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Show B1 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 VOICES Celebrating the People and Lifestyle of the San Rafael Swell Area Cleveland Rocks! Cleveland hosted their annual town celebration, “Cleveland Days”, July 15-19. The events included a family barbecue, trap shoot, sidewalk ride and pot luck lamb fry early in the celebration, with the children’s parade, parade, games, races, ball drop and fireworks on July 19. The ball drop proved to be one of the highlights of the celebration, as Leon Defriez and Bill Huntington made a number of passes over the town park in a small plane dropping balls to the children waiting excitedly below. CASEY’S POCKETS Video Games: From a Hobby to a Lifestyle in 50 Years Casey Wood Think to yourself what your children, or if you are a youth, what you have spent more time doing than anything else. Odds are pretty good that about 80 percent of you came up with the same to answers: using the computer, or using the television. Odds are also pretty good that more specifically those conveniences are being used for none other than video games, which have come to play a pretty big role in how mankind functions in the modern world, and how we will function in the future. Some find this worrisome, while others embrace the role video games are playing in many people’s lives. The first video game was invented in 1947 and was basically a very simple missile simulation. As time passed more video games were invented and in the early 1970’s arcade games, and home gaming consoles finally began to appear rapidly throughout the world, but more specifically Asia and the U.S., and the industry has continued to grow into the blood-thirsty giant it is today. When some think of video games the big three come to mind, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, who are the three major gaming console providers and are a household name throughout much of the world. But in reality video games are not limited to the big three gaming consoles. Video games are everywhere. It is difficult to find somewhere that video games have not somehow impacted people and nearly impossible to find someone who has not taken part in the entertainment video games provide. Video games are on the computer, both on the internet or installed on the computer itself, on television, on gaming consoles, in stores, on handhelds, and even on mobile phones. Video games have grown from a hobby to casual gamers in stores and arcades in the 70s and 80s to a career harboring millions of individuals, whether they are imagining them, designing them, or producing them, and the spectrum grows each day as more people find themselves becoming involved in the frenzy. The industry has integrated itself into the world so fully that average people who become very good at some games may even find themselves professionally playing video games on a gaming team, and eventually be involved in competition as heated as any sporting event. For some, video games have been played at such an extreme level that in some cases marathon gaming sessions have resulted in the death of a gamer. Finally, video games are not something only played anymore, but have become very significant in news and television. There are gaming magazines, such as Game Informer, Edge, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Famitsu, Nintendo Power, Official Playstation Magazine, Official Xbox magazine, Play, and PC Gamer, television channels such as G4 and TechTV, and last but not least, E3, one of the most widely viewed festivals in the United States, is none other than a festival showing off the future of gaming. With all that gaming has become and all the attention it gets from so many people it is evident that gaming is not going anywhere, but that it is going to grow and thrive, and further integrate itself into humanity. Not bad for something that started with a simple missile simulator inspired by radar. |
