Videogames and American Society: America's disposition toward virtual environments and hyperreality

Chapter 1: Introduction 
 
Videogames have existed for nearly thirty years. In those years, the associated industry 
has grown from small enterprises to a multi-billion dollar industry. Software sales for 
the USA amount to more than 7 billion dollars for the year 2003.
1
 Research analysts 
estimate this figure will dramatically rise in the coming years. Furthermore, the Forrester 
research institute predicts that in 2005, more than 70% of American homes will have a 
video game console. In 2001, this figure was nearly 50% (49 million).
2
 These figures 
indicate that electronic entertainment industry at least equals the motion picture industry 
in size and revenue. It can be expected that this new industry will eventually have the 
same influence on American society as the motion picture industry currently has. 
In this paper, the terms videogame and computer game will be used. Although both 
terms might allude to the same thing, there is a traditional difference between the two. 
Computer games are those games that are played on a Personal Computer. This implies 
that these pieces of software are played on hardware which differs from consumer to 
consumer, with the ability to upgrade their capabilities as hardware technology 
progresses. In addition, internet capabilities are added to the possibilities as well, making 
computer games suitable for multiplayer games over the internet. However, these 
abilities come at a certain cost. Due to the inherent nature of PCs, being a collection of 
components which differ with each user, programs such as computer games need to be 
installed and configured to the specifics of each user’s machine. This means that users of 
computer games need at least some degree of knowledge regarding the inner workings 
of their machine. Games played on PCs sacrifice ease of use for more powerful 
technological capabilities. Videogames are those games which are played on videogame 
consoles. These pieces of hardware are standardized, with no deviation in component 
configuration among the product range. This means that a single type of videogame 
console is the same as another console of the same type, so no individual configuration 
is necessary. These devices are meant to be played on a television screen instead of a 
computer monitor. By their ease of use, these consoles are more accessible, and cater 
more toward children than personal computers traditionally do, often inhabiting a space 
under the living room television. Videogame consoles are commonly sold in toy stores. 
At this moment of writing (mid 2004), the three major companies that make 
videogame consoles are Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, with their consoles being called 
Gamecube, PlayStation2, and Xbox respectively. Older systems like the Playstation 1 
are still available, but since the average public attention span for a console lies around 4 
years, these are slowly fading to the background. Although the handheld videogame 
consoles like the Nintendo Gameboy Advance are a completely different market, their 
games are also referred to as videogames. It is not unheard of that a popular videogame 
title is released for all formats, with each version uniquely tuned for each specific piece 
of hardware. For example, the game Splinter Cell was released for the PC, all videogame 
consoles, and for the handheld Gameboy Advance. Although it would be too easy to 
                                                          
