Paper #3: What will I focus on?

For Paper #3 I will be focusing on video gaming’s place in mainstream society.  Part of it will be chronicling gaming’s evolution from its early days as an entertainment wonder to its current incarnation as an entertainment medium that reaches far beyond the bounds of simple entertainment.  I already said a little something on the topic – the blurb of which served as my inspiration for choosing this topic – but that post was really little more than me just railing at what i perceived to be a feigned interest and a general ignorance of our medium on the part of the meida.  Another part will be devoted to analyzing gaming’s place in the mainstream culture during & throughout this evolution.

Back in the Old School days when it was just the Atari, pinball, and the arcade Gaming was seen as an entertainment hot-spot where friends and family could sit down to play for a few hours and spend some time together.  People who took games seriously, which is to say viewed them as more than just some idle fun, were looked upon as weird, eccentric, or perhaps lacking a bit in some social skills.  The expansion of this market saw an expansion of the audience as well, and movies such as The Wizard and Wargames would recognize (and in some ways cement) gaming’s presence in the cultural zeitgeist.  (Note that Wargames isn’t necessarily about gaming, but only directly involves gaming inasmuch as war (and its presentation on screen) is viewed as a game.  The entire electronics industry – and the concept of the computer hacker/nerd in general – is/was often seen as corollary, if not overlapping, with the gaming industry, with its adherents falling into many of the same categories.  As such, i think its quite fair to say that movies such as this, which seek to relate on some level gaming and electronic proficiency, both highlight gaming’s presence in society and illuminate society’s perceptions and understandings of that niche).

Where its continued presence in society – if only off to some different side of the mainstream society – forced the acknowledgment of its existence as a culture, video gaming saw its transformation into a mainstream powerhouse with the rise of the internet.  Video games were among the first to capitalize on the capabilities of the internet, employing its world-wide connectivity to bring gamers together through multiplayer games (or even just online forums).  Gaming, I think, can be seen as almost prescient in regards to the now-prevalent socialization of the internet, and with this in mind I think it comes as no surprise that gaming was so quickly embraced.  Applications such as Xbox Live brought this online interaction closer to home – and indeed, made “online” gaming from the home as famous as it is now – but the internet itself was the reason gaming became so prevalent and accepted as it is today.  That cultural niche – and indeed, the simple entertainment – of video games was brought from the arcade and the store to your front door by means of the desktop, and with such easy access and ease of use available to the user it is no wonder that gaming has exploded onto the scene as one of the major forces of the internet.

Gaming + Internet + Ascendancy of Internet in our daily life = Presence of gaming in our daily life

It’s pretty much that simple.  Even if gaming has no real “presence” as described above – e.g. what if you work at a tool company all day? – how many pop-up ads have you seen that mimic simple games to attract your attention?  How many links have you seen on sidebars heading to casual games?

Think about it

-Z

A Strong Slideshare Presentation »« Wikipedia contribution: Babylon 5’s Londo Mollari