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A gamer is a person who plays interactive games, especially video games, tabletop role-playing games, and skill-based card games, and who plays for usually long periods of time. Some gamers are competitive, meaning that they compete in some games for money. In some countries such as the UK and Australia, the term "gaming" can refer to legalized gambling, which can take both traditional and digital forms, through online gambling. There are many different gamer communities around the world. Since the advent of the Internet, many communities take the form of Internet forums or YouTube or Twitch virtual communities, as well as in-person social clubs. Originally a hobby, it has evolved into a profession for some. In April 2020, researchers found that top gamers shared the same mental toughness as olympian athletes.[1][2]

Origin of the term gamer

The term gamer originally meant gambler, and has been in use since at least 1422, when the town laws of Walsall, England, referred to "any dice-player, carder, tennis player, or other unlawful gamer". However, this description has not been adopted in the United States, where it became associated with other pastimes. In the US, they made their appearance as wargames. Wargames were originally created as a military and strategy tool. When Dungeons & Dragons was released, it was originally marketed as a wargame, but later was described by its creators as a role-playing game. They too called their players gamers and this is where the word changed definition from someone who gambles to someone who plays board games and/or video games.[3]

Categories

Further information: Video game § Demographics

In the United States as of 2018, 28% of gamers are under 18, 29% are 18–35, 20% are 36-49 and 23% are over 50.[4] In the UK as of 2014, 29% are under 18, 32% are 18-35 and 39% are over 36.[5] According to Pew Research Center, 49% of adults have played a video game at some point in their life and those who have are more likely to let their children or future children play. Those who play video games regularly are split roughly equally between male and female, but men are more likely to call themselves a 'Gamer.'[6] As of 2019, the average gamer is 33 years old.[7]

Female gamer/gamer girl

Main article: Women and video games



A woman playing Go Play One in 2010

A female gamer, or gamer girl or girl gamer, is any female who regularly engages in playing video games. According to a study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association in 2009, 40% of the game playing population is female, and women 18 or older comprise 34% of all gamers. Also, the percentage of women playing online had risen to 43%, up 4% from 2004. The same study shows that 48% of game purchasers are female.[8][5] According to a 2015 Pew survey, 6% of women in the United States identify as gamers, compared to 15% of men, and 48% of women and 50% of men play video games.[9] Usage of the term "girl gamer" is controversial. Some critics have advocated use of the label as a reappropriated term, while others see it as nondescriptive or perpetuating the minority position of female gamers. Some critics of the term believe there is no singular definition of a female gamer and that they are as diverse as any other group. However it is generally understood that the term "girl gamer" implies that it is a girl who plays video games.[10]

Psychology

Main article: Learning curve § Difficulty curves in video games

Shigeru Miyamoto says that "I think that first a game needs a sense of accomplishment. And you have to have a sense that you have done something, so that you get that sense of satisfaction of completing something."[11]

Gaming is a form of escapism.[12] Hideo Kojima states that "If the player isn't tricked into believing that the world is real, then there's no point in making the game."[13]

In April 2020, researchers found that top gamers shared the same mental toughness as olympian athletes.[1][2]

Types and demographics

Sexes



A young male playing a video game on the PlayStation 4 console

Although roughly the same number of men and women play games, the stereotype of a gamer is one that is predominantly male. A justification sometimes given for this is that while many women occasionally play games, they should not be considered "true" gamers because they tend to play games that are more casual and require less skill than men. This stereotype is perpetuated by the fact that at a professional level, most of the teams competing are composed of men, while female gamers of moderate skill are rendered invisible.[14]

Gaymer

Main article: Gaymer

A gaymer, or gay gamer, is a person within the group of people who identify themselves as LGBT (gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgender) and have an active interest in video games.[15] This demographic has been the subject of two large surveys, one in 2006,[16] which noted the level of prejudice that gaymers endure,[17] and another in 2009, focusing on the content that gaymers expect in video games.[18][19] The gaymer community provides a "safe place" for LGBT gamers[20] apart from the isolation they feel from both the heteronormative gaming community and the gay community.[21] They[who?] also believe that as homosexuality in video games increase, there will be an increased normalization of homosexuality in general. "Gaymers are the future of video games" said Hamed Hosseini, who is married to Mahar Buar, in Valve's gaming convention.[21][22][23]

Dedication spectrum



Warren Moon and Marshall Faulk playing a video game

It is common for games media, games industry analysts, and academics to divide gamers into broad behavioral categories. These categories are sometimes separated by level of dedication to gaming, sometimes by primary type of game played, and sometimes by a combination of those and other factors. There is no general consensus on the definitions or names of these categories, though many attempts have been made to formalize them. An overview of these attempts and their common elements follows.

