The worldwide pandemic that started in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on December 2019 and is still going on till today’s date of April 6th has affected the daily lives of almost everybody in the world. It has completely stopped the normality of most individuals and left many unemployed due to strict stay at home orders being given out to much of the world. Individuals are trying to find ways to occupy their time so that they are not constantly thinking about how the Coronavirus is impacting their lives which is a good coping mechanism. Personally, I’ve been playing video games and keeping up to date with blogs that are reporting different users joining their platforms. In the IOS store which is used for apple products, the game Plauge Inc., which portrays you as a virus spreader and your goal is to infect and kill everyone globally, saw an increase amount of sales directly after the announcement of the pandemic due to many analysts thinking that individuals were using this as a means of simulating possible outcomes to the pandemic.

Lots of multiplayer games saw a sharp increase in user activity due to many people going on the different games because of all their free time. This was complemented with the increasing amount of issues being brought up because there were so many individuals on the applications at once. All these game developers could not even fix the issues because most were either furloughed or working from home where they may not have had the resources. I know with the games I’ve been playing, there have been so many users at once where the game starts to cut out at certain points of the match. Which is not exactly normal. Companies are also having a hard time releasing games that were set to go out this month. Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal had the same release date and they coordinated with each other to release the load in different waves so that the platforms and the servers would deal with from the sudden downloads of their games. They also told companies like GameStop to be wary of the individuals who were not complying to the rules set in place such as social distancing. Companies have an obligation to help their customers but they are looking for ways to make it safe for their employees. It creates a weird dynamic between gaming and this pandemic but so far it is working.

I would say out of the hundreds of games I have played, the call of duty franchise has the most insane story lines. This is solely because without putting in the time and effort into the game you would not realize that you are actually participating in a plot with each character having a specific role in the story. Without having prior knowledge of the background of each game, you would not be able to access the Easter Eggs (they are a series of challenges to unlock alternative endings to games) within the games and therefore unlock the story line.

For example, Call of Duty Zombies section of the franchise commenced in their beginning zombies game with Call of Duty: World at War with a few zombie maps but nothing that really started off the plot. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the main plot started with the map, Moon. The player was chosen to play as one of the 1.0 crew that consisted of Corporal “Tank” Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, and the German scientist Edward Richtofen. You would play to complete a series of challenges on the base that was established on Earth’s Moon for the Easter Egg that would reveal a cut scene where Richtofen’s daughter Samantha is stuck in a device that would allow her send and control all the zombies on Earth. Later in the challenges, 3 rockets would be sent to Earth and the whole planet would be completely annihilated.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, you would play as a new set of wastelanders on the map TranZit, where the map takes you to the destroyed Earth and you are trying to survive by traveling on a bus to different part sof the map. You would complete the Easter Egg Challenges but mostly this game was used to prove that Earth was completely destroyed and it wouldn’t be able to be repaired without a lot of work. On the 2nd map on the Black Ops 2 game called Origins, the Easter Egg challenges would end in the previous universe being completely eliminated and a new one being opened in its place and those in the 1.0 crew being reincarnated as warriors in a group called Ultimis. In the Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 map called Revelation, it shows the players trying to set the Universe right from all the evils and completely get rid of the zombies. As well as Samantha being released as the controller of the zombies (that is shown by the different colors in the eyes of the zombies).

The story is more complex but this is the best description that I think someone who does not necessarily play the franchise can understand.

There are an increasing amount of companies that choose to make their games free so that it can reach a larger audience. Games like Roblox and Fortnite are some of the most popular games (reaching millions of people a day) and they are free. Most games that are free still make a good amount of money from their participants. They sell them cosmetics or things to enhance the gaming experience which is good for those who are willing to make money for those types of things. Personally, I have not spent money to purchase those cosmetics or advancements but my little brother (who is addicted to Roblox) has spent almost $1,000 on the game. I have purchased it for him and my parents have purchased it for him but it brings up a good way that companies can reach a large audience but are still able to make a large profit from the games. These games are mostly given to PC users but some companies have been expanding to XBOX and PS4 users so that they can also purchase the products and the companies can reap the benefits of selling to a greater audience.

If you choose to pay $60 for a newly released game, you can get the whole story line, multiplayer, and whatever else is offered in the base game. While these companies still choose to add things that will enhance the game, the player has the ability to get more benefits from the paid version rather than paying every time for little things. These games also have advanced models so that if you choose to acquire expansion packs and other resources like that you pay around $20 more and you can have it. They also require you to have membership with whatever console platform you choose to use such as XBOX Live or PlayStation Network which are an addition $60 a year. Before buying a game, you must determine how much you are willing to spend. Like if I were to buy a $60 Call of Duty: Black Ops game, I know that it is probably going to be an additional $60 for all the expansion and DLC packs that come with it in the future. While with games like Assassin Creed, I know it is a one and done type of game. That once I finish the main and side quests, there is nothing left to purchase so I must move on to the next game.

