Game Genres

Name:

First/third person shooter

Description:

Focuses on combat using projectile weapons like guns or missiles.
Usually played by teenage boys or men.
Popular in western culture.

Examples:

COD is a first and third person shooter video game franchise. Originated on the PC with mainly WW2 themes and stories, fighting on the front lines of historic events.

Owned by activation, infinity ward and Treyarch developing the game in two sub-storylines: infinity ward, making the modern warfare trilogy, focusing on current tech and weaponry; Tryarch, making world at war, black ops and black ops two. These start in WW2, sticking to the traditional COD, then branch off into fantasy history’s about top covert missions combining old combat styles and weaponry with futuristic types.

These small differences give the games a very distinct feel, for example in my opinion the Tryarch “old” style warfare feels more clunky and heavy and the modern warfare by infinity ward feels sleeker and smoother (Tryarchs series also contains an exclusive spin off game, Nazi zombies, a zombie survival shooter).

 They also have a lot of similarities with being the same genera, both are quite quick passed and contain scenes of violence or gore with the game involving war. Also, both are leaning towards bigger multiplayer aspects in the later game titles relying more on strategy and communication between a team of online players.

Battle field is a much more realistic shooter, having better and more photo realistic graphics and realistic aspect such as bullet drop and lenses glare to add more of a tactical feel to the game. The game is on much bigger scale with bigger levels and teams with more features like vehicles such as tanks, jets, choppers, ATVs, buggiers etc.

Name:

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

Description:

Also knows as an action RTS, in which players control one character with powerful abilities, in a team of players to destroy the opposing team’s structures and push “lanes” and waves of AI creatures to ultimately “farm” your hero and win the game.

Usually played by teenage boys.

Popular in western and Korean cultures.

Is big in E-spots.

Examples:

One of the biggest MOBAs on the scene, developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS and inspired by the mod, defence of the ancients on world of Warcraft 3: the frozen throne. Based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft. The objective of the DOTA is for each team to destroy the opponents' Ancient, which is heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. In traditional MOBA style, LOL has two teams witch spawn on opposite sides of the map, connected by three lanes. Each team has one nexus, three inhibitors, and nine turrets (three in each lane). One minuet thirty seconds after the start of the game, AI called minions spawn and automatically charge into lane. They are sent in waves every three minutes after and get stronger each wave. They are used to push enemy turrets and are killed for gold and their XP to level your character’s abilities. Abilities can be passive, active or toggle-able; passive abilities are abilities that affect your champion (character) without using any manna and buffing stats like base damage or health regeneration etc.; active abilities are abilities that you have to manually activate to do unique attacks, these cost manna; toggle-able abilities are a mix of both other types, when activated they become a passive but cost manna over time e.g. a damage buff that uses manna each basic attack but can be disabled.

You gain gold and XP over time and get larger amounts from minion and jungle keep (a neutral AI in the jungle between lanes, they give duffs to increase base damage and manna regeneration) kills, dragon kills (a mini boss AI that spawns at 2:30 and respawns after 6 minutes, gives gold and XP) and Barron Nasher (a world boss that spawns 15:00 and respawns every 7 minutes, it gives a buff that increases overall damage and health). Players spend their XP on levelling up their four abilities making them stronger. They spend gold on items with active or passive stats boosts.

As players grow stronger they fight cooperatively to gain map control and kills to eventually destroy the enemy nexus and end the game. 

Name:

Puzzle

Description:

Played a lot by women on hand held devises but generally for any gender of any age.

Puzzle games are meant to test your problem solving ability and train your brain.

Examples:

Candy Crush is a match three puzzle game developed by king for Facebook and later a mobile app for smartphones. The aim of the game is to match three or more candies to crush a required number of objects, e.g. chocolate. The game works with a life system, where if you fail to complete a level, you lose a life. You get a maximum of 5 lives at a time and you generate a new one after a certain duration of time. This stops you over playing the game and keeps the hit it gives of accomplishment from beating a level feeling fresh and satisfactory. This game is successful as it is easy and played to kill time plus is doesn't get boring as it limits your playtime. Portal is a much more advanced puzzle game. It has a back story with main characters and voiced scripts, the game is based on a test subject using futuristic portal making technologies to navigate around “test chambers” to complete puzzles to unlock the next stage and progress through the story. The levels get progressively harder and more challenging as you enhance your skills of “thinking with portals”, using momentum, timing and reflexes.

