Day 2 The Video Game Industry

Today I thought it would be appropriate If I wrote an article on the video game industry in America during todays society. Today, video gamming is significant in American culture, in fact according to www.esrb.org 67% of American households play video games. The Industrys average Revenue is 10.5 Billion dollars. One big contributer to the video game phenomena is the Call of Duty series, simply abbreviated COD. One of COD’s publishers is well known, and that is Activision. Activisions CEO  Robert Kotick. In 2010, Robert A. Kotick received $5,597,310 in total compensation. . COD is a fps or, first person shooter franchise and  The series began on the PC, and later expanded to consoles and handhelds. The series first themes were set in World War II however, the last decade or so the series has turned to Modern Warfare (with the acception of Black Ops set in the Cold War). Some of CODs developers are Spark Unlimited, Treyarch and Infinity Ward.

COD has an extremely big influence on adolesence and teens, in fact Thirty-six percent of teen boys said they prefer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare according to http://www.gamasutra.com. Even though we can name many negative aspects of video gaming, on the contrary there are many pros that go un recognized; “Playing video games demands an interactive involvement of the players. As a player, you start identifying with some character in the game and act for it. This excited state of mind has a positive effect on the player. It is also said that playing video games is surely better than watching television as video games are interactive. 

Playing video games involves problem solving, planning, estimation and analysis of the moves or actions of both you and your opponent. This affects the player positively by developing in him/her problem-solving skills, analytical and estimation skills and quick decision-making.” (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/positive-effects-of-video-games).  The site also stated that “If there is no limit to the time for which a child is allowed to play a video game or no supervision on the way in which the game is being played, the not-so-positive effects of video games will start showing up.” This in my oppinion is true, and ultimatley, it does come down to oppinion, whether or not the parent is okay with their child playing games such as the COD series. Another positive aspect which I myself (as somewhat of a gamer) came up with is video games stir creative emotion in a child. Nowadays, video games are becoming like “playable movies” and many include story lines and script writing which I think is good. Some games are actually taking time to make an in depth story, some examples are the Grand Theft Auto series, Skyrim and even the Modern Warfare series. So video games games ultimatley can be used for the good or the bad, it depends on the time spent and how they are precieved.