10

Digital Gaming and the Media Playground

327

There is a popular image of digital game enthusiasts (gamers) as being mostly young and male, and spending countless hours either in front of a computer or on a couch in front of a television and game console. But if that ever defined the majority of gamers, it doesn’t anymore. Digital games have escaped the confines of living rooms, parents’ basements, and arcades. And today, the average age of gamers—almost half of which are female—is thirty-one, with 39 percent over the age of thirty-five, and 29 percent under eighteen.¹

There are probably several reasons for this, but one of them is certainly the rise in casual games: games that tend to feature very little in the way of story lines, focusing instead on repeating games and puzzles of increasing difficulty. Some examples of these kinds of games include Tetris, Minesweeper, Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Plants vs. Zombies. An even bigger change is that all of these games—from strategy games like SimCity and Minecraft to first-person shooters like Contract Killer: Zombies and Call of Duty (various titles)—have mobile app versions. Whereas portable games like the Game Boy have been around since the 1980s, the sheer convenience of gaming on a device like a smartphone makes gaming a very different, and more common, experience. New games can be searched for, downloaded, and played on devices also used for social media, e-mail, and photos.

328

That’s not to say that traditional console-based gaming, using systems like Wii or PlayStation, is in danger of disappearing. In fact, Facebook—already home to many successful casual and social games, such as Candy Crush, Bejeweled, and Farmville—recently spent $2 billion to buy Oculus VR.² The company is responsible for Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset developed with money from Kickstarter.com. This move by Facebook is somewhat reminiscent of Microsoft’s move into the gaming business when it released the Xbox.

As more people play more games in more places, some scholars and critics have started to look more closely at the role digital games play in society and culture. Although concerns about violence have been around for a long time, in just the past few years the growing recognition of the cultural and economic importance of digital games has meant more press coverage (see “Media Literacy Case Study: Writing about Games” on pages 352–353) as well as a growing critique on what the games say about women and minorities. Given that about half of gamers are women, it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that there is an increasing demand for games that aren’t designed specifically for young males. Yet there has also been a troubling backlash aimed at critics, especially female critics, who have called for more diversity in games, with less miso­gyny in games and gaming culture (see also “Converging Media Case Study: Anita Sarkeesian, #GamerGate, and Convergence” on pages 342–343).

Of course, many gamers just want to have fun, whether it be with more “serious” games on their computers and game consoles, or with more casual games on their mobile devices. But with dedicated fandoms rivaling those for books and films in an earlier era, billions of dollars in gaming-related sales, and a confirmed place in popular culture, digital gaming has become more than simple play.

DIGITAL GAMES offer play, entertainment, and social interaction. Like the Internet, they combine text, audio, and moving images. But they go even further than the Internet by enabling players to interact with aspects of the medium in the context of the game—from deciding when an on-screen character jumps or punches to controlling the direction of the story in games such as World of Warcraft. This creates an experience so compelling that vibrant communities of fans have cropped up around the globe. And the games have powerfully shaped the everyday lives of millions of people worldwide.

329

Players can now choose from a massive range of games designed to satisfy almost any taste. Today, digital gaming and the media playground encompass classic video games like Super Mario Bros., virtual sports-management games like ESPN’s Fantasy Football, and more physically interactive games like those found on Wii Fit?—to say nothing of massively multiplayer online role-playing games and casual games like Angry Birds. Indeed, for players around the world, digital gaming has become a social medium—as compelling and distracting as other social media. The U.S. Supreme Court has even granted digital gaming First Amendment freedom of speech rights, ensuring its place as a mass medium.

In this chapter, we take a look at the evolving mass medium of digital gaming by: