I THE GAMER
Okay gamers, server's ready, we go live in three... two... one... okay let's go!!, The gamers go crazy , the heat of d room is also up, after some time we hear the computer say counter terrorists win! This is just the part of the gaming arena. Gaming has revolutionised the youth thinking in this field very drastically that most of the youth is now drawn towards these games than the normal sports. This has increased due to the money which is involved in this also. I am also a serious gamer of need for speed most wanted and won races in competition. But that's just the beginning of a life of a gamer. Going in WCG or world cyber games is a dream for every gamer in this world. Well that's just an introduction to a vast world of gaming. Gaming has a long history to tell for its development to a level that it has become a rage in this world for individuals of every age group.
Gaming today is a widely recognized part of our cultural landscape. But those of us over thirty are just old enough to remember a time before gaming, before digital entertainment invaded the arcades, our computers and our homes.
Gaming itself is as old as history. Artefacts' from ancient Sumeria and Egypt have shown that our ancestors enjoyed playing board games thousands of years ago. But electronic games required the invention of electronic computers. The earliest computers were slow, failure-prone monsters that took over entire rooms and had less power than a modern pocket calculator. Still, early programmers on these machines felt compelled to waste time by making these computers do things like playing tic-tac-toe. After World War II, electronic computers moved out of the realm of cutting-edge laboratories and into universities and large corporations. Many university students became the first game programmers, transforming their fantasy and sci-fi imaginations into digital adventures.
The concept of hooking up an electronic game system to a television set was invented by Ralph Bauer in the early 1950s. Later he took his ideas to the TV Company Magnavox, which released a refined version of his "Brown Box" prototype as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. The Odyssey was primitive, displaying only spots of light on the TV screen, and it required translucent plastic overlays to simulate the appearance of a game. Still, the revolution was underway, and there was to be no stopping it.
The first wildly popular home console system was the Atari 2600, released in 1977. It used plug-in cartridges to play many different types of games, and thanks to the popularity of Space Invaders, it became a best seller. Computer games, written largely for the Apple and TRS-80 computers, were also taking off at this time. While the console industry experienced a crash in 1983, it soon recovered and both computer and console games never looked back.
There are many books and articles on the history of video games. But one area that I felt was not sufficiently explored was how games tended to be categorized in certain genres, and how the genres themselves had evolved and changed over the years. Besides the difference in graphics, was playing tennis on an Atari 2600 significantly different from playing the same game on a Playstation 2? Many old-school gamers often lament the focus of graphics over game play in modern titles, but were it really true that only graphics got better over time?
Benefits
It has been shown that action video game players have better visuo-motor skills, such as their resistance to distraction, their sensitivity to information in the peripheral vision and their ability to count briefly presented objects, than nonplayers. Researchers found that such enhanced abilities could be acquired by training with action games, involving challenges that switch attention between different locations, but not with games requiring concentration on single objects. It has been suggested by a few studies that online/offline video gaming can be used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of different mental health concerns.
In Steven Johnson's book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, he argues that video games in fact demand far more from a player than traditional games like Monopoly. To experience the game, the player must first determine the objectives, as well as how to complete them. They must then learn the game controls and how the human-machine interface works, including menus and HUDs. Beyond such skills, which after some time become quite fundamental and are taken for granted by many gamers, video games are based upon the player navigating (and eventually mastering) a highly complex system with many variables. This requires a strong analytical ability, as well as flexibility and adaptability. He argues that the process of learning the boundaries, goals, and controls of a given game is often a highly demanding one that calls on many different areas of cognitive function. Indeed, most games require a great deal of patience and focus from the player, and, contrary to the popular perception that games provide instant gratification, games actually delay gratification far longer than other forms of entertainment such as film or even many books. Some research suggests video games may even increase players' attention capacities.
Learning principles found in video games have been identified as possible techniques with which to reform the U.S. education system. It has been noticed that gamers adopt an attitude while playing that is of such high concentration, they don't realize they're learning, and that if the same attitude could be adopted at school, education would enjoy significant benefits. Students are found to be "learning by doing" while playing video games while fostering creative thinking.
The U.S. Army has deployed machines such as the PackBot which make use of a game-style hand controller to make it more familiar for young people.
According to research discussed at the 2008 Convention of the American Psychological Association, certain types of video games can improve the gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to problem-solve. A study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors compared to those who did not play video games. A second study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons (82 percent men; 18 percent women) also showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not play the video games first.
Whilst many studies have detected superior mental aptitudes amongst habitual gamers, research by Walter Boot at the University of Illinois found that non-gamers showed no improvement in memory or multitasking abilities after 20 hours of playing three different games. The researchers suggested that "individuals with superior abilities are more likely to choose video gaming as an activity in the first place".
Controversy
Like related forms of media, computer and video games have been the subject of frequent controversy and censorship, due to the depiction of graphic violence, sexual themes, advergaming (a form of advertising in games), consumption of drugs, consumption of alcohol or tobacco, propaganda, or profanity in some games. Among others, critics of video games often include parents' groups, politicians, organized religious groups, and other special interest groups, even though all of these can be found in all forms of entertainment and media. Various games have been accused of causing addiction and even violent behavior. "Video game censorship" is defined as the use of state or group power to control the playing, distribution, purchase, or sale of video games or computer games. Video game controversy comes in many forms, and censorship is a controversial subject. Proponents and opponents of censorship are often very passionate about their individual views.
Various national content rating organizations, such as the Entertainment Software Ratings Board or ESRB in North America, rate software for certain age groups and with certain content warnings. Some of these organizations are optional industry self-regulation (such as the ESRB), while others are part of national government censorship organizations. Also, parents are not always aware of the existence of these ratings.
So, people in the end we have seen how the gaming scenario has changed over years and people are damn serious about it as a lot of it goes on stake in this. I don't know how much more change will come in the near future but I am definitely sure that it will be going better and better. More gamers will be born and keep on growing and the gaming field is not gonna die very soon (thanx to the techno advancements). But whatever is in the future (excluding the 2012 hype) the gaming won't die, the gamers won't die and surely as I can say the GAME won't die.
