The great game

So this weeks topic was 'studying video games'... my first thoughts on this lecture was... this is going to be so boring, but as the lecture progressed I was proved wrong.

Video games can be broken down further into specific types, pc games, console games, online games, arcade games and mobile phone games. These types can also be broken down further into first person shooters, puzzle, fitness and many more.

Demographics for video games were originally 18-25 year old males, making up 80% of the gaming market.
In 2005 Neilson active game study conducted new research. They found that there had been a massive boom in 25-40 year old male gamers. So this new data concluded that the 18-40 year old male gamers made up 59% of the gaming market and female games made up 49% which is pretty even.

It was seen that females dominated the mobile phone games and males predominately dominated the remainder aside from arcade games.

Josh raised a very interesting point... video games are very much like real life... you are required to earn, learn just like in every day life.

There are three specific ways to study a video game
1- Social science approach - which is studying the effects games have on people (violence)
2- Humanities approach - which is studying the meaning and context of a game. What is the story the game is trying to tell.
3- Industry and engineering approach - which is the development of games and new technologies.

In the last five minutes we did an experiment testing the three ways to study a video game. There was a male and female gamer volunteer in which Josh quizzed on the types of games they play and then tested out the ways of studying a video game... it was pretty funny overall... and it was established that 'video games have no impact on the people playing them'. It was acutally funnier to watch as many would know.