The Art of Video Games - Essay Sample

Introduction

If there is an area that has seen fast development and advancement, then it is the video games. This sector has for the past years witnessed tremendous growth and evolution. The video game industry has seen a mind-blowing development in the past few years. It can be attributed to the unprecedented advances seen in the technological sector. The technology sector has seen boundless imaginations, and an avid addiction to a world of fantastic and new games (Robson and Aaron, pp. 165-169). The art of video games has received boosts with the advancement in technology, and it has gone supernova. The video game is an ever-expanding art that brings excitement to the world of culture, art, and reality. It represents an experience that has crossed the boundary and gone into art and culture. It is an art that is slowly being accepted as part of the culture today. It represents a richly textured emotional and social experience that is unrivalled.

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All these games connect to a passion that is unrivalled. The gaming industry has undergone a lot of changes, and this is due to the advancements that have been witnessed in technology. What is changing is the art of the games' presentation. The UI (User Interface) is fast changing. From the time that the games were in 1 D, and now most of the games are in 3D and are more interactive than in the past (Granic et al., p.66). It, therefore, means that the advancement in technology has brought good tidings in the gaming industry making significant changes that are felt from across the gaming sector today. The changes make the games more exciting and that the users feel much more involved in a game today.

Looking at the games consoles like the Sega, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation 1 we can see the significant changes that have happened and that these changes continue to work and improve the gaming arena. The video game from the 1970s started to develop and grow (Weston and Jonathan, pp230-234). The improvements have been seen in many of the areas of the gaming industry and changed the art so much. Different companies are working day in day out to make sure that their consoles are the best - the games that were developed by these companies improved and made enhancements possible. For instance, the development of a game like Mario by Nintendo in the late 1970s was a significant milestone that we saw in the gaming industry. It was one of the best-selling video game franchises. Other games that came at these times were, for example, the Super, a game that helped revive the gaming industry in the United States of America. All these were developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, a student who worked for Nintendo.

More competition started streaming with the introduction of the PlayStation by Sony. With a lot of competition from the likes of Nintendo, Sony had to up their game and went on to bring 3D in play. It meant that there was competition in the development of the games console and that every company was out there trying hard to dominate the market. With Nintendo's great games in Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda, they were creating influence in the gaming industry. This competition was good for the gaming industry as they continued to produce more state of the art consoles. Sony went ahead and produced PlayStation 2, 3, and 4. The PlayStation 4 became a record for the gaming industry as it sold over 1 million copies within 24 hours.

Another big player in the gaming industry was Sega which started in the 1980s up until sometimes in the 1990s. Sega had games like Sega Master System, Sega Genesis. Sega Saturn, and Sega Dreamcast. Sega was not able to keep up with the competition of the other companies, and sometimes in the 1990s, it was forced to close its doors. Before this, the company was competing with the likes of Nintendo. They produced consoles that competed with Nintendo's and Sony's consoles, but unfortunately, they could not compete in the 1990s and had to leave the market (Dillon). Sega was responsible for creating the first a console that would connect to the internet directly. This was the birth of online console gaming, and Sega made the stride because they were the cheapest and most affordable console in the market at that time.

Sony PlayStation 2 came and crushed Sega, and this was because they had more games in addition to the fact that they were the most refined game console. Sega could no longer compete and had to leave the market and became a third-party developer. The video game industry started from humble beginnings and transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry. As we speak now, the industry is experiencing more developments thanks to the advancement in technology (Robson and Aaron, pp170-173). Throughout the evolution, the industry suffered triumph and failure in almost equal measures. The failures did not deter it from developing, and its development went on well. From the gaming industry what we see is the passion that persisted and the gaming industry stood.

Works Cited

Dillon, Roberto. The golden age of video games: The birth of a multibillion-dollar industry. AK Peters/CRC Press, 2016.

Granic, Isabela, Adam Lobel, and Rutger CME Engels. "The benefits of playing video games." American Psychologist 69.1 (2014): 66.

ROBSON, JON, and AARON MESKIN. "Video Games As Self-Involving Interactive Fictions". The Journal Of Aesthetics And Art Criticism, vol 74, no. 2, 2016, pp. 165-177.

Weston, Denise Chapman, and Jonathan A. Barney. "System and method for playing an interactive game." U.S. Patent No. 9,272,206. 1 Mar. 2016.