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DEMOGRAPHICS Historical Today The average age for a video game player is about , Console and Home Computer games, continue playing now on current systems Jupiter Media gamer age study - press release . The gender distribution of gamers is reaching equilibrium, according to a 2003 study showing that 57% of gamers are male and 43% female. ONLINE GAMING See Also: Online game Online gaming has drastically increased the scope and size of gaming culture, although this has much to do with the usage of the Internet itself as a communication medium. Online gaming grew out of games on Bulletin Board systems and on College mainframes from the 1970s and 1980s. MUD s offered multiplayer competition and cooperation but on a scope more geographically limited than on the internet. The internet allowed gamers from all over the world - not just within one country or state - to play games together with ease. One of the most important titles in the history of online gaming is '' Quake '', which offered the ability to play with sixteen, and eventually up to thirty-two players simultaneously in a 3D world. Gamers quickly began to establish their own organized groups, called Clan s. Clans established their own identities, their own Marketing , their own form of internal organization, and even their own looks. Many clans created their own skins or even mods to supplement their own particular visions. Some clans had friendly or hostile rivalries, and there were often clans who were allied with other clans. Clan interaction took place on both professionaly set competition events, and during normal casual playing where several members of one clan would play on a public Server . Clans would often do their recruiting this way; by noticing the best players on a particular server, they would send invitations for that player to either try out or accept membership in the clan. From Quake, gaming grew beyond first-person shooters and has impacted every genre. Real-time Strategy , Racing Game s, Card Game s, Sports Game s can all be played online. Online gaming has spread from its initial computer roots to console gaming as well. Today, every major Video Game Console available offers degrees of online gaming, some limited by particular titles, some (like the Xbox 360 ) offer up whole virtual communities. Competition Slang and terminology LAN party.]] Certain words and phrases have been invented by, or have become popular with, the gaming community as a whole. However, gaming slang and terminology has much in common with Internet Slang . Some are used to describe gaming events, games themselves, or aspects of games. Many games, especially online games, have their communities create Neologism s to refer to specific events, situations, actions, or people in the games. Notable recent examples include Diablospeak and the phrase "Aggro" from '' World Of Warcraft ''. Other notable terms include:
Massively-multiplayer online gaming Massively-multiplayer online gaming today has become ubiqitiuous in the computer gaming realm. Titles like '' World Of Warcraft '' and '' EverQuest II '' have millions of players. Within this population base, gamers are divided into servers of tens of thousands of people, often called realms. The importance this virtual world has is highly varied among gamers. Some gamers spend as much free time as possible, while others play much more casually. Massively multiplayer online games have become so important that Virtual Economies have sprung up that allow players to pay real money for virtual property and items. One game, '' Second Life '', has its entire focus on the usage of real-life currency for everything in the game world. Some gamers actually make a decent living, " Farming " items and selling them on auction sites, like EBay . Academic studies on Social Interaction in Online Gaming GAMING AND POPULAR CULTURE Advertising Games are also advertised on different TV channels, depending on the age demographic they are targeting. Games targeted toward younger kids are advertised on Nickelodeon , while games targeted toward teenagers and adults are advertised on MTV and G4 . Gaming as portrayed by the media Throughout the 1970s through even the 1990s, video game playing was mostly seen as sub-culture hobby activity and as a subsistute for physical sports. However, during several times in its early history, video gaming caught the attention of the mainstream news outlets. In 1978 , '' Pong '' become the first video game pop-culture phenom. This was followed by '' Pac-Man '' in 1981 . See Also: Video game controversy As games became realistic, issues of questionable content arose. The most notable early example is '' NARC '', which through its use of digitized graphics and sound and its adult-oriented theme quickly become a target by the press. These same issues arose again when '' Mortal Kombat '' had debuted, particularly its home video game console release on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo systems. In response to to these issues (and also in parallel to similar demands made upon the music and movie industries), the ESRB was established to help guide parents in their purchasing decisions. 