Musings of a Gamer: Have Games Changed America?

Editor's note: Mike's posts are always thought provoking, and this one is no exception. I wonder how we will regard video games in the annals of American history 100 years from now. -James

As a gamer who is now a generation in age ahead of the largest gaming demographic, I find myself watching my students a lot and seeing how they talk about games. The arguments really aren't that different from when I was younger -- a lot of kids thinking video games are a waste of time while others insist that they're the greatest thing ever.

As a U.S. history teacher in Connecticut, it is my job to assign a research project and help my students learn the research process. Specifically, the assignment is to find an event between 1920 and 2000 and research how this event changed America. Naturally, this gives my class a lot of flexibility in topics, and I have people doing everything from Dr. King's involvement in the civil rights movement to the Charles Manson murders to the rise of jazz music.

Not surprisingly, I have students who engage in gaming as a hobby, so they naturally wanted to make the point that gaming changed -- and still changes -- America. Since they need to frame it as an event and not just a topic, it makes it a bit more difficult. One student wanted to do the rise of online gaming, but the conclusions are difficult since he needs to prove it changed America, not just a small group of enthusiasts habits. While talking with him, we discussed the possibility of phrasing the event as "Sony releases the first widespread online game, Everquest, in 1999," but this wasn't really what he was after.

Inevitably, he went with Grand Theft Auto 3's release, and his goal is to prove that the title changed America because it's one of the first adult-themed games that got widespread attention, and it helped reenergize the march against video game violence.

Objectively, it's going to be difficult to say that video games changed America. Gaming is a popular hobby, but I really wonder if it has the same significance as film. It's a strange thing to think about gaming in the larger context of history. I believe one could argue that gaming has changed America, but finding concrete evidence of this would be difficult. It has definitely contributed to sedentary behaviors, and game technology has really buoyed the electronics industry. But it may still be too early to argue that games have truly changed America or how Americans think, especially since many of the big names in gaming are still Japanese.

I wonder if gaming is a historically significant pasttime now or if is it just one of many optional hobbies. Also, Brian, even if you read this, you still have to write your paper!

Tags: Grand Theft Auto 4, EverQuest

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Antonio Byrd

March 29, 2010

I major in Secondary Education, so of course I had to read this article! I think video games, along with the Internet and cellphones, has contributed to literacy. I reviewed an article about how technology has created what the authors called "new literacies". It's basically media literacy. We now have to read language differently. It's no longer about the words on a page in a book or magazine, but the images we see on the Internet, in television, texting, instant messenger. So, it's visual literacy--interpreting images on the screen. I think video games are major contributor to this new shift in how we read things: it's not just about what we see, but how interact with the things we see on the screen. Many call this the metanarrative. Because of video games, we think differently, and that has changed America. Good topic, by the way.

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Steve Penninipede

March 31, 2010

I'm looking forward to seeing the final paper (you're going to post it, right?).

Chris Cavanaugh

April 01, 2010

Good topic. Although I can't pinpoint to any single event I would argue that gaming has changed America for the better. I've argued that gaming has always been the driver behind graphic imagery becoming more advanced. In attempting to obtain a 3D Pac-Man, graphics card manufacturers had to keep pushing boundaries for realism. As a result the medical industry has benefited hugely by gettng a much clearer picture of what's going on inside of us via CAT scans, etc... Doctors can also practice complex medical operations via realistic simulators. See also airline pilots, law enforcement, soldier training, etc..