One of the first major streaming platforms for Video Gamers was YouTube Gaming. It was a great way for gamers to connect with their audience when playing live for fans became a prevalent thing in the industry. The current four biggest streaming platforms for gamers is YouTube Gaming, Hitbox.tv, Mirrativ, and the most popular Twitch. Personally, I rely on Twitch when I choose to stream my long gaming times. It is the most reliable because it was made solely for the streaming of games and not for just general live recordings (but people still use it for that). Companies like Amazon and Microsoft have been dipping into the industry of streaming because it is looking to be a multi million dollar industry if it continues to grow as projected. The platforms allow for you to portray the game you playing and allow you to include audio from both the game and commentary from you if you choose to do so. Most even allow for video recordings of yourself playing as a way for fans to be able to connect with the gamer a bit easier than before.

While this has advanced a lot in the past few years as streaming becomes more popular and more lucrative. It has brought a unexpected issue to those who choose to stream their game play. Copyright is a large issue for the streamers because they are not entirely sure what is considered copyright when streaming because if they screw up and accidentally include something that they aren’t allowed to then their stream gets demonetized and taken down from the streaming platforms website. As well as the issue of currency exchanging, most streamers add a link to their donation drive which is essentially a way to make money from their playing video games. It was discovered that some streaming platforms take a small percentage of their fan’s donations while that may not be to large when it comes to one or two donations. If you have thousands of children donating to your drive then the companies could essentially be taking hundreds of dollars that were intended to further your content. This has brought up a weird precedent between streaming platforms and gamers who are trying to find a healthy balance where they both don’t get cheated. A great example of this would be how Ninja, one of the most popular streamers, switched from YouTube gaming to Twitch recently.

E-sports has been taking flight recently in its popularity. There have always been elite gaming groups that competed in a range of different genres but as of recently it has become more and more popular to the point where most are actually consider it a sport. Groups like FaZe Clan and Optic Gaming were some of the most sought after coming into fame by competing in Call of Duty multiplayer matches. They were high in popularity during the early 2010s but currently they have split into different genres ranging from Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds which is a battle royale style of gaming and from NASCAR racing. It even has moved into drone racing as a sub-category of e-sports. Gaming has shifted in the past few years from primarily the Call of Duty and “trickshotting” in multiplayer matches to competing in a wide rage of different categories of games even Tetris is considered a game that is popular among e-sports. A free to play game called Fortnite has multiple competitions among the top players in the competitive aspect of the game. The most recent competition called the Fortnite World Cup gave almost $30 million dollars away in prize money from just a simple battle royale game that came out in September in 2017.

Gaming to me has always been considered a hobby. I would have never thought it could move into something where I could make money but in 2012 I was partly recruited to try out for the Red Reserve which was a sniping community that fell under the FaZe clan sub-category. There were issues with my age and my parents that resulted in my not being able to completely try out but that truly opened my eyes to the whole possibilities that e-sports could bring to me. Individuals who I looked up to that competed professionally like FaZe Banks and FaZe Apex make millions off their skills and the thought that I could possibly do that inspired me to work harder on my skills. I would personally consider it a sport because of how much time and dedication it takes to be good at these games. They spend hours practicing and honing their skills into something that is on a world class level. It may not be as physically demanding as some other sports. Even Intel is hosting an Olympics-sanctioned e-sports tournament in Tokyo of 2020. This is something that couldn’t even have been dreamed about in the late 20th century.

The United States is considered the most obese country on the world in terms of both female and male overall BMI averages. When I originally think of an obese individual, I think of a male sitting in his room eating junk food and playing video games. I personally can remember myself sitting on my couch at home playing video games and my father asking me if I wanted to go to the gym with him. While I did have swim practice twice a day almost 5 days a week, I would have rather stayed and played video game for all of those practices. It’s not a matter of me not enjoying working out, because it is one of my favorite activities to do. It’s about there always being something that is better which in that case was my games that I would spend hours playing. The reason obesity is linked with video games in a societal viewpoint is because by sitting down and playing those games, you are not getting any physical exercise which in turn means you are not burning calories. It is also common to associate excessive eating with individuals who sit down which is not exactly the case with many of the individuals who play games long term.

If you look at some of the top gaming individuals such as Richard Tyler Blevins better known as Ninja who competes in the popular battle royal game Fortnite. He is a rather fit individual because while he may play video games for long hours, he still has a life outside of his gaming where he goes and works out and has a wife who he spends time with. A great example of how fitness and video gaming can mix well together is how consoles like the Nintendo Switch Ring Fit and the Wii Fit where they incorporate different video games with work outs that activate certain muscles that can sometimes only be done in a gym setting. I know personally as a child I used to spend hours on my Wii Fit at my house playing the ski jump game in my basement. While, it was extremely fun for me to do it was also helping me a lot with my core strength and hamstring muscles and it helped me improve my kick strength in my swimming and helped me with the 2nd place medal at my meet. Exercise and video games can go hand in hand but it is only based on the individual person.

