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1. "The Father of the Video Games" was Ralph H. Baer the creator of the first video game.

2. 1967 develop with his team a "Brown Box"

3. 1972 introduce the Odyssey system"

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Engineer Ralph Baer, a pioneer in the field of interactive video games, invented what became known as the Magnavox Odyssey Home Video Game System. In 2004, the video game industry accounted for more than $8 billion in sales, with sales of $15 billion projected for 2010.

In the 1960s, Baer worked for defense contractor Sanders Associates. Although his primary focus was to develop military systems, Sanders thought that his gaming ideas could make money. Baer developed a number of games that became part of his 'Brown Box', a multi-game console, including ping-pong, handball, soccer, volleyball, target shooting, checkers, and golf. Sanders licensed the technology to Magnavox, which introduced the Odyssey system in 1972.

Baer continued to work on interactive games during his years at Sanders, in addition to continuing his work on military electronics. A well-known game he developed was Simon, a single-chip, microprocessor controlled memory game introduced in 1978.

Born in Germany, Baer came to the United States as a teenager. After serving in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence during WWII, he attended the American Television Institute of Technology, receiving his B.S. in 1949. After a brief stint at Loral, Baer worked at Sanders until 1987 before devoting all of his time to his own consulting business. In 2004, Baer was a recipient of the National Medal of Technology.

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NIHF Inductee Ralph H. Baer, Who Invented Video Games

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Pause all videos Back to Inductee Search Engineer Ralph Baer, a pioneer in the field of interactive video games, invented what became known as the Magnavox Odyssey Home Video Game System. In 2004, the video game industry accounted for more than $8 billion in sales, with sales of $15 billion projected for 2010.

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1. 1940 scients and general public explore machines to play.

2. 1950 computer scientist begin using games to test limits and potential of their programs

3. 1970 video games reach mass audiences trough coins - aracades games and console homes

4. 1990 computer games makers explore the possibilities on the internet

5. 2010 smarth phone puts a game-playing computer in almost everyone

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The museum will close 3-3:30 p.m. on Monday, April 8, for the eclipse and will remain open until 6 p.m.

Explore the history of video games. Many artifacts illustrated in the timeline reside in The Strong's collections.

Video game arcades reach their heyday as home consoles-led by Nintendo-begin to take sway.

Click and drag to scroll through the timeline.

Video game arcades reach their heyday as home consoles-led by Nintendo-begin to take sway.

Click and drag to scroll through the timeline.

1980

A missing slice of pizza inspires Namco's Toru Iwatani to create Pac-Man, which goes on sale in July 1980. That year a version of Pac-Man for Atari 2600 becomes the first arcade hit to appear on a home console. Two years later, Ms. Pac-Man strikes a blow for gender equality by becoming the best-selling arcade game of all time.

1981

Video game fans go ape over Nintendo's Donkey Kong, featuring a character that would become world-famous: Jumpman. Never heard of him? That's because he's better known as Mario-the name he took when his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, makes him the star of a later game by Nintendo.

1985

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) revives an ailing United States video game industry two years after the Nintendo Corporation released it in Japan as Famicom.

1987

It's a good year for fantasy Role Playing Games, as Shigeru Miyamoto creates Legend of Zelda, SSI wins the video game license for Dungeons and Dragons, and Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry gives players a different kind of adult role playing game.

1989

Nintendo's Game Boy popularizes handheld gaming. Game Boy is not the first handheld system with interchangeable cartridges-Milton Bradley introduced Microvision 10 years earlier-but it charms users with its good game play, ease of use, and long battery life.

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Video Game History Timeline - The Strong National Museum of Play

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The museum will close 3-3:30 p.m. on Monday, April 8, for the eclipse and will remain open until 6 p.m. Explore the history of video games. Many artifacts illustrated in the timeline reside in The Strong's collections. Video game arcades reach their heyday as home consoles-led by Nintendo-begin to take sway.

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1. Its a lot of categories like action, sports, adventure

2. Interactive movies

3. life simulation

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Today we are going to learn everything there is to know about video game genres, subgenres, and game types. This guide is the longest and most detailed of its kind, and it provides a thorough overview of every video game category ever created along with video trailers of sample games from each genre.

At CodaKid, we live and breathe video games, and have used them to teach coding for kids for over 100,000 students across the globe. Many of the game genres here serve as excellent educational tools that we know inside and out. If you are interested in learning how to make games from the genres in this article, we hope you'll check us out!

Understanding video game genres is interesting for gamers, designers, and students of video games alike. For gamers in particular, it can introduce readers to new game categories as well as new games in genres that they already love.

Video game genres are categories of games that have similar gameplay and gameplay mechanics. For example, a role playing game (otherwise known as an RPG) is a classic video game genre played by millions of people every day. The common thread in most RPGs is that you play as a character that gains strength and experience as you tackle increasingly more difficult challenges and levels.

Most video game genres also have sub-genres which help divide the genre into tighter and narrower categories. For example, sub-genres of the RPG genre include Action RPGs, MMORPGs, Roguelike RPGs, Tactical RPGs, Sandbox RPGs, and more.

Below, we have provided an exhaustive list of video games genres, sub-genres, and examples of games in each category.

Action games are one of the most popular video game genres in the world and typically feature physical challenges that are overcome by jumping, fighting, and shooting. Excellent hand-eye coordination and twitch reflexes are typically required in action games, and the action normally revolves around the user's character who must pass the series of challenges in order to progress to the next level. The primary subgenres we will cover in the Action Games section are platform games (or platformers), shooters, fighting games, Beat-em Up Brawler Games, Stealth Action Games, Survival Games, Battle Royale games and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)

The platform video game genre (also known as platformers) focuses primarily on jumping and climbing. In platform games the user's character will navigate terrain, platforms, ladders, and other puzzles and try to reach the end of the level alive.

2D Platformer (Donkey Kong, Mario Bros): 2D platformers are platform games played from a side view using 2D graphics. The 2D platformer was a very popular genre in the 1980s with the release of Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Donkey Kong was the first video game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across floor gaps. Mario Bros introduced 2-player cooperative play which was

3D Platformer - SuperMario Odyssey, Sonic Forces: 3D platformers took the platform genre and introduced 3D gameplay and polygonal 3D graphics.

The shooter video game genre, often abbreviated as "shooters", is a subgenre of action video games in which the player's primary goal is to defeat the character's opponents with the weapons available to him. These weapons are usually rifles or other long-range weapons that can be used in conjunction with other items such as grenades for indirect offensive, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to alter the weapons' behavior. Ammunition, armor, or health, as well as upgrades that enhance the player character's weaponry, are frequent resources in many shooter games. In both isolated single player and networked multiplayer contexts, shooter games put the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and quickness to the test. Shooter games are divided into several subgenres, all of which rely on the avatar participating in combat with a weapon against either code-driven NPC adversaries or other avatars controlled by other players.

3D Shooter

First-person shooter - Call of Duty, Halo Infinite, Half-life

Third-person shooter - Fortnite, Splatoon

2D Shooter

Top Down Shooter - Galaga

Side-scroller Shooter - Defender, Cuphead

A fighting game (sometimes known as a versus fighting game) is a video game genre in which two (or more) players fight each other. Blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into "combos" are all common combat techniques in fighting games. Hand-to-hand combat-often involving some type of martial arts-is used by the characters in most battles. The fighting game genre is linked to but separate from the beat 'em up genre, which pits one or more player characters against a huge number of computer-controlled enemies.

Fighting games include duels between two fighters who use exaggerated martial arts movements. They are mostly focused on brawling or combat sports, while some varieties include weaponry. On-screen fighters are normally shown from the side, and even 3D fighting games are mostly played in a 2D plane of motion. Although some games allow players to travel between parallel planes of movement, most games limit characters to moving left and right and jumping. Recent games have a tendency to be represented in three dimensions and to allow side-stepping, but they still play like two-dimensional games.

2D Fighters - Street Fighter

3D Fighters - Super Smash Bros, Tekken, Soul Calibur

Beat-em Up Brawler Games - Castle Crashers, Double Dragon

Stealth Action Games

In contrast to most action games, stealth action games require the player to avoid alerting attackers at all costs. The current stealth game's basic gameplay elements are to avoid battle, make as little noise as possible, and strike foes from the shadows and behind. Completing goals without being discovered by enemies, sometimes known as "ghosting," is a popular strategy in stealth games. While avoiding detection may be the sole way to complete a game, there are usually several paths or styles of play that can be used to accomplish a goal. Players can hide behind items or in the shadows, and strike or rush past enemies who are facing the opposite direction. If the player draws the attention of attackers, they may be able to hide and wait for the enemies to stop looking for them. As a result, planning and trial-and-error become crucial. When the player is discovered, certain stealth games place a greater focus on physical combat abilities. Some games give you the option of killing or just knocking out an enemy. Even if ghosting is optional or poorly supported by a game, players may try to avoid battle for moral reasons or to demonstrate competence. These games were dubbed "sneak 'em up" games early on in the creation of the stealth genre.

2D Stealth - Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, Assassin's Creed

3D Stealth - Metal Gear Solid is credited as the first 3D stealth game, while popularizing the hiding-behind-cover game element.

Survival games are considered an extension of a common video game theme in which the player character is stranded or separated from others and must work alone to survive and complete a goal. The player generally starts out with a minimal amount of equipment and must attempt to remain alive as long as possible by crafting tools, weapons, shelters, and collecting resources.

In addition to being playable as a single-player game, survival games are often designed to be played in multiplayer mode, with the persistent world hosted on game servers. This video game genre has many examples, including the list of popular games below:

3D Survival Games - Rust, Ark: Survival Evolved, SCUM, Subnautica, The Long Dark, The Forest

2D Survival Games - Terraria, Starbound, Stardew Valley, Junk Jack, Deadlight, The Swapper, Shelter

Battle Royale
One of the most popular of the video game genres, Battle Royale is typically a multiplayer online video game that combines last-man-standing gameplay with survival, exploration, and scavenging elements of a survival game. In most cases, games consist of many individual players, pair of two players or a small squad (typically three or five players). The goal of battle royale games is to eliminate as many opponents as possible within a diminishing amount of area, with the last player or team standing victorious. Players start with minimal equipment and must eliminate all opponents while avoiding being trapped outside of the restricted area.