Newbie: (commonly shortened to "noob", "n00b", or "newb") A slang term for a novice or newcomer to a certain game, or to gaming in general.[24][25]

Casual gamer: The term is often used for gamers who primarily play casual games, but can also refer to gamers who play less frequently than other gamers.[26] Casual gamers may play games designed for ease of gameplay, or play more involved games in short sessions, or at a slower pace than hardcore gamers.[10] The types of game that casual gamers play vary, and they are less likely to own a dedicated video game console.[27][28] Notable examples of casual games include The Sims and Nintendogs.[29] Casual gamer demographics vary greatly from those of other video gamers, as the typical casual gamer is older and more predominantly female.[30] "Fitness gamer"s, who play motion-based exercise games, are also seen as casual gamers.[31]

Core gamer: (also mid-core) A player with a wider range of interests than a casual gamer and is more likely to enthusiastically play different types of games,[32] but without the amount of time spent and sense of competition of a hardcore gamer. The mid-core gamer enjoys games but may not finish every game they buy and is a target consumer.[33][34] Former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that they designed the Wii U to cater to core gamers who are in between the casual and hardcore categories.[35] A number of theories have been presented regarding the rise in popularity of mid-core games. James Hursthouse, the founder of Roadhouse Interactive, credits the evolution of devices towards tablets and touch-screen interfaces, whereas Jon Radoff of Disruptor Beam compares the emergence of mid-core games to similar increases in media sophistication that have occurred in media such as television.[36]

Hardcore gamer: Ernest Adams and Scott Kim have proposed classification metrics to distinguish "hardcore gamers" from casual gamers,[37] emphasizing action, competition, complexity, gaming communities, and staying abreast of developments in hardware and software. Others have attempted to draw the distinction based primarily on which platforms a gamer prefers,[38] or to decry the entire concept of delineating casual from hardcore as divisive and vague.[39]

Professional gamer

Professional gamers generally play video games for prize money or salaries. Usually, such individuals deeply study the game in order to master it and usually to play in competitions like Esports.[40] A pro gamer may also be another type of gamer, such as a hardcore gamer, if he or she meets the additional criteria for that gamer type. In countries of Asia, particularly South Korea and China, professional gamers and teams are sponsored by large companies and can earn more than US$100,000 a year.[41] In 2006 Major League Gaming contracted several Halo 2 players including Tom "Tsquared" Taylor and members of Team Final Boss with US$250,000 yearly deals.[42] Many professional gamers find that competitions are able to provide a substantial amount of money to support themselves. However, oftentimes, these popular gamers can locate even more lucrative options. One such option is found through online live streaming of their games. These gamers who take time out of their lives to stream make money from their stream, usually through sponsorships with large companies looking for a new audience or donations from their fans just trying to support their favorite streamer. Live streaming often occurs through popular websites such as Twitch, Hitbox, Mixer and YouTube. Professional gamers with particularly large followings can often bring their fan bases to watch them play on live streams. An example of this is shown through retired professional League of Legends player, Wei Han-Dong also known as "CaoMei".[43] Han-Dong had decided to retire from Esports due to his ability to acquire substantially higher pay through live streaming. His yearly salary through the Battle Flag TV live streaming service increased his pay to roughly $800,000 yearly.[citation needed] Live streaming can be seen by many as a truly lucrative way for professional gamers to make money in a way that can also lessen the pressure in the competitive scene.

Retrogamer

Main article: Retrogaming

A retro gamer is a gamer who prefers to play, and often enough collect, retro games—older video games and arcade games. They may also be called classic gamers or old-school gamers, which are terms that are more prevalent in the United States. The games are played on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations (though those 'in the hobby' tend toward original hardware and emulation).[44]

Classification in taxonomies

A number of taxonomies have been proposed which classify gamer types and the aspects they value in games.[45]

The Bartle taxonomy of player types classifies gamers according to their preferred activities within the game:

Achievers, who like to gain points and overall succeed within the game parameters, collecting all rewards and game badges.

Explorers, who like to discover all areas within the game, including hidden areas and glitches, and expose all game mechanics.

Socializers, who prefer to play games for the social aspect, rather than the actual game itself.

Beaters, who thrive on competition with other players.

Completionists, who are combinations of the Achiever and Explorer types. They complete every aspect of the game (main story, side quests, achievements) while finding every secret within it.

