UNIDAD EDUCATIVA PARTICULAR JAVIER Baccalaureate in Science

MONOGRAPH “How videogames have influenced entertainment and the way the people have lived over the last decades”

STUDENT: Emilio José Triviño Gordillo

ADVISER: LCDA. Laura Ortuño de Baquerizo

THIRD OF BACCALAUREATE - COURSE B

2017 – 2018

GRATITUDE

First of all, I would like to thank God for giving me the opportunity to study at this high school, and my parents for teaching me everything I have ever needed to be a good person and a good student

SUMMARY

In the following document the researcher will examine some of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of video games as well as give information about some of the many kinds of jobs someone can get inside the world of digital entertainment.

INDEX

INTRODUCTION ...... 2 CHAPTER I ...... 4 Videogame history ...... 4 Definition: ...... 4 Origin and evolution: ...... 4 Developers: ...... 8 Ubisoft ...... 8 Bethesda: ...... 9 Evolution in games development ...... 9 Iconic Sagas ...... 10 Super Mario: ...... 10 World of Warcraft: ...... 11 CHAPTER II ...... 11 Influence on society ...... 11 Why young people like playing video games ...... 11 Threads ...... 13 Benefits ...... 14 Events and celebrations created around video games ...... 15 ...... 16 The video games awards ...... 16 ...... 16 CHAPTER III ...... 17 Video Games Focused Professions ...... 17 Jobs in a video game developer ...... 18 Producer: ...... 18 Designers: ...... 18 Artist: ...... 19

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Programmers: ...... 19 Level designers: ...... 21 Sound engineer: ...... 21 Testers: ...... 21 Work outside a developer ...... 22 Distributors and sellers ...... 22 Youtubers ...... 23 References ...... 25

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INTRODUCTION

The following… monographic work “How videogames have influenced entertainment and the way the people lives over the last decades” was written with the objective of letting people know the great history and influence video games has had since the year they first appeared, influencing the way people think and seek out means of entertainment

The author chose to work around this topic because he wanted to analyze the different ways video games can have influence, especially when it comes to small children whose minds are more susceptible to this kind influence, and how they can be not only a way of entertainment but a way of earning a living

When it comes other investigations about this topic there have been a lot of different experiments surrounding how video game can improve a child perception and way of doing all kind of stuff compared with children who haven’t been exposed to video games

This topic affects especially young people, that's why this study was principally meant for high school students, because in their current age they are more familiarized with this king of games and trends of virtual entertainment, and the method for gathering intel and opinions was through a poll given to student of sixth course from Unidad Educativa

Javier

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My first chapter is a summary of the origin and evolution this industry has suffered over the course of history, the second one is an analysis of how video games can be a good or bad influence for a child or teens life and some of the most famous events that have been born from this industry and finally the third chapter talks about the kind of jobs someone can found inside the world of electronic entertainment

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CHAPTER I

Videogame history

Definition:

A videogame is a game which is played by the use of an audiovisual device.

Many of these poses a story, but there are some like one of the first video games that ever existed ¨Tennis for two¨ which doesn´t possesses any kind of established history, that are like many people say ¨pure gameplay¨.

Origin and evolution:

Many people have argued about which was the first videogame, most of the time this occurs because of the different definitions of video games they have that make them consider different games as the first one.

It is possible to consider to be the first one a game called ¨Nought and crosses¨ also known as ¨OXO¨, this game created by Alexander Douglas in 1952 was a computerized copy of Three in Stripes allowing the player to play against a pre-programed CPU

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Another possible candidate is the game ¨Tennis for Two¨ which was the first video game that made possible a match between two players through two very basic controllers with one joystick and a couple of bottons.

In 1966 Ralph Baer, Albert Maricon and Ted Dabney started developing together a project of video game called Fox and Hounds that soon evolved to become the Magnavox

Odyssey, that, in 1972 became the first domestic system of video games allowing to play several pre-programed games.

The 80’s began with a strong growth in the sector of the video game, during these years there were a lot of systems which stood out, like Oddyssey 2, ,

Colecovision, Atari 5200, , Turbografx. And at the same time games like

Pacman, Battle Zone and Tron became very popular among the recreational machines

Japan bet for the world of the consoles with the success of the Famicom or NES, thrown by

Nintendo in 1983.