3D Battle Royale - Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, Fortnite, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

2D Battle Royale - Surviv.io, Zombsroyale.io, Buildroyale.io, Mobg.io

An action-adventure game includes elements from both an action game and an adventure game. Many aspects of action-adventure games are similar to those of action games, but they also offer a storyline, characters, an inventory system, dialogue, and other features of adventure games. Action-adventure games typically include a combination of complex story elements, which are displayed for gamers using audio and video. The story highly depends on the movement of the player's character, which triggers the events of the story and thus affects the flow of the game.

Survival horror refers to a subgenre of action-adventure video games that include horror game elements. The character of the player is vulnerable and under-armed, putting the emphasis on puzzle-solving and escape, rather than the player taking an offensive strategy. The games usually challenge the player to manage his inventory and ration scarce resources such as ammo. A survival horror story generally involves investigating and confronting horrible forces, and therefore many games turn common elements of horror fiction into gameplay challenges.

The player can explore a wide interconnected world map in Metroidvania games, while entry to certain areas is typically restricted by doors or other obstacles that can only be overcome if the player has obtained unique objects, equipment, weapons, powers, or information within the game. Maps are non-linear, and players are usually required to travel the map many times throughout the game. Larger games generally include save spots and even the ability to transfer the player rapidly between specific rooms on different sides of the map, it minimizes needless backtracking in the game stages.

2D Metroidvania - Hollow Knight, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Metroid: Samus Returns, Ori and the Blind Forest

3D Metroidvania - Metroid Prime

Adventure games are single-player games with a compelling story. More than any other video game genre these games depend heavily on their plot and scenario to provide an engaging single-player experience. Puzzles, decoding messages, locating and using tools, opening locked doors, and discovering and exploring new places are all part of adventure games. Solving a puzzle allows you to explore new regions of the game environment and learn more about the plot. An inventory management interface is a distinct gameplay style in many adventure games. Because players can only pick up certain objects in the game, they usually understand that only those objects that can be picked up are essential.

Graphic adventures are adventure games in which the player's environment is conveyed through graphics. Graphic adventure games can use a range of input methods, ranging from text parsers to touch screen interfaces. The avatar will be shown differently in different graphic adventure games. Many adventure games feature painted or pre-rendered backgrounds, or a context-sensitive camera that is positioned to show off each area to the best extent, although some games use a first-person or third-person perspective where the camera follows the player's moves.

2D Graphic Adventures - The Silent Age, Blacksad: Under the Skin, Four Last Things

3D Graphic Adventures - Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter, Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations

Text adventures (also known as interactive fiction) are text-based games in which worlds are described in the narrative and the player interacts with the worlds using typically basic commands. Interactive fiction is software that simulates scenarios in which players control characters and change the environment through text commands. Literary narratives, either in the form of interactive narratives or interactive narrations, are what these works are. These works can also be viewed as a type of video game, either as an adventure game or as a role-playing game. In common use, the phrase refers to text adventures, a sort of adventure game in which the entire interface is "text-only." However, graphical text adventures still fall under the text adventure category if the primary method of interaction is typing text.

Visual novels differ from other game genres in that they have far less gameplay. The majority of player input is mainly limited to clicking to keep the text, images, and sound going while making narrative decisions. Another distinguishing feature of visual novels is their great emphasis on writing, as the narrative is provided through text. Playing visual novels is extremely similar to reading a book because of this feature. Most visual novels have several storylines and endings; the mechanic in these games is usually a series of multiple-choice decision points when the player chooses which path to take the game in.

A video game or other interactive media that simulates a cinematic film is referred to as an interactive film. The phrase "movie game" is used in the video game industry to describe a video game that displays its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted format, frequently using full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage. Interactive movies are animated or filmed with actual actors (or, in some cases, produced with 3D models) and follow a core storyline. Alternative scenes (such as 'Game Over' scenes) are filmed to be triggered after the player's incorrect (or alternate permitted) acts.

They added some of the qualities more often associated with action games, such as freedom of motion and physics-based behavior, to traditional adventure gaming.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, Shadow of Memories, realMyst, Shenmue

In Role-Playing games the player assumes the role of a character that grows in strength and experience over the course of the game. The player is required to overcome difficult challenges and/or defeat monsters, to gain experience points which represent the character's progress in a chosen profession or class and allow the player to gain new abilities once a set amount is obtained.

An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a combination of core elements from both action games and role playing genres. Averse to turn or menu-based combat, action RPGs emphasize real-time combat where the player has direct control over the characters.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Nier: Automata, The Witcher 3: Cyberpunk 2077, Sands of Salzaar, Wasteland 3, Wild Hunt, Assassin's Creed Origin, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario Bros, Ratchet and Clank

MMORPG

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a type of role-playing video game in which a huge number of people interact in a virtual world. MMORPGs differ from single-player or small multiplayer online RPGs in the amount of players who can interact with each other, as well as the game's persistent universe (typically hosted by the publisher), which continues to exist and expand even when the user is offline and away from the game. An MMORPG may be run on multiple separate servers, each representing its own world, with players from one server unable to interact with those from another, depending on the number of players and the system architecture; World of Warcraft is a good example, with each separate server housing several thousand players.

The name and gameplay aspects of the roguelike video game subgenre come from the 1980 computer game Rogue. A roguelike (or rogue-like) is a type of role-playing video game that features a dungeon crawl through randomly generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based mobility, and the player character's irreversible death. The majority of roguelikes have a high fantasy storyline, owing to their inspiration from tabletop role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.

Tactical RPG

Tactical Role playing games is a subgenre of role-playing video games, that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical (turn-based or real-time) strategy video games. It is also known as Strategy role-playing games and in Japan as simulation RPGs (both abbreviated SRPGs). They principally refers to games which incorporate elements from strategy video games as an alternative to traditional role-playing game (RPG) systems. Several massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) have combined multiplayer online gaming with tactical turn-based combat. The genre has its origins in tabletop role-playing games, where each player has time to decide his or her characters' actions.

Tactical role-playing games are a subgenre of role-playing video games that integrate aspects from both role-playing and tactical (turn-based or real-time) strategy games. It's also known as strategy role-playing games and simulation role-playing games in Japan (both abbreviated SRPGs). As an alternative to standard role-playing game (RPG) systems, they primarily refer to games that incorporate features from strategy video games. Multiplayer online gaming has been mixed with tactical turn-based combat in a number of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). The genre has its roots in tabletop role-playing games, in which each player has the freedom to choose the actions of his or her characters.

Tactical RPGs: Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden Tactics, Vanguard Bandits and Disgaea, Arc the Lad II, Arc the Lad III, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

A sandbox game is one in which the player has few limits on his or her character and is free to wander and change the virtual world at his or her leisure. In contrast to a progression-style game, a sandbox game emphasizes roaming and allows the player to choose their own tasks. A sandbox game, rather than having segmented zones or numbered levels, takes place in a "world" over which the player has entire control from start to finish. A sandbox game is a type of open-world or free-roaming game.

Sandbox RPGs, often known as open world RPGs, provide the player a lot of flexibility and usually feature a world that is more open and free-roaming (meaning the player isn't bound to a particular path by rocks, fences, or other obstacles). Sandbox RPGs are similar to other sandbox games, such as the Grand Theft Auto series, in that they have a large number of interactable non-player characters, a large amount of content, and typically some of the largest worlds to explore and the longest playtimes of any RPG due to an impressive amount of secondary content not critical to the main storyline.

First-person party-based RPGs are also known as DRPG (Dungeon RPG). In this type of RPGs, the player guides a group of adventurers through a dungeon or labyrinth in first-person perspective, usually in a grid-based setting. Because the player moves the entire party across the playing field as a single entity, or "blob," they are also known as "blobbers." The majority of "blobbers" are turn-based, but other series like Dungeon Master, Legend of Grimrock, and Eye of the Beholder are real-time.

JRPGs (Japanese Role-Playing Games) are a type of role-playing game that differs from those played in the West. JRPGs are frequently made by Japanese developers, but this is not always the case. The term "JRPG" comes from the term "console RPG," which refers to games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Because the term JRPG now refers to a wide spectrum of RPGs, it is no longer considered a genre, but rather an umbrella term. A game is characterized as a JRPG if it satisfies the criteria that one would expect to find in one. Japanese role-playing games have a more linear plot and a predetermined cast of characters. They typically have a large number of adversary encounters and may require grinding in order to progress further in the game.

A simulation video game is a broad genre of video games that are intended to closely resemble real-world events. A simulation game tries to mimic real-life activities in the form of a game for a variety of goals including teaching, analysis, prediction, or just entertainment. In most games, there are no clearly defined objectives, and the user is free to control a character or environment. Because simulation games require more engagement than simply reading about or studying concepts and ideas, they may alleviate the tedium associated with more traditional approaches of courses. Students will be able to experience topics through "living" them. As a result, the implementation of simulation games may help students become more motivated and interested in studying. Simulation games can provide players with a better understanding of how people see the world, such as their moral and intellectual quirks. They can also assist in creating empathy for others and understanding of personal and interpersonal values by allowing players to see the moral and ethical consequences of their decisions.

CMSs are usually single-player games since competition would force players to sacrifice originality in favor of efficiency and a scramble for resources. They usually offer a free-form construction mode where players can create whatever they like, appealing to a player's feeling of creativity and need for control. As a result, many CMSs have no win condition, despite the fact that players can always lose by running out of resources. The player must correctly manage their economy in order to develop larger inventions and earn more creative power in these games. Construction and management simulations rarely have a storyline progression, and the level design is typically a simple place where the player can build. Some games contain pre-built situations, such as achieving a certain level of property or surviving brutal conditions, as win conditions. However, success in one scenario rarely has an impact on the outcome of another, and players can normally try them in any order.

Players are given the ability to influence the lives of autonomous individuals or creatures in life simulation games, which are about "maintaining and expanding a virtual life." Artificial life games are linked to artificial life research in computer science. Commercial A-life games, on the other hand, "implement only a fraction of what A-life research studies" since "they're intended for amusement rather than research." God games, which concentrate on controlling tribal worshipers, as well as artificial pets, which focus on one or more animals, fall under this wide category. It also contains genetic artificial life games, in which players manage animal populations across multiple generations.