The MDA framework describes various aspects of the game regarding the basic rules and actions (Mechanics), how they build up during game to develop the gameplay (Dynamics), and what emotional response they convey to the player (Aesthetics). The described esthetics are further classified as Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression and Submission. Jesse Schell extends this classification with Anticipation, Schadenfreude, Gift giving, Humour, Possibility, Pride, Purification, Surprise, Thrill, Perseverance and Wonder, and proposes a number of generalizations of differences between how males and females play.[46]

Avatar

Main article: Avatar (computing)

See also: Player character

Creating an avatar sets the stage of a player becoming an avatar; it is the first interaction that a potential player must make to identify themselves among the gaming community.[47] An avatar, username, game name, alias, gamer tag, screen name, or handle is a name (usually a pseudonym) adopted by a video gamer, used as a main preferred identification to the gaming community. Usage of user names is most prevalent in games with online multiplayer support, or at electronic sport conventions.[citation needed] While some well-known gamers only go by their online handle, a number have adopted to using their handle within their real name typically presented as a middle name, such as Tyler "Ninja" Blevins or Jay "sinatraa" Won.

Similarly, a clan tag is a prefix or suffix added to a name to identify that the gamer is in a clan. Clans are generally a group of gamers who play together as a team against other clans. They are most commonly found in online multi-player games in which one team can face off against another. Clans can also be formed to create loosely based affiliations perhaps by all being fans of the same game or merely gamers who have close personal ties to each other. A team tag is a prefix or suffix added to a name to identify that the gamer is in a team. Teams are generally sub-divisions within the same clan and are regarded within gaming circuits as being a purely competitive affiliation. These gamers are usually in an online league such as the Cyberathlete Amateur League (C.A.L.) and their parent company the Cyberathlete Professional League (C.P.L.) where all grouped players were labeled as teams and not clans.

Clans and guilds

A clan, squad or guild is a group of players that form, usually under an informal 'leader' or administrator. Clans are often formed by gamers with similar interests; many clans or guilds form to connect an 'offline' community that might otherwise be isolated due to geographic, cultural or physical barriers. Some clans are composed of professional gamers, who enter competitive tournaments for cash or other prizes; most, however, are simply groups of like-minded players that band together for a mutual purpose (for example, a gaming-related interest or social group).

Identity

The identity of being a gamer is partly self-determination and partly performativity of characteristics society expects a gamer to embody.[48] These expectations include not only a high level of dedication to playing games, but also preferences for certain types of games, as well as an interest in game-related paraphernalia like clothing and comic books.[48] According to Graeme Kirkpatrick, the "true gamer" is concerned first and foremost with gameplay.[49] Escapist founder Alexander Macris says a gamer is an enthusiast with greater dedication to games than just playing them, similar in connotation to "cinemaphile".[50] People who play may not identify as gamers because they feel they don't play "enough" to qualify.[48] Social stigma against games has influenced some women and minorities to distance themselves from the term "gamer", even though they may play regularly.[48][51] Notably, during the Gamergate Controversy that began in August 2014, the gaming press responded to anger from gamers with numerous articles calling the gamer identity "dead" due to changing demographic shifts, despite continuing to use the term to attract advertisers.[52]

Demographics

Games are stereotypically associated with young males, but the diversity of the audience has been steadily increasing over time.[53] This stereotype exists even among a majority of women who play video games regularly.[54] Among players using the same category of device (e.g., console or phone), patterns of play are largely the same between men and women. Diversity is driven in part by new hardware platforms.[53] Expansion of the audience was catalyzed by Nintendo's efforts to reach new demographics.[29] Market penetration of smartphones with gaming capabilities further expanded the audience,[29] since in contrast to consoles or high-end PCs, mobile phone gaming requires only devices that non-gamers are likely to already own.[53]

While 48% of women in the United States report having played a video game, only 6% identify as gamers, compared to 15% of men who identify as gamers.[55] This rises to 9% among women aged 18–29, compared to 33% of men in that age group. Half of female PC gamers in the U.S. consider themselves to be core or hardcore gamers.[56][57] Connotations of "gamer" with sexism on the fringe of gaming culture has caused women to be less willing to adopt the label.[58]

Racial minorities responding to Pew Research were more likely to describe themselves as gamers, with 19% of Hispanics identifying as gamers, compared to 11% of African-Americans and 7% of whites.[55] The competitive fighting game scene is noted as particularly racially diverse and tolerant.[59] This is attributed to its origin in arcades, where competitors met face to face and the barrier to entry was merely a quarter.[59] Only 4% of those aged 50 and over identified as gamers.[55]

Casualization

Casualization is a trend in video games towards simpler games appealing to larger audiences, especially women or the elderly.[29] Some developers, hoping to attract a broader audience, simplify or remove aspects of gameplay in established genres and franchises.[60] Compared to seminal titles like DOOM, more recent mass-market action games like the Call of Duty series are less sensitive to player choice or skill, approaching the status of interactive movies.[61]

