Video Games and Film

It's dark in the jungle, as Agent Stark moves slowly through trees and then he realizes that he's very low on ammo and so he reloads, crouching behind a rock before doing so. A noise from behind, he spins to see a flash of light and Agent's eyes flash red. Stark has been shot. Before he can even respond the world fades to black. GAME OVER. Don't worry, you saved his spot. This is the mentality of the video game player, a person who can jump from reality to reality with the push of a button. This false, digital world is so addictive and so competitive that constant improvements are being made to represent real life. The success of video games sales over the past thirty years has made digital animation and design on the top paying fields, grossing over 23 billion dollars a year in global revenue (Poole, Pg. 217). The drive to continue playing these games must be linked to their use of extreme forms of violence or their ability to recreate experiences of high stress and intensity within a normal living room, within the safety of one's own home. For Ellen Goodman, the video game "hooks only those people who confuse victory with slow defeat" (Loftus, Pg. 11) but for others, it is a form of entertainment and social interaction. It is time to look at how video games have altered methods and modes of entertainment, reality, and society on a larger scale. Video gaming has changed the way generations view violence, social interaction, physical activity, communication, and even other entertainment mediums such as cinema.

The video game is the second fastest growing digital medium the world has ever seen, the first being that of the Internet. With many different systems, methods, networks, and games designed specifically for entertainment,