3D Life simulation - The Sims, Shelter 2, Eco, Seventh Cross: Evolution

2D Life simulation - New York Nights: Success in the City, Jones in the Fast Lane, Little Computer People, E.V.O.: Search for Eden

Players can drive or fly a vehicle in vehicle simulation games. This vehicle could be based on a real vehicle or a creation of the game designer. Vehicles in the air, on the ground, across the water, and even in space fall under this category. Vehicle simulations can include a range of objectives, such as racing, warfare, or simply getting the feel of operating a vehicle. In most cases, these games allow the player to see the action through the eyes of the pilot or driver. A wide range of vehicles is included in this category, including aircraft, spaceships, boats, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and so on. This concept includes a wide range of driving simulators, including both real and virtual racing environments. A variety of flight simulators, including civilian, military, and fantastical vehicles, are also available. Despite being advertised as sports games, racing games follow the design standards of a vehicle simulation, according to Rolling and Adams. The physical and tactical difficulty of driving a vehicle is the main gameplay in a vehicle simulation. Mastery of vehicle control is the factor that motivates players to keep playing even after the game's objectives have been met. Players must learn to use appropriate speed and steering, as well as prevent crashes by observing speed indicators.

A rhythm game, often known as rhythm-action, is a type of action game that tests the player's ability to keep rhythm. Dance games like Dance Dance Revolution and music-based games like Donkey Konga and Guitar Hero are examples of this category. The player is challenged to hit buttons at specific moments in games of this genre: the screen displays which button the player must click, and the game awards points for precision as well as synchronization with the beat. The screen in certain rhythm games shows an avatar performing in response to the player's controller inputs. The avatar is more important to spectators than it is to the player, therefore these graphical replies are normally in the background. The player's avatar plays against a computer-controlled opponent in single-player modes, whereas multiplayer versions allow two player-controlled avatars to compete head-to-head. Because of the popularity of rhythm games, a market for specialized input devices has emerged. Musical instrument controllers, such as guitars, drums, and maracas, are among these. The player must step on pressure-sensitive pads on a dance mat to participate in dancing games. Most rhythm games, on the other hand, allow for more traditional input devices like control pads.

Rhythm Games - Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Osu, Beat Saber, Frets on Fire

Strategy games are popular video game genres that emphasize thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to win. A player must execute a series of activities against one or more opponents, with the purpose of reducing opposing troops. Victory is accomplished through greater planning, with luck playing a minor role. In most strategy video games, the user is granted a godlike view of the game universe and indirectly commands the game units. As a result, most strategy games include tactical and strategic factors, as well as elements of warfare to varying degrees. These games frequently test the player's ability to explore and manage an economy, in addition to fighting.

Traditionally, the 4X game genre is defined by having the following four gameplay conventions. These four X's stand for EXplore, EXpand, EXploit, and EXterminate.

1. Explore - Players send scouts over a map to reveal nearby territory.

2. Expand - Players claim newer territory by establishing new settlements or increasing the power of existing ones.

3. Exploit - Players collect and use resources in areas they control, with the goal of increasing the efficiency of that use.

4. Exterminate - it refers to the act of attacking and eliminating other players. Because all territory in some games is eventually seized, eliminating a rival's presence may be the only way to expand further.

In 4X games, research is crucial since technological advancement is a source of conquest. Superior military technology or higher numbers are frequently used to win battles, with battle tactics having a lower role. A technology tree is common in 4X games, and it reflects a number of improvements that players can unlock in order to get new units, structures, and other skills. Technology trees in 4X games are often larger than those in other strategy games, with a wider range of options. Empires must invest in new technology and produce research resources. 4X games are recognized for their strategic depth and challenging gameplay. In most cases, gameplay takes precedence over the graphics. Other strategy games focus on the battle, but 4X games provide more precise control over diplomacy, economy, and research, allowing for a wider range of options. This also requires the player to manage multiple strategies at the same time while planning for long-term goals. The majority of 4X and equivalent strategy games include several methods to win. For example, in Civilization, players can win by conquering all of their opponents' cities, but they can also win by achieving technological advancements (such as being the first to launch a spacecraft to a new planet), diplomacy (such as reaching peace agreements with all other nations), or other means. Multiple victory conditions aid the human player, who may need to change plans as the game continues and opponents obtain vital resources before he or she does.

Artillery games are two- or three-player (typically turn-based) video games that include tanks (or simply cannons) attempting to destroy one another. Most often, the primary elements of the game are to aim at the opponent(s) on a ballistic trajectory (in its simplest form, a parabolic curve). Before firing, the player is usually expected to input an angle and velocity, and games frequently ask the player to adjust for wind and other conditions. Although the game might be classified as a shooter because players fire projectiles at one another, it mainly resembles a strategy video game.

Artillery Games- Worms: A Space Oddity, Death Tank, Worms 2: Armageddon, Worms Reloaded, Worms: Battle Islands, Worms Ultimate Mayhem, Hogs of War 2

An auto battler, often known as auto chess, is a type of strategy video game that typically include chess-like components in which players deploy characters on a grid-shaped battlefield, who automatically fight with the opposing team's characters without the player's control. Similar to a battle royale, auto battler games often involve multiple players competing against each other as individuals. Each player deploys a team of troops, known as minions, with the goal of forming the most powerful team possible. After each player has chosen their initial units, they are partnered up at random for a series of one-on-one fights. In combat, both players' units are placed on the board and fight each other automatically, usually without the player's interaction. When one team is entirely destroyed, with none of that player's units able to fight any longer, the loser receives a hit point penalty and the game continues on to the next phase. After the battle phase, players purchase units that can be merged to create stronger versions of the same units at the start of each round. Many categories can be assigned to units, and combat bonuses are provided for stacking multiple troops of the same type. A player is eliminated from the contest if they lose all of their health.

Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which all players play at the same period, in "real-time. Each player in a real-time strategy game places structures and movements several units under their indirect control to secure regions of the battlefield and/or destroy their opponents' assets. It is possible to produce extra units and structures in a normal RTS game, but this is usually limited by the need to spend collected resources. Controlling specific points on the map and/or holding specific sorts of units and structures dedicated to this goal are used to obtain these resources. The screen in a typical real-time strategy game is divided into two areas: a map area that displays the game world and terrain, units, and buildings, and an interface overlay that contains command and production controls, as well as a "radar" or "minimap" overview of the entire map. The player is usually placed somewhere on the map with a few units or a building that can build further units or buildings. To access more sophisticated units in the tech tree, the player must often, but not always, create specified structures. RTS games frequently, but not always, involve the player to develop an army and use it to protect themselves against a simulated Human wave attack or to destroy enemies who have bases with their own unit creation capacities. RTS games occasionally have a fixed number of units that the player can control and do not allow the player to build more.

Real-time tactics (RTT) is a subgenre of tactical wargames that are played in real-time to simulate operational warfare and military tactics. It differs from real-time strategy games in that it lacks traditional resource management and base or unit construction, as well as a higher emphasis on individual units and complicated combat tactics. Real-time strategy games urge players to focus on logistics and production as much as or more than fighting, whereas real-time tactics games focus on tactical and operational aspects of warfare such as unit formations and terrain exploitation for tactical advantage. Real-time tactical gaming is also distinguished by the requirement that players fulfill tasks using just the combat forces available to them and by the supply of a realistic (or at least convincing) representation of military tactics and operations. The military tactical and realistic focus of real-time tactics games, as well as the comparatively short risk/reward cycle, provide a far more rapid, intense, and accessible experience of battlefield tactics and mêlée than other genres of strategy games.

MOBA is a type of strategic video games in which two teams of players combat against each other on a predefined battleground. Each player controls a single character with a unique set of skills that progress through time and contribute to the team's overall strategy. Each team's ultimate goal is to destroy their opponent's main structure, which is located on the opposite side of the battleground. In some MOBA games, the goal is to defeat the opponent team's whole squad. Computer-controlled forces aid players by spawning in groups and marching forward along specified tracks toward their opponent's base, which is highly fortified by defensive structures. MOBAs are a sort of multiplayer online video game that began as a subgenre of real-time strategy, however, players rarely develop buildings or troops.

Tower defense (TD) is a strategy game subgenre in which the goal is to defend a player's territories or belongings by blocking opposing attackers or preventing enemies from accessing exits, usually by building defensive structures on or along their attack path. This usually entails constructing a variety of structures that automatically obstruct, hamper, attack, or destroy enemies. Because of its real-time origins, tower defense is considered a subgenre of real-time strategy video games, even if many modern tower defense games feature aspects of turn-based strategy. A key strategy in the genre is the strategic placement and selection of defensive pieces.

The following are the basic gameplay features of tower defense:

1. Territories, possessions, and domiciles (together, the "base") that the player or players must defend.

2. Multiple waves of oncoming "enemy" must be defended against.

3. Tower features, such as towers or barriers, are placed in the way of attacking opponents.

Modern tower defense has the following characteristics:

1. Players can place obstructions on their bases that will damage or kill attacking enemies before they destroy their base.

2. Repair of obstructions.

3. Upgrade of obstructions.

4. A currency that can be used to buy upgrades and repairs.

5. Multiple paths can be traversed at the same time by an enemy.

6. Usually, each wave has a certain number and type of enemies.

7. New maps and levels can be unlocked.

8. A tower that can move.

Turn-Based Strategy Games are a type of military simulator or a subgenre of strategy games that are often entirely abstract. The players take control of a number of pieces or units and take turns managing them on a rectangle or hexagonal grid. Each turn, players typically move a unit, assault an opponent unit, or exploit natural resources, most commonly by recruiting additional units or constructing more fixed facilities. Each unit can typically move and then perform one more action per round. Play usually ends when a certain goal is met, such as the destruction of all enemy units (or structures), though timed games are also popular.

