Gaming

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According to the Entertainment Software Association “Over 164 million adults in the United States play video games and three-quarters of all Americans have at least one gamer in their household” (ESA, 2019). These figures illustrate the relevance of gaming in our perpetually digital lifestyles. The three most popular devices we use for gaming are smartphones, computers and gaming consoles.

The origins of gaming can be traced back to two different locations: Japan, with the traditional arcade gaming halls, and the United States, with creative students at various college campuses. The games that originated in the late 1970s and early 1980s are a far cry from the high definition, online, multiplayer games of today. Nevertheless, arcade games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man were trailblazers and epitomise the first wave of commercial games.

In the mid-1980s, home gaming consoles were growing in popularity, especially Nintendo with the release of the legendary game Super Mario Bros. When the internet was launched in the early 1990s, home computers became the gaming platform of choice, and games like Doom took full advantage of the new technology with the introduction of simultaneous multiplayer systems (Costrel, 2020).

Modern gaming is a multi-billion-dollar industry. According to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the 2019 video game industry generated revenue of more than 152 billion U.S. dollars from 2.5 billion gamers around the world. By comparison, the global box office industry was worth 41.7 billion dollars while global music revenues reached $19.1 billion in 2018 (Stewart, 2019). In addition to traditional gaming, modern gaming has also introduced new profitable avenues with e-sports and game streaming. As a result of this, e-sports has become an international phenomenon with lucrative TV deals and several gaming leagues. In their 2020 report, Newzoo stated that “the global e-sports economy will generate revenues of $1.1 billion (...). The global e-sports audience will reach 495 million this year, made up of 222.9 million e-sports enthusiasts and a further 272.2 million occasional viewers” (Newzoo, 2020).

The online community within the gaming world, has become an integral part of many young gamers’ lives. Gamers often spend hours playing games online and subsequently spend lots of time forging friendships with their online contemporaries. This is a transition from how friendships were traditionally formed and proves that nowadays physical distance is no longer important. Additionally, it is easier to form friendships when you have common interests. In a survey of 500 gamers, PubNub (a company making in-game chatting software) found that “36 percent of respondents developed a lifelong friend through chat while gaming” (PRNewswire, 2020). A downside of this online community is cyberbullying and online harassment. Subsequently, various special interest groups have launched several campaigns to highlight these problems and alert politicians to the need to update several outdated laws. The Fawcett Society in the UK is one of these organisations with their Reclaim the Internet campaign launched in conjunction with UK lawmakers (Fawcett Society, 2017).

One of the most intriguing aspects for young people who partake in online, multiplayer games known as MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), is that they can adopt a different persona. This persona is often known as an Avatar, a term coined by Richard Garriott, the inventor of the Ultima series, in order to “create real life connections and consciousness among the gamers” (Costrel, 2020, [ep.3]). Becky Friedman, a renowned gamer and game developer, explains the attraction of RPGs in the following manner:

Role playing is very attractive because it allows you to play a character of your own creation. The biggest appeal to this game is that it does not create characters for you, you create the characters. You play as somebody you aspire to be, good or bad, but you cannot become in real life. (Costrel, 2020, [ep.3]).

Individual customisation allows the player to express themselves by creating a character to represent them. This makes the gaming experience more personal.

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English is the lingua franca of the gaming world. In-game chatter, streaming and game dialogue is predominantly in English. This has led to an upswing in oral competence and linguistic confidence. A study conducted in Taiwan in 2013 concluded that online games “may be considered to be an effective learning tool for the teaching of vocabulary and sentence patterns” (University of Ulster, 2013). Additionally, educational games have become more and more popular to teach students English in the classrooms. A study completed in Belgium suggested that games used in the classroom “may have positive effects on learners’ motivation, which may stimulate further practice and language learning” (University of Ulster, 2013).

Ultimately, gaming, and gamers, can be a resource when it comes to tackling real-world problems. A good example of this is the Block by Block project in which Minecraft is used to visualise city planning. This UN-backed project has been instrumental in involving communities with creating sustainable cities for the future (Eklund, 2016). Another good example is the creation of games whose purpose is to highlight contemporary issues; these games are known as Newsgames. Darfur is Dying (2006), which deals with the genocide and refugee crisis in Darfur, as well as Endgame: Syria (2012), focusing on the Syrian Civil War, are examples of games that try to educate their gamers and raise awareness of important questions. Susana M. Graham (COO of Paradox Interactive) sums up the value of using games in modern society by saying that “using new technology that innovates and develops quickly will help us solve some of the ‘older’ problems we have in society” (Eklund, 2016).