The Evolution of Us, Through Video Games,
In The Multi Media Age
MY THOUGHTS
As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gamer and I’ve always loved the way playing video games made me feel. It was a way to get away from reality, even if it was just for a little while, and I was only distracted by trying to stay alive at whichever level I was trying to overcome. The thought of being able to continue a long winning streak of beating difficult levels can turn into a rabbit hole, but it’s always worth the headache to attain the euphoric feeling of triumph, by winning it all. As the graphics in video games continue to evolve and become more realistic, we are also evolving in the ways we play out our fantasies through more realistic technology.
Out of all the digital forms of media that we use daily video games are at the top, and the visual advances in video games in the last forty years have changed our lives. As we become more reliant on technological realism in order to become more efficient inner daily transactions. The availability of video games has interjected itself in the way we use leisure time in the comfort of our homes, while we travel, and during family time. As cinematography becomes part of the most popular video games throughout the new generation of products, and the more realistic games become the more popular the new versions become.
A lot of the games being built include realistic graphics accompanied by very imaginative storylines that are meant to resemble our own lives. We are meant to step outside of our daily lives into an abyss of virtual change through media in a variety of themes, subjects, scenarios, fantasies, and emotional changes through game play. Where do we begin to change our way of thinking outside of a video game into our daily lives through cinematography, storytelling and cognitive interpretation of our fantasies for the impossible through video game realism.
The question has always been directed towards how playing video games for an extensive amount of time change the way we portray ourselves in real life. At what point is the video game in control of our thought process to the point of altering the way we operate in our decision-making process in real life. When do we begin to think that real life will have the same outcome as it would in a video game because it feels real.
For instance, we are made happy by the mixture of organic chemicals in our brain that lead to how we feel in that instance. But what if we begin to use thoughts from an experience you may have experienced during a long gaming session, which then somehow becomes relevant in a different occasion leading into the want of that specific feeling. The first thing that comes to mind to answer that question can be attributed to a fantasy, as it is stated the dictionary “the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable”.
We have this experience in video games when we seek to change the way we feel at a certain time, as we seek comfort within our immediate space whether it is at home or on the go. Video games are now able to make a comfortable space regardless of where we are, as long as it is affordable or we have the capability of acquiring one. Take for example what is going on right now as we are in a lockdown and confined to our spaces where we are most comfortable. There is nothing like the first experience with video games and the feeling you walk away with once you are done playing.
In my case, I was about 6 years old, the first time I ever played a video game was through a friend in the neighborhood who had an Atari, and my life changed forever after playing Joust for the first time. I had to wait for my turn for a while before I got a turn, but it was a great opportunity to feel something I had never felt before. Having the one kid in the neighborhood with a video game console was amazing, he was a friend and was willing to share it with me, so I waited for my turn. I walked away from that experience a changed individual as I can attest to this day by being a big video game fan, who was lucky enough to get a turn and passed it on to my own kids decades later.
Ever since then, I have been attracted to video games of all types, not all the games, but I have had my share of great video games ever since. I have owned everything from console games, handhelds, on phones, computers, tablets, and probably many others I cannot remember. The one important element in the same amount of time of using video games is the experience of gameplay, as the visual experience has continued to change while becoming more realistic. Gradually, the storylines have continued to develop into an all out construction of a virtual world like the sims, as the time of gameplay has become unfathomable.
In contrast, there are approximately 150 million people in the U.S. who play video games regularly, so imagine how many people in the world play at the same time in some type of way. We are at a point in time were we are becoming a virtual world by consuming approximately 3 billion hours a week in video game play, not to mention every tech tool that we use everyday to move our lives forward. Living in a time when we are spending more time playing video games than figuring out how we are going to make changes that will actually change the world is becoming self-destructive.
But then, if it were not for video games, we would not be making changes in the advancement of technology in other places like flying aircrafts, driving tanks, boats, cars, and other machines, as humans learn how to use one before actually touching one. Today I saw my oldest son graduate from a coding course in which all graduating students made their online apps video games based on other games they enjoyed. Now, they are also able to use their knowledge of code to build something in digital form, or apply these new skills in some other form of technological advance. We are now using video games to drive our species into many different corners of technology as we continue to strive for the next best thing in our fantasy driven hunger, like Virtual Reality.
I think the next phase of video games will come from a mind driven game and outcomes that can be left in the game while coming back to our own life, while making the same changes we made in the game, like a simulator. I have seen shows on tv that replicate the type of fantasy world where we can do whatever we want, and go back to what we really intend to do outside of the virtual world. But what if this was to become a reality? How will this near “real” experience make us respond? How will we relate it in a real life situation? Our lives are happy depending on the mixture of chemicals in our brains, so where will it take us as we are putting virtual reality literately right into our eyes and minds.
Think of the numbers I mentioned before, how many eyes a week are on video games, and the need to find that happy place in our day as we progress in life. Think of everything else that we use when it comes to our entertainment in phones, cameras, computers, television, radio, social networks, underground apps, print, art, and everything else that comes with media, and turn it into hours spent used by us. At what point are we actually living in a virtual world that is not of our own when we are involved in media from every angle of our lives as we continue to find new ways of entertaining our everyday needs.
During this time of having to stay home for a long period of time I have come to a place where I find myself using video games to keep some of my time at bay, the rest is spread out with all other medias. But I took the time to do some research on myself about gaming habits, and how it affects me as I sit almost forty years later trying to see where I stand with video games. It turns out I still love them, I still enjoy the feeling I get from it, some new games were tried, and in the end, I out gamed myself by trying to keep up and realized that I have limits in my play time now.
One element I was trying to understand is the use of realism in the new generation of video games, by getting a gamer to feel the need to continuously use the game as a way to communicate, in comparison to twenty years ago. I believe that realism has become the next phase in gaming were we are visually put into a virtual world that we already live in. For us to say that we do not use all these types of media tools to drive our lives would be an understatement – we are congregating and communicating without being present everyday.
In the end, I believe that out of all forms of multimedia video games have a greater chance of becoming the primary form of media in a world were we rely on information and communication. We could be taking the next step into a future filled with a variety of virtual worlds of based on cinematography, storytelling and our way of thinking based on how we conduct ourselves through a video game. The connection between video games in society in this day and age are through the development of new and improved ways of making the game closer to realism.
As the world of video games continue to break barriers in technology, and continues its fathoming financial impacts on our society in the likes of 138.7 billion in 2019, we are certainly closer than before. In comparison, the film industry made 35.4 billion, and the music industry made approximately 25 billion during the same time. Where do we really see ourselves in another ten years with the use of media and the realism in video games as a primary source of our information. Will video games still be considered as just another tool to keep kids occupied or will it become the forefront of where our world is headed with media.
The one aspect about researching this topic that made me think harder about myself was that as I head in the direction of developing multimedia, I realized that I should question it more. This class has made me realize how much there is to learn about media and the many outlets of sharing information being created by individuals in order to share and communicate. You are reading this on a multimedia page that I have been building through what I see as the tools I have acquired through the years in my immediate world of media. To me, media is a tool of any kind that can relay information and communication with anyone as a form of growth in existence. I consider multimedia as being the type of tools we are using to connect the information and communications between two or more beings.
READING SOURCES
Cinematography (small)
Storyline (medium)
Health and Thought (large)
The Effects in Real Life (brave)
QUOTES FROM THE READ
THE VISUAL AND STORYLINE EVOLUTION
EVOLUTION OF VIDEO GAMES
THE END