Turn-based tactics (TBT), also known as tactical turn-based (TTB), is a computer and video game genre of strategy video games that simulate the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics in small-scale confrontations rather than the more strategic considerations of turn-based strategy (TBS) games through stop-action simulations. Turn-based tactical gameplay is defined by the expectation that players execute tasks using only the combat forces available to them, and by the supply of a realistic (or at least convincing) representation of military tactics and operations. Turn-based tactics are also defined by turn-based gameplay, as the genre's name suggests. Tactical and miniature wargaming, the recreation of warfare scenarios using miniatures or even simple paper chits with very complex rules, are the origins of the genre. Because of the tactical consequences of elevation, hard cover, and line of sight, turn-based tactics games frequently offer more detailed and complex settings than other strategy games.

Wargames are a type of strategy video game in which the focus is on strategic or tactical warfare on a map. Depending on whether the game is turn-based or real-time, and whether the focus is on military strategy or tactics, wargames generally fall into one of four archetypal categories. A wargame, as opposed to abstract games like chess, is a game that realistically simulates battle. Wargaming can be done for fun, to teach military officers how to think strategically, or to research the nature of potential conflicts. Many wargames reproduce specific historic conflicts, and they can encompass whole wars, as well as campaigns, battles, and lower-level encounters within those wars. There are many wargames that replicate land battles, but there are also wargames that simulate sea and air conflict.

Wargames - Hegemony, Wargame: Red Dragon, Total War, Close Combat, Steel Panthers

A grand strategy wargame, or simply grand strategy game (GSG), is a wargame that focuses on grand strategy: military strategy at the level of movement and resource use of a nation state or empire. It's a genre that shares a lot of similarities with 4X games, but it's "asymmetrical," meaning that players are more restricted to a specific arrangement and aren't divided into equally free factions when it comes to exploring and completing the game in an open environment. Grand strategy games are particularly valuable in education and international affairs studies since they go beyond simple warfare to include economics, geography, history, and politics.

A video game that simulates the practice of sports is known as a sports video game. Most sports, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports, have been replicated with a game. Physical and tactical challenges are present in sports games, which put the player's precision and accuracy to the test. Most sports games seek to simulate athletic aspects such as speed, strength, acceleration, precision, and so on. These games, like their respective sports, are held in a stadium or arena with clearly defined borders. Recorded audio is frequently used in sports games to give play-by-play and color commentary.

Team sports games are one of the oldest forms of video game genres. They simulate playing a sport ranging from football to soccer to rugby to baseball. Some games, such as Arch Rivals and NBA Jam, poke fun at the genre, while others, such as Madden NFL and FIFA, attempt to emulate the authenticity and feel of playing a live game. Team sports games are competitions between opposing teams in which players compete directly and concurrently to achieve a goal. To earn points, teammates are typically tasked with facilitating the movement of a ball or other comparable object according to a set of regulations.

Racing video games are video games in which players control a vehicle that competes against other vehicles on a series of racetrack or levels, with the objective of reaching the finish line first. Some racing video games, such as Sonic R, do not require the use of automobiles; some games only depict characters running.

There are numerous racing sub-genres, all of which are distinct from one another. While they all have the similar goal of racing to the end of the track before everyone else, each sub-genre has its own gameplay and focus.

1. Arcade racing video games - Arcade-style racing games prioritise enjoyment and a fast-paced experience, as automobiles race in a variety of ways. Arcade-style races have significantly more liberal physics than simulation racers, which is a crucial aspect that distinguishes them from simulation racers. Whereas in real racing (and its simulation versions), the driver must slow down significantly to take most turns, arcade-style racing games urge the player to "powerslide" the car into a turn, allowing the player to maintain their pace. Collisions with other racers, track barriers, or traffic vehicles are frequently overdone in comparison to simulation racers.

2. Futuristic racing video games - Futuristic racing games are a form of racing game in which players race against the clock or other vehicles in science fiction vehicles such as sci-fi cars or other sci-fi vehicles. Vehicle combat may be included in a number of futuristic racing games.

3. Kart racing video games - Kart racing games offer simplified driving principles while incorporating hazards, unique track designs, and a variety of action components. Kart racers are also known for casting characters as "wacky" vehicle drivers who have appeared in many platform games or cartoon television series. Kart racing games are more arcade-like than other racing games, and they frequently include rounds where player characters can launch projectiles at each other or earn power-ups. Typically, vehicles in such games move more like go-karts, with no gear lever or clutch pedal.

4. Simulation racing video games - The goal of simulation racing games is to accurately simulate the physics and handling of a car. If they can't get an official license for genuine vehicles or racing leagues, they'll use fantasy cars that look like real ones. The physics of vehicular behavior are crucial to the experience. Professional race driver rigours (such as dealing with a car's tyre condition and fuel level) are frequently incorporated as well. Simulated racing games prioritize proper turning skill and precision racing moves (such as trail braking).

The term esports refers to video games played in competitions by both amateurs and professionals. Esports generally fall into a few major categories. Fighting games, first-person shooters (FPS), real-time strategy (RTS), and multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBA) make up the majority of esports titles, with MOBAs being the most popular in terms of participation and viewership. Hundreds of players from around the world compete for the prize pool. The following is a list of games with a professional scene that are presently or have previously existed, organized by genre and roughly chronologically. Of all of the video game genres, the Esports genre is one of the fastest growing.

Sports-based fighting games, such as boxing and wrestling video games, are titles that fit well into both the fighting game and sports game genres. As a result, they're frequently divided into subgenres of their own. Many incorporate real-world franchises or fighters, and the fighting is often significantly more realistic than in standard fighting games (though the degree of realism varies).

Sports-based fighting: - Fight Night, UFC 2009 Undisputed, EA Sports UFC, WWE

Individual Sports

Individual Sports Games include solo sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding and the games within this video game genre typically try to simulate reality as much as possible.

Individual Sports Games: Shredders Snowboard Sim, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip, SSX

Puzzle games put the player's problem-solving skills to the test, requiring them to recognize patterns, solve sequences, and complete words. Crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, and logic puzzles are examples of distinct puzzle genres. Puzzles are frequently designed for fun purposes, but they can also result from significant mathematical or logical issues. Logic and conceptual challenges are the focus of puzzle games. While many action and adventure games incorporate puzzle aspects into their level design, a real puzzle game prioritizes problem solving as the primary gameplay activity.

Trivia Games

Trivia is a form of game in which players (either individually or in groups) are asked questions about various topics and must answer as many of them correctly as possible thereby earning points. Trivia contests are commonly held as part of parties, events, and pub entertainment. Normally, contestants are divided into teams, with the winning team being the one with the highest score.

This type of game is intended so that players have fun while playing, and its major goal is to encourage conversation and good argument among participants, in addition to the benefit of developing and growing your knowledge, whether in general or in more particular areas. In reality, Trivia winners are not required to receive a prize, and generally everyone is fine with that because the main goal is to have fun while learning.

Trivia questions and answers can be tailored to any audience and used in schools and universities to help students build language skills and test their knowledge and abilities.

The Logic video game genre requires solving logic puzzles or navigating difficult environments such as mazes in order to pass levels and score points. Tile-matching puzzle games are among the most popular casual games because they are perfectly suited to informal play. Adventure and instructive games regularly cross into this category. Tetris, a puzzle game, is credited with altering gaming and bringing the puzzle genre to a wider audience.

This genre involves games that orient the player with a trivial task, such as clicking a cookie; and as the game progresses, the player is gradually rewarded with certain upgrades for completing said task. In all, these games require very little involvement from the player, and in most cases they play themselves; hence the use of the word "idle".

An idle game is one in which the player does not interact with the game while it develops. Idle games can be actively played, operate in the background, or even reward the player for returning. The player chooses how to play the game in each situation, yet the game is flexible enough to be played in any way. Idle games must allow for some mechanisms to operate in the background while the player is not playing; otherwise, the game will not be called idle. Idle games do not require a player's continual attention, therefore they can be active while the player is doing other things, or even while the player is sleeping. This style of gameplay can be incredibly pleasant for the gamer because they feel as if they are being rewarded for their idleness.

Cookie Clicker, Clicker Heroes, Forager, Realm Grinder, Time Clicker

Casual games are video games that do not need a significant amount of time to play, win, or enjoy. A "casual gamer," on the other hand, is a person who enjoys any video game without devoting a considerable amount of time to it, and who plays it on the spur of the moment, irregularly, or seldom. Casual games, as opposed to hardcore games, are usually web-based and aimed for a broad, mass market audience. Casual games can be of any genre and feature any style of gameplay. They usually have fewer rules, shorter sessions, and take less expertise to master. They don't anticipate being familiar with typical mechanics, controls, or tropes. As a result, they can play and win in much less time. They can also typically be played in short bursts. In contrast to more "hardcore" games, which can take up to 40 hours to complete the game's final stage. Solitaire, developed by Microsoft, is widely regarded as one of the first very successful casual games for the PC.

Party games are usually multiplayer video games that allow a large number of players to compete. Party games, in general, are a collection of basic mini-games ranging from collecting more of a specific item than other players to having the fastest time at anything. They're made to be simple to use and operate.

Programming games are video games that are used to teach software programming skills. A programming game typically includes computer programming features that allow the player to execute instructions in a domain-specific programming language. It's usually depicted as a visual language that makes the programming concept easier to understand. In programming games, the player has no direct control over the game's outcome. Instead, to direct the behaviors of the actors, a computer program or script is developed in a domain-specific programming language (usually robots, tanks or bacteria, which seek to destroy each other). Before submitting their programs to a central server, players are provided tools to design and test their programs in the game's domain-specific language. The server then runs the program against other players and reports the results to the player, who can then make adjustments or enhancements to the program based on the results. Programming games could be placed within the Educational Games video game genre, but as they are so unique e felt that they deserved their own category.

CodaKid RoboHacker , CodeCombat, CodinGame, Lightbot, Shenzhen I/O, Game Builder Garage, Code.org

Classical board games are divided into four general categories: race games (such as Pachisi), space games (such as Noughts and Crosses), chase games (such as Hnefatafl), and games of displacement (such as chess). Many board games have been adapted into video games, with the computer serving as one or many opponents. Many board games can now be played versus a computer or against other players online.

Some websites (such as boardgamearena.com, yucata.de, and others) allow participants to play in real time and see their opponents' actions right away, while others send email notifications after each move. Print-and-play games, which can be purchased and printed, have been impacted by the Internet and cheaper home printing. Some games employ external media to accompany the game, such as audio cassettes or DVDs.

