Free Essay

What Is a Video Game

In:

Submitted By Hannah1017
Words 706
Pages 3
What Is A Video Game
By: Kiara Foisy

Video games are one form of gaming systems that are slowly taking over the world. No one wants to go outside know a days, they just want to stay indoors and play video games. For some people who may not know what a video game is it is “An electric or computerized game played by manipulating images on a video display or television screen” (Farley, 2012, Paragraph1). Video games are separated into categories, which include Role-Playing, Strategy, and Simulation.

One category of video games is Role-Playing. Role-playing is “a game in which participants adopt the roles of imaginary characters in an adventure under the direction of a Game Master” (Dictionary, 2012, Paragraph 1). In other words a Role-Playing game, also known as RPG, is when one or more people assume a task and play it out in virtual reality. You would set out on a life as the main character and live it, while completing tasks and going on adventures. An example of a role-playing game is Final Fantasy XIII, which was released on March 9th, 2012. While playing Final Fantasy XIII, you play as multiple people doing multiple things. You battle powerful enemies and magical allies in the worlds of Cocoon and Pulse. Two more examples of role-playing games are Fable 3 and Dragon Age: Origins, both of which were released in the year 2010.

Another video game category is Strategy. A strategy video game is “a genre of video games that emphasize skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory” (Wikipedia, 2012, Paragraph 3). As a player you must plan a sequence of actions or moves that are against one or more adversaries. You strategize to gain experience that then leads to more adventure and more times that strategizing is needed. The game Battleship is an example. Battleship was released for gaming systems on May 15th 2012, player’s play to shield off enemy beachside attacks while they are ordering attacks against the marine counterparts. Another example is Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns, which is when you must strategize on what to do when a huge quarrel over food between the once friendly town of Konohana and Bluebell villages has turned into rivals.

The last category that shall be discussed is Simulation, which most people haven’t heard of before. A simulation is “designed to closely simulate aspects of a real or fictional reality” (Wikipedia, 2012, Paragraph 1). A simulation game is when a player imitates various activities in a “real life” situation. Players take part in an assortment of purposes such as training, analysis, or prediction. They don’t normally have a defined goal. Sims 3 and Gran Turismo are examples of a simulation game. Sims 3 was released on October 26th 2012, and involves a player creating a character and then leading the character through a series of life challenges that take place from childhood, to elderly age. Gran Turismo is based on a driving simulation, where the players must drive against computerized players in races.

Video games are slowly taking the outside fun away from every child out there. Most children would rather sit indoors and play video games then go outside and have fun. Video games are interactive gaming consoles that show a picture either on a computer screen or a television screen. Video games include Role-playing games, Strategy games and also simulation games.

References

Dictionary, 2012, Accessed on November 11th, 2012. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/role+playing+game?s=t

Farley, The Free Dictionary, 2012, Accessed on November 11th, 2012. Retrieve from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/video+game

G4, 2012, Accessed on November 12th, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.g4tv.com/games/wii/64147/the-biggest-loser-challenge/

G4, 2012, Accessed on November 11th, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/52828/final-fantasy-xiii/

G4, 2012, Accessed on November 11th, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.g4tv.com/games/ds/65152/harvest-moon-the-tale-of-two-towns/

Wikipedia, 2012, Accessed on November 12th, 2012. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Turismo_(vidoe_game)

Wikipedia, 2012, Accessed on November 11th, 2012. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.ork/wiki/Strategy_video_game#Definition.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

To What Extent Should Teens Be Able To Play Violent Video Games

...Are Video Games Dangerous? Should teens be able to play violent video games? Teens should not be able to play violent video games. Role- playing games with simulated violence are sperilous for kids. If it is study proved that it can cause violence then why are they not illegal, or why do they not have a law that say you have to be a certain age to be able to play violent video games? In the article “Do Games Like ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Cause Real-World Violence?”. “ In fact numerous studies have been conducted and the results are mixed. Some studies have shown that video games increase aggression.” “ It is possible that someone who plays or buys the violent video game will later go on, to carry out a horrible shooting. Should that happen, it will almost certainly occur in America, which boasts far and away the highest number of mass shootings (and shootings in general) while boasting no higher rate of video game consumption.”...

