In these modern times we have seen changes to the video game industry toward a more acceptance of females. We now hear of female gamers, female main characters in games, and even professional female gamer teams. But have we really accepted females completely into the gamer community for who they are? Even with all these changes we still see females being harassed online, or judged on their gaming skills by being a female. I think it would be interesting to write this topic from both or either sides and discuss whether you think the gamer community has embraced or rejected female gamers.
It's a good topic, but one that might be a little too controversial. It'd be hard to find someone who could write this without bias (there was even bias in your topic). Assuming someone could actually write it properly, it'd be a massive undertaking research-wise when there's very little hard or even soft data. – jwiderski9 years ago
You could also branch out into females in the game development industry. I don't think women can fully be accepted into gaming until women are in the industry making games for women!c – Tatijana9 years ago
I think if you phrase the title differently and expand the gender split in other mediums, like video games and anime this is a worthwhile topic. The Anime News Network Podcast had an episode on sexism which covers this quite well, including differences between the anime fandom and other mediums. It might be a useful reference to look at. – Jordan9 years ago
I think the language of your topic suggestion already answers the question: if women are being harassed and generally held to a higher or double standard, then women have (not necessarily been rejected) not been embraced yet by the "gamer community." Is there another way to approach this issue? Maybe write an article about steps that can be taken to further include and respect women in said community? – Cmandra9 years ago
Given that games and technology are never going away, and are only going to get more refined. How will the rising rate of technology have a harmful effect on our youth?
This is an interesting topic. There is an article about whether watching Video Games promotes violence, so I would try to deviate from video games and focus on use of social media. Apparently the literature says there are mixed results on whether it is harmful, so highlighting the deviant opinions would be worthwhile. – Jordan9 years ago
Great topic, what are some examples you see of how technology could be harmful? I would add more questions to lengthen your argument. – emilyinmannyc9 years ago
My biggest issue with video games is the death of creativity in youth. I think that other forms of entertainment force people to think about the morals/issues brought up by a story. While playing games it's often times easy to overlook the stories in order to hurry to the next level or get the best gear. Younger people obsessed with video games become so bored when they are no longer playing them. They seem incapable of inventing ways to stay entertained outside of what's designed by the game industry. – Tatijana9 years ago
Today more people than ever play video games. There are professionals and streamers who can truly make a living out of a past time many never thought could be such a thing. Working at a game store I see people I also would never have thought playing video games. I do not believe there is an age range that does not play or has been exposed to video games. Its impact on society I believe is a good one as people can connect with others with a similar passion such as game cons or playing online MMO's and meeting new friends. Its industry also creates thousands of jobs and brings people from all aspects of the world together to create a masterpiece. Artists, sound designers, programmers, you name it and they have a place in game design! That is one of the great things about the new age we are in. No matter your hobby or your interests there always seems to be an option for you.
*its
Not to be a grammar Nazi but mistakes like that really do make your writing look sloppy. Cool topic idea, though! I'd love there to be an article that focuses on like gaming and an unexpected audience of people, like grandparents or 40-year-old women. – thekellyfornian9 years ago
With the recent release of Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live, players have begun buying into plastic instrument gaming yet again. Analyze the rise of this type of rhythm gaming, and why the tight grip it had on the market eventually crumbled. How have the opinions on this genre of gaming changed? Is it still reasonable to release these games in the current market?
That's a really good question. I LOVED playing them and really couldn't tell you why I stopped. Here are some possible reasons though. People thought they were awesome and picked up real instruments therefore losing interest in the plastic kind. This of course ended in loss of interest with the real instrument and somehow became associated with the plastic one too. Also I got really bored playing the same songs over and over again. I liked that you could buy songs that you ACTUALLY liked, but it became much too expensive so I eventually just gave up. Also perhaps it just gets boring after a while? Just like any other hobby we do obsessively for a while? – Tatijana9 years ago
This article could also bring up the more realistic "plastic instruments" introduced around when interest in the games faded. I think it might have been a different company that introduced them? A plastic guitar that wasn't dumbed down to five coloured buttons and a flip switch but which actually had buttons for every string and every fret so people could learn real chords and apply them to real instruments. They were not as popular. – Slaidey9 years ago
For better or for worse, some game developers are leaving out single player campaigns in favor of multiplayer-only games. This comes from a trend of campaigns seeing less play-time, and multiplayer being the bulk of the play-time as well as the largest part of DLC. Examine the cause and effect in games such as Titanfall, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Rainbow Six: Siege, which were criticized by some for not having a campaign. Discuss whether or not this is a wise decision for developers who see that disinterest, and address game consumers that still desire a single-player campaign. Also, look at the rise of games with a competitive focus such as CS:GO and League of Legends and their role in boosting the multiplayer community in video games, including aspects of player interaction and maintenance of an online persona/character.
I don't play games with anyone. I personally dislike engaging in multiplayer games. Or at least, I don't go out of my way to engage in them. I don't even have many friends around who could play along with me even if I wanted to. I'm a Skyrim, Shadows of Mordor, Half-Life 2 kind of guy, and none of those games, to me, would be better if I was playing along with other people. I like forging my own path, and not waiting around for others to catch up. Not that I don't understand the benefits and enjoyment of playing a game in a group. But it's definitely not a first or even second choice for me. Depending on the environment and the situation, I would be more inclined to do it. So with all of this stuff about single-player campaigns dropping from new games, it worries me that I'll have less options as new games come around each new year. Bloodbourne thankfully is still a single-player focus game, and I've been looking forward to that for ages. And there are still indie games like SOMA that are single-player only. So I guess I'm not too worried about it. But it is concerning. – Jonathan Leiter9 years ago
With videogames becoming more popular among a wide variety of people, is it possible this new competition based lens for videogames is trending towards it becoming seen as a competitive sport? Starcraft is a national sport in S. Korea, and ESPN already aired a "Heroes of the Storm" tournament. Couple that coverage with the emergence of twitch, and it would appear very obvious competitive gaming is quickly becoming a huge economic force. With the influx of what seems to be a very neo-liberal idea in competitive gaming (both in the nature of competition and the economic implications), I worry that we might see the end of artistic "AAA" games. I really like this topic idea, and I think one more direction it could go in is whether or not this now puts the onus on indie developers to keep the 'heart' of gaming, if you will, beating. – Ftelroy9 years ago
It's a fairly dismal outcome of the past several years, with more games eschewing story for favor of a vast multiplayer experience. While I assume this serves to cut down on costs and build a bigger community faster by devoting more resources to a comprehensive multiplayer network, this approach seems to have backfired on the developers as much as it's slighted the consumers. Quite a few people I know bought games such as Titanfall and others of its non-campaign ilk, and although they reveled in the the multiplayer for a short time, they came to tell me that it felt weak and baseless because they had no idea who they were, what they were fighting for, or why they even existed in the first place. What many developers seem to be ignoring is that campaigns help give players a foothold in the story world of the game, something an online database or quick summation in the Users Manual cannot do, at least not to the extent of an eight-hour single player story mode. Without that foundation, players flounder because, again, they have no idea why they're even doing what they're doing. Now, some games can survive on this lack of campaign, such as Battlefront--which is buoyed by its ties to the Star Wars Franchise--and MOBAs such as League of Legends or Counter Strike which have garnered reputations for their online experiences. So, obviously, the sans campaign system works, and quite well, it appears--for PC Gamers, where it's easy to install a mod or download new third-party content, affix it within the game files, and find yourself playing an entirely different game. Console games such as Titanfall are incapable of the more sophisticated modding communities PC Gamers are privy to thanks to the design of the consoles themselves. This hindrance prevents any kind of new community-driven development from taking place in most console games, and is therefore why console developers should not be so swift in their shirking of campaigns. – JKKN9 years ago
With the recent release of "Rise of the Tomb Raider" Lara Croft is once again thrust into the spotlight. Explore the history of the Tomb Raider series. Highlight the highs and the lows of the series, and how the series changed gaming. There should also be an exploration of how the Tomb Raider herself changed the face of gaming and became a new gaming icon.
I very much agree with this. Maybe it's just my opinion but I'd like to see the older storylines adapted into the more recent developmental models and gameplay. – TheBrunette777 years ago
Years ago, gaming was considered a much smaller, niche hobby, mostly for introverts and "nerds." Now, the gaming industry is on a rise, both financially and socially. Analyze the factors influencing why video games have become part of the "mainstream." How do different video game styles (i.e. MMOs, point-and-click, etc.) help catapult the gaming industry into the mainstream? How do they encompass diverse social groups and bring them into the industry? Does the movie-like quality of games nowadays play a part in the mainstream, too?
gaming is life at times of depresion – GanjaKing04209 years ago
Very interesting topic!!! I think that one of the reasons games are more mainstream is because of the sheer multitude of diversity in gaming now. Back in the day you had fewer companies and fewer programmers and fewer games. Now we can make specific games that appeal to specific people which entices more and more people to play. I think you have to at least mention *shudder* facebook games. These low commitment games give the opportunity for normally not interested people to pick up a game. It doesn't take much time, thought, etc. If you leave it for a week, you aren't tragically behind everyone else. And as for the movie-like quality. Hands down agree. I had my mother walk in on me playing a game during a cutscene and she actually stopped to watch thinking it was a show haha. Not that she'll ever pick up a controller, but at the very least it intrigued someone who usually wouldn't bat an eye. – Tatijana9 years ago
My family cannot play Monopoly. It is not a fun game during which we can laugh and enjoy quality time together. Instead we become cruel, building hotels as quickly as possible and holding vendettas against each other when someone won't trade/sell a property with us. The desire to win with the most amount of money takes over and we forget about familial loyalty… and the fact that it is just a game. But is it? Is this a common theme that as soon as someone gets their first property, their first monopoly, builds their first house then hotel, they become more and more like the ruthless investors on Wall Street? Is this healthy or should Monopoly be removed from the shelves of toy stores and relocated to board rooms where said investment bankers can practice their strategies and the rest of society can be safe?
While on the one hand, you're not entirely wrong, on the other hand, neither my family or any other I've witnessed playing the game has ever metamorphosed into cruel and greedy people, treating each other in a way they would otherwise not. The way you describe it, your family completely changed personalities once exposed to a game about making the most money: it changed who they were. But is that really how it happens at your house, or are you just exaggerating this account in order to play up the topic for others to write about? Cause this seems a tad extreme and sensationalized if you ask me. – Jonathan Leiter9 years ago
I have experienced this game as both fun and ruthless. I guess the more important thing is, does your family go back to being fun loving when it's over? Or do they continue to hold grudges after the game is put away? If no grudge is held, I think it might even be beneficial to get out some family angst in a harmless game than in full blown arguments. – Tatijana9 years ago
Exactly, Tatijana. If Monopoly does not pit people against each other after the fact, then it could serve a great benefit as a cathartic tool, just like how platformer and adventure video-games help me to relax after a stressful day. – Jonathan Leiter9 years ago
This could be a worthwhile topic although it might be worth looking at other board games as well. – Jordan9 years ago
I agree with Jordan, a few other board games can cause equal amounts of stress and anger and they all might do so for the same reason. – Austin Bender9 years ago
I've learned that when games become like that it is time to take out a game everyone can enjoy. Take into consideration how personality clashes with an enjoyable evening. I have been accused of cheating at Pictionary because I draw well. Those people never will play it (one of my favorite games) with me again ;(.Ah well. It doesn't mean artists should be banned from playing. But, to avoid resentment, you just have to find a game that everyone likes. No need for stress. The game "Gloom," I recall, was created for the very purpose of making good things happen. – Candice Evenson9 years ago