There are computer adaptations of many popular board and card games. Traditional games can benefit from AI opponents to assist enhance one's ability. World-class computer programs are available for chess, checkers, Othello (also known as Reversi), and backgammon. In China and Japan, mahjong and related games are extremely popular. Go is popular in East Asia, despite the fact that programming a computer to play Go is infamously difficult. )))

A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) is a type of video game that allows a huge number of people to play at the same time over the internet. These games are usually set in a shared environment that the player can enter after purchasing or installing the game program. Many game designers have incorporated online multiplayer modes into many typically single-player games as a result of the phenomenal expansion of MMOGs. MMO games create a whole ecosystem within the title, from having a complex setting to a large player base that interacts and completes missions with one another to having a functional economy that affects all players equally.

MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games) are one of the most popular types of MMOG, but the concept is far broader than that. Online gameplay has become a must-have feature in many first-person shooters (FPS), racing games, and even fighting games, in addition to RPGs and real-time strategy (RTS) games. For many gamers, the ability to compete against players from all over the world in a variety of online-only game types outweighs the single player mode that many of these games were built for.

Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter games (MMOFPS): Firefall, Dust 514, Global Agenda, Huxley, Neocron, Planetside 2, World War II Online

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG): AdventureQuest 3D, New World, Neverwinter, Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Priston Tale, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games (MMORTS): Age of Empires Online, DarkSpace, Dawn of Fantasy, Lord of Ultima

An advergame (also known as an advertisement game) is a type of video game advertising in which the game is created by or in close collaboration with a corporate body for the aim of promoting a specific brand. Advergames are typically free, released online, and compatible with a variety of devices. The brand, company, product, institution, or service being advertised is usually the protagonist of these games.

Advergaming is a non-intrusive technique to reach out to the general audience. Users interact with the game on their own volition. Advergames are simple to create. A brand can incorporate its style and values into a unique product that reflects it by creating a video game from scratch (or adapting an existing format). They have a decent probability of becoming viral online. The games are highly addicting and amusing, and they also have a social component (just look at Candy Crush's Facebook success!). As a result, there's a significant probability they'll be shared. They're easily quantifiable. It can track all of a user's interactions with the game, including how much time they spend playing, how many times they log in, and what screen they exit.

An art game is an interactive work by a visual artist that challenges cultural preconceptions, offers important social or historical critique, or tells a tale in a creative way. A specified way to win or experience success in a mental task, passage through a succession of stages (that may or may not be hierarchical), and a focal character or icon that represents the player, according to the article. While art games may combine features from other genres, such as RPG elements, puzzle-solving, or shooting, they remain a distinct genre. They tend to straddle the line between what is and isn't a game, straddling the line between interactive art and conventional perceptions of what a game is. Art games are a technique to examine and remark on games as a genre. They experiment with interactivity and even the concept of "play" in order to push the medium in new directions, sometimes employing methods that aren't even fun. Whether you find art games fascinating or irritating, they are sure to spark discourse and urge us to think about games beyond the surface level.

Educational games are games that are either purposefully developed for educational reasons or that offer secondary educational value. Educational games are those that are designed to help individuals learn about specific subjects, broaden concepts, reinforce development, grasp a historical event or culture, or assist them in mastering a skill while they are playing. Board, card, and video games are examples of game kinds. This educational tool has grown popular as educators, governments, and parents recognise the psychological need for and benefits of gaming on learning. Games are stories that teach goals, rules, adaptation, problem solving, and interaction through interactive play. They meet a basic need to learn by offering delight, intense participation, structure, incentive, ego fulfillment, adrenaline, creativity, social connection, and emotion in the game itself while learning is taking place.

For teachers attempting to provide core courses, reading, and new skills, educational video games play an important role in the school curriculum. Gamification of education allows students to take an active role in their education while also developing technical skills that will be useful in their academic and professional lives. Several recent studies have found that video games, whether violent or not, can aid in the development of intellectual and emotional qualities that enhance academic progress in children.

Exergaming, also known as fitness gaming or exer-gaming, is a name for video games that also serve as a kind of exercise. Technology that tracks body movement or reaction is used in exergaming. The genre has been praised for shattering the perception of gaming as a sedentary activity and encouraging people to live more active lives. Exergames are thought to have evolved as a result of technological advancements aimed at making exercise more enjoyable.

Exergames have been shown in lab experiments to deliver light to moderate intensity physical activity. During the COVID-19 epidemic, exercise games proved to be a helpful addition for rehabilitation programmes, particularly balanced rehabilitation for the elderly. Exergaming is a particularly effective strategy for motivating ill children in their rehabilitation efforts since children are frequently more receptive to the concept. According to a comprehensive research published in 2021, exercise games can lower BMI, enhance body fat percentage, and increase cardiorespiratory fitness. Exergames can be used to supplement treatment for a range of patient demographics, including geriatrics, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injuries, according to a comprehensive review published in 2020.

Video Game Genres: Conclusion

This exhaustive guide to video game genres covers most of the most popular video game categories, yet sometimes certain games are difficult to place or sometimes even seem to fit into multiple video game genres.

We are always open to feedback. If we missed any video game genres or other important games that you feel we should include in our guide, please leave a comment below!

We hope that you have enjoyed our Ultimate Guide to Video Game Genres.

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The Definitive Guide to Video Game Genres and Game Types - CodaKid

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In this guide, we explore video game genres, sub-genres and game types and provide game examples and video trailers of example games.

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1. Like movies video games have ratings for age

2. Ratings are for adults, kids, and teens.

3. Ratings shows the contents of the video game

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Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors | ESRB Ratings

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Use the ESRB video game ratings guide to understand how the rating system works and how to use it to select appropriate video games and apps for your family

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1. Consoles

2. Computers

3. Handheld

4. phones

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First-generation Pong console at the Computerspielemuseum Berlin

A video game or computer 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 from a display device, most commonly shown in a video format on a television set, computer monitor, flat-panel display or touchscreen on handheld devices, or a virtual reality headset. Most modern video games are audiovisual, with audio complement delivered through speakers or headphones, and sometimes also with other types of sensory feedback (e.g., haptic technology that provides tactile sensations), and some video games also allow microphone and webcam inputs for in-game chatting and livestreaming.

Video games are typically categorized according to their hardware platform, which traditionally includes arcade video games, console games, and computer (PC) games; the latter also encompasses LAN games, online games, and browser games. More recently, the video game industry has expanded onto mobile gaming through mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablet computers), virtual and augmented reality systems, and remote cloud gaming. Video games are also classified into a wide range of genres based on their style of gameplay and target audience.

The first video game prototypes in the 1950s and 1960s were simple extensions of electronic games using video-like output from large, room-sized mainframe computers. The first consumer video game was the arcade video game Computer Space in 1971. In 1972 came the iconic hit game and the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The industry grew quickly during the "golden age" of arcade video games from the late 1970s to early 1980s but suffered from the crash of the North American video game market in 1983 due to loss of publishing control and saturation of the market. Following the crash, the industry matured, was dominated by Japanese companies such as Nintendo, Sega, and Sony, and established practices and methods around the development and distribution of video games to prevent a similar crash in the future, many of which continue to be followed. In the 2000s, the core industry centered on " AAA" games, leaving little room for riskier experimental games. Coupled with the availability of the Internet and digital distribution, this gave room for independent video game development (or " indie games") to gain prominence into the 2010s. Since then, the commercial importance of the video game industry has been increasing. The emerging Asian markets and proliferation of smartphone games in particular are altering player demographics towards casual gaming and increasing monetization by incorporating games as a service.

Today, video game development requires numerous interdisciplinary skills, vision, teamwork, and liaisons between different parties, including developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, hardware manufacturers, and other marketers, to successfully bring a game to its consumers. As of 2020, the global video game market had estimated annual revenues of US$159 billion across hardware, software, and services, which is three times the size of the global music industry and four times that of the film industry in 2019, making it a formidable heavyweight across the modern entertainment industry. The video game market is also a major influence behind the electronics industry, where personal computer component, console, and peripheral sales, as well as consumer demands for better game performance, have been powerful driving factors for hardware design and innovation.

Tennis for Two (1958), an early analog computer game that used an oscilloscope for a display

Early video games use 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. Inspired by radar display technology, it consists of an analog device allowing a user to control the parabolic arc of a dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which are paper drawings fixed to the screen. Other early examples include Christopher Strachey's draughts game, the Nimrod computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain; , 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 , written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961. Each game has different means of display: NIMROD has a panel of lights to play the game of Nim, OXO has a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe, Tennis for Two has an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court, and Spacewar! has the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other.

These preliminary inventions paved the way for the origins of video games today. Ralph H. Baer, while working at Sanders Associates in 1966, devised a control system to play a rudimentary game of table tennis on a television screen. With the company's approval, Baer built the prototype "Brown Box". Sanders patented Baer's inventions and licensed them to Magnavox, which commercialized it as the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972. Separately, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, inspired by seeing Spacewar! running at Stanford University, devised a similar version running in a smaller coin-operated arcade cabinet using a less expensive computer. This was released as Computer Space, the first arcade video game, in 1971. 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 , which was directly inspired by the table tennis game on the Odyssey. Sanders and Magnavox sued Atari for infringement of Baer's patents, but Atari settled out of court, paying for perpetual rights to the patents. Following their agreement, Atari made a home version of Pong, which was released by Christmas 1975. The success of the Odyssey and Pong, both as an arcade game and home machine, launched the video game industry. Both Baer and Bushnell have been titled "Father of Video Games" for their contributions.

Terminology

The term "video game" was developed to distinguish this class of electronic games that were played on some type of video display rather than on a teletype printer, audio speaker or similar device. This also distinguished from many handheld electronic games like which commonly used LED lights for indicators but did not use these in combination for imaging purposes.

"Computer game" may also be used as a descriptor, as all these types of games essentially require the use of a computer processor, and in some cases, it is used interchangeably with "video game". Particularly in the United Kingdom and Western Europe, this is common due to the historic relevance of domestically produced microcomputers. Other terms used include digital game, for example by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, the term "computer game" can also be used to more specifically refer to games played primarily on personal computers or other type of flexible hardware systems (also known as a PC game), as a way distinguish them from console games, arcade games or mobile games. Other terms such as "television game" or "telegame" had been used in the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly for the home gaming consoles that rely on connection to a television set. 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 are known as "TV games", or TV geemu or terebi geemu. "Electronic game" may also be used to refer to video games, but this also incorporates devices like early handheld electronic games that lack any video output. and the term "TV game" is still commonly used into the 21st century.

