Video Games: The Movie

Movie Title--  Video Games: The Movie

Release Year--  2014

Running Time--  1 Hour and 40 Minutes

Director--  Jeremy Sneed

Cast--  Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Zac Braff, Chris Hardwick, Nolan Bushnell, Alan Alcorn, Rob Pardo Donald Faison, Francis Mao, Randy Pitchford, Max Landis, Hideo Kojima, Ed Fries, Mark Merrill

The history and evolution of video games and the modern day gamer.

The History

The history of video games really starts with the development of entertainment media.  Media is relevant to it's time. Music has evolved so now it is digitized, moving away from cassettes and records. Books and movies are the same way; they have moved from being a media in a physical form to a digital form that can be carried more easily. Video games have developed in the same way; they are constantly evolving and changing. It is very easy to say that in a hundred years from now, video games will still be around because they are slowly and constantly rooting themselves into our culture, most of us being involved with it every day of our lives in some form.   

There are different genres in the game world, such as but not limited to-- racing games, shooters, action, adventure, role playing, strategy, simulation, and sports but all of these also categories also break down into sub-genres. This causes a variety of games to be available to the public, giving the gamer an even larger range of games to choose from. Over the past 10 years, video games have gone from a 6 billion dollar to a 24 billion dollar industry. It is very heavily debated over who the “father” of video games is.  Some people will say it is Nolan Bushnell the founder of Atari, while for others it may be Ralph Baer, the man who created the first console and some people will go on to say it is Shigeru Miyamoto, the creatof or modern day video games.

In 1962, a group of students and facility at MIT headed by Steve Russell, created a game called Spacewar for the first computer with a display, the PDP-1. They wanted to showcase the display screen of this new computer by creating something visual on the screen.  However, some people say that video games go back even further than this and say that video games were a product of cold war technology. The truth is actually somewhere in the middle of this statement.  Many different industries and innovators helped to develop video games into what they have become but one industry brought video games to the public and soon, right into their living rooms; Atari.

With the release of Atari and Intellivision in the early 80's, it became evident how much money could be made from these gaming systems.  The video games for these systems started being mass produced in large quantities and the more that came out, the worse the quality was.  A lot of games felt like they were the same game just in different packaging. In 1983, Atari partnered with Universal Studios to make E.T. The Extra Terrestrial the video game based off the motion picture. They only had 5 weeks to create the game and when shipped, it was a sub par game that gained a huge backlash from the consumer that affected the entire video game industry. By the summer of 1983, video game companies, including Atari went under. It was the first lesson that these companies learned; the consumer is smarter than they thought and the consumer isn't fooled by sub par games in pretty packaging.

This changes when the Nintendo is released.  Nintendo is released with the knowledge that actually getting to play a character instead of just a dot on the screen appealed to the public. Nintendo was the best selling toy in America for 2 years running after it's release.  

In the late 80's and early 90's, the revitalization of video games brought new and innovative game designers to the table, which produced what are considered some of the greatest video games of all time.  As the game business begins to evolve, the games began to become more story based and more in depth. The consumer wants to feel like they are part of the story and they want to invest their time in the game.  By the 2000's a new conversation started over violence in video games as the games became more and more real. The media focused in on the handful of  popular but extremely violent games that are on the market and put bad images in people's minds that video games has caused a rise in violent crime.  Also, with graphics and game play improving in games, the story lines started to become more complex and immersive, getting us to the point that we are at currently by being able to control the game as the player and make decisions that will affect the rest of the game play experience.

The Statitics

The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) says the average gamer has been playing for 12 years. 

The average adult gamer has played for 14 years.

The average male gamer 16 years and females log an average of 12 years.

As of 2013, 49% of American households own a dedicated game console and those that did, usually owned two.

The average age of a gamer as of 2013 is 30 but that is not all males; 47% of modern gamers are female.

42% of people that play computer and video games believe that they get more out of their money playing versus going to the movies, listening to music or watching a DVD.

The average age of a person that buys video games is 35.

The point of all these statistics is to say that video games are no longer child's play. No longer does a person have to go to the arcade or their living rooms to play anymore. They are in our pockets and in our phones--
15% of the most frequent game players subscribe and play online games, 33% play on their phones and 25% play on hand held devices.

62% of all gamers are social and play with someone in person or on line.

85% of parents are aware of the ESRB rating system

Over 73% of parents believe that the parental controls on gaming consoles are useful and parents put more time control monitors on game systems more than any other form of entertainment.

95% of the time parents are present when a game is purchased.

82% of the time children get their parent's permission before purchasing or renting a game. 

The Timeline

1972 Magnvox Odyesses released the pong gaming machine.

1977 Atari 2600 released with “Adventure”--Space Invaders, Pac-Man

1980 Intellivision released with Burger Time, Dig Dug

1982 Atari 5200 released with Super System

1985 Nintendo Gaming System

1986 Sega Maser released with Ghosbusters

1988 Sega Genesis released with Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast

1989 Gameboy released with Turbo GFX 16

1991 Super Nintendo released with Super Mario World

1992 Mortal Combat, Street Fighter II, MK video games introduced

1993 Atari Jaguar released with Doom, Atari Karts

1994 ESRB Founded to rate video game content

1995 Sony Playstation released
1995 Sega Saturn released

1996 Nintendo 64 released with Super Mario 64, Zelda Octarina of Time

1998 Dreamcast released with Starcraft, Half-Life

2000 Playstation 2 released with God of War, Grand Theft Auto

2001 XBox released with Splintercell, Halo

2001 Gamecube released

2005 Xbox 360 released with Call of Duty

2005 Sony PSP released

2006 Wii released with Wii Sports

2006 PS3 released with Fallout 3

2012 WiiU released

2013 PS4 released with Knack

2013 Xbox One released with Forza 5

I thought this film was pretty interesting.  Of course, some of the knowledge I already knew since like so many people that were interviewed, I have grown up with video games.  I will say that at one point the statistics do get a little bit overwhelming but they are still very interesting to listen to.  

I think one of my favorite parts of the film is the different montages that are found throughout the film.  A lot of them show the evolution of a certain game or console (Mario even gets his very own montage) but even still, they are highly entertaining and the music is pretty catchy.

This is one of those films I think every gamer should watch.  For some of us it is a good way to get back to our roots and for the newer gamers, it is a good way to see how deep those roots actually go.  Check this out with all your gamer buddies and Don't Forget the Popcorn!

For a little added fun, I found this.  It is the prices of the consoles if they were sold today (due to inflation) along with the price they were originally sold for in their prospective years: