Video games in American culture

The Birth Of Video Games

In class we have been learning about how the internet affected and help spread globalism throughout the world and keep everyone connected. However with the birth of the internet came the birth of video games, into American culture. With many games like Doom and first person shooters many parents began to believe that videogames were desensitizing kids to murder after Dylan said shooting up Columbine was going to be like Doom a very popular first person shooter during the time. Many years later many shootings have been said to be caused by dangerous video games. But video game’s history is not just about killers. The video game industry has been growing throughout the last few decades at an exponential rate. Because of the internet many games have been created that have a multiplayer function creating a new form of entertainment for the American youth. Many MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games have been creating communities on forums and friend groups of people who play together online but don’t even know each other in real life. An idea of an online friend began to spread throughout America. Many consoles like the Nintendo 64 and Playstation were popular but as free games like League of Legends and Dota began to hit the videogame market millions of users were hooked because many users who did not have the money and console could now play games on their PC. As players got better at these multiplayer games many wanted to show their skills and joined local tournaments, and as these games got even more popular players like Faker became household names for gamers. American were now able to not only play videogames but as also make money by playing them by using the program youtube. Youtubers like PewDiePie and Markiplier made small videos of them playing video games in 2007 and now make millions of dollars from ad revenue with their millions of subscribers.

On the professional level many many League of Legends tournament make millions of dollars and teams can make up to 8 million in prize money, with millions watching online with programs like twitch these tournaments compare to major league sports tournaments which has created a push esports to become a sport. However because of this there is a huge pushback against video games created by previous generations, who do not accept the new pastime for American citizens. It is important that we in AP US History know this because we recently learned about how the internet affected the economy and world, but we never learned how it affected the entertainment industry and created many things like multiplayer games and online games that you do not need to download that many children born in the late 90s were able to experience this new form of entertainment.

https://venturebeat.com/2016/06/08/the-u-s-and-global-game-industries-will-grow-a-healthy-amount-by-2020-pwc-forecasts/