Two can play at that game.

What is a game? 

A video game? A game of football? A drinking game perhaps? 

The word game has so many possibilities of what is a game. There are so many games in life. Sports, playground games, adult games, outside, inside, board games, gambling, broadcast media games, online games, video games, paper games, new media games such as; Guitar hero, and Rock Band. These are our newest craze. Well, that and the iPhone game '4pics1word'. 

As kids we would pretend, use our imagination and be different people everyday. We would play inside with boxes, dress ups, even the furniture, we would play outside with the trees, our bikes, even just running around was considered as fun. After we grew out of 'tig', we found more challenging games such as; Monopoly and Twister. Eventually it led to virtual characters, still pretending and still socializing just through our technology. Or at least, this is how it was when I was a kid. 

Today seems to have changed, and definitely challenged the structure of child and adult hood. We hear kids talking about the newest 'Halo' games, and how they defeated their opponent. 

What ever happened to playing dolls? 

Video gaming goes way back...

1952 - A.S. Douglas OXO

1958 - Tennis for two

1961 - Space war

1971 - Computer space

1972 - The Magnavox odyssey - the first battery powered console, without sound.

1972 - PONG

1978 - Space Invaders

1981 - Donkey Kong

1982 - Pacman

Mario, Sonic, Crash, Tetris, Mortal Combat, all late 80s and early 90s. 

As well as the development of games, the consoles have rapidly changed. Xbox, PS3 soon to be PS4, Nintendo & Wii. 

We use games for entertainment, a leisure activity. A pass time when waiting for the bus, we play 'Angry birds' or similar on our phones. However, gaming is also work. The companies that create the games have workers, those chose to work to design, produce and play games. Not only that but gaming is a form of community. Take 'World of Warcraft' as an example, this game is a virtual online game in which people can chat to others, they become a clan and help each other out when needed. 

The new technology has not only updated the older generation but the younger, many of the  younger generation have never lived without it. Media have seen issues with the gaming of younger people. They have believed that certain video games have led to child behaviour problems. Not only aggressive behaviour but some have influenced them to take action as they would in a game. The Jamie Bulger story is a solid case of this violent child behaviour caused through video gaming. Another example would be Psychologist Bandura et al, study called 'Bobo doll'. They studied into the behaviour of children, using a bobo doll and a hammer. The children were shown a clip of an adult hitting with a hammer, therefore the initial reaction was to copy this behaviour, attempting to show that kids will copy adults, no matter what the activity, wrong or right. Although games have restrictions, therefore they should not be accessed the these games however, restrictions haven't seemed to have worked in some cases. Media may blame the games, others could blame the primary socialization, however; childhood is in need of being brought back, where a child is a child. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/29274.stm