The trend towards casual games is decried by some self-identified gamers who emphasize gameplay, meaning the activities that one undertakes in a game.[49] According to Brendan Keogh, these are inherently masculine activities such as fighting and exerting dominance. He further says that games women prefer are more passive experiences, and male gamers deride the lack of interactivity in these games because of this association with femininity.[49] Belying these trends, games including The Sims or Minecraft have some of the largest audiences in the industry while also being very complex.[60] According to Joost van Dreunen of SuperData Research, girls who play Minecraft are "just as 'hardcore' as the next guy over who plays Counter-Strike"[62] Dreunen says being in control of a game's environment appeals equally to boys and girls.[62] Leigh Alexander argued that appealing to women does not necessarily entail reduced difficulty or complexity.[63]

See also

Entertainment Consumers Association

Gamers Outreach Foundation

Going Cardboard (documentary)

List of gaming topics

Player (game)

Video game addiction

References

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Video game

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"Video Games" redirects here. For the 2011 song by Lana Del Rey, see Video Games (song).

A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device – such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device – to generate visual feedback for a player. This feedback is shown on a video display device, such as a TV set, monitor, touchscreen, or virtual reality headset. Video games are often augmented with audio feedback delivered through speakers or headphones, and sometimes with other types of feedback, including haptic technology.



Visitors playing a large-scale version of the iconic Pong video game at the National Videogame Museum

Video games are defined based on their platform, which include arcade games, console games, and personal computer (PC) games. More recently, the industry has expanded onto mobile gaming through smartphones and tablet computers, virtual and augmented reality systems, and remote cloud gaming. Video games are classified into a wide range of genres based on their type of gameplay and purpose.

The first video games were simple extensions of electronic games using video-like output from large room-size computers in the 1950s and 1960s, while the first video games available to consumers appeared in 1971 through the release of the arcade game Computer Space, followed the next year by Pong, and with the first home console the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. The quickly-growing industry suffered from the crash of the North American video game market in 1983 due to loss of publishing control and oversaturation of the market. Following the crash, the industry matured and established practices and methods around the development and distribution of video games to prevent a similar crash in the future, many which continue to be followed. Today, video game development requires numerous skills to bring a game to market, including developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, console and other third-party manufacturers, and other roles.

Since the 2010s, the commercial importance of the video game industry has been increasing. The emerging Asian markets and mobile games on smartphones in particular are driving the growth of the industry. As of 2018, video games generated sales of US$134.9 billion annually worldwide,[1] and were the third-largest segment in the U.S. entertainment market, behind broadcast and cable TV.

Origins

Main articles: History of video games and Early history of video games



Tennis for Two, an early analog computer game that used an oscilloscope for a display

Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U.S. Patent 2455992.[2] Inspired by radar display technology, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.[3] Other early examples include Christopher Strachey's Draughts game, the Nimrod computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain; OXO a tic-tac-toe Computer game by Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSAC in 1952; Tennis for Two, an electronic interactive game engineered by William Higinbotham in 1958; and Spacewar!, written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961. Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim,[4] OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe[5] Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court,[3] and Spacewar! used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other.[6]



Ralph H. Baer (left) receiving the National Medal of Technology from U.S. President George W. Bush in 2006



Nolan Bushnell in 2013

These preliminary inventions paved the way for the origins of video games today. Ralph H. Baer, while working at Sanders Associates in 1966, came up with the idea of using a control system to play a rudimentary game of table tennis on a television screen. With Sanders' blessing, Baer build out the prototype "Brown Box". Sanders patented Baer's inventions and licensed them to Magnavox, who commercialized it as the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972.[3][7] Separately, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, inspired by seeing Spacewar! running at Stanford University, came up with the idea of creating a similar version running in a smaller cabinet using a less expensive computer with a coin-operated feature. This was released as Computer Space, the first arcade game, in 1971.[8] Bushnell and Dabney went on to form Atari, Inc., and with Allan Alcorn, created their second arcade game in 1972, the hit ping pong-style Pong, which was directly inspired by the table tennis game on the Odyssey. Sanders and Magnavox sued Atari on patent infringement over Baer's patents, but Atari settled out of court, paying for perpetual rights to the patents. Following their agreement, Atari went ahead with plans to make a home version of Pong, while was released by Christmas 1975.[3] The success of the Odyssey and Pong, both as an arcade game and home machine, launched the video game industry.[9][10] Both Baer and Bushnell have been given the title the "Father of Video Games" for their contributions.[11][12]

Terminology

The term "video game" was developed to distinguish this class of electronic games that were played to some type of video display rather than those that used the output of a teletype printer or similar device.[13]

