The Positive Impact Model in Commercial Games

Author(s):  
Rusel DeMaria

What is the future of video games? Is it more realism? More violence? Better physics? Artificially intelligent characters? More social networking games? Free to play and advertising supported? Games for non-gamers? More controversy, political scapegoating, and legal challenges? It’s probably all of the above, and more. In fact, while we may expect to see more of the same from the commercial video game industry, there is always the potential for surprises, both pleasant and not-so pleasant. One area of the future of games is less often discussed, but represents one of the most powerful and positive directions the industry could take. I call it the “positive impact model,” and for the rest of this chapter, I will attempt to provide some insight into what that phrase is meant to convey.

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Vale Costa ◽  
Ana Isabel Veloso

In the video game industry, older adults tend to be avid consumers. Although considerable research has been devoted to the positive cognitive effects of video games, less attention has been paid to the older adult gamer profile. The aim of this paper is to describe a survey conducted from November 2012 until May 2013, which includes 245 gamers aged 50 and over, about their game preferences. Specifically, the authors examined: (a) what types of video games are played and (b) what leads these players to be engaged by video games. The results indicate that adventure games with problem-solving are preferred, suggesting the skills that participants would like to practise. The study provides insight into a new video gamer profile.


2020 ◽  
Vol 214 ◽  
pp. 02015
Author(s):  
Jiahao Zhang

In recent years, increasingly advanced technology infrastructure leads to an extraordinary growth of Internet users. By virtue of the explosive growth of the entire Internet industry, the online game industry has shown a rapid development trend, and the overall user scale of online games continues to expand. Meanwhile, the online game industry becomes a good investment market for investors to operate in. This article uses Blizzard as an example to analyze its investment value. Besides, the future trend of the video game industry is analyzed by using the SWOT-model and forecasting calculation data. The result shows that based on the current development of the game industry environment and the same companies in the game industry, Activision Blizzard will have a steady increase in profits in the future. Therefore, it is worth being invested.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-212
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jenson ◽  
Suzanne de Castell

Videogames are a dominant cultural, economic and creative medium in the twenty-first century, whose varied ecologies are increasingly recognized as particularly hostile environments to those identifying or identified as women. These ecologies include those encoded and enacted within the virtual environments of digital games, across the spectrum of those ecologies materially inhabited in games education, game cultures and, paradigmatically, the video game industry. In June 2020, top videogame maker Ubisoft saw high ranking employees resign from the company as accounts went public on Twitter and in mainstream media of sexual harassment, abuse and other misconduct at the company being covered up and ignored. But this is by no means the first public revelation of sexual harassment and discriminatory injustices directed at women who develop and play games: many will recall the vitriolic online hate movement #gamergate. Despite the familiarity of these tropes, we seem to ‘rediscover’ every few years or so that making and playing video games can present toxic environments for women. Drawing on feminist perspectives that understand how videogames have been a gendered, primarily masculine, domain, this article proposes that a topographical view, one specifically attuned to examining gender through a media ecology lens, can demonstrate how these successive re-enactments of ‘shock and awe’ operate in the service of, and are functionally integral to, the preservation of media ecologies exclusionary by design, legitimizing the repetition of their gendered hostilities. The intent is to move beyond naïve expressions of surprise and righteous indignation, to a grounded recognition and elucidation of the extents to which misogyny and harassment are and have been deeply structured into the gendered ecologies of video games.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2323-2330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Luong Nguyen

In the world, the video game industry has really exploded until about 2000, and since then has achieved great strides, becoming one of the leading forms of the entertainment industry, at least in terms of revenue. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the consumer behavior in the case of video games with three objectives: identify the factors affecting customer satisfaction for video games; analyze these factors to understand how they affect consumer behavior and propose some recommendations to improve the customer satisfaction for video games. Data was collected from 205 Vietnamese gamers addressing the variables of individual, psychological, cultural, and social factors. Regression analysis found that all four factors positively affect consumer behavior, in terms of customer satisfaction, especially cultural factors. The findings of this research analyzed the theoretical foundations of the theory of behavior, based on which investigated the study of consumer behavior of video game services of players in Vietnam by market research, analyze data, thereby helping businesses understand the psychological response, consumer behavior of customers, and can devise appropriate strategies.


Author(s):  
Eric Niemi

This chapter conveys the results of a study examining how male students use video games to construct their masculinity. Applying a critical discourse methodology, the study provides insight into how men construct their masculinity within video game discourse communities and how the construction applies to other discourses. It examines how men enter the discourse, what they learn in the discourse, and then how they apply that learning to other discourse communities. It concludes with recommendations and suggestions regarding how video games are a critical part of popular culture that facilitates construction of an identity through the multitude of encounters and relationships within the discourse.