The year 1985 was marked by the appearance of Super Mario Bros Which brought with it a huge change in the way video games were developed, since the majority of the previous games only contained a few screens which repeated themselves in a curl and the aim simply was to obtain a high punctuation. The game developed by was the first game that gave the player an objective and an end in a video game.

Another branch in video games that grew vastly was that of the portable video game.

That reached its climax in 1989 with the launch of the which was also developed by Nintendo

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At the beginning of the 90’s the gaming consoles gave an important technical jump thanks to the competition of so called " generation of 16 bits " composed by the Gentle

Drive, SNES, the Turbografx and the CPS Changer.

This generation brought with it an important increase in the players' quantity and the introduction of technologies as the CD-ROM, an important evolution inside the different kinds of video games, mainly thanks to the new technical capacities it introduced.

Meanwhile, diverse companies had begun to work on video games with three- dimensional environments, principally in the field of PC, obtaining different results from

"mid 2D ", to 3D on pre-rendered environments.

Sony's console appeared after a project begun with Nintendo. Ultimately Nintendo rejected Sony's offer, since Sega had developed something similar yet was unsuccessful,

Therefore, Sony independently put out its first console, PlayStation.

From the year 2000, the industry started taking bigger steps with the much anticipated PlayStation 2, successor of the first console created by Sony and, in 2001 with the appearance of in the gaming consoles industry, creating the . Nintendo developed the GameCube, the successor of the , and the first completely new

Game Boy from the creation of the company, the .

Sega, after seeing the great advances made by the other companies, announced that it would not produce hardware anymore, converting themselves exclusively into a software developer in 2002.

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From its start in the year 2005, the so called seventh generation includes consoles by

Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment.

These three consoles were the Xbox 360 which was released in 2005 giving birth to this new generation, it was followed by the PlayStation 3 by Sony and the Nintendo in the year 2006

The launch of the eighth generation started with Nintendo's new console, the in 2012 this console included a touch screen and a thinner motion sensor than the one the

Wii had, the WiiMotion Plus.

It was followed by the PlayStation 4 in 2013, Sony also launched the PlayStation

App, allowing those with a PS4 to convert smartphones and tablets into a second screen to improve gameplay.

Meanwhile, Microsoft launched the successor of the Xbox 360, the Xbox One.

Along with the presentation of the new hardware, Microsoft announced that their new console would require an internet connection in order to work, otherwise the machine would stop reading the games, and ultimately this last announcement never became a reality due the negative feedback it had among the public

On the other hand, the PC computer which has been present since the beginning, is the most expensive platform of games compared to any other console in the market but also the one that allows major flexibility. This flexibility comes from the fact that computer

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components can be improved constantly this mean the user only has to upgrade his computer every couple of years instead of buying and entire new machine.

Developers:

Throughout many years’ consoles have existed the most important thing about them are the games we play on them, and these games have been created by many developers that have existed throughout the years. Some of them are:

Ubisoft

A French , originally founded in Brittany in the year 1986 by

Ives Guillemot and his four brothers, who is the current CEO of the company

Their first game was called Zombie (1987). After that, in 1990 they opened a studio in

Montreal, which was responsible for creating the Rayman series, One of the company’s biggest success.

After acquiring the American company Red Storm Entertainment in 2000, they started launching franchise after franchise until they became one of the top 5 most successful publisher in the world with titles such as: Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed and

Need for Speed.

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Bethesda:

Bethesda Softworks is a game publisher founded in Bethesda, Maryland in the year 1896 by Christopher Weaver. It originally made sports simulators being their first being a football simulator called Gridiron! But after years of making sports simulators in the year

1994 they release the first game of the Elders Scrolls series ´´Arena´´ a Role Playing

Games that soon became the beginning of one of their most famous franchises they have up until now which, alongside the series, launched in 1997, made them the two most successful RPG series ever created.