Name:

Racing

Description:

driving vehicles to a location or round a circuit in a set time or faster than the rest. Usually played on console by males of all ages.

Examples:

Dirt is a rally car racing game. it has a solo campaign where you go round circuits, aiming to get the best time and race other AI drivers round a track to get as close to first as you can. You earn money for each event and can buy new upgrades and cars to race. The game also has a multiplayer feature where you race other players round a track for XP and level ups to unlock better cars.

Dirt is quite a serious and true to life racing game, one that is not so realistic is Motorstorm. Motorstorm is a racing game based in fantasy places and islands with extreme conditions and extreme vehicles to cause mayhem and destruction around the track; things like monster-trucks, volcanoes, NOs boost and car on car combat.

Name:

Platform

Description:

A game that involves controlling a sprite over and through obstacles to advance in the game. Usually played on hand held devices by all ages.

Examples:

Mario is a platformer based around an Italian plumber in a fantasy  world, trying to save his princess from danger. Playing as Mario, you must venture though the world dodging and defeating enemies by jumping over or on them. There are also bricks you can smash your way through, some giving gold (collected and can be used to get extra lives and power ups) some giving power ups, each power up giving a unique power.

Super Meat Boy  is a platform game in which players control a small, dark red, cube-shaped character named Meat Boy, who must save his cube-shaped, heavily bandaged girlfriend Bandage Girl from the evil scientist Dr. Fetus. Players attempt to reach the end of each level, represented by Bandage Girl, while avoiding falling blocks, saw blades, and other fatal obstacles. The player can run and jump on platforms, and can slide down or jump from walls.

Name:

Role Playing Game

Description:

A game where the player must assume the role of a fictional character in a fantasy world, living out the tale or story. Played on all platforms but mostly PC and console by teenagers and adults of both genders. 

Examples:

In Skyrim , you design your character ( race, facial feature ect.) and then play through the legend of the dragon born, someone with the gift of dragon speak. When Skyrim faces the destruction from the return of the dragons, it is your destiny to be its saviour and be the undoing of the dragons return. as you roam through the open world of Skyrim, completing quests and tasks to advance in the story line and level up your skills in crafting and combat until you are strong enough to defeat Alduin, leader of the dragon race.

Fall out is an open world, free roam RPG game. It allows the player to solve the set tasks and problems in a multiple of ways in the fantasy time line where there was nuclear fall out after WW2, causing people to live in bunkers underground for hundreds of years until you venture out, discovering new civilisations of survivors and new and dangerous creatures and places.

Name:

Sandbox

Description:

The player uses tools to edit and roam freely through a virtual world letting there imagination and creativity run wild. Played on PC or Consoles by children.

Examples:

Minecraft is an open world sandbox game, where the player must gather materials, craft and build tools and structures to survive against hunger and AI mobs that spawn in the darkness. The game uses blocks (cubes)  to represent all materials and make the game feel like first person Lego and is one of the reasons it appeals to a younger audience. There is also multiplayer as players can join a server and survive and build cooperatively. 

Gmod is a sandbox physics game that has no objectives or aims and allows you to use props from other games to create structures and games within it.  

Name:

Simulation

Description:

A game that trys to imitate and copy scenarios from real life. Used as a method of training and prediction or games. Played on PC by adults

Examples:

The Sims is a game were you first create a character or a family of characters  ( name, age, gender, ethnicity, personality traits, aspirations and relations). Then, you buy these characters a house with a set budget, you then control the actions of these "sims" on a day to day basis, getting them jobs, sending them school, home life and making friends or relationships. Almost any activity in real life is available in the game, it is realistic and true to life as it is simulating the reality of someone's day to day life.

There are other more specific simulation games that simulate the lives of people in certain job roles. For example, Train simulator  is a computer based simulation of rail transport operations putting players in charge of maintaining trail lines. Another, is Farming simulator were players are able to farm, breed livestock, grow crops and sell all assets created from farming.