"Computer game" may also be used to describe video games since all video games essentially require a computer processor, though the term typically is reserved for games played primarily on personal computers.[13] Other terms such as "television game" or "telegame" had been used in the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly for the home consoles that connected to a television set.[14] In Japan, where consoles like the Odyssey were first imported and then made within the country by the large television manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sharp Corporation, such games were known as "TV games", or TV geemu or terebi geemu.[15]

The first appearance of the term "video game" emerged around 1973. The Oxford English Dictionary cited a November 10, 1973 BusinessWeek article as the first printed use of the term.[16] While Bushnell believed the term came out from a vending magazine review of Computer Space in 1971,[17] a review of the major vending magazines Vending Times and Cashbox showed that the term came much earlier, appearing first around March 1973 in these magazines in mass usage including by the arcade game manufacturers. As analyzed by video game historian Keith Smith, the sudden appearance suggested that the term had been suggested and readily adopted by those involved. This appeared to trace to Ed Adlum, who ran Cashbox's coin-operated section until 1972 and then later founded RePlay Magazine, covering the coin-op amusement field, in 1975. In a September 1982 issue of RePlay, Adlum is credited with first naming these games as "video games": "RePlay's Eddie Adlum worked at 'Cash Box' when 'TV games' first came out. The personalities in those days were Bushnell, his sales manager Pat Karns and a handful of other 'TV game' manufacturers like Henry Leyser and the McEwan brothers. It seemed awkward to call their products 'TV games', so borrowing a word from 'Billboard's description of movie jukeboxes, Adlum started to refer to this new breed of amusement machine as 'video games.' The phrase stuck."[18]

Video game terms



Freedoom, a clone of the first-person shooter Doom. The screen shows common elements in video games such as a heads-up display that includes the player's remain health and ammunition (along the bottom of the screen).

See also: Glossary of video game terms

As every video game is different, the experience of playing every video game is impossible to summarize in a singular statement, but many common elements exist. Most games will launch into a title screen and give the player a chance to review options such as the number of players before starting a game. Most games are divided into levels which the player must work their avatar through, scoring points, collecting power-ups to boost the avatar's innate attributes, all while either using special attacks to defeat enemies or moves to avoid them. This information is relayed to the player through a type of on-screen user interface such as a heads-up display atop the rendering of the game itself. Taking damage will deplete their avatar's health, and if that falls to zero or if the avatar otherwise falls into an impossible-to-escape location, the player will lose one of their lifes. Should they lose all their lives without gaining an extra life or "1-UP", then the player will reach the "game over" screen. Many levels as well as the game's finale end with a type of boss character the player must defeat to continue on. In some games, intermediate points between levels will offer save points where the player can create a saved game on storage media to restart the game should they lose all their lives or need to stop the game and restart at a later time. These also may be in the form of a passage that can be written down and reentered at the title screen.

As games are software products, they may still ship with software bugs. These can manifest as glitches within the game which may be exploited by the player; this is often the foundation of speedrunning a video game. Other times, these bugs, along with cheat codes, Easter eggs, and other hidden secrets that were intentionally added to the game can also be exploited.[19][20][21][22] On some consoles, cheat cartridges allow players to execute these cheat codes, while user-developed trainers allow similar bypassing for computer software games, both which can make the game easier, give the player additional power-ups, or change the appearance of the game.[20]

Components of a video game

To distinguish from electronic games, a video game is generally considered to require a platform, the hardware which contains computing elements, to process player interaction from some type of input device and displays the results to a video output display.[23]

Platform



Various gaming consoles at the Computer Games Museum in Berlin

Video games require a platform, a specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware and associated software, to operate.[24] The term system is also commonly used. Games are typically designed to be played on one or a limited number of platforms, and exclusivity to a platform is used as a competitive edge in the video game market.[25] However, games may be developed for alternative platforms than intended, which are described as ports; these also may be remasters - where most of the original game's source code is reused while art assets, models, and game levels are updated for modern systems - and remakes, where in addition to asset improvements, significant reworking of the original game and possibly from scratch is performed.[26]

The list below is not exhaustive and excludes other electronic devices capable of playing video games such as PDAs and graphing calculators.

