From Circuit Boards to Score Boards

Factors and functions of technology are always growing and improving. Our understanding of how these boards and switches interact and maintain themselves has also continued to grow. The most meaningful impact of these developments is how they interact with the life around them. For sake of discussion, we will be focusing on videogames, and how their development has engrossed itself in human culture. Games have always been an aspect of entertainment for people, but with technology and the introduction of videogames, the ability of expression has stretched as far as imagination can take you. The faucets of these technologies provides the consumer with new concepts of immersion, and more recently global expression. Through the evolving relationship between technology and gaming, we can learn about many aspects of consumerism, human interests, and the continuing shift in cultural dynamics in the modern digital era.

The era of single joysticks and 8-bit gaming may seemingly be over, but this is actually subject to debate. The legacy of these forms has been cultivated and exists in every stretch of gaming to date, and their functions have never truly died. Each generation of gaming media, and content has built on the last, and has not only created a cultural movement focused on the latest title. Gaming has also influenced pop culture in many ways that fans of any form of media may not know. For instance, arcade games like House of the Dead, and Resident Evil have constantly been cited as inspiring and revitalizing the zombie genre. This premise is most critically backed up by George Romero confirming this by stating, “the zombie became popular because of Resident Evil and because of House of the Dead and because of video games more than anything else” (Weedon). This thesis is also supported by the screenwriter of the film 28 Days Later, Alex Garland, stating, “Sometimes 28 Days Later is credited with reviving the zombie genre in some respect, but actually, I think it was Resident Evil that did it because I remember playing Resident Evil, having not really encountered zombies for quite a while, and thinking: oh, my god, I love zombies! I’d forgotten how much I love zombies. These are awesome!” (Zaki). As technology began to integrate itself into the human medium of play, it became a factor that revitalized other forms of media. The constant improvement of understanding as to how players interact with sound, graphics, displays, and controls has provided the world with more integrated entertainment overall. The feelings that directors and writers of famous zombie movies felt playing games, influenced their decisions when creating their art, and that as a whole is fascinating.

The influence games have on more mainstream forms of culture is not limited to just zombies though. On a larger scale, the whole film industry has seen their market penetrated by very, very loosely based adaptations of video game stories. This discussion is furthered by Padriag Cotter, who begins by listing examples of this, “Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter: The Movie, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Doom, DOA: Dead or Alive, Max Payne, Silent Hill: Revelations 3D” (Cotter). Unfortunately, this list does not include many films that audiences consider to be that great. Quite frankly, unfortunately, most of them are terrible. What the audience can take from this list though, is that large broadcasting and media companies are more than willing to adapt videogames into screenplays. While they have not yet discovered how to make them great, the Mortal Kombat film being released in 2021 further proves the willingness to test the waters with crossing both videogames and film. Another aspect of this discussion is how Cotter talks about games as an art form. He states, “Despite the huge success of the gaming industry, which is now the most profitable form of entertainment, videogames are still seen an inferior art form. The late, great Roger Ebert famously kicked a beehive in 2010 when he proclaimed that ‘Videogames can never be art.’, Long story short, this kicked off a robust debate, where many people seemed to agree as disagree. This is despite the fact that Roger himself had never played a videogame in his life. But his sweeping declaration seems to reflect gaming's current status within the arts. So when a critic uses the statement ‘This movie is just like a videogame!’ it's rarely meant as a compliment. It often refers to an action or science fiction movie with a simplistic plot, paper thin characters and an over reliance on CGI. The Transformers series is the poster child for this complaint, but it's been used to describe everything from The Matrix to 300 and beyond” (Cotter). While the conversation around videogames being artwork is always going to be a debate, it is easy to see how comparisons between different mediums and videogames can be understood. While it is not normally a compliment when it comes to film, as of right now, the existence of these comparisons shows how knowledge of gaming culture exists on a much larger scale than it has in the past. The entire premise to The Matrix stands as a digital environment very similar to a game, except in this version an AI has taken over humanity and forced them to live in virtual reality. Its existence as perhaps one of the most iconic franchises of the millennium, also proves the longevity of the influences of videogames on other forms of media. This is further proven by how, “The Matrix 4 wasn't meant to come out till 2022, but in a surprising move (considering all the delays right now), it has now been brought forward to December 21, 2021. The Matrix 4 was officially announced in August 2019 with Lana Wachowski writing and directing the new movie” (Geisinger). Almost a full two decades from the last release in the original Matrix trilogy, Warner Studios are continuing to develop and touch on topics that can be perceived as incredibly influenced by gaming culture, and virtual reality type dystopias. It is also interesting to note that when the original trilogy came out, virtual reality was an extremely raw and unfurnished aspect of gaming technology. What will be cool to see is how the further understanding of people’s interactions with virtual reality influences the next installment of the franchise, and how our improved visual technologies reflect them.