Name:

Horror

Description:

A game usually set in a dark or eerie place, full of gore and jump scares round every corner. played Mainly on PC by teenage boys and men.

Examples:

Resident Evil, a zombie survival horror game. Players control the main characters through outbreaks of a biological weapon ( T-virus ) causing the dead to reanimate and attack/kill people, spreading the virus. the original games involved alot of exploration and puzzle solving but recently has developed into a more action orientated game but keeping the gore and jump scares.

Amnesia is a survival horror game were you play as Daniel, exploring a dark and foreboding castle, while avoiding monsters and other obstructions as well as solving puzzles and finding out who you are and the story behind the horrors in the castle.

Name:

Arcade

Description:

Retro style, simplistic 2D and low resolution, some remakes mimicking the games of the 1970s+. Classic arcade games are coin operated and made to be stationary and for public use.

Examples:

Pac man was made in 1980 and is a 2D maze game with the aim of eating all the circles thought the maze and avoid the four enemy AI that chase you.

Space Invaders was an arcade game released in 1978 as one of the earliest shooting games. The aim bin g to shoot down an fleet of invading alien ships as they speed it to land. This classic has been remade and adapted to modern day society and games but kept the basic idea. For example, space invaders extreme is a HD colour version of space invaders with an additional multiplayer mode of four person coop and online ranking systems. there are a lot more remakes of this game like a 3D version of space invades with a hack
 and slash feel, but still the same basic idea.

Pre-production requirements unit 1

Video game pre-production

pre-production is required on any project throughout the media and arts industries, it is the processes of preparation and planning for key elements of the project (e.g. Finance and personnel etc.) so that it meets certain expectations, requirements and standards of financiers and the target audience.

Type of media and arts industries that require pre-production:

Film
Television
Advertising
Games development 
Internet
Radio 
Press 
Interactive media 
Print

Finance:

Sources of finance - If you are working for a company, they would fund your project based on estimated target audience, size of project and revenue. If you are an independent development crew, you will get funding from donations and kick starter events. Also, you may be sponsored by another company.

Budgets - a set amount of money allocated to the protect or certain parts of the product depending on their importance or relevance to the project or target audience. This budget would also be loosely based on how much revenue they expect to make. To ensure all aspects of the project have enough money to meet standards, the total funds must be split into budgets for the separate areas, showing clearly how much they can spend and on what. you would need to consider: staff wages, paying each team (development crew, artists, graphic designers); cost of materials (e.g. software and hard ware for games development, recording equipment for music); transport (to and from locations used in the project like settings or places of inspiration, also events like games-con and E3); facilities for producing the game and advertisement costs like running TV adds or hiring billboards.

If working for a bigger company, your budget can be split into clearances. The funding company will split the total funds into segments for progressions in the project, as the project meets certain criteria with one segment it will be given another.

GTA5s budget was a total of about £170 million, making it the most expensive development of a game as of 2014.

Time constraints:

Competitors - to keep up with competition and other releases of other similar projects (like a similar genera of game or music)

Relevance - the project need to be relative to society happening around that time to meet a certain target audience. For example, if you were making a game based on a movie, you would need to release the game soon after the movie otherwise it would not be relevant and people would not show much interest in your release. Therefore you would not make as many sale and less profits.

Releasing at opportune times - to make better sales you can time your release date with holiday such as Christmas so people are more likely to but your game as a gift.

Release date - projects are usually set to a tight deadline at which point the game will be officially released. This helps with when to start advertisement and generate a lot more "hype" as you close on the official date. This is also important as any time spent making the game over the deadline will affect profit margins as you are spending more time and money on the game over the budget and set deadline or clearance.

Availability - you need the required equipment and personnel to be available at the desired time during the progression of the project.

Battle Field 4 was released on time and to its deadline, but many say it was not ready with massive amounts of lag and problems with the multilayer aspects of the game making it unplayable for some. After receiving criticism and complains about these issues, the development team put all other projects on hold and set about fixing the game functionality and servers.

