VIDEO GAMES: INTRODUCTION

1) What were the first videogames like?

The first video games was like analogue machine, arcade games, shooting genre, pixelated, single genre, lack of variety, no characters, no colour, and no narrative.

2) How have videogames changed over time?
Video games became more interactive overtime, first person perspective, became more colourful, characters evolved, features - talk to other people (worldwide), accessibility, and graphics.

3) What do the most successful games have in common? Answer this in as much detail as you can. Think about audience pleasures - what do people like about playing videogames?
The most successful games all have a narrative and different genres. They are all focused on the target audience. They think about how it's gonna affect their audience and how they can use it as their escapism. They also add stuffs that gives the audience more knowledge about how other stuffs works. People like playing videogames because it allows them to have a distraction from everyday life. It allows them to interact with other people, especially worldwide.

4) What criticisms have been made towards videogames?

Violent (shooting), sexual violent (GTA), stigma for violence, and addictive.

1) At the time of the article, how many Fortnite players were there worldwide? (Bonus question - how many are there now? Try Googling it.)
125 million players. There are now 650 million players.

2) Why is it so popular? What are the audience pleasures of the game?
It's popular with kids because it's free, fun, and it has a silly, offbeat sense of humour. It's very bright, almost cartoon-like graphics as well as loads of ridiculous items and costumes, such as space suits, and dinosaur outfits. The audience pleasure of the game are escapism as it allows them to have a break from the reality of the world.

3) Why might some people criticise Fortnite?
Some people criticise fortnite because it's a multiplayer shooter game which can be violent for young kids, especially because the game is not strict enough, it led to other younger kids to play fortnite without being on the right age to be able to play the game. Another is, this could be addictive for other players as this if fun for them. This could possibly have a bad effect on the players as this could lead them to only playing this game for the whole day.

4) Copy and paste two comments from 'below the line' of the Guardian article - these are comments written by Guardian readers in response to the feature. Select one comment you agree with and one you disagree with and explain why.

"The violence is 'unreal' and not gory/grotesque, but there's lots of guns and shooting. It doesn't seem to cost anything. It's very hard to win too, I think."

I disagree with the statement as this game is violent which could have an effect on someone. The person who commented this might be a lot older than other younger players that's why the game didn't have an impact on them.

"I guess parents might also be worried about the ideas propagated at various levels by such war-of-all-against-all games where you may be closer to playing yourself without a story-set role to play (without Battle Royale’s allegorical system challenging or the Hunger Games’ warnings of social divide and rule)."

I agree with the statement as many players are younger than the age needed for the game, so violence could have a great impact on them. This is because at a young age, children/ teenagers are exposed to stuffs they are not supposed to at an early age.