Computer gameMost computer games are PC games, referring to those that involve a player interacting with a personal computer (PC) connected to a video monitor.[27] Personal computers are not dedicated game platforms, so there may be differences running the same game on different hardware. Also, the openness allows some features to developers like reduced software cost,[28] increased flexibility, increased innovation, emulation, creation of modifications or mods, open hosting for online gaming (in which a person plays a video game with people who are in a different household) and others. A gaming computer is a PC or laptop intended specifically for gaming typically using high-performance, high-cost components. In additional to personal computer gaming, there also exist games that work on mainframe computers and other similarly shared systems, with users logging in remotely to use the computer.Home consoleA console game is played on a home console, a specialized electronic device that connects to a common television set or composite video monitor. Home consoles are specifically designed to play games using a dedicated hardware environment, giving developers a concrete hardware target for development and assurances of what features will be available, simplifying development compared to PC game development. Usually consoles only run games developed for it, or games from other platform made by the same company, but never games developed by its direct competitor, even if the same game is available on different platforms. It often comes with a specific game controller. Major console platforms include Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo.Handheld consoleA handheld gaming device is a small, self-contained electronic device that is portable and can be held in a user's hands. It features the console, a small screen, speakers and buttons, joystick or other game controllers in a single unit. Like consoles, handhelds are dedicated platforms, and share almost the same characteristics. Handheld hardware usually is less powerful than PC or console hardware. Some handheld games from the late 1970s and early 1980s could only play one game. In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of handheld games used cartridges, which enabled them to be used to play many different games. The handheld console has waned in the 2010s as mobile device gaming has become a more dominant factor.



A police-themed arcade game in which players use a light gun

Arcade video gameAn arcade video game generally refers to a game played on an even more specialized type of electronic device that is typically designed to play only one game and is encased in a special, large coin-operated cabinet which has one built-in console, controllers (joystick, buttons, etc.), a CRT screen, and audio amplifier and speakers. Arcade games often have brightly painted logos and images relating to the theme of the game. While most arcade games are housed in a vertical cabinet, which the user typically stands in front of to play, some arcade games use a tabletop approach, in which the display screen is housed in a table-style cabinet with a see-through table top. With table-top games, the users typically sit to play. In the 1990s and 2000s, some arcade games offered players a choice of multiple games. In the 1980s, video arcades were businesses in which game players could use a number of arcade video games. In the 2010s, there are far fewer video arcades, but some movie theaters and family entertainment centers still have them.Browser gameA browser game takes advantages of standardizations of technologies for the functionality of web browsers across multiple devices providing a cross-platform environment. These games may be identified based on the website that they appear, such as with Miniclip games. Others are named based on the programming platform used to develop them, such as Java and Flash games.Mobile gameWith the introduction of smartphones and tablet computers standardized on the iOS and Android operating systems, mobile gaming has become a significant platform. These games may utilize unique features of mobile devices that are not necessary present on other platforms, such as accelerometers, global positing information and camera devices to support augmented reality gameplay.Cloud gamingCloud gaming requires a minimal hardware device, such as a basic computer, console, laptop, mobile phone or even a dedicated hardware device connected to a display with good Internet connectivity that connects to hardware systems by the cloud gaming provider. The game is computed and rendered on the remote hardware, using a number of predictive methods to reduce the network latency between player input and output on their display device. For example, the Xbox Cloud Gaming and PlayStation Now platforms use dedicated custom server blade hardware in cloud computing centers.



Players using the PlayStation VR headsets in 2017

Virtual realityVirtual reality (VR) games generally require players to use a special head-mounted unit that provides stereoscopic screens and motion tracking to immerse a player within virtual environment that responds to their head movements. Some VR systems include control units for the player's hands as to provide a direct way to interact with the virtual world. VR systems generally require a separate computer, console, or other processing device that couples with the head-mounted unit.EmulationAn emulator enables games from a console or otherwise different system to be run in a type of virtual machine on a modern system, simulating the hardware of the original and allows old games to be played. While emulators themselves have been found to be legal in United States case law, the act of obtaining the game software that one does not already own may violate copyrights. However, there are some official releases of emulated software from game manufacturers, such as Nintendo with its Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online offerings.Backward compatibilityBackward compatibility is similar in nature to emulation in that older games can be played on newer platforms, but typically directly though hardware and build-in software within the platform. For example, the PlayStation 2 is capable of playing original PlayStation games simply by inserting the original game media into the newer console, while Nintendo's Wii could play Nintendo GameCube titles as well in the same manner.

Game media



An unlabeled game cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Early arcade games, home consoles, and handheld games were dedicated hardware units with the game's logic built into the electronic componentry of the hardware. Since then, most video game platforms are considered programmable, having means to read and play multiple games distributed on different types of media or formats. Physical formats include ROM cartridges, magnetic storage including magnetic tape data storage and floppy discs, optical media formats including CD-ROM and DVDs, and flash memory cards. Furthermore digital distribution over the Internet or other communication methods as well as cloud gaming alleviate the need for any physical media. In some cases, the media serves as the direct read-only memory for the game, or it may be the form of installation media that is used to write the main assets to the player's platform's local storage for faster loading periods and later updates.