Personnel:

Contributors - these can be funders of the project, personal with certain expertise or talents.

Expert personnel - On any project a team or teams of expert personnel are required to work on certain aspects, to make sure they meet a required standard. With designing a game, you will need personnel for aspects like research, story and character development, concept art, graphical design, programming, voice acting, advertisement etc. Celebrities are often used. For example, the actor Elijah Wood (Frodo in Lord Of The Rings ) voiced the iconic purple dragon in the legend of Spiro: a new beginning, the eternal night and dawn of the dragon..


Sound clips - http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-compare/Spyro-the-Dragon/Spyro-the-Dragon/

Size - the size of the team will need to be relative to the difficulty of the set task and the time restraints on it. If too many are assigned to an easy task you could be wasting money on unneeded wages. On the other hand, if too little personnel are set to a task, it might not meet deadline or standard.

Skill level - assess the teams past work and current qualifications to check they are properly fitting to the assignment, as to keep level of standard consistent..

Facilities:

Equipment - some equipment required may be in specialised facilities or need certain facilities to meet the task at hand. For example if doing a photo-shoot or recording clips etc. A facility with the photo equipment at hand and with an editing studio close by would be appropriate.

Materials:

Sources - photo and audio library materials can be used for inspiration and reference or actually use clips or images from them in the final product. The internet can also be used to gather materials such as images or information.

Concepts, research and development - Questionnaires and studies on target audience to gather information on what the public want. Looking at past examples to see how well they were received thought statistics like revenue. Interviews with people to get concepts for plot or characters. Concept art and scenery of inspiration can go on to make animatics, an animated storyboard to get a better feel of atmosphere and character. Character and costume design/art work to furtherer develop characters and setting.

Hell blade is game currently in development by ninja theory. They make a pre-vis trailer to put the concept art and characters into motion and get a feel for the atmosphere, this is usually used to pitch to publishers, but as they are the publisher they opened it to the public. This trailer was designed purely by the art team at ninja theory. Around the time of the start of the making of this trailer that Sony offered a game announcement at games-con. They used in house 3D capture software, they then animated the trailer based on the data and footage they captured. They used real life references when possible (brought in real furs and leathers, skulls of animals and the wrinkles pours and expressions of the female actors face). This is what was then used to publicize the game at games-con.

Trailer - http://www.hellblade.com/?portfolio_page=announcement-trailer

Software/Hardware - with film, music or game production you will need editing software on capable equipment, to edit audio clips and visual clips like cut scenes and videos. Graphical and rendering software for game design, engines etc.

Locations:

Project setting - if you are making a project with a certain theme/setting, then you will need to go to locations relevant to the genera or theme of your game or music to get images to inspire concept art and scenery in the game or a background for a music video. For this you would take into account:

Limitations, accessibility of the area/location and ease of transportation there.

Risk, if the location is dangerous and put any of your personnel in danger.

Cost, the cost of transport there and possibly accommodation for your film/camera crew whilst you are there.

Weather conditions, how the weather conditions effect all of the above and if they affect the outcome of using that location (e.g. if the video or concept art requires a clear sky's, but on the day its overcast, it would be a waste of time and money going).

For example, in tomb raider a lot of the scenery and level design had some inspiration from the temples in Cambodia.

Codes of practice:

Legal - 

Copyright: To protect against plagiarism for a certain amount of time after the creation/concept of an idea or material.

Health and safety: regulations and procedures to prevent accident or injury in workplaces.

Risk assessments: A process of evaluating the potential risks that might be involved in activity.

Regulatory bodies - 

Ofcom: The communications regulator in the UK. They regulate the TV, radio, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus wireless devices.

Press Complaints Commission: A regulator for British newspapers and magazines, made of people form the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual fee it charges on newspapers and magazines.

Advertising Standards Authority: the UK's independent regulator of advertising for all media.

Pan European Game Information: A European video game content rating system to help European consumers make decisions on buying computer games.


Entertainment Software rating board: An organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces advertising guidelines and online privacy for computer games.

Trade associations - 

Independent Games Developers Association: A trade association representing the business and commercial side of some video and computer game developers in the UK and Europe.