The extent to the success of gaming as a platform can be dissected in many ways. Perhaps one of the most concrete ways an individual can experience the positives that gaming has to offer, is realizing how their orientation in time changes through experiences in the digital plain. Games have always been developed in order to maximize the spatial and temporal perception of players. This concept has been discussed by James Ash, who describes the way in which interfaces, and humans interact. They describe how, “Envelopes emerge from the relationship between the user’s body and what I term an ‘interface environment’. Interface environments are composed of technical objects, and as such, envelopes are generated through relations between non-human objects and human practices” (Ash 9). It is easy to see how this relates to games, where a successful game is able to maximize the potential between the synergy of technology and human choice. They become a place in which we are one coinciding with the technology we chose to interact with. It is also important to note that our understanding of how this realm works, has continually expanded due to the fact that, “the human and the technical have co-evolved alongside one another and so cannot be thought apart. Work in software studies and new media is beginning to recognize the co-evolution of the human and technical and the importance of thinking through complex forms of technical systems on their own terms” (9). The consumer’s wants and needs may change over time, but this constant state of co-evolution provides clarity as to how games and man can coexist through generational barriers.

It is also important to note how our senses of immersion are created, and our senses of time can be manipulated. This concept of time is discussed by Ash, “fictive time refers to the narrative labels attached to specific sets of events. For example, a round in a game like Civilization may only last twenty minutes, but within the narrative of the game, the round may represent twenty years of progress. Time is then the relational outcome of sets of events rather a field or container in which events take place” (58). The ability of a game to stretch our own perception has come with the growth of our understanding. Ash even has a phrase they bring up for this, “Developing this notion further, technicity refers to the capacity for technology to give humans an orientation in time” (59). Anyone who has played a game they love, knows this concept to be true. Being late for dinner, or life events may even become commonplace when being absorbed by this new standard of time set by games. This sense of time and interaction can also be expanded by how it makes people feel. When this feeling of immersion has a sense of realness, participation goes from voluntary to invested. This is seen when Ash states, “What separated Street Fighter II from its competitors was the way in which the input movement of the special moves mimicked the characters’ on-screen animation for the move” (67). When control values allow for players to feel some sort of pleasure, and full interaction, the concept of real time slips away from them. Street Fighter winning the sense of control also benefits consumers by allowing developers to understand more about how users want to play the game.