1
  Rob Fahey, "US software sales top $7 billion for 2003,” Gamesindustry.biz (January 27, 2004), 
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=2879 
2
  Mike Snider, “Game industry unaffected by unstable world,” USA Today Online (May 19, 2001), 
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techreviews/games/2001-05-19-e3-review.htm 
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become puzzled by the fact that this game could be called a videogame and a computer 
game, the definitions refer to not to the type of game, but to the kind of machine onto 
which it is being played. Since this paper concerns itself with the reactions of the 
American society regarding electronic games with the highest visibility and 
accessibility, the term videogame will most often be used. 
It was during the early and mid 1970s of the previous century that the first home 
videogame consoles appeared on the market. These machines were primitive, but 
conceptually a totally new phenomenon: the ability to play electronic games at home.  
During the early eighties the videogame rage peaked for the first time, with 
consumers widely accepting this new entertainment concept. Companies like Atari 
became household names. This wave of popularity came to an end around 1983, when 
the whole videogame market crashed. The main reason was an over saturation of the 
market, combined with an uncontrolled outpour of bad software titles. Suddenly, 
consumers were not interested in home videogame systems anymore. With the attention 
for home videogame consoles gone, microcomputers took over the attention of the 
consumer. These machines made rudimentary processing power available to the 
consumer at a reasonable price, paving the way for the personal computer. It goes 
without saying that these machines became the new home for games with better graphics 
and gameplay. This period introduced the distinction between the terms computer- and 
videogames. During the late eighties and early nineties, consumer interest in the 
videogame market was single-handedly revived due to the Japanese game company 
Nintendo. In spite of American skeptics, who pronounced the market for videogames 
dead after the previous crash, this company introduced new products with great success, 
paving the way for the next wave of popularity. It was during this time that the names of 
companies like Nintendo and Sega entered the national language as synonyms for 
playing videogames in general. The year 1995 was the year that Sony entered the 
playing field with their Playstation videogame console. This was during a time that the 
attention in videogames was waning again. Just like Nintendo did in the late eighties, 
Sony revitalized the videogame industry by introducing an innovative product. Sony has 
dominated the videogame business ever since, consolidating their success with the 
PlayStation2, which was released in the year 2000. Until today, Sony still has the largest 
user base among console owners. The latest newcomer is Microsoft. Their console, the 
X-Box, was released in 2001. Although initially greeted with a certain skepticism and 
viewed as a metaphorical extension of American imperialism, the console has 
entrenched itself by the means of a firm commitment from Microsoft. At the time of 
writing (mid 2004), the struggle for market share is still going strong. The financial and 
managerial commitments that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are willing to make are 
indications that the videogame console business is a profitable one. 
The average age of a computer or video game player is twenty-nine years old.
3
 
This can be explained by the fact that, although videogames are seen as children’s toys 
by a general audience, their players have grown with the maturing of the industry. 
Current young adults have grown up with videogames, accepting them as part of their 
normal entertainment options. In addition, these consumers now have something they 
did not have as children, which is a disposable income to spend on entertainment. 
Furthermore, current generations of young adults have grown up with technology in 
                                                          
3
  Entertainment Software Association, http://www.theesa.com/pressroom.html 
 8
general. One of the best examples are new communication channels like internet and 
mobile phones which cannot be perceived as “new” technology by those who have 
grown up with it. 
With this growing mature audience, it is no surprise developers try to cater toward 
mature themes. It is only natural that a young medium experiments with its capabilities, 
just as it is natural for a public to respond to this new trend. It takes some time for a new 
medium to become accepted. Again, a comparison can be made with the development of 
the motion picture-, rock music-, and comic book industry. All these artistic venues were 
once thought to be irrelevant. Eventually they have become accepted in American 
society, enabling them to incorporate and showcase a variety of themes, from young to 
mature ones. One could see a similar pattern emerging regarding the growth of the 
videogame industry. Although becoming more widely accepted by the American public, 
this medium is still capable of sparking a public and political debate. Given the 
popularity of videogames during the 1980s and the 1990s, the emergence of such a 
debate seems curious.  
The definition of the medium videogame is a complicated one. Several scholars 
have struggled with task of defining videogames. The medium is unique in its sort, 
combining technology, art, storytelling and cinematography, among other things. This 
combination of different fields makes it hard to study the phenomenon, let alone define 
it. Mark J.P. Wolf argues that the term "game" alone is confusing, since there are a lot of 
educational programs which are labeled as games. He eventually decides that the mode 
of exhibition, the technological manner in which games are presented, could be the 
defining factor.
4
 By their nature, a strict definition of video games seems impossible. 
After all, it is software used by hardware. Given technological progress and a desire of 
manufacturers to bring out new products, it seems that a definition based on a distinct 
application of current technology will eventually become obsolete. The boundary 
between a game and an educational application can sometimes become very indistinct. 
Although Wolf points to the existence of a lot of grey areas, the scope of this paper does 
not permit a deep study into these definitions.
 5
 In a broad sense, one could say video 
games are electronic entertainment, displayed through some means of imaging 
technology. 
Videogames nowadays have come a long way from the Pac-man and TV-Tennis 
games from nearly 30 years ago. With technology progressing at an amazing rate, the 
possibilities are almost limitless and only bound by the creator’s mind and technology at 
hand. This progress can be illustrated by Moore’s law. Originally put forward in 1965, 
this theory describes the doubling of data density on computer chips roughly every two 
years. In other words, in roughly every two years, computer chips will have doubled the 
amount of transistors they are able to accommodate. This theory has been relatively 
sound since 1965, as the number of transistors on a computer chip rose from 2250 in the 
year 1971 to 42 million in the year 2000. 
For videogames, this progress in computational power has several consequences. 
First, there is the level of graphical presentation. Videogame consoles are commonly 
being sold to the consumer on the basis of their graphical performance, meaning that a 
lot of effort in being put into this area. Was the first generation of consoles only capable 
                                                          