Video games marketed as violent and rated as for mature audiences are in the thousands. They have been made for tens of years and are not going to stop anytime soon. Although violent video games are a topic of discussion among many major chatroom dedicated solely to video games on websites like Reddit and Discord. Arguments happen every day varying from the disagreement on the color of a certain characters outfit in a Easter egg of some random retro game released in the 1980s or from hackers stealing personal information of players on games like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto V. These online fights happen all the time so no one pays much attention to them but sometimes they tend to bleed out into the real world and problems begin to arise. There is a practice that is highly illegal but used by some gamers to hurt their intended target by acquiring their targets address and calling the police and stating that the person has a gun and is holding people hostage. This is known as Swatting and is a very prevalent issue in the FPS gaming community because people tend to be more willing to do it through violent video games.

A terrible incident that happened in Wichita, Kansas ended with an innocent person killed. Two men that were on the same Call of Duty: WW2 team got into an extremely heated argument on a previous bet of  $1.50 and it ended with one of the men obtaining the wrong address of the man he intended to swat and called the police saying he was Brian and told them that he had shot his father and was going to shoot more people. The swat department acting on that information stormed the address provided to them and fatally shot the father of 2, Andrew Finch. He was taken to the hospital and later died of his injuries. This man’s life could have been spared if the serial swatter, Tyler Raj Barriss, decided not to swat his teammate. There have been hundreds of Swattings across the US and many other countries. It has become a big issue in the age of prank calls and bomb threats. It became a prevalent issue in the 1980s when bomb threats were being called into heavily populated locations like airports and train stations. Pranksters have adopted the method to be used in gaming communities and has become a real issue among much of the gaming community.

Gender has always been a one track type of conversation when it came to video games. Women were always considered to be the damsel in distress when it came to being characters in different video games. Although in the past couple of years, producers of popular games are trying to become more “women friendly” by including them as playable characters or even main characters. This has been met with a lot of backlash by the primarily male based consumer industry for these popular games. Producers have sought to fix this as to not enrage their primarily men consumers by overly sexualizing women in these games. The extreme sexualizing of women in video games puts an intense pressure on female gamers that are just trying to enjoy their time being in a primarily men dominated atmosphere. This is a big issue in both the manufacturers of games and the different companies but also by some of the men that are playing these games and interacting with female gamers. I have seen so many men harasses women for playing FPS (first person shooter) games just because they are threatened by how much better some women are than them.

For example, the popular NES game called Metroid is based on Samus Aran, and their attempt to collect all the metroids stolen by pirates. This is an extremely popular game selling over 7.15 million units on the least popular Nintendo gaming console. They decided to add a secret ending to the game if the player completed the full game in around 5 hours then the game would reveal to the player that Samus Aran (the main character) was actually a women by taking off her helmet and leaving her in her uniform. This could be considered a big win in the eyes of the female demographic of players that enjoyed the game. Personally, I wouldn’t considered it that much of a win because if the player completes the game a few hours faster than the previous secret ending’s time than Samus Aran is revealed to be a female but they decide to take off both her helmet and chest plate to reveal that she is a women but they overly emphasize her features. They decide to put her in just a leotard and accentuate her breasts. This was one of the only ways that the producers could get away with making her a women in their most popular game for the franchise.

Video games can be one of the most influential things in the life of a growing teenager. Not everyone plays the general standard of video game like FIFA or Call of Duty, some just play phone games. While they may not be considering themselves as being a “gamer”, big brands like Ubisoft and EA view them as popular consumers.This allows the large video game companies to market products that they think will be extremely profitable for the company. Even extremely large companies like Disney and Ford make money off of large games. These well known brands pay to have they logos and content put into video games which is both beneficial for the game manufacturers and the companies whose products are being advertised. Large companies like Blizzard and Valve also are more likely to charge a certain amount of real life currency for in-game currency as a means of making a profit on the wider aspect of having hundreds of thousands of people paying 2.50$ for 100 of in game currency which would make them a lot of money. The biggest example in modern day news would be Fortnite, they allow individuals to pay $5-$10 for in game content and they have millions of people purchasing it. That is the way they stay profitable especially when the game is considered free-to-play.

Popular gaming brands are also very aware of the timing of their release. They choose to strategically release games during lull periods in which they are to be most profitable to them. Popular games like Assassins Creed comes out every 2 years. In 2018, Assassins Creed: Odyssey came out and they subsequently spent the span of 2 years releasing additional content as to not completely lose all of their customers. The length of the games also has increased tremendously. The first game of the franchise that I played was the original Assassins Creed and it took me about 2 weeks to complete the whole story line and additional content. While with Assassins Creed: Odyssey, It took me nearly a year to complete every single quest in the main story line. This may be due to the change in my schedule and the coarse load I was taking at the time but even so that is a substantial difference. While many franchises like Assassins Creed chooses to wait every 2 years, Companies like Rockstar choose to wait almost 4-5 years to maximize the profit of each game that gets release. Although, the last game they released was GTA V and it was released almost 7 years ago. It seems like they may be releasing a new game in late 2020. Which I will be excited to see.