British Interactive Media Association: Represents the digital industry in the United Kingdom.

Ethics

Games in society

Excessive play time:

Video games often demand a lot of time and attention of a persons day, with main story lines that can last up to 80 hours to complete, downloadable extensions onto the game and endless multilayer playability. this can cut into other aspects of someone's life and have serious negative affects, skipping meals, sleep, education etc.

This can lead to sleeping deprivation, witch can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It also affects the brain and cognitive function. This constant tiredness can lead to a dependants on energy drinks to stay alert and on point when playing; But these drinks have their side effects like:palpitations, tremor / shaking, agitation / restlessness, gastrointestinal upset, chest pain, dizziness, paraesthesia (tingling or numbing of the skin), Insomnia, difficulty breathing and  headaches. Plus, because of the high levels of caffeine in energy drinks, they can lead to Increased blood pressure and heart palpitations with painful withdraw symptoms.

Gaming alone comes with its health risks, excessive time spent staring at a TV or monitor can lead to headaches, blurred vision and even near-sightedness if frequent breaks aren't taken to relax your eyes. Furthermore, the lack of exercise and constantly sitting in one place for hours on end causes obesity and cholesterol build up in the blood witch can lead to clotting."Lack of exercise as 'deadly' as smoking" - Daily mail.

Social isolation:

With all this time spent on gaming instead of going out and socialising, people can become "shut in" losing contact with the outside world. instead of talking to people, meeting new people and sharing real experiences, they become dependant on the virtual socialisation of AI and players online.

 However with multilayer functions, players can interact, communicate and get to know people they otherwise never would have had the chance to ( e.g. people from different areas of the world).Furthermore, in team based games, working and communication with others to achieve a common goal can develop team skills and communication.

On the other hand, there are risks such as cyber bulling and abuse of player because of differences such as skill level, accents and ethnic backgrounds and this would be encouraged by the fact people can hide behind usernames. This "false identity" could also cause risk of players pretending to be someone the're not to gain trust or friendship of another online player and maybe even taking it further than virtual role playing and something much more dangerous (e.g. arranging to meet people under false pretences).
A story on Oil millionaire's son , a 14 year old that was groomed through a video game-
"The teenage son of a millionaire was stabbed to death by a ‘predator’ he met online who groomed him through video games" "Breck Bednar, 14, said he was going to a sleepover at a friend’s house on Sunday night.But secretly the teenager – who was said to be addicted to online computer games – travelled by train to the flat of an 18-year-old stranger who it is believed he had played with over the internet.
Hours later, the church-going youngster was found dead by police at a flat in Grays, Essex – 30 miles away from the family home in Caterham, Surrey – after being knifed in the neck."
-Mail Online.

Cost:
There are many prices to pay for gaming, one being economical. Before you even buy a video game, you have to buy something to play it on, weather that be games console or PC and these alone can get quite pricey. For a standard console (PS3, X Box 360, wii) it costs around 100-150£, for a "next gen" console (PS4 X Box one wii u) it costs around 200-500£ and for a PC capable of running the latest games in a playable standard , around 400-1000£. This is a lot of money and we haven't even covered the cost of the actual games yet at about 20-50£. To get started playing games , you could easily rack up a price tag into the thousands, some families not being able to afford this making gaming more exclusive to the "better off" portion of the world.

 Although, gaming is a huge up and coming market growing massively every year.
"The worldwide the game industry in 2007 was valued at $44.9 billion. This number was expected to grow 9.1% annually to $48.9 in 2011 and $68 billion in 2012, making it the fastest-growing component of the international media sector. In 2004, the worldwide industry generated more than $25.4 billion."- http://vgsales.wikia.com/
Gaming is making new job peritonitises and income to countries world wide and is a constantly evolving market meaning people will have to keep up with the new technologies and consoles to play the latest addition of there favourite game. Another way that games can generate livelihoods for people is E-sports, competitive game play/tournaments for cash prises and sponsors.