The expansion of understanding as to how consumer and game interact has developed akin to that of any form of media. In order for the player to become engrossed in a timeless system of decisions and puzzles, the design of the platform is critical. Mark Grimshaw expands upon these systems, their importance, and highlights one of the biggest factors of all, sound design. He states, “Visuals and sound are often used to elicit specific emotions among the consumers of computer games” (Grimshaw 176). Just as film exercises and plays with the consumer’s feelings through sound design, and visuals, games follow a similar system. When it comes to the concept of immersion as well, Grimshaw states, “sound is as least as important, if not more important, than visuals for creating immersion and evoking emotions” (177). When you think about it, this puts the phrase, “set the tone” to its quite literal meaning. The importance of sound is expanded upon when Grimshaw explains, “Game designers can promote the experience of fear and anxiety through priming cues, such as music, acousmatic sound effects, and visuals, which can encourage “thinking” about the scariness or creepiness of the game” (178). These feelings promote and encourage the thoughts of despair, or other stress inducing variables that make players feel as though their decision-making bears more weight and consequence. It makes sense how the continued development of game sound environments has concluded that, “louder sounds in a computer game increased heart rate and impacted physiological arousal and attention” (179). We also understand that, “anything that the player has been taught to fear can be leveraged to promote fear, including such things as death and failure, which are risks (to the player’s avatar) in most computer games” (179). Game designers know how to manipulate and express your taught human fears in consequential decision making in game. This is also expanded by the statement, “if a player gets close to an electrical hazard, the game designer can add a loud sparking noise to scare the player” (179). Our developments in understanding these concepts allows for technology to illicit more reactions for potential consequences in game. Through the use of soundscapes, developers have discovered how to maximize sound technology in order to create the wanted reactions from players. These principles of soundscape expand and continue to push the integrational envelope between technological experience and human thought processes.

Unsurprisingly, advancements in technology have not only been limited to structures inside the game. Outside, internet speeds have expanded, just as availability of access to the internet has. Technology has now improved to the point where we can watch others interact and react to games. Viewers and streamers are now part of a collective of consumers reacting to content together, live. This benefits games for advertising purposes, as well as those who may not be able to afford games firsthand-- so they can experience them with the texture of someone else’s perspective. These principles are expanded by T.L. Taylor, Tom Boellstorff, and Bill Maurer. They state, “Alongside the game and camera window, there is a chat space filled with audience members engaging with the broadcaster and each other. Rather than the kind of cheering you’d see in the chat pane during esports events, talk in these channels ranged from conversation with the streamer and others about the game or just everyday life” (Taylor et al. 6). This platform of communication provides more lifestyle interactions and gives people a sense of community through interactions with games together. This stretches our sense of connectedness and interactions through technology. Through the lens of advertisement, Taylor, Boellstorff, and Maurer also say, “Game companies, suddenly attuned to the potential of broadcast to get their products in front of gamers and build interest in their brands, are experimenting with live streaming as a form of marketing and promotion” (9). This is important, because it means that streaming interactions are no longer purely between the consumer and content creator. The developers and advertisers have also invested into this format. Gaming streaming content has stretched the threshold of desirable marketing tactics, and allowed for audiences, streamers, developers, and game technology to continue to stretch their boundaries. The new streaming era comes with our faster worldwide internet speeds and are not purely gaming centric. These interactions are also desirable to mainstream sports leagues, where commissioners have been cited wanting to adapt these forms of chat interaction among their sports leagues. This is most clear by Adam Silver, the head of the NBA saying, “he’d like to see its games look more like Twitch” (258). It is very interesting to see how gaming culture has penetrated and influenced potential changes in other formats of entertainment. Streaming and this interactive based focus does not come without its own set of issues though. Taylor, Boellstorff, and Maurer bring up how, “As we have seen in the case of game live streaming, profound issues remain regarding who is able to meaningfully create and thrive on the platform, much less participate in a broader esports media environment” (259). When we look to how these forms of communication look in the future, the concept of this participation gap is something to keep an eye on.

With any platform that offers competition, gaming is no different. Competitive gaming has become a big part of our overall culture. The enhanced availability, global connections, and intricacies of our new technologies have supported a thriving new cultural community. Esports has become a part of most popular games. Outlining how countries have adapted a professional model, T.L. Taylor expands upon this situation by discussing how South Korea has influenced other countries looking to do so. She states, “The fascination with South Korean e-sports that one finds in the North American and European pro gaming world is not unwarranted. The South Korean model is one in which the interweaving structures of government support, technology infrastructure, broad industry sponsorship, strong organizational institutions (like KeSPA), legal and market accommodations (such as IP pricing in net cafés), and a mainstreamed game culture have created a powerful milieu where professional computer gaming has thrived for a number of years” (Taylor 26). With other continents adapting the Korean model for gaming, this truly is no longer a small tightly knit community, but a more global cultural identity. The expansion of this medium can also be attributed to how, “the deep linkage between the corporeal body and technology is always already present in e-sports” (39). As one of the fresher and new formats of entertainment, gaming is less afraid to take risks, and is able to utilize the relationship between people and technologies in order to potentially maximize its results. Our bodies and minds are encapsulated and processing this information, and it is important to realize how technology and people are a constant among this medium of entertainment.

