Gaming Culture

If you are an 80’s or 90’s child, you probably have experienced inviting friends over to your house, or you going to theirs for the sake of video games. Video games have always been a part of our lives ever since childhood. Today, the video gaming phenomenon has grown significantly wide among the society, to people now it is considered a culture, in which the players are referred to as gamers.

Fun fact – The first video game was invented by a Physicist named William Higinbotham in 1958, and it was a simple tennis game which is similar to the 1970s Pong. It was widely popular among the visitors at Brookhaven National Laboratory open house back then. Do you realised how far the gaming world has changed over the years? Remember playing Snakes on Nokia phones? Or Crash Bandicoot on the small, grey, rectangular PlayStation? Or perhaps Nintendo Virtual Boy? It would be rare to get our hands on these devices nowadays. We now have the fourth edition of PlayStation, Wii and Xbox that works via Kinect, and varieties of downloadable games for phones. It is no news that gaming culture evolves correspondingly with the advancement of technology. Even better, most gaming devices today are built internet friendly which makes things even easier, as just within the tip of our fingertips, we could enjoy a game with a friend, despite how many miles apart. Not just that, it gets even better with phone gaming, as we could play it comfortably in bed, while waiting for appointment or Uber, and believe it or not, some even in the toilet.

Is gaming now considered as pop culture? – Yes, without a doubt! In 2016, 1.8 Billion people are playing games, worldwide. In US alone, 162 million people own at least a video game console in their household while in Malaysia, about 14 million people identified themselves as gamers. These huge figures have been increasing since and therefore, gaming now is considered as one of the largest entertainment medium in the world. Almost everyone nowadays has at least one or two games stored in their phones regardless kids or adults. Shahrul Azreen, 24, a big fan of NBA 2K18, said, “This game has become my daily routine. I play it every night before going to bed. On weekends, I can play it for one whole day without leaving my room.”

Gaming has become such a massive trend in our culture to the point tournaments are held for gaming purposes and sure enough, these tournaments always are a big hit. From small gaming tournaments in schools and colleges, to exclusive worldwide tournaments are held nowadays in the virtue of gaming. For instance, the League of Legends tournament, Fifa tournament and one of the most successful one is non- other than the annual Dota 2 tournament, involving millions of cash, up for win. The coming, “The International Dota 2 2018 tournament” is said to be near, and will take place in Canada this time.

This year however, another game with a similar concept to Dota, Mobile Legend has emerged as one of the most played game on mobile phones, with over 100 million people download worldwide. From 2017 up to 2018, the number of players on Mobile Legends has grown up to 72 percent proving its’ huge success. An active Mobile Legend user, Shaza Aina, 20, said “ It is so addictive. Any free time I get is now spent on this game, only. It could be hours”

Recently, gaming culture too has been taking a huge part in the social media platform. An obvious example, many gamers today such as Pewdiepie, KSI, Venossgaming have been sharing their experience playing games by recording themselves playing and uploading it on Youtube, one of the biggest social platform. Their gaming Youtube channel has been active for years now and it has been tremendously successful so far. In fact, millions of people are now tuning in to them, to the point that Youtube has become their source of income. Who would have thought you could make money by playing games? Isn’t’ it like a dream come through? However when asked the man himself on making money by playing games, Kjellberg, or his famous name, PewDiePie revealed that it is not easy as it sounds. He said, “It seems silly. It’s ridiculous. But the more you know about it, and the more you get to know me, the more you understand that it's actually a hard thing to do, and not a lot of people would be able to do it." PewDiePie, his gaming you tube channel has now achieved over 62 million subscribers, making him one of the highest paid, and among the most successful Youtuber today. Quitting his job and pursuing gaming is definitely the most risky yet also the best decision he has ever made.

What to expect in 2018? - The third sequel of God of War is recently available, and Red Dead Redemption is coming out in few months time. While you are at it, you might want to check out the Oculus Rift, a window to a whole new experience, which is said to be “legendary”. Although the most anticipated game of the year, The Last of Us 2 probably will only be released next year, from the trailers released, the game definitely looks promising. Hence, since there is yet another year of waiting, perhaps you should save up from now!