Digital Gaming

 IMPACT OF DIGITAL GAMING AND CONVERGENCES 

Photo collage of the history of gaming from 1972-2014.

The evolution and convergence of digital gaming begins with the historic movement from children playing with toys, to now toys consisting of sitting in front of television set and controlling a virtual character.

Gaming new media displaces old media because of the backwards compatibility issue that many new consoles have left behind. Backwards compatibility allowed users to play older games on newer devices. But with limited space and newer features new devices no longer have backwards compatibility. 

The new media of gaming includes social aspects of gaming such as the ability to share achievements or post clips of games to friends. This promotes the participatory culture in the gaming industry because now more than ever gamers are sharing, commenting and recording clips to send out to the world for feedback and laughs.

The ethical complications with new gaming Media comes into play with the expense of gaming. No longer can gaming consoles simply be hooked up to televisions through red, white and black cables. Now consoles have to be plugged into a HDMI port on the television to even have the ability to play a game. This causes users to have to spend more money to buy more to upgrades like televisions with HD output. Not only is this an expense but the games themselves due to more intense graphics and technology are becoming extremely expensive.

This new industry of gaming is also starting to revolve around game journalism, channels on gaming news, competition between game industries. there is an increased interaction between industries, movies to games, games to toys etc., games into movies.

Other ethical implications are that games are violent and in turn make kids more violent and hostile. Grand theft auto allows people to kill one another and when kids play video games they will get used to this behavior. Screen time, kids spending a lot of time watching video games and slowing down attention and reaction time. -Research inconclusive but may have ethical implications.

Digital gaming has become an important part of 21st century culture. It has shaped industries and allowed for a new sector of gamers to emerge economically and participatively.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/evolution-of-home-video-game-consoles-1967-2011/
http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2029221,00.html