Words: 415 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Video Games

...Society and Video Games Video games are still a very new form of media. Compared to other forms of entertainment like books, television, or movies, video games are still new and very misunderstood. As video games rise in popularity many people like to blame them for the problems of modern society, although other forms of entertainment involve common elements. Video games need to be seen just as equal to a fan of movies or books. They do not always have to be mindless entertainment and can also be helpful in your daily life. Just like how people do not judge all television shows based on The Jersey Shore or Teen Mom, video games should not be judged by popular games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto which are at times just mindless entertainment but not harmful. If you do not know what these are then just think about the most popular things amongst your favorite form of media or hobby. A common argument that parents and people unfamiliar to video games like to address is how unhealthy they can be. In a sense this can be very true but enjoy it in moderation, too much of anything can be a bad thing. Other studies have found an association between compulsive gaming and being overweight, introverted and prone to depression. The studies didn't compare the benefits of gaming with such downsides. (Hotz. 2012) I come from a family of people who enjoy video games very often and none of us are considered overweight or have any signs of health problems but we may be...

Words: 2239 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Video Games and Negative Effects

...Exploratory: Do Video Games Have Negative Effects on Users? The form of entertainment is always changing with the shift in culture and advances in technology. One of the most popular forms of entertainment today is the use of video games. Video games have gotten more and more popular over the years. The use of them over a period of time can have a timely effect on the user just like any drug someone uses or any sport someone plays. Can they be positive effects or negative effects? Some people believe that video games are a bad influence and do nothing but harm to the gamer, which is the person who is playing the video game. Media in the news usually focuses on the negatives of video game use, completely leaving out the positives of it. If someone were to go up and ask ten parents if they think video games were bad or good for children or adolescents they would probably say bad, but there is actually some benefits to playing video games that can be determined. In a blog called “10 benefits of Playing Video Games” it shows a list of the ten benefits a person can get from playing video games such as boost cognitive health, improve hand eye coordination, and have sharper image (http://www.tastyhuman.com/10-benefits-of-playing-video-games/). I was very surprised to see such a long convincing list of benefits from video games. The reason why video games help cognitive health is because the majority of games require players to think tactically and make quick decisions. The article...

Words: 2552 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Video Games

...1100 Do Video Games Lead To Violence? What am I being asked to believe or accept? In this article, Do Video Games Lead to Violence, the argument being made is that video games either leads to violence or does not lead to violence. There have been arguments that video games cause psychological and physiological problems in children that result to violence. An opposing argument believes that video games do no cause violence and more research is needed to ensure that video games cause violent activities. What evidence is available to support each side of the argument? The evidence available to support each side of the argument is that researches found that playing video games increases aggression in young adolescents. In addition, more realistic video games increase physiological arousal. Video games also make children adapt to the interaction in the game rapidly. Evidence available to support that video games does not influence violent behavior is the little evidence between the contacts to violent video games to violence in real life. Olson, one of the researchers, believes that violent video games is not connected to how the media says it is. There is no legit evidence that playing video games causes aggressive behaviors. What further evidence or information would help me to evaluate the two sides to the argument? Further evidence that supports video games leading to violence are the experiments researches have done. The experiments demonstrated that playing video games...

Words: 626 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Popular Culture and Video Games

...Video Games Annotated Bibliography American Military University SOCI 220 January 29, 2012 Video Games and the Effect on Children The popular culture subtopic I choose that interests me is video games and the effects on children. To start my research I need to find articles, both peer-reviewed and popular source, to gather information. I used both the internet and the online university library and searched terms such as video games and children, popular culture and video games, video game addiction, and video game violence. Listed below are some of the numerous sources I discovered. I choose a small sampling of the sources available, briefly explained their relevance, gave a short overview of the article, completed a quick pro and con review and lastly I completed a compare and contract of the source against two other sources. | Source 1 | 1) Source Title | The Effects of Video Games on Children | 2) APA-formatted citation for source | Gentile, D. A. (2004). The effects of video games on children: What parents need to know? Pediatrics for Parents, 21(6), 23-25. | 3) Source Evaluation | Peer-reviewed journal | 4) Relevance of source to Subtopic | This article shows the effects of gaming and that excessive time spent playing video games can have a negative effect on children. | 5) 3-5 sentence description of source | This article discusses the fact that video games can have both a positive and negative influence on children. It discusses the need for parents...

