Why I Love Video Games and What They Represent

       Why I Love The Industry

        Although I'm not sure why, video games are often frowned upon by most parents. Gaming takes their children away from everything and places them in front of a screen with a controller for hours on end. While that may seem like an isolated and fattening hobby, it's actually great to a certain point. And the reason for that is: video games represent the advancement of our culture. If you're anything like me, you've grown up with games and have become familiar with the industry from early on.

        The truth is, I'm not in love with video games. There are merely a select few video games that are great in comparison to the many works in the film industry considered the best. But movies have been around much longer than video games. While the first films were projected in the late 1800s, video games didn't become mainstream until almost 100 years later. In 1972, Pong was released by Atari in arcade-form and didn't see a home release until 1975. The video game industry represents a new, more advanced innovation of technology-generated media. That's why I love the video games industry and what it represents, and better yet we don't even need to think about this complex idea. Typically, those who play video games don't understand why they have so much passion towards the simple concept of a game, but they certainly notice a form of satisfaction in the idea that they're continuing to achieve in a digital escape from the real-world. 

        But that can't be all there is to the gaming industry, can it? Is it all about achieving something that isn't there? Is it all about the advancement of technology; about becoming stronger than the film industry? No. I can't explain all there is to video games; why people like them, or why people line up on the release day of a new blockbuster title. What I do know is this: The video games industry is based on community. Not everyone understands this, and I'm sure there are even many gamers who don't, but I'm no gamer. I'm simply a story-teller who digs deeper into a subject that interests me more than it probably should.

        The Console Wars

        The video games community is like no other. You can read as many forums as you'd like from any other media industry, but you'd never see any group of people argue such strong, valid points as the video games community, and quite honestly I find this to be truly a beautiful thing. The console wars continue on and on without end, without interruption, and as much as PC gamers deny that they're involved in the console wars, the PCs are the most brutal. 

        There are currently four groups who participate in the console wars, and every group is built up of fanboys and those who deny their fanboy-ism, but are still biased towards one side. (No one isn't biased towards their favorite console!) There are the PCs, the Xbox 360s, the PS3s, and the Nintendos. (I didn't consider the PS3 fanboys as "Sonys" because of the lack of interest PS3 owners have in the PS Vita handheld, nor do I consider the Xbox 360 the "Microsoft Crowd" due to the fact that PC games are Games For Windows)  Each group of fanboys (and "fangirls") believes their system is better than the other three, and before this year I actually believed you could conclude that the console with the best system specifications is the best, but that's far from true. If you judged a console by its specs, the PC would be the superior gaming console by far, but you can't base this judgement primarily on specifications. The PC may have the highest specs, but a PC with better processors, a better graphics card, and better RAM than a PS3 or Xbox 360 would cost an ordinary consumer over $1,000, while the PS3/Xbox 360 are roughly around $250 (unless you buy the $99 Xbox 360 with Kinect that also charges $15 per month for two years costing you around $600 in the end.)

        I'm not going into anymore detail as far as specifications are concerned because I don't want to bore my readers, I just do, but the point is there is no superior console. That's right! Wii = PC = PS3 = Xbox 360; and that, my friends, is my favorite way of doing math. I'm not saying this is an issue. I'm only emphasizing the point that consumers are so passionate about their favorite console that they're willing to argue that their system superior with anyone at any time. And here's what I mean when I claim the systems are completely equivalent. The Wii offers the first mainstream motion-controlled console experience, but is graphically inferior to all other consoles (including iOS at this point). The Xbox 360 offers the best third-party support and considerably the best online community, but lacks variety in first-party support. The PS3 offers great first-party support, but fails when it comes to graphical capability in third-party support (although this seems fishy) and online community. And the PC has the best graphical capability (depending on your computer specs) but doesn't have as large a library as its console companions and is more costly for average consumers.

        So... How Does This Relate To The Title?

So here's why I love the video game industry and what it represents. I came here to write a short article about what video games represent and my entire article completely changed subjects after the second paragraph. Video games represent our freedom to discuss, produce, and consume, and most of the time doesn't incorporate politics (like everything else) while doing so. Regardless of the previous paragraphs where I spoke of specifications, consoles, and arguments, video games are about simple fun, bringing us back to our childhoods, thinking less about the worries life may bring, and helping us to enjoy achieving something even if it's not real, because if we actually did the things we did in video games, we'd all be in prison.

Fin.