2022 ◽  
pp. 28-49
Author(s):  
Sergio Alloza Castillo ◽  
Flavio Escribano ◽  
Óscar Rodrigo González López ◽  
María Buenadicha Mateos

The preconceived notion concerning negative effects of video games and students' academic performance is a widely known subject. However, some investigations explore the positive impact of video games on academic performance. With a sample of 247 university students, this chapter studies the perception of both gamers and non-gamers about soft skills and their current relevance in academic and professional fields. The possible relationships linking the intensity of the usage of video games, academic performance, and the perception concerning soft skills are investigated. The results expose a generalized positive perception respecting the relation between video games and the development of soft skills, specifically to the video game genre and its relevance and influence on academic performance, as well as gender differences, where women prevail in emotional and social managements, although this influence is not elevated.


Author(s):  
Janet C. Dunlop

Today’s media are vast in both form and influence; however, few cultural studies scholars address the video gaming industry’s role in domestic maintenance and global imposition of U.S. hegemonic ideologies. In this study, video games are analyzed by cover art, content, and origin of production. Whether it is earning more “powers” in games such as Star Wars, or earning points to purchase more powerful artillery in Grand Theft Auto, capitalist ideology is reinforced in a subtle, entertaining fashion. This study shows that oppressive hegemonic representations of gender and race are not only present, but permeate the majority of top-selling video games. Finally, the study traces the origins of best-selling games, to reveal a virtual U.S. monopoly in the content of this formative medium.


Author(s):  
Janet C. Dunlop

Today’s media are vast in both form and influence; however, few cultural studies scholars address the video gaming industry’s role in domestic maintenance and global imposition of U.S. hegemonic ideologies. In this study, video games are analyzed by cover art, content, and origin of production. Whether it is earning more “powers” in games such as Star Wars, or earning points to purchase more powerful artillery in Grand Theft Auto, capitalist ideology is reinforced in a subtle, entertaining fashion. This study shows that oppressive hegemonic representations of gender and race are not only present, but permeate the majority of top-selling video games. Finally, the study traces the origins of best-selling games, to reveal a virtual U.S. monopoly in the content of this formative medium.


2020 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2019-055300
Author(s):  
Susan Forsyth ◽  
Patricia A McDaniel

BackgroundSince 1972, Philip Morris (PM) has sponsored motorsports. Racing video games are a popular genre among youth and often emulate the branding of their real-life counterparts, potentially exposing youth to tobacco imagery. We examined racing video games for the presence of Marlboro imagery and explored the history of efforts to remove or regulate such imagery.MethodsWe searched the Truth Tobacco Industry documents for relevant documents and used information from video game-related websites and game play videos to identify racing video games that contained Marlboro trademarks and imagery. We also collected information on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board’s (ESRB) tobacco-specific and overall game ratings.FindingsIn 1989, negative publicity surrounding the presence of Marlboro logos in racing games led PM to threaten legal action against two game makers for copyright infringement. PM also launched a media campaign promoting this intervention as evidence of its commitment to youth smoking prevention. Nonetheless, we identified 219 video games from 1979 to 2018 that contained Marlboro trademarks and/or Marlboro-sponsored drivers and livery. Among the games in our sample with an ESRB game rating, all but one received an ‘E,’ indicating appropriateness for everyone, and all but three lacked tobacco content descriptors.ConclusionRacing video games have been and continue to be a vehicle for exposing adolescents to the Marlboro brand. Because voluntary efforts by PM and the video game industry to prevent youth exposure to tobacco brands in video games have been ineffective, USA and international policy-makers should prohibit tobacco content in video games.


Author(s):  
Leon Y. Xiao ◽  
Laura L. Henderson

AbstractKing and Delfabbro (2019b) proposed the adoption of social responsibility measures to combat predatory monetisation in video games, such as loot boxes. This paper rectifies a game example mistakenly used by King and Delfabbro and provides further game examples to illustrate, critique and extend the proposed measures. This paper argues that the proposed measures are unlikely to be widely adopted by the video game industry, given the industry’s economic interests in the continued unhindered implementation of predatory monetisation, their preference for continued ‘self-regulation’ and their past resistance against potential regulation. With reference to South Korean law, this paper explores the possibility of codifying and enforcing the proposed measures as law and argues that overly paternalistic regulations are insensible and impractical. This paper recommends the use of regulatory nudging to encourage video game companies through incentives, such as discretionary grants and tax relief schemes, to adopt the proposed social responsibility measures and develop towards an ethical game design framework.


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