Evolution in games development

From the first games ever created to the last games released in the past few years’, video games have undergone a tremendous amount of improvements when it comes down to gameplay and graphic quality. Beginning with the with the first games that were entirely played with two buttoms, limited two black and white graphics. Video games where pretty basic when it came to visuals and the way they were played This all changed when the game Pac Man came on the scene to become the first game in color (1981) along with

Wolfenstein 3D, the first tridimensional game, from then on games only continued evolving, implementing different visual styles.

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Quake in1996, became the point of inflection for visuals because it used tridimensional characters, unlike previous games that had only used that technology on their scenarios.

Game quality continuously improved as more powerful consoles were launched. The

PlayStation 2 is an of. The type of improvements incorporated when the game Metal Gear

Solid 2 was launched clear example in, surpassed the limits every game had established up until that moment. This happened one again in 2006 when the game Gears of War placed the consoles above the PC by introduction high definition to gaming consoles.

Nevertheless, this only lasted a short period of time because of Rapid graphic improvements made in the PC, which set them above as a superior machine when it came down to graphic quality

Iconic Sagas

Many games have become famous for their creativity and amazing gameplay, but there are very few which are in a class of their own for becoming famous due to their contributions in drastically redefining a genre or changing the way people play in a drastic way. Some of these games are:

Super Mario:

As said before, Mario had a great influence on the videogames industry after its released due to the fact that it gave the player a goal, contrary to all the games which had preceded it

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It has also been the face of Nintendo for years becoming not only a beloved classic but also a reference for many other games throughout the years

World of Warcraft:

World of Warcraft was released in November 2004 and was acclaimed around the world because of the changes it implemented the MMO genre, as a more dynamic and fluid combat system. It also had the capacity to expand the number of races and classes to choose from.

This game, despite the pass of time and the many sequels and new franchises launched, will be forever remembered as the game that redefined the previously underrated MMO genre.

CHAPTER II

Influence on society

Why young people like playing video games

When it comes to describing how videogames can have a positive or negative kind of influence over the people who play them, there is one thing that is vital to consider, and that

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is to first ask the following questions, of why there are so addictive to so many people, especially to children and teenagers? is there perhaps a specific reason? what makes it so appealing to these age groups?

Currently, the use of video games surpasses any and all other means of entertainment.

Children and teenagers, are certain to prefer the video games, since it implies developing their skills in relation to the technology and the electronic means, now at their disposal well as developing skills to find the secret logic of the game itself.

In order for a video game to catch the attention a child or teen, it has to entertain him as well as to have the element that excites and incites his curiosity. But, to enrich his life, it has to stimulate his imagination, to help him to develop his intellect and to clarify his emotions. Of equal manner, it will have to go according to his anxiety and aspiration; even to make him felly recognizable his difficulties and limits, at the same time, it should suggest solutions to the problems that stand before him and help him overcome challenges using his own intellect and imagination.

One of the clearest examples which should be when wanting to talk about how video games give free rein to the imagination and they play a great role in catching the user's attention is to speak about the character of the games, this fictional being many times serves as a representation of the way a child or teen wants to see himself or what they have dreamt

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of doing, all this been accomplished by living in that fictional world through the life of another person.

Now that there is a clearer view of the reasons children seek entertainment through these games it is possible to analyze and list many of the threads and benefit that playing video games comes with.

Threads

The most publicized and well-known examples of the dangers to which the users of video games are exposed must be mentioned that they have or make pornographic and severely aggressive material accessible to children

This has been a worrisome topic during the last few years considering the great increase in the number of small children that have gained access to these types of content, this mature contents are very common among the most famous and popular games and although it is used draw the attention of a much older and mature audience, the distribution of this games have grown exponentially so much that it has become a threat, having even reached children from between 8 and 12 years. The lack of attention given by the parents and or even the distributors of this products is the one of the main reasons exposure to mature content has become so common to small children who as we all know are far as easier to let themselves become manipulated by what they see and experiment and this games.

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Another major thread is the lack of security surrounding some videogames, this is more common in online games connected to any kind of social media where people usually sign up by giving personal information to whoever owns the game. Weather it is a well- known platform such as Facebook for example or an unknown webpage, there is no assurance that the user’s information cannot be stolen, forged or altered in any way.

