Wonder About Video Games
Hundreds of millions of people around the globe have adopted a new leisure activity. Through the generations, relaxing media came in the form of reading. Then radio became popular in the first half of the twentieth century. The second half brought the advent of television. Finally, computers, the Internet, and video games were widely adopted near the turn of the millennium. While the other media are still widely popular but unprecedented levels of interaction and immersion offered by video games are not comparable with other media. A book might be read several times throughout its life, a movie might provide two or three hours of entertainment, and songs on the radio are fleeting at best, but games blow them all away by effortlessly immersing players in worlds apart.
Multiplayer Video Games is the Future
Video games became really popular in the eighties, but with the vast increase in broadband infrastructure, gamers have been able to play games online easily for the past decade. Online video gamesare more popular than ever before, and single player games are beginning to fall behind. Some games like Valve’s incredibly popular Left 4 Dead are totally built around multiplayer, and the single player feature is added on as an afterthought. Some notable single player exceptions are Fallout 3 and Dead Space, but these are becoming uncommon.
More and more video games are increasingly not only including more online features, but making those features the entire foundation of the game. MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games) like World of WarCraft and Lord of the Rings Online attract millions of people, offering thousands of hours of content, far beyond anything seen in a single player game. This absolute wealth of content makes them perfect time sinks, but people genuinely feel accomplished playing them. As players are allowed to interact with one another as never before in a living, breathing world with consequences that span beyond their actions, video games can now provide a lasting sense of pride.
On the emotional side of things, video gamesare far more effective than books, songs, and movies for drawing up deep feelings in players. When players have to work hard to save each other in Left 4 Dead from the zombie masses, they become emotionally attached to the characters. Success can bring up deep feelings of pride while defeat can be heart breaking. These kinds of emotional investments are totally absent from other forms of media. Video games are the only media used to merge great tales and nobody can guess about the next innovation shall be.