Coponent 1 section B

Component 1 - Section B

Video Games

The first video came out in 1962 but was only popularised in the '80s. It is an industry that is young and completely untested. We haven't seen the full extent of the evolution of video games, they haven't been through their renaissance period as it isn't held with integrity.

Video game production, distribution and circulation

A brief history of the video game industry

• broadly started off in 1964 called space war, developed in America in a science lab. Was less about entertainment and more a science experiment. 
• 'scientist' found out you could play it over a network
• around about this time, using the early version of the internet, people started playing video games such as dungeons and dragons using muds.
• first video games developed by engineers and scientists
• not worldwide because of expenses 
• they would involve being stored in hundreds of card that would be punched to be activated
• as time went on and there were more technological advances
• the first major video game was Japanese 
• The Japanese arcade boom
• Space invaders were popular, the genre was a 'shoot it up' (stg)
• lots of the early shooter games was a shoot it up game
• urban legend: apparently was so popular that they needed to print more coins because they were playing it so much there was a shortage
• they were in places called arcades in Japan

• In America in the early 19080s, companies like Hetari were creating their own arcade games
• Donkey Kong (Japan)
• Froga (American)
• PacMan (Japan) 
• they were all in public, not able to afford to have one at home
• the first video game was called the black box odyssey
• In the Uk, we were interested in microcomputers
• In UK was a coding scene (e.g Bandersnatch)
• in the 1980s, in the Uk, there were more individual enthusiasts (active audiences)
• there were much experimental and generic fluidity
• Low-quality control
• The video game industry crashed in mid-80s
• The games were made quickly and cheaply e.g ET game was made in a fortnight and was so unplayable that they had to bury the games in the Nevada desert
• However, Japan was still booming in the 80s and was going from strength to strength
• Japan was very interested in roleplay games
• Dragon quest was extremely popular, inspired RPGs
• Japanese video games tend to be more graphic visually and focus more on narrative and sexual experiences
• In America is more based on choice and puzzles

• The Japanese console boom
• Mario, the best selling games
• Nintendo had a different design
• They used cheap plastic to make exciting games
• Made by Miyamoto 
• Its simplistic, smooth and scrolls well, clear to see. Instead of lots of death its a basic damsel in distress game.
• In arcades, there was street fighter 2 which was a top-rated game
• multiplayer
• range of characters
• quality was still better in the arcade 

• Sony enters the scene
• it was acceptable to play video games
• only nerds played video games at first and then was sudden;y popularised
• PlayStation was advertising in nightclubs
• they'd have booths
• their target went up on the ratings and target audience 
• games that were more challenging 
• 1997 was the release of final fantasy 7 and fallout 
• big story lots of texts but not much challenge
• triple-A game is a game with a vast production team
• around the 1990s the production had large amounts of people
• productions got extreme studio
• La noir controversy - treat their creators like shit
• making to work huge amounts of hours
• digital distribution
• steam

In what ways do video games represent a specialized industry? How do they differ from other media?

• Elements of interactivity
• there are more specialized cult audiences than other media
• the platform we play it on

ASSASINS CREED III - LIBERATION

• examples of people working on games
• concept art
• voice actors
•