The Video Gaming Culture in Japan

Video games have become as pervasive an aspect of our society as television, with many people spending more time playing video games than watching television. There are many perspectives with which to gauge videos games’ effect on society, from a functionalist, conflict or interactionist perspective. (Schaefer, 2011) Each of these sociological theories can provide a different view of video games, how they affect society and the subcultures that develop around them.

In the 1970’s, the video game Pong was introduced to the public, and quickly became a success. Pong opened the door for arcade type video games, and advancement was swift in the 1980’s when computers were added to the mix. The Commodore 64 was one of the first

When video games were first being introduced to the general public, they weren’t all that exciting. Most gaming took place in arcades and most arcades didn’t have many game cabinets due to their being very few games to begin with. However, all of this changed when the Atari 2600 was released. At the time, Atari was known for their home computers and their hit arcade game “Pong”. Though the Atari 2600 might not have been the first video game system, it was definitely the most successful at that time and a great success for Atari’s first attempt at a home video game console. Thanks to the success of the 2600, video games began to take off and arcades started popping up all over the world with hits like “Pac-Man” and “Donkey Kong”. These would be the

When speaking to the audience about gaming, we need to explain that gaming can benefit a gamer lower its stress levels, improve their historical knowledge, and offer a wide range of entertainment. Thus,

They started to develop video games in the 1970s and they got his success in the business of video games. Currently, Nintendo is one of the richest and valuable companies in Japan.

Japanese technology and culture is everywhere today; in my room alone I own a Nintendo 3ds, a Nintendo GameCube, PS3, a Toshiba laptop and nine box sets of Japanese anime, with a further three series downloaded on my iPod. That isn’t even including the book and manga series I own (some in the original Japanese, some translated into English.) Popular TV shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender now mimic Japanese style of cartoons, while we have outright adopted other shows as our own, such as Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragon Ball Z. In short, Japanese culture is everywhere, especially if you know where to look for it.

Several years had passed and a Japanese company by the name of Nintendo decided it wanted to enter the market. Nintendo’s Family Computer, or Famicom, was doing well in Japan and Nintendo wanted to try and find success in North America. This proved to be difficult because America was still wary on the idea of game consoles after the crash. To try and avoid the skepticism that came with items labeled as a game console, Nintendo rebranded the Famicom as the Nintendo Entertainment System and marketed it as a toy. Believe it or not, this actually worked and Nintendo became a household name. In order to keep their success going Nintendo took steps to avoid another market crash. Nintendo would put developers under a contract that kept them on their console and would keep them from developing games for developers. Developers also had a limited amount of games they could release in a year as

When the NES came out Nintendo started a licensing company for third party games to produce their games in Nintendo factories. After the NES was created Nintendo redesigned the Famicom (the game cartridge) to look like a VHS tape to help grip the system grip it better. Also, the rarest game in NES history is the boxed version of Stadium Events, “but only a handful of boxed, complete copies have ever been seen in the wild, and they can fetch anywhere from $35,000-45,000 at auction” (www.usgamer.net). The best selling game in NES history was Super Mario Bros as it sold a total of 40 million copies (www.usgamer.net). Before the NES came along, Donkey Kong was the king of gaming. The reason for this is because arcades were the only way to play at the time. Luckily, NES games were playable in the arcades. Games like Ninja Gaiden and Super Mario Bros were stretched into the arcades by a system called Play-Choice10. In conclusion, the NES was part of a revolution in

They are also know for most of their mix match style when it comes to their clothing. When it comes to food, Japan has somewhat odd food(coming from the perspective of an American) but somewhat of the food they eat is seafood such as the notable Shark fin soup to the bizarre squid and calamari, but a typical japanese meal consists of rice, a bowl of soup, and vegetables. When it comes to entertainment, Japan has one of the largest entertainment industry in the world. It’s very popular around the world despite the language barrier around the globe. Japan’s form of entertainment consists of karaoke, Manga and Anime(which is highly popular around the world), Japanese movies(some have been influences toward American

After see how successful video games were becoming they began to dabble in them originally with systems like the color TV game 6. In the 70's Nintendo began to head to America to cash in on the growing arcade market but his Japanese games weren't a him in the states so he turned to Shigeru Miyamoto who released his most recent project Donkey Kong (Walker, J)which was the smash hit Nintendo need and they set up an American branch of the company. Hiroshi's methods were controversial at best in fact he set up three different research and development units meant to compete with one another which gave the world different but successful ideas One of his best ideas was known as Famicom but in America it was referred to as the Nintendo entertainment system one of the first systems that ran multiple game through a cartridge for the system Hiroshi was the only one to decide what games were to be released which is believed to one of the best decisions due to his great insight on what people in the future would want. After the super Nintendo an update on the Nintendo entertainment system the company released the virtual boy one of the biggest flops the company has taken It was a 32 bit 3d table top console.

Although, seeing as video games are increasingly popular today, not everyone met as unfortunate of a fate. Today, many could credit this to the video game development corporation known as Atari, which arose in 1972 and continuously flourished until about 1982. In 1972, Atari came out with PONG, the first electronic arcade game, and it was an enormous accomplishment that exploded into what is now called the electronic gaming revolution. As time passed, Atari managed to triumph over its competition time and time again, but that is not to say that each of the failed corporations did not feature something that is used today. In fact, a couple of the failed organizations contributed something original to what is common today. For instance, Fairchild Camera and Instrument creating the first system that could play several different games, rather than just one. Another aforementioned group, RCA, was the first to produce and utilize keypad controllers instead of paddles or joysticks. Other consoles that came along, such as Intellivision and Vectrex, sported better graphics than the Atari’s consoles and games, but they still did not manage to gross the amount of money that Atari did because Atari was still on top of collecting all of the most entertaining and enjoyable games of their time. Keep in mind what attracted the masses to video games in the past: fun and addictive gameplay, not how good they looked. Now that the principal eras of gaming have been

Though gaming has its drawbacks, it also has many benefits to cover them. If controlled, gaming is extremely useful and with the amount of gamers in the world today, it proves that it is not just for children or for teenagers. There are millions of adult gamers that understand the importance of gaming in the under the existing circumstances of the world. Individuals that have studied gamers believe that gaming in today’s

The video game industry is a multibillion dollar a year industry, so it isn't hard to understand why they go through great strides to protect their image. They provide entertainment to all ages, genders, nationalities, and ethnicities. Contrary to the opinions of the industries opponents, video games are not destroying our youth, they challenge, educate, and provide an escape from an oppressive world.

Herman et all (2002) points out that history of video games begins from 1971 year, when Nutting association released 1500 machines with Spacewar video game. At the beginning it was too difficult to control the game process and playing machines had huge dimensions. But by the time with new technologies they become more compact and easier to play. According to the information given by Herman et all (2002), the period between the years of 1978-1981 is called ‘golden age’ of video game industry. In this period the arcade games ‘Football’ and ‘Space Invaders’ were released. All previously known sale records were broken by these two games with nearly equal wages. In this time interval great breakthroughs in the field of graphics were achieved,

Japan is an East Asian Island country with a specific cultural identity. Samurai values, kimono clothing, Noh Theater, woodblock art, and sumo wrestling are among the many instantly identifiable aspects of Japan’s culture. Many of Japan’s cultures have developed through centuries of feudal rule and has benefited from the country’s geographic isolation.