The expansion of esports brings more professionally organized leagues, franchises, and overall numbers. A prime example of this is The International, a professional Dota 2 tournament that has broken competitive gaming prize pool records for its 10th year in a row. Going from 1.6 million dollars in its first iteration almost a decade ago, to over 40 million last year, the growth in fiscal figures cannot be understated. ESPN’s Arda Ocal also expands upon how this is possible by highlighting how, “Valve has been putting up its $1.6 million since 2011, but since 2013, fans have been able to contribute to the pot through purchases of the Dota 2 battle pass, where 25% of the cost is sent directly to the TI prize pool” (Ocal). Again, the concept of a heavier interactive based platform has stretched the success of gaming on a purely numbers-based narrative. This success is not only monetary though, and Dota 2’s biggest rival shares the same success when it comes to viewership. It is noted that, “the much-loved tournament broke pre-existing records upon amassing 139 million hours of watch time from start to finish in 2020. At peak, around 3.9 million viewers tuned in to watch the League of Legends World Championship last year” (Austin). That is a whole lot of hours, and a lot of peak viewers. For sake of comparison, according to Statista, “The 2020 NBA Finals were watched by an average of 7.5 million viewers in the United States. The championship series was contested between Miami Heat, champions of the Eastern Conference, and the Los Angeles Lakers, winners of the Western Conference. The Lakers emerged victorious in the best-of-seven playoff, marking the franchise’s record-equaling 17th championship. The 2015 NBA Finals between The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers achieved the highest TV ratings in recent years. The Finals in that year had an average TV rating on 11.6, in comparison to the rating of 4.0 achieved by the 2020 Finals” (Gough). For a new format of entertainment, having more than half peak viewers of the NBA Finals in its home country with a population of 328 million is definitely food for thought. While these numbers are incredibly different, one being domestic, and the other global, if anything the accessibility to watch competitive esports should be something that professional sports leagues look to adapt. The sheer vastness of a global audience that is available on platforms like Twitch allows for professional gaming leagues to put up substantial concurrent numbers.

It is also interesting for sake of comparison to take a look at how newer esports franchises compare to long lasting and iconic sports franchises. The esports environment is set to, “top $1 billion in revenue, and it's continuing to grow at a rapid pace. By 2022, total global esports revenue is estimated to be at around $1.8 billion. The audience is expected to grow 15% during that team, reaching 454 million people. As the industry continues to become bigger and more lucrative, it catches the eyes of major corporations looking to get in on the competitive gaming craze” (Richman). A name that stands pretty prominently across different competitive gaming landscapes is Team Liquid. It is interesting to see how this article discusses their investors net worth being around 182.3 billion dollars, which combines the net worth of their sponsors, Disney, Honda, and 90s Knicks Kryptonite-- Michael Jordan. While Team Liquid’s total net worth and valuations are not presently public knowledge, it is easy to know that Team Liquid is no New York Knicks which Yahoo Finance evaluates to be worth somewhere around the “$4,600,000,000” (Lisa) range. The biggest aspect to take from this though, is that it is cool to see the interest in investment. While the numbers do not at all equate to popular franchise sports, the numbers that they have developed over a shorter development and growth period are still incredible. A huge distinguishing advantage that professional gaming brands also carry is that they can participate in any esports environment that they want. Team Liquid is free to have Dota 2, League of Legends, Counter Strike, and Fortnite teams running at the same time. Where these cross-platform teams choose to go in the future is completely open, and the concept of having a team that carries your brand on multiple games only brings more growth through advertisement.