Games can be extended with new content and software patches through either expansion packs which are typically available as physical media, or as downloadable content nominally available via digital distribution. These can be offered freely or can be used to monetize a game following its initial release. Several games offer players the ability to create user-generated content to share with others to play. Other games, mostly those on personal computers, can be extended with user-created modifications or mods that alter or add onto the game; these often are unofficial and were developed by players from reverse engineering of the game, but other games provide official support for modding the game.[29]

Input device

Main article: Game controller



A North American Super NES game controller from the early 1990s

Video game can use several types of input devices to translate human actions to a game. Most common are the use of game controllers like gamepads and joysticks for most consoles, and as accessories for personal computer systems along keyboard and mouse controls. Common controls on the most recent controllers include face buttons, shoulder triggers, analog sticks, and directional pads ("d-pads"). Similar control sets are built into handheld consoles and onto arcade cabinets. Newer technology improvements have incorporated additional technology into the controller or the game platform, such as touchscreens and motion detection sensors that give more options for how the player interacts with the game. Specialized controllers may be used for certain genres of games, including racing wheels, light guns and dance pads. Digital cameras and motion detection can capture movements of the player as input into the game, which can, in some cases, effectively eliminate the control, while on other systems such as virtual reality, are used to enhance immersion into the game.

Display and output

Main article: Video game graphics



Handheld units, like the Game Boy, include built-in output screens and sound speakers.

By definition, all video games are intended to output graphics to an external video display, such as cathode-ray tube televisions, newer liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions and built-in screens, projectors or computer monitors, depending on the type of platform the game is played on. Features such as color depth, refresh rate, frame rate, and screen resolution are a combination of the limitations of the game platform and display device and the program efficiency of the game itself. The game's output can range from fixed displays using LED or LCD elements, text-based games, two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, and augmented reality displays.

The game's graphics are often accompanied by sound produced by internal speakers on the game platform or external speakers attached to the platform, as directed by the game's programming. This often will include sound effects tied to the player's actions to provide audio feedback, as well as background music for the game.

Some platforms support additional feedback mechanics to the player that a game can take advantage of. This is most commonly haptic technology built into the game controller, such as causing the controller to shake in the player's hands to simulate a shaking earthquake occurring in game.

Means of classification

Video games are frequently classified by a number of factors related to how one plays them.

Genres

Main article: Video game genre

See also: Gameplay

Play media

Dustforce is representative of the platform game genre as its gameplay involves jumping between platforms.

A video game, like most other forms of media, may be categorized into genres. However, unlike film or television which use visual or narrative elements, video games are generally categorized into genres based on their gameplay interaction, since this is the primary means which one interacts with a video game.[30][31][32] The narrative setting does not impact gameplay; a shooter game is still a shooter game, regardless of whether it takes place in a fantasy world or in outer space.[33][34] An exception is the horror game genre, used for games that are based on narrative elements of horror fiction, the supernatural, and psychological horror.[35]

Genre names are normally self-describing in terms of the type of gameplay, such as action game, role playing game, or shoot 'em up, though some genres have derivations from influential works that have defined that genre, such as roguelikes from Rogue,[36] Grand Theft Auto clones from Grand Theft Auto III,[37] and battle royale game from the film Battle Royale.[38] The names may shift over time as players, developers and the media come up with new terms; for example, first-person shooters were originally called "Doom clones" based on the 1993 game.[39] A hierarchy of game genres exist, with top-level genres like "shooter game" and "action game" that broadly capture the game's main gameplay style, and several subgenres of specific implementation, such as within the shooter game first-person shooter and third-person shooter. Some cross-genre types also exist that fall until multiple top-level genres such as action-adventure game.

Mode



A LAN party at the 2004 DreamHack with hundreds of players

A video game's mode describes how many players can use the game at the same type. This is primarily distinguished by single-player video games and multiplayer video games. Within the latter category, multiplayer games can be played in a variety of ways, including locally at the same device, on separate devices connected through a local network such as LAN parties, or online via separate Internet connections. Most multiplayer games are based on competitive gameplay, but many offer cooperative and team-based options as well as asymmetric gameplay. Online games use server structures that can also enable massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) to support hundreds of players at the same time.