The first appearance of the term "video game" emerged around 1973. The Oxford English Dictionary cited a 10 November 1973 BusinessWeek article as the first printed use of the term. Though Bushnell believed the term came from a vending magazine review of Computer Space in 1971, a review of the major vending magazines Vending Times and 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 proposed 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 's description of movie jukeboxes, Adlum started to refer to this new breed of amusement machine as 'video games.' The phrase stuck."[citation needed ] Adlum explained in 1985 that up until the early 1970s, amusement arcades typically had non-video arcade games such as pinball machines and electro-mechanical games. With the arrival of video games in arcades during the early 1970s, there was initially some confusion in the arcade industry over what term should be used to describe the new games. He "wrestled with descriptions of this type of game," alternating between "TV game" and "television game" but "finally woke up one day" and said, "what the hell... video game!"

For many years, the traveling Videotopia exhibit served as the closest representation of such a vital resource. In addition to collecting home video game consoles, the Electronics Conservancy organization set out to locate and restore 400 antique arcade cabinets after realizing that the majority of these games had been destroyed and feared the loss of their historical significance. Video games have significantly began to be seen in the real-world as a purpose to present history in a way of understanding the methodology and terms that are being compared. Researchers have looked at how historical representations affect how the public perceives the past, and digital humanists encourage historians to use video games as primary materials. Video games, considering their past and age, have over time progressed as what a video game really means. Whether played through a monitor, TV, or a hand-held device, there are many ways that video games are being displayed for users to enjoy. People have drawn comparisons between flow-state-engaged video gamers and pupils in conventional school settings. In traditional, teacher-led classrooms, students have little say in what they learn, are passive consumers of the information selected by teachers, are required to follow the pace and skill level of the group (group teaching), and receive brief, imprecise, normative feedback on their work. Video games, as they continue to develop into better graphic definition and genre's, create new terminology when something unknown tends to become known. Yearly, consoles are being created to compete against other brands with similar functioning features that tends to lead the consumer into which they'd like to purchase. Now, companies have moved towards games only the specific console can play to grasp the consumer into purchasing their product compared to when video games first began, there was little to no variety. In 1989, a console war begun with Nintendo, one of the biggest in gaming was up against target, Sega with their brand new Master System which, failed to compete, allowing the Nintendo Emulator System to be one of the most consumed product in the world. More technology continued to be created, as the computer began to be used in people's houses for more than just office and daily use. Games began being implemented into computers and have progressively grown since then with coded robots to play against you. Early games like tic-tac-toe, solitaire, and Tennis for Two were great ways to bring new gaming to another system rather than one specifically meant for gaming.

Definition

While many games readily fall into a clear, well-understood definition of video games, new genres and innovations in game development have raised the question of what are the essential factors of a video game that separate the medium from other forms of entertainment.

The introduction of interactive films in the 1980s with games like Dragon's Lair, featured games with full motion video played off a form of media but only limited user interaction. This had required a means to distinguish these games from more traditional board games that happen to also use external media, such as the Clue VCR Mystery Game which required players to watch VCR clips between turns. To distinguish between these two, video games are considered to require some interactivity that affects the visual display.

Most video games tend to feature some type of victory or winning conditions, such as a scoring mechanism or a final boss fight. The introduction of walking simulators ( adventure games that allow for exploration but lack any objectives) like , and empathy games (video games that tend to focus on emotion) like That Dragon, Cancer brought the idea of games that did not have any such type of winning condition and raising the question of whether these were actually games. These are still commonly justified as video games as they provide a game world that the player can interact with by some means.

The lack of any industry definition for a video game by 2021 was an issue during the case Epic Games v. Apple which dealt with video games offered on Apple's iOS App Store. Among concerns raised were games like Fortnite Creative and which created metaverses of interactive experiences, and whether the larger game and the individual experiences themselves were games or not in relation to fees that Apple charged for the App Store. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, recognizing that there was yet an industry standard definition for a video game, established for her ruling that "At a bare minimum, videogames appear to require some level of interactivity or involvement between the player and the medium" compared to passive entertainment like film, music, and television, and "videogames are also generally graphically rendered or animated, as opposed to being recorded live or via motion capture as in films or television". Rogers still concluded that what is a video game "appears highly eclectic and diverse".

Video game terminology

Freedoom, a clone of the first-person shooter Doom. Common elements include a heads-up display along the bottom that includes the player's remaining health and ammunition.

The gameplay experience varies radically between video games, 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 the 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 lives. 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.[citation needed ]

Product flaws include software bugs which can manifest as glitches which may be exploited by the player; this is often the foundation of speedrunning a video game. These bugs, along with cheat codes, Easter eggs, and other hidden secrets that were intentionally added to the game can also be exploited. On some consoles, cheat cartridges allow players to execute these cheat codes, and user-developed trainers allow similar bypassing for computer software games. Both of which might make the game easier, give the player additional power-ups, or change the appearance of the game.

Components

Arcade video game machines at the Sugoi arcade game hall in Malmi, Helsinki, Finland

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.

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. 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. However, games may be developed for alternative platforms than intended, which are described as ports or conversions. These also may be remasters - where most of the original game's source code is reused and 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.

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

PC games

PC games involve a player interacting with a personal computer (PC) connected to a video monitor.[40] 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,[41] 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 console

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling video game console, with over 155 million units sold.[42]

A 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 console

A handheld game console 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.

Arcade video game

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

An 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 game

A 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 game

With 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 use 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 gaming

Cloud 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.

Virtual reality

Players using the PlayStation VR headsets in 2017

Virtual 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.

Emulation

An 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 compatibility

Backward 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 GameCube titles as well in the same manner.

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.

Input device

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"). Consoles typically include standard controllers which are shipped or bundled with the console itself, while peripheral controllers are available as a separate purchase from the console manufacturer or third-party vendors. 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, and on other systems such as virtual reality, are used to enhance immersion into the game.

Display and output

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.

Classifications

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

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. 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. An exception is the horror game genre, used for games that are based on narrative elements of horror fiction, the supernatural, and psychological horror.

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 , Grand Theft Auto clones from Grand Theft Auto III, and battle royale games from the film Battle Royale. 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. 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.

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.

Most video games are intended for entertainment purposes. Different game types include:

Core games

Core or hard-core games refer to the typical perception of video games, developed for entertainment purposes. These games typically require a fair amount of time to learn and master, in contrast to casual games, and thus are most appealing to gamers rather than a broader audience. Most of the AAA video game industry is based around the delivery of core games.[56]

Casual games

In contrast to core games, casual games are designed for ease of accessibility, simple to understand gameplay and quick to grasp rule sets, and aimed at mass market audience. They frequently support the ability to jump in and out of play on demand, such as 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.[57] 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.[58] 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.[59]

Educational games

Education 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.[60] 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, such as that feature open worlds or virtual sandboxes like Minecraft,[61] or offer critical thinking skills through puzzle video games like SpaceChem.[62]

Serious games

Microsoft Flight Simulator is an example of a simulation game.

Further 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 games include fitness games that incorporate significant physical exercise to help keep the player fit (such as Wii Fit), simulator games that resemble fight simulators to pilot 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).[63][64]

Art games

Although video games have been considered an art form on their own, games may be developed to try to purposely communicate a story or message, using the medium as a work of art. These art or arthouse games are designed to generate emotion and empathy from the player by challenging societal norms and offering critique through the interactivity of the video game medium. They may not have any type of win condition and are designed to let the player explore through the game world and scenarios. Most art games are indie games in nature, designed based on personal experiences or stories through a single developer or small team. Examples of art games include Passage, Flower, and That Dragon, Cancer.[65][66][67]

Content rating

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 infrequent adult-only games. 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.

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. Within Germany, until 2018, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle ( Entertainment Software Self-Regulation) would refuse to classify, and thus allow sale, of any game depicting Nazi imagery, and thus often requiring developers to replace such imagery with fictional ones. This ruling was relaxed in 2018 to allow for such imagery for "social adequacy" purposes that applied to other works of art. 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.

Development

Developers use various tools to create video games. Here an editor is fine-tuning the virtual camera system.

Video game development and authorship, much like any other form of entertainment, is frequently a cross-disciplinary field. Video game developers, as employees within this industry are commonly referred, primarily include programmers and graphic designers. Over the years this has expanded to include almost every type of skill that one might see prevalent in the creation of any movie or television program, including sound designers, musicians, and other technicians; as well as skills that are specific to video games, such as the game designer. All of these are managed by producers.

In the early days of the industry, it was more common for a single person to manage all of the roles needed to create a video game. As platforms have become more complex and powerful in the type of material they can present, larger teams have been needed to generate all of the art, programming, cinematography, and more. This is not to say that the age of the "one-man shop" is gone, as this is still sometimes found in the casual gaming and handheld markets, where smaller games are prevalent due to technical limitations such as limited RAM or lack of dedicated 3D graphics rendering capabilities on the target platform (e.g., some PDAs).

Video games are programmed like any other piece of computer software. Prior to the mid-1970s, arcade and home consoles were programmed by assembling discrete electro-mechanical components on circuit boards, which limited games to relatively simple logic. By 1975, low-cost microprocessors were available at volume to be used for video game hardware, which allowed game developers to program more detailed games, widening the scope of what was possible. Ongoing improvements in computer hardware technology has expanded what has become possible to create in video games, coupled with convergence of common hardware between console, computer, and arcade platforms to simplify the development process. Today, game developers have a number of commercial and open source tools available for use to make games, often which are across multiple platforms to support portability, or may still opt to create their own for more specialized features and direct control of the game. Today, many games are built around a game engine that handles the bulk of the game's logic, gameplay, and rendering. These engines can be augmented with specialized engines for specific features, such as a physics engine that simulates the physics of objects in real-time. A variety of middleware exists to help developers to access other features, such as for playback of videos within games, network-oriented code for games that communicate via online services, matchmaking for online games, and similar features. These features can be used from a developers' programming language of choice, or they may opt to also use game development kits that minimize the amount of direct programming they have to do but can also limit the amount of customization they can add into a game. Like all software, video games usually undergo quality testing before release to assure there are no bugs or glitches in the product, though frequently developers will release patches and updates.