Professional sports should also seek to close the participation gap of viewership, and it looks like they are actually doing so. Twitch has been prompt in its pursuit of a professional sports environment, and the interest has been mutual. Twitch has relaunched a sports channel to, “highlight broadcasts and programming. The relaunch includes a showcase today, hosted by Major League Soccer star Jimmy Conrad, that will cover the NBA, UFC, Arsenal, and House of Highlights using two-hour slots to demonstrate the type of sports content Twitch has to offer” (Warren). This traditionally gaming centric platform has become a less traditional broadcasting hub for some sports looking to integrate their product into the same platform as a younger target market. Twitch has aired NBA G-League games, Premier League soccer games, and has become the official streaming partner for USA Basketball. These steps have again proven that gaming culture has influenced the mainstream and become a huge potential platform for advertising.

Of course, not every aspect of gaming and its interactions/growth with human culture is positive. It seems that with every sense of competitive entertainment media, there is always going to be a premise of gambling introduced into the narrative. While there are professionally centered book sites to place bets on professional games of interest, with some poorly regulated ones having assumed ties to the mob, we will instead be focusing our attention on the much more widely abused practice of loot box mechanics in games. This principle was introduced by Valve, and is explained in a report on gambling done by James Close & Joanne Lloyd, they state, “The game developer Valve promoted CS:GO as a centerpiece for the burgeoning eSports movement, which was transitioning into a professional sport, replete with tournaments in large, spectator filled arenas, often with substantial money prizes at stake. Fairly quickly, the rarer, more attractive skins became integrated into the culture of the game: desirable skins came to be referred to as ‘legendary’, synonymous with the kudos of talented, experienced players. Many players started trading skins (often obtained in loot boxes) for large sums of money, sometimes thousands of dollars. Conversely, the ‘consumer grade’ (i.e. default) skins were derided as the mark of a ‘noob’ (new player). These routinely trade for less than nominal value – i.e. far less than the cost of unboxing” (Close and Lloyd 10). Essentially Valve was able to utilize the success of one of its games with an established scene to push its own self-created economy, an economy where it takes 15% of every transaction, that also has minimal clarity for kids looking to obtain those legendary and rarer skins. The lack of regulation led to, “Some third-party websites, however, began pushing even further over legal and ethical boundaries: allowing contents of the ‘Steam Wallet’ to be used as collateral in illegal ‘skin gambling’. This enabled skins to be wagered on the outcome of eSports or other games of chance. The gambling is entirely unregulated, often involving children. Given the opaque nature of these black-market transactions, the extent of skin gambling is difficult to estimate. The sums, however, are not insubstantial: around £1.6 billion ($2.3 billion) of skins were thought to have been wagered in 201539, accelerating to £3.6 billion ($5 billion) the following year” (12). While Valve has maintained a degree of distance from these websites, the more hands-off approach that they have should certainly be concerning. What should also be brought to the attention of anyone concerned about impressionable kids being introduced to gambling mechanics, are the specific numbers. A BBC article breaking down Close and Lloyd’s research breaks down how, “Of the 93% of children who play video games, up to 40% opened loot boxes, about 5% of gamers generate half the entire revenue from the boxes, twelve out of 13 studies on the topic have established "unambiguous" connections to problem gambling behavior, young men are the most likely to use loot boxes - with young age and lower education correlating with increased uses” (BBC). It seems like game companies have developed a successful grey area where the gambling practices have yet to be fully regulated. Not only are these factors concerning, but it is also mentioned that, “The big spenders - the crucial 5% for the industry - can spend more than £70 or $100 a month on the boxes, the report said. But those are not necessarily wealthy people who earn lots of money.” This continues to outline how sad some of the progression of interactions people have with games can be. One of the biggest issues with the regulations of these practices is how poorly some legislators understand the mechanics and moving parts involved in this whole process. The whole situation is comparable to US Congress interrogating Facebook while not understanding the internet, and how it works. Again, as time continues to pass, more knowledge will develop into how we can truly help those who need it when it comes to this gambling problem, and fight back against certain predatory practices by companies like Valve, Blizzard, and EA.