Benefits

The benefits that videogames bring with them are almost the same as why people tend to play them, basically because they represent a challenge that helps them improve and see thing from a different perspective, so as to be a bit more precise, some of these benefits are:

1. They reduce aging

To play video games which present a hard challenge for the mind for at least

two hours a week can slow down the aging process of the brain. While

having the brain working on different tasks, it exercises as the muscles of the

body, helping to reduce its wear and other mental illnesses associated with

aging.

2. They help in decision making

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Scientists of Rochester's University in New York realized in 2010 an investigation

on the topic, verifying that those who play action games are capable of making

decisions more rapidly than those who do not partake. This, in addition with the

long term, develops the perception of what happens in the environment; since it

"teaches" the brain to calculate the possibilities of a certain option in a quicker way

3. More creativity

A study carried out with children ages between 10 and 14 years old found that the

more time they spent playing, the higher were their grades on creativity test, without

taking race, gender or type of game into consideration.

Events and celebrations created around video games

As well as these games can influence the way a person views the world and interacts with those around him, video games have also influenced our society in quite an interesting way, it is now time to talk a little bit about some of the more important events or celebrations this industry has introduced in our society over the last years, these events are:

E3, The video games awards and the Gamescom.

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E3

The Electronic Entertainment Expo more commonly known as E3 is the biggest event in the whole , it takes place in in May of every year since its creation in 1995 and it consists in a series of press conferences were many of the most important games developers worldwide such as Microsoft and Sony present or teased some or all of their project for the years for either hardware and software, accompanied with interviews, live presentations and gameplay it is the most recognized and anticipated event of the year.

The video games awards

The Spike Video Games Awards as they were known in 2003 when they originally appeared before becoming The Video Games Awards in 2014 are basically “The Academy

Awards “for the video gaming world. This event praises and awards the best Directors,

Voice actors, Characters, Soundtracks, Designers, and obviously the best games of each category until one game is awarded as the best one of the year.

Gamescom

This event is very similar to the E3 but the difference is that while the E3 are just press conferences to show new products whereas the Gamescom developers tend to show their progress in the games they showed previously as well as allow anyone to play Demos

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or sections of the games they are working on as well as test new hardware such as consoles controllers etc.

CHAPTER III

Video Games Focused Professions

In this third chapter I want to focus on the how these games have opened a whole new world of job opportunities ranging anywhere from designing the basics of a console or program, to earning money by simply recording yourself playing, and I personally think this chapter to be quite important, especially for those who have problems choosing a career or want to work in this huge industry, but don't know how or where they can get a start or entry point.

When it comes to creating a video games either by forming part of a large company or an

Indie studio there are a lot of steps one must follow in other to transform a basic idea or concept into a fully finished game.

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Jobs in a video game developer

A developer team is composed of a series of smaller groups, each of which are in charge of a section of what the final product will be, it is also important to mention that this creative process varies on time and effort depending on the quality of the game, the platform is design for and the number of revisions the team has to do to every single part of the product to ensure it is in optimal condition.

Producer:

The producer is the person in charge of the team who is developing a game, he works for the publisher, creating the games. Some of his responsibilities are, preparing schedules, reporting development progress and hiring and assigning staff members their duties

Designers:

They are in charge of the creative aspects of the game they are responsible for. these can fall under characteristics such as such as gameplay and basic structure of the game. This team is normally directed by a lead designer who has the job of designating each team with a different task. One of the roles of

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a designer consists in being a writer as well, often employed part-time to conceive game's narrative, dialogue, commentary, cut scene narrative, journals, video game packaging content, hint system, etc.

Artist:

Their role is to create 2D drawings such as concept art, character designs, location sketches, sprites and textures. And 3D models like animation and cinematics, this team is led by an art director or lead artist.

Programmers:

A game is built on top of several code lines which are written by the programmer.

This software engineers are responsible of handling the games codebase so everything in it works and interact perfectly, this codes are initially written by one or more lead programmers who then passes the job on to the next team which concentrates on a different thing.

Individual programming disciplines roles include:

· Physics – the programming of the game engine, including simulating physics,

collision, object movement, etc.;

· AI – producing computer agents using game AI techniques, such as scripting,

planning, rule-based decisions, etc.