Words: 2809 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Violence in Videogames

...The Misconception of Juvenile Video Game Violence The Misconception of Youth Video Game Violence A teen walks into a school with loaded weapon in hand. A young boy steals a vehicle and drives recklessly causing severe harm to others. A young girl sets her house on fire with family members inside. What do these seemingly uncommon crimes have in common? Each juvenile in these examples has played violent video games. Our media that covers these violent crimes is quick to make that point known. Often times they also erroneously blame the playing of violent video games as the root cause of these crimes. Research suggests that violence in video games does not contribute to violence in today’s youth because juvenile crimes have declined as video game popularity has increased; they in fact provide an outlet to express aggression without causing physical harm, and juvenile violence has been more commonly linked to exposure of family violence. When looking at research from the FBI, crime rates involving juveniles over the past 30 years have declined. In fact, in most violent crime categories the crime rate among our youth is at an all-time low (Butts, J. 2013). At first, this information may be hard to believe. It shouldn’t however, because violence among youth commonly ends up making headline national news. For this reason, we end up being exposed to the details on many of these youth related violent crimes. This can make it difficult to put actual facts into...

Words: 2121 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Video Game Design Career Essay

...Video Game Design Career Essay I was a kid, maybe six or seven years old when I first played one of those small portable video games, the famous Nintendo gameboy advance. Since that day I became a lover of video games, dreaming of becoming a creator or game designer, as it is called today. As I play more games, more grew in me the dream not only to play the game, but Also to create them; in fact I have come up with many nice thoughts about video games from what I have played and I believed one day my dream will come true when I will create my own game, hoping such game will become a famous game. After doing researches, I found that in fact, the video game industry it is a huge business managing billions of dollars, and that in order to create video game from just the game’s idea until the end step, a lot of different People with different educational background and training is needed. So, the questions now are, what part of this long chain of different positions I am interested for? What position within this multi-billions of industry will give me a major satisfaction? What position will give me the better income? Are universities or colleges in Puerto Rico offering courses for all these positions? Well, I think that I will only find answers researching more about the video games industry and those college in Puerto Rico teaching related course of study. I hope the next paragraphs will provide more information that helps to find answers about doubts in this field of video...

Words: 1669 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Integration of Video Games in Classrooms

...Integration of Video Games in Classrooms Abstract This literature review will explore the effective ways educational video games enhance student motivation in classrooms and the personalized approach of education through video games. It will also explore the adaptation of educational games in classrooms as well as educator’s concerns. The review is limited to the use of video games designed for educational purposes and does not discuss the educational value of the entertainment video games. The review does not discuss the different effects of video games on diverse groups; it focuses primarily elementary to college level students. Video games have been around for over thirty years; they are one of the most lucrative and prominent forms of entertainment across cultures. A total of $20.77 billion was spent in 2012 in the game industry (ESA, Essential Facts about the Computor and Video Game Industry, 2013). The Gaming Industry is changing and adapting every year to the new technological changes. Video games have become an important form of entertainment to society. “U.S. consumers play video games on… Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360 and on personal computers (“PCs”)….on mobile video players such as the PlayStation Portable “PSP”, the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS….“on-line” among multiple players who interconnect over the Internet and other proprietary online networks” (Siwek, 2010). The expanding market of video games and its influence on American...

Words: 2385 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Video Games and Obese

...up in a household where video games were a privilege that I had to earn. When I had done all my homework and chores, I was allowed to play video games for an hour a day. As I grew older my parents thought I could make my own choices and did not limit the amount of time I spent playing video games. Many people today think that video games cause children to become couch potatoes, act dumb, and be rude. As a young child, my parents taught me that responsibilities come before the reward. That is why I have a different opinion of video games. I believe that video games can be beneficial to individuals; however, there are limitations. They help children deal with cancer, improve literacy skills, gain educational skills, and stay fit, but individuals should be cautious about the genre of the game and the amount of play time. When these precautions are taken, video games can be a helpful tool for many. The first at home video game, Pong, was created by Allan Alcorn for the Atari. It consisted of two dimensional graphics and was the first game to attract people’s attention. To win, you had to be the first to defeat your opponent in this virtual game of table tennis. Soon after, the video gaming industry began expanding at an unimaginable rate. It took only 30 years to develop this multimillion dollar industry. New technology is opening doors for more advanced gaming systems and the industry is always increasing. We have come from a virtual two-dimensional game of table tennis, to realistic...