Also, video games can cost time and even relationships as a price, massively cutting into your home life and work life and causing you to grow distant from those around you. Divorce online, a website dedicated to resolving unhappy marriages, claims that 15 percent of the divorces it has handled can be attributed to spouses that are addicted to online games such as world of Warcraft and Call of Duty.

The release also offers comments from one disgruntled 21-year-old wife from London named Jessica Ellis, 24, who married husband Michael in 2008.

"He was addicted to World of Warcraft but played other games now and then," said Jessica. "When it became serious he was playing up to eight hours a day and I threatened to leave. He then stopped playing World of Warcraft for a while and started playing Call of Duty instead but the amount he was playing just gradually increased until I could not take it anymore. It got so bad that he even organised to play on the day of our second wedding anniversary as we had decided to go out at the weekend instead. I was constantly trying to get him to cut back but he didn't think he had a problem or was doing anything wrong until I told him I wanted to leave but by that time it was too late.”- http://www.gamepolitics.com/

Separation from reality:
Video games create another reality that players can escape to, forgetting the troubles of the real world and living a virtual life that is usually a lot more interesting and exciting than their own. However, having such in depth and immerseive stories or from the sheer amount of time spent playing them, players can begin to lose their grip on the real world and confuse or mix it with the games virtual reality. This separation from reality can not only be dangerous for the players mental state but also put those around them in danger, especially games that feature extreme levels of violence and disturbing scenes.
An example of where separation from reality has caused or put people in harms way:
"Warren Leblanc, 17, repeatedly stabbed 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah after luring him to a Leicester park". The mother stated," her son's killer had mimicked a game called Manhunt, developed by Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, in which the players score points for violent killings"-BBC News England



With games becoming more and more violent and containing themes of crime and scenes of a disturbing nature this not only desensitises society to violence and crime in general but can also encourage and influence violent/illegal acts, adding to the danger of separation from reality.
A report about an incident outside of ASDA just after the release of GTA 5 ( a games based around the criminal activity in america) where a 23 year old man was killed.-"A 23-year-old gamer who queued up for over an hour to retrieve his copy of the game, is stabbed outside of ASDA in London After making his purchase, the man departed the store and made his way back home. Within just shy of an hour and a half of the game’s release, a gang ambushed the young man; many of his possessions were stolen, including his watch, a cell phone and the copy of GTA V he had just purchased, but not before being brutally beaten with a brick and then stabbed."- DailyMail.co.uk

However, video game content is age rated based on its levels of violence, strong/offensive language, use of pornographic imagery or nudity and sexual references.This is a system put in place to warn players of what kind of game they are getting into to protect and younger members of society as you cannot buy rated games without ID. Also, in some games where there are especially disturbing/offensive scenes, they have the option to be "skipped". The problem with these systems is that they can be quite easily ignored by parents that buy their children games. Plus, with online stores you can bypass the ID requirement and all you need is a debit card. Furthermore, society these day is so desensitised to crime, violence and sex that it has almost become the norm.

Education:
Video games can demand a lot of time and attention, this could take time and attention from the players education. e.g staying up all night playing through a game, not only taking time away from study and homework but also mean that the person is tired and not in the best mental/physical state to take in information at school. Also, players could skip whole days of school or study to play on video games.
However, some types of games are designed to be educational or "brain training". These games are ones used in classes to teach areas of maths, English, science etc. usually through a question/answer format with either a score or reward system to make learning in the classroom more fun. websites like http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/games/ a BBC website with games to teach GCSE standard subjects.
Also, there are games advertised to the public that are educational, these are usually a lot more developed games with more functionality, depth and story than the ones used in schools. Often referred to as "brain training" games are available for all ages and vary on the difficulty of the puzzles. they are often on hand held and portable devices for people to keep there brain ticking when traveling or killing time.

e.g. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training : how old is your brain,  A hit on Nintendo DS, it encouraged millions of users to keep their minds sharp with simple, daily exercises.
There are more than a dozen different numerical and verbal exercises designed to be played for a few minutes each day. You can track your training and test your progress by checking your Brain Age score.

