AuthorTopic: Actual impact of Video Games  (Read 35497 times)

Offline ndchristie

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Actual impact of Video Games

on: July 11, 2007, 08:34:59 pm
out of curiosity, how many people here besides me don't really play video games?  I'm much more into video games than the average person i know, and it has been literally *months* since i played a console game.  When I'm at my dad's every other week, i play a little bit of Rome: Total War, but I've had that game for 2 years and played a grand total of 2 complete campaigns (which even a lot of casual players knock out in a couple weeks).

I see though that i am probably in the minority on this board, the way people go on and on about upcoming or recent games.  When i read, however, about masses being led by video games I really just do not see it.  Almost nobody in a school of 1600 bothered with next gen consoles (literally only 4 people i know, though it's not like i know everybody), and the only time i hear about them now is people offering to sell their few-month-old console, because they never use it.  I asked my brother and he says the people he knows in Boston are pretty much the same.  If there is a huge market for video games.

Movies and music on the other hand are much more important.  Every few weeks, maybe every couple of months, movies come out that literally everyone goes to see.  For every one person that talks about video games, it seems there are hundreds talking about movies.  It feels like almost 10 people own ipods for every person like me who doesn't (my friend Caroline's little sister just turned 11 and owns an ipod).  The people who don't still have pretty good CD collections.

Is new england just a funny place that could care less about video games, or is the whole video game thing that over-hyped everywhere?
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Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #1 on: July 11, 2007, 08:50:06 pm
That's a good question...I don't actually game that much, maybe 2-5 hours a week?  I probably talk about video games more than I play them...but then I also prefer to MAKE video games, rather than play them...

But also I think the time of year has something to do with it - summer is a time for getting outdoors, and its when all the big blockbuster movies hit too.  People have limited time and money, after all (well most people anyways).  I think come November it might seem different.  Though today it feels like EVERYONE is a gamer thanks to the ubiquitous E3 coverage :P

Offline Xion

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #2 on: July 12, 2007, 01:02:30 am
I dunno, man, when I was a kid...well, I say that as if I'm not anymore - when I was but a wee lad, my friends and I had most of our common ground around our interest in videogames. We'd play games and stuff and talk about them and stuff...and when I started highschool, when one of the teachers organized a video-game-playing...thing afterschool, there were more people than I'd expected to who showed up, pwning in both Halo and Smash Bros. Melee. And then when I moved to Cali and all the next-gen systems were announced/came out, I'd (over)hear people just talking about which one they wanted most and stuff.
But this may all be due to the fact that my senses immediately perk up whenever anything game-related is mentioned in my vicinity, when I would otherwise be inattentive.

Hmmm...

But I wonder, when movies first came out, were they an instant hit or did it take time to get to the point where people flock to each premier? If the latter, then videogames, still in their infancy compared to both movies and especially music (which is like two thousand years old to movies' eyeblink of an existence) will of course not be as big and booming as the aforementioned industries yet, which are pretty much omnipresent in everyone's lives. Right now, there are still tons of people who could care less about games, but it's only a matter of time - ages, maybe a century or so - until they also reach the magnitude of movies as a means of entertainment.

What was the question again?

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #3 on: July 12, 2007, 02:08:59 am
Asking how man people actually play video games (around here or in general) to see whether video games are actually a powerful and ever-present media force, or if people just act like they are, because around here, they seem to get very little attention.
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Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #4 on: July 12, 2007, 06:25:48 am
actually adarias, im exactly like you. conceit goes crazy when i tell him i havent played this or that.
im just more interested in the pixel art i guess.

Offline JonathanOfDrain

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #5 on: July 12, 2007, 08:08:03 am
I too don't play games much. Last game I played was the darkness and that was fun, but it only lasted 3 days without the multi-player. Pixel Art is more appealing to me because it's something you can do almost anywhere. Even the computers at Target have MSpaint, so I get to dick around there.
I recently have been doing a lot more pen and paper gaming (and game running) so that's even less time to video game. But I live in New England so this post is void.

Offline Xion

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #6 on: July 12, 2007, 08:09:22 am
Asking how man people actually play video games (around here or in general) to see whether video games are actually a powerful and ever-present media force.
Oh, hahaha.
No.

Offline robalan

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #7 on: July 12, 2007, 12:27:39 pm
Going to a tech school, most of the people I know play video games quite avidly, discuss them constantly, and flock to stores to buy new consoles.  On one floor of one dorm, I know of at least four people who got Wiis, and I'm pretty sure there are others.  The school is sort of New England; it's in upstate NY so half the people are from there :-P  Also, most of the people I know in Boston (where I'm living and working for the summer) also game, so maybe it's just the crowd I happen to hang out with?  I dunno.  But yeah, I don't think it's New England.  You're just not talking with the right crowd of people, I guess.
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Offline huZba

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #8 on: July 12, 2007, 04:06:36 pm
I don't know many people who don't play games at all. Even the the least gamer types tend to go for a quick game of crash bandicoot or cooking mama if they're bored. And there's of course the masses who don't play consoles but enjoy online multiplayer browser games or those found on sites like miniclip. Gas stations and small restaurants have minigame collection machines that have mahjong, block and card games. Girls play those a lot while they hang around and chat with friends. Games like brain age, cooking mama, wii sports, guitar hero and dancing/singing games are famous with previous "non-gamers" since they don't really have any kind of learning curve for having fun. You can totally suck but still enjoy them. Then little kids play on sites like club penguin, which is in the top10 of MMO games.

In short, you find gamers everywhere.

Offline tocky

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Re: Actual impact of Video Games

Reply #9 on: July 12, 2007, 04:41:42 pm
I don't own a current-gen console. Currently all I got is my PC, which is too old to play last year's games, and a gamecube, which is starting to seem sort of a foolish thing to hang onto. I'm mostly into RPG/adventure style jobbies, and basically won't play anything else unless it's really excellent, so games that'll appeal are few and far between these days. I don't really keep track of what's coming out anymore. Mostly I've been flipped onto indie games and emulation. But still I'll prattle incessantly about games to anyone who'll listen, and spend a fair bit of time reading up on people's design theries, trying to come up with fun game mechanics, and stuff like that.

Quote from: Xion
videogames, still in their infancy compared to both movies and especially music (which is like two thousand years old to movies' eyeblink of an existence)...

That's kind of a tetchy statement. Video games are just the currently-most-popular iteration of gaming, which is ancient. Video games are to games what pop is to music; what cinema is to drama. Gaming, like drama and music, has always been vastly popular. It's just technology, direction, and globalisation that makes them seem so different to their predecessors.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2007, 05:17:26 pm by tocky »