With the growth of the size of development teams in the industry, the problem of cost has increased. Development studios need the best talent, while publishers reduce costs to maintain profitability on their investment. Typically, a video game console development team ranges from 5 to 50 people, and some exceed 100. In May 2009, Assassin's Creed II was reported to have a development staff of 450. The growth of team size combined with greater pressure to get completed projects into the market to begin recouping production costs has led to a greater occurrence of missed deadlines, rushed games and the release of unfinished products.

While amateur and hobbyist game programming had existed since the late 1970s with the introduction of home computers, a newer trend since the mid-2000s is indie game development. Indie games are made by small teams outside any direct publisher control, their games being smaller in scope than those from the larger " AAA" game studios, and are often experiment in gameplay and art style. Indie game development are aided by larger availability of digital distribution, including the newer mobile gaming marker, and readily-available and low-cost development tools for these platforms.

Game theory and studies

Although departments of computer science have been studying the technical aspects of video games for years, theories that examine games as an artistic medium are a relatively recent development in the humanities. The two most visible schools in this emerging field are ludology and narratology. Narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls "Cyberdrama". That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction. Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from , arguing for the video game as a medium in which the player is allowed to become another person, and to act out in another world. This image of video games received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as , and The Last Starfighter.

Ludologists break sharply and radically from this idea. They argue that a video game is first and foremost a game, which must be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and the concept of play that it deploys. Espen J. Aarseth argues that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to gameplay. For example, Aarseth is critical of the widespread attention that narrativists have given to the heroine of the game Tomb Raider, saying that "the dimensions of Lara Croft's body, already analyzed to death by film theorists, are irrelevant to me as a player, because a different-looking body would not make me play differently... When I play, I don't even see her body, but see through it and past it." Simply put, ludologists reject traditional theories of art because they claim that the artistic and socially relevant qualities of a video game are primarily determined by the underlying set of rules, demands, and expectations imposed on the player.

While many games rely on emergent principles, video games commonly present simulated story worlds where emergent behavior occurs within the context of the game. The term "emergent narrative" has been used to describe how, in a simulated environment, storyline can be created simply by "what happens to the player." However, emergent behavior is not limited to sophisticated games. In general, any place where event-driven instructions occur for AI in a game, emergent behavior will exist. For instance, take a racing game in which cars are programmed to avoid crashing, and they encounter an obstacle in the track: the cars might then maneuver to avoid the obstacle causing the cars behind them to slow or maneuver to accommodate the cars in front of them and the obstacle. The programmer never wrote code to specifically create a traffic jam, yet one now exists in the game.

Intellectual property for video games

Most commonly, video games are protected by copyright, though both patents and trademarks have been used as well.

Though local copyright regulations vary to the degree of protection, video games qualify as copyrighted visual-audio works, and enjoy cross-country protection under the Berne Convention. This typically only applies to the underlying code, as well as to the artistic aspects of the game such as its writing, art assets, and music. Gameplay itself is generally not considered copyrightable; in the United States among other countries, video games are considered to fall into the idea-expression distinction in that it is how the game is presented and expressed to the player that can be copyrighted, but not the underlying principles of the game.

Because gameplay is normally ineligible for copyright, gameplay ideas in popular games are often replicated and built upon in other games. At times, this repurposing of gameplay can be seen as beneficial and a fundamental part of how the industry has grown by building on the ideas of others. For example (1993) and Grand Theft Auto III (2001) introduced gameplay that created popular new game genres, the first-person shooter and the Grand Theft Auto clone, respectively, in the few years after their release. However, at times and more frequently at the onset of the industry, developers would intentionally create video game clones of successful games and game hardware with few changes, which led to the flooded arcade and dedicated home console market around 1978. Cloning is also a major issue with countries that do not have strong intellectual property protection laws, such as within China. The lax oversight by China's government and the difficulty for foreign companies to take Chinese entities to court had enabled China to support a large grey market of cloned hardware and software systems. The industry remains challenged to distinguish between creating new games based on refinements of past successful games to create a new type of gameplay, and intentionally creating a clone of a game that may simply swap out art assets.

E3 is one of the typical trade show events of the video game industry.

The early history of the video game industry, following the first game hardware releases and through 1983, had little structure. Video games quickly took off during the golden age of arcade video games from the late 1970s to early 1980s, but the newfound industry was mainly composed of game developers with little business experience. This led to numerous companies forming simply to create clones of popular games to try to capitalize on the market. Due to loss of publishing control and oversaturation of the market, the North American home video game market crashed in 1983, dropping from revenues of around $3 billion in 1983 to $100 million by 1985. Many of the North American companies created in the prior years closed down. Japan's growing game industry was briefly shocked by this crash but had sufficient longevity to withstand the short-term effects, and Nintendo helped to revitalize the industry with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985. Along with it, Nintendo established a number of core industrial practices to prevent unlicensed game development and control game distribution on their platform, methods that continue to be used by console manufacturers today.

The industry remained more conservative following the 1983 crash, forming around the concept of publisher-developer dichotomies, and by the 2000s, leading to the industry centralizing around low-risk, triple-A games and studios with large development budgets of at least $10 million or more. The advent of the Internet brought digital distribution as a viable means to distribute games, and contributed to the growth of more riskier, experimental independent game development as an alternative to triple-A games in the late 2000s and which has continued to grow as a significant portion of the video game industry.

Industry roles

Video games have a large network effect that draw on many different sectors that tie into the larger video game industry. While video game developers are a significant portion of the industry, other key participants in the market include:

Publishers: Companies generally that oversee bringing the game from the developer to market. This often includes performing the marketing, public relations, and advertising of the game. Publishers frequently pay the developers ahead of time to make their games and will be involved in critical decisions about the direction of the game's progress, and then pay the developers additional royalties or bonuses based on sales performances. Other smaller, boutique publishers may simply offer to perform the publishing of a game for a small fee and a portion of the sales, and otherwise leave the developer with the creative freedom to proceed. A range of other publisher-developer relationships exist between these points.

Distributors: Publishers often are able to produce their own game media and take the role of distributor, but there are also third-party distributors that can mass-produce game media and distribute to retailers. Digital storefronts like Steam and the iOS App Store also serve as distributors and retailers in the digital space.

Retailers: Physical storefronts, which include large online retailers, department and electronic stores, and specialty video game stores, sell games, consoles, and other accessories to consumers. This has also including a trade-in market in certain regions, allowing players to turn in used games for partial refunds or credit towards other games. However, with the uprising of digital marketplaces and e-commerce revolution, retailers have been performing worse than in the past.

Hardware manufacturers: The video game console manufacturers produce console hardware, often through a value chain system that include numerous component suppliers and contract manufacturer that assemble the consoles. Further, these console manufacturers typically require a license to develop for their platform and may control the production of some games, such as Nintendo does with the use of game cartridges for its systems. In exchange, the manufacturers may help promote games for their system and may seek console exclusivity for certain games. For games on personal computers, a number of manufacturers are devoted to high-performance "gaming computer" hardware, particularly in the graphics card area; several of the same companies overlap with component supplies for consoles. A range of third-party manufacturers also exist to provide equipment and gear for consoles post-sale, such as additional controllers for console or carrying cases and gear for handheld devices.

Journalism: While journalism around video games used to be primarily print-based, and focused more on post-release reviews and gameplay strategy, the Internet has brought a more proactive press that use web journalism, covering games in the months prior to release as well as beyond, helping to build excitement for games ahead of release.

Influencers: With the rising importance of social media, video game companies have found that the opinions of influencers using streaming media to play through their games has had a significant impact on game sales, and have turned to use influencers alongside traditional journalism as a means to build up attention to their game before release.

Esports: Esports is a major function of several multiplayer games with numerous professional leagues established since the 2000s, with large viewership numbers, particularly out of southeast Asia since the 2010s.

Trade and advocacy groups: Trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association were established to provide a common voice for the industry in response to governmental and other advocacy concerns. They frequently set up the major trade events and conventions for the industry such as E3.

Gamers: Proactive hobbyists who are players and consumers of video games. While their representation in the industry is primarily seen through game sales, many companies follow gamers' comments on social media or on user reviews and engage with them to work to improve their products in addition to other feedback from other parts of the industry. Demographics of the larger player community also impact parts of the market; while once dominated by younger men, the market shifted in the mid-2010s towards women and older players who generally preferred mobile and causal games, leading to further growth in those sectors.

Major regional markets

The industry itself grew out from both the United States and Japan in the 1970s and 1980s before having a larger worldwide contribution. Today, the video game industry is predominantly led by major companies in North America (primarily the United States and Canada), Europe, and southeast Asia including Japan, South Korea, and China. Hardware production remains an area dominated by Asian companies either directly involved in hardware design or part of the production process, but digital distribution and indie game development of the late 2000s has allowed game developers to flourish nearly anywhere and diversify the field.

A retail display in Switzerland with a large selection of games for platforms popular in the early 2000s

According to the market research firm Newzoo, the global video game industry drew estimated revenues of over $159 billion in 2020. Mobile games accounted for the bulk of this, with a 48% share of the market, followed by console games at 28% and personal computer games at 23%.

Sales of different types of games vary widely between countries due to local preferences. Japanese consumers tend to purchase much more handheld games than console games and especially PC games, with a strong preference for games catering to local tastes. Another key difference is that, though having declined in the West, arcade games remain an important sector of the Japanese gaming industry. In South Korea, computer games are generally preferred over console games, especially MMORPG games and real-time strategy games. Computer games are also popular in China.

Effects on society

The Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2012

Video game culture is a worldwide new media subculture formed around video games and game playing. As computer and video games have increased in popularity over time, they have had a significant influence on popular culture. Video game culture has also evolved over time hand in hand with internet culture as well as the increasing popularity of mobile games. Many people who play video games identify as gamers, which can mean anything from someone who enjoys games to someone who is passionate about it. As video games become more social with multiplayer and online capability, gamers find themselves in growing social networks. Gaming can both be entertainment as well as competition, as a new trend known as electronic sports is becoming more widely accepted. In the 2010s, video games and discussions of video game trends and topics can be seen in social media, politics, television, film and music. The COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-2021 gave further visibility to video games as a pastime to enjoy with friends and family online as a means of social distancing.