Hand-eye coordination:

hand eye coordination is the ability to do tasks involving your hands and eyes to work together. This motor skill is greatly benefited by playing video games as you control things like moment with your hands on controllers of mouse/keyboard according to things shown on screen in real time. environments in game change very quickly and requires the player to react faster than usual, giving them above average hand eye coordination ans speed. video games not only enhance you hand eye coordination but also your ability to notice changes in your environment as this is another large part of gaming." A video gamer driving down the street is more likely to pick out a child running after a ball than a non gamer" - Professor Daphne Bavelier.

Thinking and strategy skills:

games usually require problem solving and/or strategy and planing to reach objectives. whether this is overcoming an obstacle in an adventure role playing game or team cooperation and strategy in an online shooter, all require aspects of thinking and strategy. Real time strategy games are heavily focused on this (hence the name). This genera of game but opponents up against each other, building facilities and units to siege and destroy the opponents structures and units. Players must be amazingly efficient with time and resources to build their empires and armies. Plus, when singeing they would have to think in a strategic mind set, almost militaristic and adapt according to the oppositions moves.
In some cases video games ans simulator are used to test and train members of the armed forces to enhance and check up on their problem solving and strategic thinking without using massive amounts of time on practical training.

Future impact:

The way games are adapting and advancing with the way the public perceive and use them , that not only will they continue to grow and shape the way of entertainment but also effect and change the way children are taught, methods for treating/helping people with motor and hand eye coordination problems and practice new methods of strategy and problem solving in the real world changing and challenging the way we think and live in the world around us.

Jane McGonigal is a games designer with a similar view on how video games can drastically improve the quality of life through video games. Here is a speech she did on her ideas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM

Psychological factors

Sound:

Games have sound effects and sound tracks. Sound effects are sounds of things in the environment around the player (e.g. gun fire in the distance to the left, foot steps behind you in the darkness). These are used to give the player an idea of his surroundings but also add depth to the environment and distance. Also these can be used to scare or get the imagination of the player going e.g. hearing something in the dark/behind you/on the other side of a wall.
A sound track is the background music through out the game. This music changes depending on the point in the game, if the player is doing something exiting and action packed, the tempo of the music and pitch would go up to invoke an emotional response from the player; in this case, his hear rate would increase and so would the thrill/adrenaline of the fight scene.
The combination of these makes for a depth and immersion of the player in the games reality and makes them think, feel and react as if they were there.

High score listings:

Some games give score points as a reward for completing parts of the game in a certain time or by completing certain objectives. These scores are then saved and listed, making you want to better yourself and your score. Also, some games have a score list from all over the world, not only making you want to beat you own record but everyone else's too.

Competitive games:

Competitiveness in games can be score based though listings or co-op scores though the campaign but also online with team based games etc. Today, this competition between players isn't just for bragging rights, but for fame and fortune too. Hole tournaments set up for the purpose of e-sports, organized video game competitions (especially between professionals). The most common video game genres are real-time strategy, fighting, first-person shooter, and multiplayer online battle arena. Player vs player and team vs team for reasonably large sums of prize money, played in front of a crowd of fans, allowing people to make a living form competitive game play.

One of the main organisations for e-sports is Major League Gaming.

peer pressure:

as more and more people are playing video games, the rate that new players start is going to increase too because of peer pressure ans social norm. If all of someones friends are playing a game and they ask that person to get that game and join them, chances are that they will. As time goes on, teenagers playing video games is becoming more and more a part of "teenage life" and is just another stereo type of teenagers that more often than not, is true. Games are becoming a bigger part of everyone's day to day life and that is only going to increase.


Fun:


People play games because of the entertainment the games provide, the fun they have and the sense of accomplishment they get form completing something or an objective. Players strive to complete there next task or problem to continue to receive this feeling and can even become addicted to fun. This causes them to play excessively and fixate on the gaming and getting to the next does of fun and accomplishment. Games make it gradually harder for players to get there fix by increasing level length and difficulty, this means that players don't become desensitized to the feeling
 or bored and will happily keep playing. 

Leveling:

Leveling up has the same affect, players want to get to the next level, they want to better them selfless and their character or abilities to get that "high". Again, as you progress thought a game, leveling becomes harder and takes more XP meaning you don't get bored and want to get that next level fix.