Video+Games

= __** Video Games **__ =  **Recently there have been so many advances in technology, and so many new and different video games have been created. There always new things that "top" the old, games people just have to have! ** **So much money is spent on these, and new studies have found that more money was spent on video games than films (whether trips to he movies OR actually purchasing movies/DVDs). This is now such a large form of entertainment for people and is beginning to attract new crowds.** ( www.telegraph.co.uk )

**---Children are NOT the primary market for video games anymore.** While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together.

**---Girls DO play computer games.** Historically, the video game market has been predominantly male. However, the percentage of women playing games has steadily increased over the past decade. Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games. Spurred by the belief that games were an important gateway into other kinds of digital literacy, efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls. More recent games such as //The Sims// were huge crossover successes that attracted many women who had never played games before. Given the historic imbalance in the game market (and among people working inside the game industry), the presence of sexist stereotyping in games is hardly surprising. Yet it's also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent.



**---Video game play is NOT socially isolating.**

Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players — for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players. Sociologist Talmadge Wright has logged many hours observing online communities interact with and react to violent video games, concluding that meta-gaming (conversation about game content) provides a context for thinking about rules and rule-breaking. In this way there are really two games taking place simultaneously: one, the explicit conflict and combat on the screen; the other, the implicit cooperation and comradeship between the players. Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen.


 * __Gaming News 2012!__**

This is a specific website that is fast and allows viewers to get the latest news and needs that they may have when it comes to the hottest games!

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__**Sources:**__
@http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6852383/Video-games-bigger-than-film.html