GEEKS NO MORE: GAMING ON THE RISE

UNEDITED SAMPLE FEATURE ARTICLE
By Julia Nina Somera Moncada
IV-Madame Marie Curie


Wherever you look, wherever you go, today’s streets are filled with computer shops. Computer shops filled with gamers playing DotA, Ragnarok, the newly released Diablo III and other computer games. In almost every household, there is at least one portable gaming console such as gameboy, PSP, etc. There may be even a couple of gaming consoles such as Playstation, Xbox, etc. in a few of those houses. We can clearly see that the gaming industry has expanded all over the world. This makes kids, preteens, teens and even some adults happy. Though I can’t say the same for a lot of parents.

The first video games made their appearance in the 1960s, with Spacewar!™ considered to be the first available and influential video game. In 1971, video games attained their golden age. At this time, game development split into different areas such as coin-operated arcade games, university computers, handhelds and home computers. In this era, a lot of classic video games were released such as PONG, Pac-man, and Asteroids. Video games’ golden age reached its full steam in the 1980s with the release many new titles, such as Doom and Quake.

In 1983, the gaming industry experienced a crash in which video game industry experienced a huge loss and resulted in the bankruptcy of many game companies. This is due to the fact that more cartridges were being produced than the consoles. This almost resulted to the death of the video game industry.

The following year, the industry came springing back to life because of Nintendo’s family computer also known as Nintendo Entertainment System or NES. This led to the rise of Mario, now the official mascot of Nintendo. Mario was followed by Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Many games followed soon after.

Now, next generation games(next-gen) are on the rise. New consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PS3. Both have realistic graphics and gameplay.

Moving onto the gamers, people usually perceive video gamers as geeks. They are usually bullied, called names, and usually have no social lives. We also think of them as people who have no future because no one would hire a gamer. But, times have changed. The gaming society isn’t just filled with fat useless geeks. On the contrary, they are filled with some of the most successful persons you will ever see. And who says they have no social life? Gamers all over the world come together to compete, make friends, and socialize with other gamers in gaming conventions and tournaments.

There is now a thing called competitive gaming. Gamers compete for fame, bragging rights and money. Pro-gaming is a profession most would laugh at. It is in fact a very serious sport. Every year, they hold the World Cyber Games, which is considered the Olympics of video games.

Video games are also used in other fields such as medicine. Doctors use video games to simulate surgeries and to practice hand eye coordination. Also in the armed forces, they use flight simulators to train pilots for combat. With these games, there's bound to be programmers and game testers. And who else could fill these jobs but other gamers.

Though the jobs connected with gaming are increasing, I still wouldn’t recommend that you would focus only on gaming. They still do require a college degree. So keep your gaming in shape but always prioritize your studies more.