A very interesting game was released last Tuesday, Halo 3. Now, I am not very interested in the Halo franchise and their games but a few of my friends are deeply in love with them. Pretty much to sum up Halo is aliens come to earth and destroy and take it over and you are part of the humans to stop them. The thing that is disappointing about the newest game is the amount of hours you spend in order to beat it. A very very popular game like this shouldn't be able to be conquered in one day. My buddy had to work the day he bought it and still beat it in one day. There are two modes to play, single and multi-campaign mode. Multi-campaign mode is where you and your friends can team up to play the story mode.

This is definitely a game that will be remembered for a long time, no matter how many people actually like it. On it's release last Tuesday, it gained the record for top opening day for an entertainment game with $170 million, even beating out the movie Spider-man 3 and the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. So, even if I don't dig the game obviously plent of other people do.

My statistic came from http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo3/launch/20070926halo3biggestday.htm

There is a certain genre of games called MMO RPG's. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games is what the letters stand for. In these games there is currency that is used to buy, sell, and even produce items to be used. I found it interesting that there is a site that you can actually buy the currency in the game with real currency if you need it. www.videogamegold.com is that site and you should definitely check it out. Their prices are reasonable, according to my friend, but vary from time to time. It's an interesting spin on gaming.

Money

A large problem with video games and CPU games is that they outdate quickly. For example, the time between the release of a game system and the release of the previous game systems is around 5 years. At the same time, the average lifespan of a computer before it is obsolete is 5 years. This is really a short lifespan considering the amount of money that is spent on these consols. And the game consols are not getting any cheaper. In 2006 three game consols were released for sale, Xbox 360, Plastation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. Their respective prices were $499, $599, and $249. And, in approximately 2011 those systems will be outdated! A new and improved system from each company will come out and blow the face off the gaming comunity. I added that last part because that's what is said about every gaming system that is released, even if it isn't true.

This trend reminds me of cars and car buyers. A car is definitely alot more expensive than a video game consol. But the economics behind it are almost the same. If we take the same lifespan of a $500 game consol and compare it to a $20,000 brand new car we would have a 40 to 1 ratio. So if the lifespan of a game system is 5 years then comparatively the lifespan of a car should be 200 years. That is if you multiply 40 times 5. However, that is not the case. Cars are lucky to last 20 years, and even then most people decide to get rid of their car before it even dies. And if you think about time between release of products, new car models are released once a year. This almost immediately outdates that $20,000 car.

My point is, there is alot of money invested from dedicated gamers. Their need for something outstanding could even be compared to car enthusiasts' need for something innovative. Is this a bad habit? Is this a bad trend that is the reason other countries look down upon us because we wastefully spend money instead of making the products last? At the same time, however, is this industry helping the United States stay on top of the economic heap of wreckage?

Are video games dangerous??

Well, in my mind, the only thing dangerous about video games is the danger of someone not getting all their homework done on time. Yet, some people believe that video games are the reason kids become violent, angered, or mean. After the Columbine high school shootings people were trying to figure out a cause behind their shootings. They looked at video games as a culprit of instilling the violent aspect into the kids. Marilyn Manson was also blamed as a culprit, but I don't care about him anyway. I've read stories of kids who try to use swords because they played the Legend of Zelda, in which the main character uses a sword. There is one story I read in which one kid jumped on his brother's head because he saw it on Super Mario. These are probably worst case scenerios but they present a good question.

A good example of games that make you forget your homework is EverQuest. Parents television council reports that of those that play the game the average number of hours played a week is 20-30. That's a part time job! And, as they point out, that's an average number. There are those who play way more than the 20-30 hours of gameplay. So this really isn't a danger of a violent level but a danger of a personal, time management level.

There's some interesting, yet one-sided, information about dangers of video games here http://www.familyfriendlygaming.com/Dangers-of-video-games.html They talk about violence, epilepsy, warping the brain, causing brain damage, causing ADHD, addiction, exploitation of women, and linkage to obesity. As troubling as this all may sound, I believe there's a large agenda being pushed from this website in order to make video games seem worse that they actually are. So if you feel like looking at that link, BE WARNED.

My information about EverQuest came from http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/rgcolumns/2003/0508.asp

How popluar are video games anyway? When looking at just game sales the numbers are very significant. According to About.com, In 2004 the game and gaming console sales were down from 10 billion dollars to 9.9 billion dollars. Regardless of the loss, those are huge numbers. They report that the top games of 2004 included, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - PS2, Halo 2* - XBX, and Madden NFL 2005 - PS2. The top selling game, GTA, is a rated M game while Halo 2 is T and Madden is E.

So this says a little about the industry. In 2004, games that were violent and oriented to mature audiences were the best selling games. This says one of two things about the audience these games were made for. First, people who are playing games more now are over 18 and playing the games like GTA, Halo, and Bioshock. Second, people who are buying games are buying them for their children who are under 18, just because they want them, and not necissarily finding what the game is acutally about. That could be a problem for kids who don't even know what these games are really about.

All of my information was used from http://retailindustry.about.com/od/seg_toys/a/bl_npd012703.htm

Gamers

Who plays these video games that are so popular and in demand? More males than females play the video games. That is almost a no-brianer, but there are many many women who actually play and enjoy playing video games. According to the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) 38% of gamers (video game players) are women and 62% of gamers are men. Of those 31% of women are 18+ years old and 20% of men are 17 years or younger. I thought that was a very interesting statistic considering that you wouldn't expect grown, mature women to play video games, but most girls never did when they were younger.

I believe that when someone goes into college there are a few types of people they will encounter; druggies, drunks, hippies, and gamers. I'm not saying everyone has to fit into one of these categories but there are alot of people who hadn't tried all four of these until college. Let me also clarify hippy. My definition of hippy is anyone who decides that they are the progressive ones, leading the way for a better tomorrow. That's mainly activists. Women who hadn't tried gaming until college are the reason why the 18+ statistic is so high.

Back to the matter at hand. A few more interesting statistics from ESA state the average age of a gamer is 33, however the average age of those who purchase games is 38. And finally out of all gamers 28.2% are under age 18, 47.6% are age 18 to 49, and 24.2% are age 50+. I bet you didn't know that about your dad or grandpa?

The statistics I found for this blog were on the ESA website http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php