencies or addictive behavior. There has also been concern about loot boxes and possible gambling habits linked to games. The industry has faced its own issues, including crunch time, which means required extended working hours before a game's release.

Collecting and preservation

See also: List of video game museums

Players of video games often keep collections of games. More recently, there has been interest in retro gaming, which focuses on games from the first decades. Games in good condition with their original packaging have become collector's items from the early days of the industry, and some rare ones have sold for over US$100,000 as of 2020. Video games also need preserving, because both game discs and the hardware needed to play them wear out over time. Many game developers and publishers from the first decades no longer exist, so records of their games have disappeared. Archivists and preservationists have worked within copyright law to save these games as part of the industry's cultural history.

There are many video game museums around the world. The National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas is the largest museum wholly dedicated to displaying and preserving the industry's most important artifacts. Europe has video game museums such as the Computer Games Museum in Berlin and the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland, California focuses on playable exhibits of console and computer games. The Video Game Museum of Rome is also dedicated to preserving video games and their history. The International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The Strong in Rochester, New York has one of the largest collections of electronic games and game-related historical materials in the world, including a 5,000-square-foot (460 m²) exhibit where guests can play their way through the history of video games. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC has three video games on permanent display: Pac-Man, Dragon's Lair, and Pong. The Museum of Modern Art has added 20 video games and one video game console to its permanent Architecture and Design Collection since 2012. In 2012, the Smithsonian American Art Museum ran an exhibition called "The Art of Video Games", but reviews were mixed, including questions about whether video games belong in an art museum.