Overall, gaming has been a large factor of the modern age. Its influences on the subtexts and factors of our culture cannot be stressed enough. Through the studies of our understanding of entertainment and media technologies through gaming, we can learn that our human principles are continuing to be stretched and expressed on new canvases. It is important to note that people enjoy entertainment, but are also subject to the same tactics of marketing manipulation as anyone else. It is easy to assume that things will end up in a way that is quantifiable when it comes to technology and games, but from what you have seen with VR, and other platforms -- the stretch of technology has truly become something that is limited only by one’s imagination. Consumers express their emotions, communicate/socialize with others online, and will seemingly continue to do so for the foreseeable future. People should also try to be more aware of their surroundings when it comes to these new technologies, and the factors of entertainment that could be seen as predatory or less developed and regulated. With technology comes a new risk of data breaches, and it is important not only to regulate the information you put online, but also the companies that you trust with your true data. With every development we make, there is always a factor of risk into how and when these aspects of culture will truly have staying power. It is clear that we can’t really learn much about how these technologies impact consumers, until both tech and consumer interact with one another on a large scale. We do know that gaming is going to continue to be a large part of human culture though, and with the increasing availability of development capabilities globally-- we will continue to see new and fresh perspectives.

Works Cited

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Austin, Kyle. “ESports Gaming: Can Sports Titles and Events Rival the Classics?” The Sports Daily, 31 Mar. 2021, thesportsdaily.com/2021/03/30/esports-gaming-can-sports-titles-and-events-rival-the-classics/. https://thesportsdaily.com/2021/03/30/esports-gaming-can-sports-titles-and-events-rival-the-classics/

Close, James, and Joanne Lloyd. “Lifting the Lid on Loot-Boxes: Chance-Based Purchases in Video Games and the Convergence of Gaming and Gambling.” Https://Www.begambleaware.org, University of Plymouth, University of Wolverhampton, www.begambleaware.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Gaming_and_Gambling_Report_Final.pdf.

Cotter, Padraig. "The Hitman: Agent 47 Trailer & the Videogame Movie Problem." Den of Geek!, Mar 17, 2015. ProQuest, http://proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/magazines/hitman-agent-47-trailer-videogame-movie-problem/docview/1664336600/se-2?accountid=12768.

Geisinger, Gabriella. “The Matrix 4: Cast, Release Date, Plot and Everything You Need to Know.” Digital Spy, 21 Apr. 2021, www.digitalspy.com/movies/a29498105/the-matrix-4-cast-release-date-plot-trailer-keanu-reeves-news/.

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Grimshaw, Mark. Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments. Information Science Reference, 2011.

Hasan, Zaki. “An Interview With 'Ex Machina' Director Alex Garland.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/interview-director-alex-g_b_7038618.

Lisa, Andrew. “The 20 Most Valuable Sports Franchises in the World.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, finance.yahoo.com/news/20-most-valuable-sports-franchises-172927363.html. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/20-most-valuable-sports-franchises-172927363.html

Ocal, Arda. “Dota 2's The International Surpasses $40 Million in Prize Money.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 9 Oct. 2020, www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/30079945/dota-2-international-surpasses-40-million-prize-money. https://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/30079945/dota-2-international-surpasses-40-million-prize-money

Richman, Olivia. “The Biggest Esports Investors and Sponsors, Ranked by Net Worth.” WIN.gg, WIN.gg, 15 Nov. 2019, win.gg/news/2351/the-biggest-esports-investors-and-sponsors-ranked-by-net-worth.

Taylor, T. L. Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Princeton University Press, 2018.

Taylor, T. L. Raising the Stakes e-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. MIT Press, 2012.

Warren, Tom. “Twitch Launches a New Sports Category as Amazon Pushes for Sports Dominance.” The Verge, The Verge, 22 July 2020, www.theverge.com/2020/7/22/21333867/twitch-sports-category-launch-streaming-content.

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