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· Graphics – the managing of graphical content utilization and memory

considerations; the production of graphics engine, integration of models, textures to

work along the physics engine.

· Sound – integration of music, speech, effect sounds into the proper locations and

times.

· Gameplay – implementation of various games rules and features (sometimes

called a generalist);

· Scripting – development and maintenance of high-level command system for

various in-game tasks, such as AI, level editor triggers, etc.

· UI – production of user interface elements, like option menus, HUDs, help and

feedback systems, etc.

· Input processing – processing and compatibility correlation of various input

devices, such as keyboard, mouse, gamepad, etc.

· Network communications – the managing of data inputs and outputs for local

and internet gameplay.

· Game tools – the production of tools to accompany the development of the game,

especially for designers and scripters. ( , 2017)

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Level designers:

Their job is to come up with challenging and fun missions and levels for a game using a set of 2D and 3D tools and programs. They are able to change and modify part of the game whether it still in its building process or if it is the final version, a level designer has to have a decent amount of knowledge about programming so that he is able to make a change in any given part of the game code, but sometimes they work with level editors created by the programmers which eliminates the need to write the code all over again.

Sound engineer:

They are in charge of all the sound effects and music, sometimes working alongside other composers to create soundtracks. They also supervise the voice acting for the characters and voices in the game.

Testers:

This job may sound like the best job ever. what else could be better than sitting around playing new video games, one after another and getting paid for it!?! well the truth is that this job is crucial as it involves having a great amount of knowledge about software and analytic competence, besides knowing and predicting what the consumer wants and expects.

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But testers are not the only ones who work for the publisher, the truth is that many of the games being put on the market over the last few years have given average people the opportunity to become a tester and send feedback and recommendation to the development team, this has been made possible via the popular beta tests, which consist in letting people download a limited version of the final game for free and play for a short period of time, normally between 5 to 7 days, this has two main objectives, the first one is to have a wider amount of opinions and recommendation and the second one is to hype the public and make them want to buy the game as soon as the company releases its final version

Work outside a developer

working for a publisher it not the only way to earn a living with video games. there are other jobs which rotate around this industry and some of them are.:

Distributors and sellers

One of the most important things when making a game is to how and where you are going to have your product distributed and sold to the general public this is where distribution and sales comes in. There are thousands of games stores and platforms around the world where

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one can buy games physically in a store or digitally via internet, acquiring keys to activate copies of the game you want in your console or PC.

Youtubers

This job has a pretty simple concept which is to play a game, record yourself. As you do and upload it to YouTube. You may be asking yourself “How does this give me money?”, simple since 2011 YouTube has being creating partnerships with a lot of companies. These companies offer money to people with a high amount of views and followers per video.

This allows them the opportunity to plug their product using these Youtubers, depending on how many views they get. The more view they get, the larger the amount of money they can earn.

Although this job may sound pretty easy for some people, the truth is that it is difficult, someone must have a passion and a talent to catch the attention of someone with his content and be able to maintain and decent amount a public following so the views won’t diminish as well as their earnings.

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CONCLUSIONS

At the end of this monographic work it is concluded that: Apart from the great history of fails and difficulties, the video games industry has lived it and survived it. It had enough potential to overcome all these obstacles and become the greatest means of entertainment in the world.

It has also concluded that the playing videogames regularly can actually be beneficial for the brain, helping ins it improvement, but only if done moderately, finally, it was also concluded and demonstrated that there are plenty of ways to get a job in this industry, whether making games or simply playing them

RECOMMENDATIONS

The only recommendation I could give is a pretty simple one, play video game. Many people may think that these games are not up their alley but the truth is that you will never now if you never try. For those who wish to work in this industry but are to scared to try, just do it, because working with these kind of things is as important as any other kind of job and may be much more enjoyable. There is nothing more than one could ask for in life other than to enjoy the work you do, and if this would make you a happy person, there is no reason for you not to choose to participate in it!

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Electronic Entertainment Expo. (24 de August de 2017). Obtenido de https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Entertainment_Expo

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