4
  Mark J. P. Wolf, ed., The Medium of the Video Game (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001), 19. 
5
  Ibid.,16. 
 9
of presenting large colored blocks on a television screen, nowadays consoles have the 
power to graphically represent almost anything in detail. Although 100% photo-realism 
is still not feasible, close representation of "real" looking images is certainly possible. 
The Federal Trade Commission, in a study conducted in the year 2000, even talks about 
“near lifelike detail.”
6
 Given the fact that these remarks were made before the current 
generation of consoles, one could only wonder how the researchers would have 
described the current standards. As these graphical benchmarks are constantly being 
pushed higher, photo-realism in videogames might in the foreseeable future be a viable 
option. 
New videogame consoles have better processors and more memory, giving 
programmers more flexibility and opportunity to create new stories and experiences, as 
the new hardware can accommodate a more complex artificial intelligence, and the game 
can be set in a more intricate gameworld, also known as the diegetic world. Furthermore, 
more advanced hardware means that the potential capabilities of these machines are 
growing. For example, recent consoles have added broadband internet access to their list 
of capabilities. Although consoles will always be one step behind the PC in terms of 
technological performance (due to their non upgradeable nature), each new generation 
embodies a next step in technological evolution.  
Then there is the growing diversity within the developer community. Was a single 
programmer sufficient to create a videogame during the 1980’s, today games are being 
made by multi-disciplined teams with budgets in excess of several million dollars. This 
multi-disciplined approach means that more time and energy can be devoted to other 
fields than just programming, like cinematography and story-telling. As time progresses, 
developers come more to grips with the medium, enabling them to experiment with all 
possibilities, maturing the medium not only from technological and chronological point 
of view, but from an artistic perspective as well. 
The combination of better graphical representation, more complex interactivity, 
and a more artistic approach have evolved the videogame into a medium which almost 
merits an artistic license of its own. It should be understood that modern videogames 
have the ability to achieve a greater suspension of disbelief than any product ever before. 
This advancement comes at a certain price. Videogames have been at the center of 
several controversies in the United States. During the first era of videogames in the early 
eighties, parents already expressed their concern regarding potential side-effects due to 
playing videogames. At this point, graphical representation was very abstract, consisting 
of nothing more than colored cubes, arranged in some symbolic pattern to mimic 
objects. Even so, this new mode of entertainment was found to be so compelling to 
children, that newspapers ran articles describing videogames as addictive, although 
studies showed no evidence to support this theory.
7
 The second era of videogames, 
which was at its peak in the early nineties when Nintendo and Sega reigned supreme, 
saw the arrival of the famous hearings of the Lieberman Committee. The advent of CD-
ROM technology and other technological advances made it possible to have real camera 
                                                          
6
  Federal Trade Commission. Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Review of Self-
Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording, & Electronic Game Industries 
(Washington, D.C.: Federal Trade Commission, 2000), 39, 
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/violence/vioreport.pdf  
7
  Patricia Marks Greenfield Beeldbuis kinderen: over de effecten van televisie, computers en 
computerspelen (Nijkerk: Uitgeverij Intro,1986), 83. 
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