Introduction
Video gaming has been a part of daily life now for an entire generation, with console developments leading the videogame market to an unrecognisable position since Ralph Baer began experimenting with his Brown Box concept in the late 1960s. Finally released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey, the console permitted play of a basic game of tennis on a home television screen (Taylor, 2017a). From these humble beginnings to the present gaming culture mass market on both PC and console, the industry has been a refuge for young technologically minded people for around the last four decades. This presents an image, mostly of teenagers and young adults, gaming alone in their secluded bedroom darkness. So what happened to those early gamers, and is the popular image true? Quite simply, lots of them are probably still gaming, with a group of COD (2003) players indistinguishable in age, race, social status and gender from any other generic social gathering. The gamers who grew up with Pong (1972) and all the later associated developments leading to the present sleek and high-definition games available on both PC and console are now in their 40s 50s and 60s, and can often be found on a headset in squad play on Battlefield 1 (2016). Some people who gamed when they were young but have gone on to marry, have families, develop careers, and even retire, have then returned to gaming for the new graphical fidelity they can see in the re-releases of games they were attached to when younger. Tomb Raider (1996) is a fine example of one such incitement, moving from the pixelated character that gamers fell in love with and dedicated hours to, into a fully blown filmic Lara Croft representation with realistic environments and movements; now a morsel too engagingly tempting to ignore.
The popular early game Elite (1984) and its subsequent Frontier (1993 & 1995) sequels began as a series of lines that recreated the concept of space. Re-released in 2014 as Elite Dangerous (2014) in an advanced graphic style, a player can now see they are in space and can adapt their physical console area to create the illusion of virtual reality at home in the form of a spaceship cockpit. Dedicated Elite Dangerous gamers can play with several screens and/or virtual reality headsets that are connected to their conceptual spaceship console. A core attraction that is drawing back Elite’s original players though is Frontier Development’s dedication to the original system of prize awards for competitive gameplay. The aim of the game is to become an elite spaceship pilot in the gaming ranks, and prizes such as digital decals and leaderboard presence are awarded for sufficient level-ups (Frontier Network, 2018). This dedication to the original game series resulted in original Elite players returning to the newly released game version, in some cases purchasing consoles and gaming PCs to do so, with the result that Elite Dangerous won a series of awards during the period 2014-2017 and was nominated in the 2017 BAFTA awards for Evolving Game of the Year (BAFTA, 2017).
With the presence and demographics of the gaming audience established, it is possible then to consider some of the subsequent changes in the gaming industry itself. Since its early inception on PC and consoles, gaming has become much more accepted, accessible, and therefore prevalent in the modern world. Those gamers who grew up playing are now parents themselves, and politically governed media smear campaigns aside, have their own view of videogaming that has formed at least partially through association with the medium. The influence of gaming can now be seen in many other forms of culture, including film, television, theatre, music, performance art, and artistic creation generally. This essay will use examples of these influences to show that not only has gaming impacted on the wider arts and entertainment agenda, but the effects are so widespread that a whole new aesthetic is emerging in the way that we absorb culture, that mimics games. Basically, to be current, it has to be a game.
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