A small number of video games are zero-player games, in which the player has very limited interaction with the game itself. These are most commonly simulation games where the player may establish a starting state and then let the game proceed on its own, watching the results as a passive observer, such as with many computerized simulations of Conway's Game of Life.[40]

Intent

Most video games are created for entertainment purposes, a category otherwise called "core games".[23] There are a subset of games developed for additional purposes beyond entertainment. These include:

Casual gamesCasual games are designed for easy of accessibility, simple to understand gameplay and quick to grasp rule sets, and aimed at mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game. They frequently support the ability to jump in and out of play on demand, such during commuting or lunch breaks. Numerous browser and mobile games fall into the casual game area, and casual games often are from genres with low intensity game elements such as match three, hidden object, time management, and puzzle games.[41] Causal games frequently use social-network game mechanics, where players can enlist the help of friends on their social media networks for extra turns or moves each day.[42] Popular casual games include Tetris and Candy Crush Saga.More recent, starting in the late 2010s, are hyper-casual games which use even more simplistic rules for short but infinitely replayable games, such as Flappy Bird.[43]Educational gamesEducation software has been used in homes and classrooms to help teach children and students, and video games have been similarly adapted for these reasons, all designed to provide a form of interactivity and entertainment tied to game design elements. There are a variety of differences in their designs and how they educate the user. These are broadly split between edutainment games that tend to focus on the entertainment value and rote learning but are unlikely to engage in critical thinking, and educational video games that are geared towards problem solving through motivation and positive reinforcement while downplaying the entertainment value.[44] Examples of educational games include The Oregon Trail and the Carmen Sandiego series. Further, games not initially developed for educational purposes have found their way into the classroom after release, often those that feature open worlds or virtual sandboxes, such as Minecraft.[45]



Microsoft Flight Simulator is an example of a serious game.

Serious gamesFurther extending from educational games, serious games are those where the entertainment factor may be augmented, overshadowed, or even eliminated by other purposes for the game. Game design is used to reinforce the non-entertainment purpose of the game, such as using video game technology for the game's interactive world, or gamification for reinforcement training. Educational games are a form of serious games, but other types of serious games include fitness games that incorporate significant physical exercise to help keep the player fit (such as Wii Fit), flight simulators that simulate piloting commercial and military aircraft (such as Microsoft Flight Simulator), advergames that are built around the advertising of a product (such as Pepsiman), and newsgames aimed at conveying a specific advocacy message (such as NarcoGuerra).[46][47]

Content ratings

Main article: Video game content rating system



A typical ESRB rating label, listing the rating and specific content descriptors for Rabbids Go Home

Video games can be subject to national and international content rating requirements. Like with film content ratings, video game ratings typing identify the target age group that the national or regional ratings board believes is appropriate for the player, ranging from all-ages, to a teenager-or-older, to mature, to the infrequently seen adults-only titles. Most content review is based on the level of violence, both in the type of violence and how graphic it may be represented, and sexual content, but other themes such as drug and alcohol use and gambling that can influence children may also be identified. A primary identifier based on a minimum age is used by nearly all systems, along with additional descriptors to identify specific content that players and parents should be aware of.

The regulations vary from country to country but generally are voluntary systems upheld by vendor practices, with penalty and fines issued by the ratings body on the video game publisher for misuse of the ratings. Among the major content rating systems include:

Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) that oversees games released in the United States. ESRB ratings are voluntary and rated along a E (Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10 and older), T (Teen), M (Mature), and AO (Adults Only). Attempts to mandate video games ratings in the U.S. subsequently led to the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association in 2011 which ruled video games were a protected form of art, a key victory for the video game industry.[48]

Pan European Game Information (PEGI) covering the United Kingdom, most of the European Union and other European countries, replacing previous national-based systems. The PEGI system uses content rated based on minimum recommended ages, which include 3+, 8+, 12+, 16+, and 18+.

Australian Classification Board (ACB) oversees the ratings of games and other works in Australia, using ratings of G (General), PG (Parental Guidance), M (Mature), MA15+ (Mature Accompanied), R18+ (Restricted), and X (Restricted for pornographic material). ACB can also deny to give a rating to game (RC – Refused Classification). The ACB's ratings are enforceable by law, and importantly, games cannot be imported or purchased digitally in Australia if they have failed to gain a rating or were given the RC rating, leading to a number of notable banned games.

Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) rates games for Japan. Their ratings include A (all ages), B (12 and older), C (15 and over), D (17 and over), and Z (18 and over).

Additionally, the major content system provides have worked to create the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), a means to streamline and align the content ratings system between different region, so that a publisher would only need to complete the content ratings review for one provider, and use the IARC transition to affirm the content rating for all other regions.

Certain nations have even more restrictive rules related to political or ideological content. Notably, China's video game segment is mostly isolated from the rest of the world due to the government's censorship, and all games published there must adhere to strict government review, disallowing content such as smearing the image of the Chinese Communist Party. Foreign games published in China often require modification by developers and publishers to meet these requirements.[49