The Evolution of Gamer and Gaming Culture

Gamer and Gaming culture has never been at the foreground of society but still plays a large part in todays’ world.

In this essay I will be looking at the evolution of Gamer and Gaming culture from its roots in the old school arcades to its modern day living room counter part in order to document and analyse the changes that have occurred to it over the last few decades.

In order to fully understand the evolution of a new culture I will look into several aspects of it which include the people involved, the taboos & commandments, the effect on popular culture and the rate of change.

Due to the industries growth and the application of high end technology and innovative interaction methods gaming culture has changed to span a broad spectrum of peoples some who take part intentionally and some who are a part of it just by starting to enjoy games.

Essay Structure:

Research and define key generations of gaming culture where the most impact was made

Find statistics describing the average amount of people in the UK who play games from 20 years ago and today and use them to accurately describe the rate of growth and give a personal opinion on why the changes occurred.

Compare each advancement in culture and technology for each generation and how these two areas affected by each other.

Research on advances in technology and gameplay.

Describe how gaming culture has merged into todays popular culture

Compare taboos within society from today and several years ago. Describe how the changes in general society occurred and give opinion on why it happened.

Conclusion

Conclude with overall findings and come up with a fact based opinion about the evolution of gamer and gaming culture.

Casual Gamer: True or False

History and Analysis by Ravelle Leacock

I am going to discuss the impact of the gaming industry today, and the innovations which have paved the way for easier accessibility for the unconventional gamer. I shall be asking the question: (Casual Gamer: True or False)

Within the essay I will be identifying the notion of fads that gaming may have had, and whether those fads still exist.

From the past ten years, the way that gaming has evolved has been extremely positive, a lot of that success was due to technology progressing, whether it be graphical and processing power or hardware interfaces.

Structure of the Essay

Main points to focus on

• Look at and research all consoles which have been released within the past 10 years.

Compare each console from old gen to next gen, and highlight each consoles’ demographic.

• Look and research major titles for each platform.

Compare major titles for each console and highlight each games’ demographic.

• Research Technology within the industry

Look at technology used for gaming and look at technology used for non-gaming i.e. films CGI.

• General thoughts of consumers

Take out a survey between hardcore gamers and causal gamers and identify a general consensus between each.

Violence in Video Games

My topic I will be writing my essay on will be Violence in video games. There are a lot of controversies surrounding this topic in recent times and I find it very interesting to do some more research about this topic and what other people think. This has been everywhere in the news, magazines and even in the newspapers so this is no news to anyone. I will be using various researches sources such as magazines, article and internet sources to do my research. The reason why I chose to do my essay on this topic was, as a gamer I like violence in video games and I find it a little boring to play games with little violence it them. So choosing this topic will help me express myself freely in a way I would like and argue for and against violence in Video games. This research at the end will give me a broad idea about the effects violence can have in a video games and children.

Mountain Dew Gets Warcrafted

Hey People

I have just found this on Kotaku and thought it would be useful for Alex's work at the moment. Mountain Dew have released a special Warcraft edition of their drink called Game Fuel. They have done this a few times before with some other games such as Halo 3 and Metal Gear Solid 3 (if I am thinking right)

You can find the link at

http://kotaku.com/5173387/world-of-warcraft-the-soft-drink

Cheers

Luke

Student Presentations - Peer Review

As those that presented for the H&A3 module will know I run a system of peer review with presentations, some of the marking criteria have changed so i thought i would release a copy of this terms peer marking sheet for you to see before you present

Are Games Good For Learning - Academic Paper

Hey people

I have been doing research for my presentation/essay and came across a usefull paper for ste matthews presentation. It poses the question are "Video Games Good For Learning?" and I have read the first few pages and looks good.

It is a bit old now as one of its focuses is Thief: Deadly Shadows and Dues Ex, but can be applied to modern games easily me thinks.

You can find the paper at the following URL

http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf

Cheers People

Presentation Abstract - Title Change (Bio-Terrorism to Terrorism)

Hey People

Sorry about the late notice of this, but I have decided to change the title of my presentation to include all forms of terrorism and not Bio Terrorism imparticular. I have been doing research tonight and have found out that my terrorism research contains more infomation than the bioterrorism research to going to include both in the presentation/essay.

Hope this is OK and see you all next week

Luke

Resident Evil Research - Gametrailers Retrospective

As people know, I have been researching terrorism and bioterrorism in videogames and imparticular Resident Evil.

I have played all of the titles in the series already, but have been watching this retrospective in case I have missed anything in the story timeline.

I thought if people haven't seen it, it is a good video to watch just to recap over the series.

You can find the video at http://www.gametrailers.com/player/46616.html

Student Presentations

Can ALL students book a place to present their work for this module on Doodle. Students can only book one slot and each slot can only be book once (Doodle has improved since last term). Presentation slots are on a first come first served basis... Students should keep in mind that the presentation is of a work in progress but should be of a professional and academic nature. Presentations constitute 25% of your final mark and will be peer reviewed. Please go to http://www.alanhook.co.uk/CVG_HA4/pa2_ha4_0809.pdf for further guidance.

For those that haven't used Doodle before please visit the doodle site here type your name in the box, pick your time on the day you prefer and click save. I will be monitoring the site to make sure people are taking part and that it is running smoothly.