1994's '' Doom '' caused quite a stir, with its detailed 3D graphics and plentiful use of Blood and gore. The 1998 Columbine Shootings were for a time directly blamed for the incident by being labeled "murder simulators" and have since been consistently linked with the tragedy. In 2001 , '' Grand Theft Auto III '' was released, which started the controversy over again. The main issue was that the graphics had advanced much, which made the game seem to have a greater potential impact. Today, video gaming is viewed as a serious industry, comparable to the movie industry or the music industry. News outlets cover video game console releases in the same manner as they cover the release of a highly-anticipated movie. Television channels The first video game TV show was GamePro TV . The first television channel dedicated to video gaming and culture, G4 , was launched in 2002. However, over the years, the channel has moved away from video game shows, and more towards male-oriented programs. '' X-Play '', one of the channel's most popular shows and the highest rated video game review show, is still produced at G4. There are also video game shows that appear on other channels, such as Spike TV and MTV . Influences on music See Also: Video game music Video game Music has been utilized in many ways. The earliest example is Buckner & Garcia 's '' Pac-Man Fever '' released in 1982. This album featured songs that were both about famous arcade games like '' Pac-Man '', '' Donkey Kong '', and '' Berzerk '' and also used the sound samples from the games themselves as instrumentation. (Commodore 64), NSF (NES) and SPC (SNES). Cover Band s like Minibosses have been founded recently that peform instrumentations. Full orchestras, such as the Symphonic Game Music Concert tour North America, the United States, and Asia performing symphonic versions of video game songs, particularly the '' Final Fantasy '' series, the '' Metal Gear '' series, and '' Nintendo '' themed music, such as the '' Mario & Zelda Big Band Live '' Concert. The 14 Year Old Girls is a band that started Nintendocore music. See: , Bitpop Video games and hip-hop '']] Video game references are frequent on hip-hop songs. For example, Busta Rhyme's 's 2003 hit single "Game Over", featured a music beat from '' Pac-Man ''. Rap music, like many music styles, is often featured in video games. Many titles, such as the ''. In the light of '' Grand Theft Auto III '', the urban warfare genre has arisen. Many of its titles, such as '' 25 To Life '' often deal with urban violence settings and Gang Culture , the same subject matter of Gangster Rap , which is pre-eminent today. Video game & Movie crossovers Movies based on video games box for '' The Wizard '']] As video games often have settings, characters, and deep plots, they have often become the basis for s), a substantially altered plot to make the movie more "mainstream" ('' Doom ''), and an emphasis on using celebrity actors over actors that would fit the part. Examples: '' Street Fighter '', '' Mortal Kombat '', '' BloodRayne '', '' Doom '', '' House Of The Dead '', '' Alone In The Dark '', '' Resident Evil '', '' Silent Hill '' Movies about video games Hollywood has also created movies that are about video games themselves. However, there are notably fewer examples. Some movies come close to discussing video games, but with a more fantisful approach, such as 1996's '' Virtuosity ''. The first film of this kind is 1982 's '' WarGames '', which is about a fictional compouter game called Global ThermoNuclear War. 1989 's ''The Wizard'' , staring Fred Savage is the first movie about a real video game. The plot revolves around about adolescents who compete at games for the Nintendo Entertainment System . This movie is also notable as it was a the first look at the mega-hit '' Super Mario Bros. 3 ''. The most current example of a movie of this type is 2006's '' Stay Alive '', a horror movie about a Next-generation video game that is so realistic that it kills its players. Interactive movies See Also: Interactive movie Interactive movies as a Computer And Video Game Genre was the result of the multimedia expansion of computers and Video Game Console s in the mid 1990s, primarily because of the increased capacity offered by the CD-ROM format. Interactive movies started out on Personal Computers but quickly expanded to video game consoles such as the Sega CD , the Phillips CD-i and the Panasonic 3DO . The games are characterized by more emphasis on cinematic sequences, using full-motion video and voice acting. Interactive movie games have been made in a number of genres, including Adventure Game s, Rail Shooter s, and Role-playing Game s. Notable examples – '' Bioforge '', '' Night Trap '', '' Sewer Shark '', '' Under A Killing Moon '', '' Rebel Assault '' GAMING AND DRUG CULTURE See Also: Winners Don't Use Drugs OUTLETS Fan fiction See Also: Fan fiction Console fanboyism See also: Console fanboyism refers to the culture of certain Console gamers holding one console superior to all others, often by slandering every other console. Common console brands subject to fanboyism are Nintendo , Sony and Xbox . Web comics See Also: :Category:Video game webcomics The most notable and popular webcomics include:
Web blogs Gaming news sites have long been a central point for discussion and dissemination of gaming news, whether its realted to upcoming games, current games, patches, tournaments, equipment and so on. Notable sites include:
Forums There are many Internet forums in which aspects of a number of computer and video games are discussed, sometimes to great depth. Most often, these forums are outlets of popular web destinations that focus on gaming. The most popular of which include: Fan games See Also: Fangame Mods See Also: Mod (computer gaming) REFERENCES SEE ALSO
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