Gaming Culture

Games are an extremely important part to our culture and have a very long and extensive history. However, for almost as long as they have been around, people that play games have had to face a huge amount of criticism, especially from the media.
Everyone has their own opinion on gaming, but the history of video gaming travels as far back as the 1950s when AS Douglas invented OXO. From that moment onwards, multiple video games have been released, such as Mario and Sonic and they are very well known characters in our lives.

History of Gaming

1952- AS Douglas- OXO

1961- Spacewar

1971- Computer Space

1972- Magnavox Odyssey (first ever video game console)

1978- 'Golden Age' of computer games

1980- Space Invaders, Pacman

1981- Donkey Kong

1982- Warner Communications buy Atari for a whopping $28 million

1983- North American video game crash (too many consoles, bad games)

Late 80s to early 90s- "Mario saves the day", tetris, portable games like the nintendo

1992- Mortal Kombat

1993- Doom (first 3D game graphics)

1998- Half Life (first game with a back story)

Do you remember playing any of these games? 

Video games have allowed technology to advance. There are so many different game consoles around now, i.e. wii, PS3 and the Xbox it proves that games are still extremely popular among people of all ages and there is a console for everybody. 

It has often been argued that the story lines behind the games are too violent or gruesome for the young ages that are playing them. However, games have age restrictions just like violent films in the cinema. Usually video games allow the user to participate often in a story that they can be influencing. 

Although games can be violent, and it is argued that they are promoting brutality, it really does come down to who is playing the game, not what the game is encouraging. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games