Video Game Design Essay Example for Free

Video Game Design Essay Video games is no doubt the widely celebrated market leading the entertainment industry for youngsters. From the basic Atari consoles with mere up and down buttons and a special plastic rifle spewing infra red bullets to Level Up internet games where you can fight opponents in the other side of the world, this violent entertainment industry is definitely not stopping from evolving into a bigger money making monster. News reports further observe that â€Å"fueled by a growing portable gaming market, sales of video game software and hardware topped . 5 billion, a six percent increased over 2004s $9. 9 billion and topping 2002, which held the previous record of $10. 2 billion, according to The NPD Group. † (CNNMoney. com. , 2006) The industry is not devoid of morale and ethical issues despite its support from the business sector and overwhelming support from its consumers. In fact, conferences of video game event are worldwide in scope. The Entertainment Software Association are preparing for the E3EXPO slated for next year. â€Å"E3Expo remains an important event for the industry and we want to keep that sense of excitement and interest, ensuring that the human and financial resources crucial to its success can be deployed productively to create an exciting new format to meet the needs of the industry. The new event ensures that there will be an effective and more efficient way for companies to get information to media, consumers, and others,† (ESA, 2006) as its leader Lowenstein promoted. With video gamers on one side, video game creators on another, the public continues to debate on the issue of social responsibility in this video game industry. Who is responsible for all the violence found in video games? Debates arise from the breadth of the studies against video games to those that could see measures that regulate the games aimed at protecting young minds who could not distinguish from real to non real. These debates arise because people acknowledge the social responsibility that needs to be addressed. Social responsibility is the vanguard of the morales of a community. When something is not ethical, these two words are brought up like a bell that calls people into order. In the video gaming industry, where sex and violence reach both adult and juvenile minds, where gamers can spend days on end in front of a monitor totally locked in a world of play and totally forgetting his other social duties and responsibilities, something is not right. Video game designers must be socially responsible not to design games that are violent. They should not step outside market decision. There is no such thing as letting the market decide in this age of complex marketing and advertising tactics and strategies. Social and psyschological studies would prove that issues arising from violent video games must find immediate solutions from all stakeholders including designers. â€Å"Not only can excessive video game playing cause behavioral and social changes in a person, but it can also result in neurological changes as well. A recent study utilized positron emission tomography in order to show that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine increased while playing video games. (Ingram, 1998) â€Å"The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado, near Denver and Littleton. Two teenage students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, carried out a shooting rampage, killing 12 fellow students and a teacher, as well as wounding 24 others, before committing suicide. It is considered to be the deadliest school shooting, and the second deadliest attack on a school in United States history after the Bath School disaster. † (Wikipedia. com. 2006) The advent of video games was expected with the development of software and computer hardware industries. Tracing back, the need for entertainment increased the need to develop technologies that would cater to this need. The need for entertainment was spawned by the decline of social values that are based on physical social interaction. This is not over simplification. Statistics show that one of three six year old have their own televisions in their room. The alarming statistics should make the community act on these issues. Unfortunately, the community itself is hooked on these video games where society’s need to release their frustrations can be exhausted. Doctors believe that whatever the content, children and adults must not be hooked on technologies like the computer and television for more than two hours a day. American statistics note an average of five hours of television and computer use a day. Health risks due to technologies are on a rise. One of three people in America is obese due to improper diet and lack of exercise. One of ten teenagers have been jailed for at least five times before turning eighteen. It is a fact that parents hold two jobs to sustain a family. One million children a year become member of divorced households. The need to be entertained exists because a void in the values exists. And this void is being nurtured by sex and violence found in games created by the very same people who are void of this nurturing. There is no amount of creative video game that can replace family and social dynamics. Violence is violence. As it is, the juveniles are desensitized from blood and gore so much so that the need for more blood and gore leads to more blood and gore. Unlike television, video game is an interactive system. The creator is the one who thinks of the big plot where all subplots follow. He is the one who creates the characters that the gamers choose from the start. How can the creator not be responsible for something he created when he is a member of society who will feel and face the consequences of his creations. Maybe these video game creators rake in millions of dollars now but a few years from now, the wars they create and on the video console will become flesh and blood as proven by recent bomb attacks. But no matter how violent this creative output becomes, American dare not cross the right to free speech. Courts are also in disparities. â€Å"Our contemporary court decisions show that the right to free speech is more important to us than eliminating offensive content about women, says Ren Reynolds. Whether games even qualify as speech, though, is still up for debate. St. Louis County recently asserted that games are not speech, and therefore are not protected under the First Amendment. However, in a separate case, the 7th Circuit U. S. District Court of Appeals found that games are speech. Most of us, including feminists concerned by representations of women, are not in favor of diminishing our rights under the First Amendment. † (Hall, 2002). Video game creators cannot forever run away from their social responsibility. Sooner or later these young creative dynamic people at the prime of their lives will become old. They will one day see themselves at the hands of their caregivers in hospices. Their game buddies would be in other hospices as well remember good old killing days of blood and gore. They must not expect society to be as compassionate when they can’t keep up the level of their games when they grow old. Investing on one’s future is answering to the call for social responsibility. This responsibility is not in the hands of just a few but in all of the stakeholders. Being responsible is just like thinking about creating the bomb that can be dropped in Hiroshima. The Chernobyl accident effects have been passed on to generations in the enviornment as well as with their people. It is only when creators give true service to the community when they are truly creative and worthy of awards. Reference CNN Money. Video game set sales record in 2005 January 14, 2006: 3:56 PM EST Game Boy, PSP lift the industry, despite languid holiday season http://money. cnn. com/2006/01/13/technology/personaltech/gamesales/index. htm ESA. Entertainment Software Association Announces Evolution of E3Expo for 2007 http://www. theesa. com/archives/2006/07/for_immediate_r. php Hall, Wesley. Kitchen Sink. Oakland: Oct 31, 2002. Virtual Morality; Violence and Ethics in Video Games Vol. 1, Iss. 1; pg. 75 Ingram, Jay. June 12, 1998 Positron Emission Tomography Wikipedia. com. 2006