Words: 2619 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

History of Video Games

...To fully understand the importance of video games you need to take a look at all angles. Video games have been around for years and have impacted us more than you can imagine. From the very first prototype, to the futuristic simulations we have today, video games have changed the world as we know it. The video game industry is at an all time high. Video games are no longer a form of entertainment for few, but a world-wide phenomenon for people of all ages joining in on the fun. Consoles have a very long history; from the very start passionate people have been hard at work to make the industry what it is today. There are also guidelines that all video game companies must abide by as well, so it’s not all fun and games. A video game is defined as a game that involves direct input from a user to generate visual feedback on a device. The systems used to play video games are commonly known as platforms. These devices range from home consoles such as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii to the personal computer, and all the way to the arcade system, where the video game was born. Video games were first made as a form of entertainment but have since evolved into a worldwide cult following. They are now used for entertainment, learning tools, and even training. The video game industry was first introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971. This is where it all started. After the collapse of video games in 1983, there was a rebirth 2 years later which set in motion the events...

Words: 3258 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Independent Media Project: Negative Effects Of Video Games On Children

...has been a lot of negative attention in the media towards video games. Enough that most parents don't want their young children being subjected to the violence and aggression that most video games have. While there are many arguments that oppose video games, they are also many that claim the opposite. In fact, science has proven that video games are actually beneficial to the cognitive development of human beings. There are many studies that show an enhanced development in children who play video games. In the United States, an astounding 97% of all children play video games for an hour a day. While that may seem counterproductive to their social development, it's actually helping them...

Words: 1090 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Final Fan

...is: Do violent video games promote violent behavior? Some stakeholders in this controversy include: a. Video game players: -enjoyable leisure time activity -could cause psychological trauma -videogames could be harder to obtain if legislature changed laws regarding how video games are sold. -Are video games just a fun distraction? -Should people be restricted to play certain games based upon their age? b. Parents: -Should they limit exposure kids have to video games? -Should they not allow violent games in their house? -Should they know the content of the games their children are playing? c. Policy makers: -Should they make stricter laws regarding game content? -Are video games protected under the constitution? -Should they have more studies performed relating violence and video games? -Are only Certain video games at cause for violence? -Do video games cause violence at all? d. Stores that sell Video games: -Should stores be held accountable when employees sell to minors? -Should stores be allowed to sell “M” rated games? -Should stores be allowed to advertise for violent video games? -Would stores lose profit if not allowed to sell violent video games? e. Video Game developers and producers: -Should they be limited on what content they can put in games? -Should blame be levied against them for video game related violence if it exists? -Is it their right to make games at their discretion? f. Teachers: -Do video games have to do with...

Words: 649 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Positive And Negative Effects Of Video Games

...signifies the decline of human, moral, spiritual and traditional values.” Abstract: The progress of video games has done a great change in our lives. There are studies show that there is a study between video games and violent other research shows the good benefit of video games adult expose themselves to greater amount of video games What would our life be without technology; the term technology has Greek origins which means the science of craft? Nowadays technology has become such an integral part of human's life. Millions of people claim that technology has speared humanity from nature and affects the teenager's behavior badly. Although technology is still the source of enormous development; people don’t realize the danger which comes from it. Technology is classified to different media one of these media...

Words: 1119 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Subjective Essay on Video Games

...Video games have been and continue to be a great part of my life. Ever since the tender age of three I have been fascinated by the interactivity and the captivating graphics displayed by video games. I have developed and retained an appreciation for the capacity that many well developed video games have to blend competitiveness, the need for intellectual dexterity, and pure entertainment. I have long understood the task of producing a game with such comprehensive quality as both an art and a science. In any case, my video game passion has slowly but surely charmed me into learning much about the philosophy of video games, their design and development, and especially the history of video games. Despite my life-long passion with video games, I began a true self-propelled academic investigation into the world of video games only a few years ago. I remember quite vividly that this intellectual journey into the world of video games was prompted by a friend of mine who was intrigued by the fact that I was often engulfed in the world of video games. During those days I was younger and consequentially much more immature than now. Not only did I enjoy video games, I spent a great deal of the few funds which I had on purchasing new games, much of my free time playing games, and a lot of time also discussing video games in general. I was not officially addicted; I always knew when enough was enough and when I needed to spend time completing school work, saving, or spending money to make...

Words: 2493 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Gun Violence Research Paper

...Head shot! That guy was destroyed! I know I wonder sometimes what is happening to our youth today. With so much gun violence especially in the community where there are disadvantage children. Who do we blame and what contributes to the way of how they think. I believe the media, which includes music, television, and video games do impact their behavior and actions. Some games do have educational content yet majority of them promote negative theme such as the abuse of drugs and alcohol, the killing of people and animals, disrespect for authority and the law, foul language and obscene gestures, criminal behavior just to name a few. Kids, typically boys, love the games that blast and shoot things. These are just some examples of the conversation...

Words: 2294 - Pages: 10