Since the mid-2000s there has been debate whether video games qualify as art, primarily as the form's interactivity interfered with the artistic intent of the work and that they are designed for commercial appeal. A significant debate on the matter came after film critic Roger Ebert published an essay "Video Games can never be art", which challenged the industry to prove him and other critics wrong. The view that video games were an art form was cemented in 2011 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that video games were a protected form of speech with artistic merit. Since then, video game developers have come to use the form more for artistic expression, including the development of art games, and the cultural heritage of video games as works of arts, beyond their technical capabilities, have been part of major museum exhibits, including The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and toured at other museums from 2012 to 2016.

Video games will inspire sequels and other video games within the same franchise, but also have influenced works outside of the video game medium. Numerous television shows (both animated and live-action), films, comics and novels have been created based on existing video game franchises. Because video games are an interactive medium there has been trouble in converting them to these passive forms of media, and typically such works have been critically panned or treated as children's media. For example, until 2019, no video game film had ever been received a "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the releases of Detective Pikachu (2019) and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), both receiving "Fresh" ratings, shows signs of the film industry having found an approach to adapt video games for the large screen. That said, some early video game-based films have been highly successful at the box office, such as 1995's Mortal Kombat and 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

More recently since the 2000s, there has also become a larger appreciation of video game music, which ranges from chiptunes composed for limited sound-output devices on early computers and consoles, to fully-scored compositions for most modern games. Such music has frequently served as a platform for covers and remixes, and concerts featuring video game soundtracks performed by bands or orchestras, such as Video Games Live, have also become popular. Video games also frequently incorporate licensed music, particularly in the area of rhythm games, furthering the depth of which video games and music can work together.

Further, video games can serve as a virtual environment under full control of a producer to create new works. With the capability to render 3D actors and settings in real-time, a new type of work machinima (short for "machine cinema") grew out from using video game engines to craft narratives. As video game engines gain higher fidelity, they have also become part of the tools used in more traditional filmmaking. Unreal Engine has been used as a backbone by Industrial Light & Magic for their StageCraft technology for shows like The Mandalorian.

Separately, video games are also frequently used as part of the promotion and marketing for other media, such as for films, anime, and comics. However, these licensed games in the 1990s and 2000s often had a reputation for poor quality, developed without any input from the intellectual property rights owners, and several of them are considered among lists of games with notably negative reception, such as Superman 64. More recently, with these licensed games being developed by triple-A studios or through studios directly connected to the licensed property owner, there has been a significant improvement in the quality of these games, with an early trendsetting example of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Beneficial uses

Besides their entertainment value, appropriately-designed video games have been seen to provide value in education across several ages and comprehension levels. Learning principles found in video games have been identified as possible techniques with which to reform the U.S. education system. It has been noticed that gamers adopt an attitude while playing that is of such high concentration, they do not realize they are learning, and that if the same attitude could be adopted at school, education would enjoy significant benefits.[dubious ] Students are found to be "learning by doing" while playing video games while fostering creative thinking.

Video games are also believed to be beneficial to the mind and body. It has been shown that action video game players have better hand-eye coordination and visuo-motor skills, such as their resistance to distraction, their sensitivity to information in the peripheral vision and their ability to count briefly presented objects, than nonplayers. Researchers found that such enhanced abilities could be acquired by training with action games, involving challenges that switch attention between different locations, but not with games requiring concentration on single objects.[citation needed ] A 2018 systematic review found evidence that video gaming training had positive effects on cognitive and emotional skills in the adult population, especially with young adults. A 2019 systematic review also added support for the claim that video games are beneficial to the brain, although the beneficial effects of video gaming on the brain differed by video games types.

Organisers of video gaming events, such as the organisers of the D-Lux video game festival in Dumfries, Scotland, have emphasised the positive aspects video games can have on mental health. Organisers, mental health workers and mental health nurses at the event emphasised the relationships and friendships that can be built around video games and how playing games can help people learn about others as a precursor to discussing the person's mental health. A study in 2020 from Oxford University also suggested that playing video games can be a benefit to a person's mental health. The report of 3,274 gamers, all over the age of 18, focused on the games Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and used actual play-time data. The report found that those that played more games tended to report greater "wellbeing". Also in 2020, computer science professor Regan Mandryk of the University of Saskatchewan said her research also showed that video games can have health benefits such as reducing stress and improving mental health. The university's research studied all age groups - "from pre-literate children through to older adults living in long term care homes" - with a main focus on 18 to 55-year-olds.

A study of gamers attitudes towards gaming which was reported about in 2018 found that millennials use video games as a key strategy for coping with stress. In the study of 1,000 gamers, 55% said that it "helps them to unwind and relieve stress ... and half said they see the value in gaming as a method of escapism to help them deal with daily work pressures".

Controversies

The compulsion loop for video games is believed to trigger dopamine release that can encourage addictive behavior.

Video games have caused controversy since the 1970s. Parents and children's advocates regularly raise concerns that violent video games can influence young players into performing those violent acts in real life, and events such as the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 in which the perpetrators specifically alluded to using video games to plot out their attack, raised further fears.[citation needed ] Medical experts and mental health professionals have also raised concerned that video games may be addictive, and the World Health Organization has included "gaming disorder" in the 11th revision of its International Statistical Classification of Diseases. Other health experts, including the American Psychiatric Association, have stated that there is insufficient evidence that video games can create violent tendencies or lead to addictive behavior, though agree that video games typically use a compulsion loop in their core design that can create dopamine that can help reinforce the desire to continue to play through that compulsion loop and potentially lead into violent or addictive behavior. Even with case law establishing that video games qualify as a protected art form, there has been pressure on the video game industry to keep their products in check to avoid over-excessive violence particularly for games aimed at younger children. The potential addictive behavior around games, coupled with increased used of post-sale monetization of video games, has also raised concern among parents, advocates, and government officials about gambling tendencies that may come from video games, such as controversy around the use of loot boxes in many high-profile games.

Numerous other controversies around video games and its industry have arisen over the years, among the more notable incidents include the 1993 United States Congressional hearings on violent games like Mortal Kombat which lead to the formation of the ESRB ratings system, numerous legal actions taken by attorney Jack Thompson over violent games such as Grand Theft Auto III and from 2003 to 2007, the outrage over the " No Russian" level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009 which allowed the player to shoot a number of innocent non-player characters at an airport, and the Gamergate harassment campaign in 2014 that highlighted misogyny from a portion of the player demographic. The industry as a whole has also dealt with issues related to gender, racial, and LGBTQ+ discrimination and mischaracterization of these minority groups in video games. A further issue in the industry is related to working conditions, as development studios and publishers frequently use " crunch time", required extended working hours, in the weeks and months ahead of a game's release to assure on-time delivery.

Collecting and preservation

Players of video games often maintain collections of games. More recently there has been interest in retrogaming, focusing on games from the first decades. Games in retail packaging in good shape have become collectors items for the early days of the industry, with some rare publications having gone for over US$100,000 as of 2020. Separately, there is also concern about the preservation of video games, as both game media and the hardware to play them degrade over time. Further, many of the game developers and publishers from the first decades no longer exist, so records of their games have disappeared. Archivists and preservations have worked within the scope of copyright law to save these games as part of the cultural history of the industry.

There are many video game museums around the world, including the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas, which serves as the largest museum wholly dedicated to the display and preservation of the industry's most important artifacts. Europe hosts video game museums such as the Computer Games Museum in Berlin and the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland, California is a dedicated video game museum focusing on playable exhibits of console and computer games. The Video Game Museum of Rome is also dedicated to preserving video games and their history. The International Center for the History of Electronic Games at The Strong in Rochester, New York contains one of the largest collections of electronic games and game-related historical materials in the world, including a 5,000-square-foot (460 m ²) exhibit which allows guests to play their way through the history of video games. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC has three video games on permanent display: Pac-Man, Dragon's Lair, and Pong.

The Museum of Modern Art has added a total of 20 video games and one video game console to its permanent Architecture and Design Collection since 2012. In 2012, the Smithsonian American Art Museum ran an exhibition on " The Art of Video Games". However, the reviews of the exhibit were mixed, including questioning whether video games belong in an art museum.

References

Further reading

Blodget, Henry (12 April 2005). "How to Solve China's Piracy Problem". Slate.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2011.

Costikyan, Greg (1994). "I Have No Words & I Must Design". Archived from the original on 12 August 2008.

Crawford, Chris (1982). The Art of Computer Game Design. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015.

Lieu, Tina (August 1997). "Where have all the PC games gone?". Computing Japan. Archived from the original on 12 January 1998.

Pursell, Carroll (2015). From Playgrounds to PlayStation: The Interaction of Technology and Play. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Salen, Katie; Eric Zimmerman (2005). The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-19536-2.

Smuts, Aaron (2005). "Are Video Games Art?". Archived from the original on 14 December 2010.

Winegarner, Beth (28 January 2005). "Game sales hit record highs". . Gamespot. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012.

John Wills (1 October 2002). "Digital Dinosaurs and Artificial Life: Exploring the Culture of Nature in Computer and Video Games". Cultural Values (Journal for Cultural Research). 6 (4): 395-417. doi:10.1080/1362517022000047334. S2CID 144132612.

Williams, J.P.; Smith, J.H., eds. (2007). The players' realm: studies on the culture of video games and gaming. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.

How can video games boost your mental health? - Max Birk (Eindhoven University of Technology)

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World by Steven L. Kent, Crown, 2001, ISBN 0761536434

The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming by Steven L. Kent, Crown, 2021, ISBN 1984825437

External links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A video game or computer 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 from a display device, most commonly shown in a video format on a television set, computer monitor, flat-panel display or touchscreen on handheld devices, or a virtual reality headset.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Ralp H. Baer was the creator of the first video game, he was also know as "Father of the Video Games"

2. 1967 with his team develop a prototype of "Brown Box"

3. 1972 introduce the Odyssey system