Tips & Definitions:
Gaming Casino-style gambling. The original meaning of the term, gaming may also refer to gambling over the Internet. Playing electronic games. Games can be played by an individual with a specialized game machine (video game console) or a computer and gaming software. Many games are designed for multiple players, who can interact and compete with each other using a computer over a LAN or the Internet. That also includes traditional card games; for example, four people, each in different locations around the world, can play bridge together over the Internet. Considered to be the inventor of the first video game, Ralph Baer's idea in the early 1950s of adding games to the TV sets he was building at Loral was rejected. Fifteen years later, he designed several prototypes on his own. Magnavox licensed his technology and introduced it as the Odyssey game machine in 1972, which used plastic overlays on the TV screen for a dozen games including ping-pong. Later, Nolan Bushnell had a similar version created for arcades, and "Pong" quickly became the premier product of his company, which he had renamed Atari. See video game console, gamer, Atari and advergame. Trends and attitudes towards gaming In the early 1980s, games as we know them today were not as widely popular. Computer games were often hard to get by and the distribution channel was not available. But a popular mail order system was allowing many people to get into games. It could also be said computer games help popularise the notion of owning a computer and this help establish the personal computer as we see them today. The Apple II (made by Apple Computer and designed by Steve Wozniak) was chiefly designed to play games, and it was the first truly popular personal computer.
Game Popularity One way to judge the popularity of computer and video games is by looking at sales figures. The three biggest markets for these games in 2003 were the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom [1] and each indicated that dedicated video game hardware made up the bulk of the industry. Furthermore, the total income of the North American video game industry now surpasses the total income of the North American film industry. According to the DNP Group, sales of computer games in the US have been declining since the late 1990s and are only a fraction of market[2] (http://www.npd.com/). This is despite the findings that the US entertainment software industry as a whole is growing.
Computer game sales were strong as recently as the mid-1990s and appeared to be growing at that time. Looking at computer game sales alone can be a misleading, because there are many free computer games and ones that make money through other means, such as subscription-based MMOGs and shareware games. DFC estimated that global MMOG revenues in 2003 would be over $1 billion USD[3]. Sales of games distributed by download are often not tracked by traditional methods. According to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), Half-Life 2 debuted at #3 in UK sales, which some commentators said was below forecasts and attributed the discrepancy to unknown sales made through Valve Software's Steam distribution system. Computer games are still big business in South Korea. Developers there boast MMORPGs such as Lineage and Ragnarok Online with millions of subscribers and a third of the world's MMOG revenue. StarCraft gosi (expert players) are celebrities in a game that some have dared to call the country's national sport. The success of computer and online gaming there is usually credited to South Korea's push for broadband Internet connections in the home and earlier bans on Japanese products (these restrictions were removed by the late 1990s). Several websites and publications devoted solely to games have been created, including Nintendo Power, Gamepro, Official Playstation Magazine, Gamespot, and IGN.
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