More of My Video Game Journalism

Here is another article and a multimedia piece, too:

"Editing & Writing the News" Final Class Project:

The GameStop on Church Street became a video game Mecca Saturday night as dedicated video game fans waited to get their hands on the newest Nintendo piece – Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As they waited, the anxious gamers competed against one another in a Smash Bros. tournament that quickly became a spectacle of its own.

Over 50 people huddled around a single TV screen and Wii console to battle it out, laughing and cheering for the gamers they wanted to win. Once midnight rolled around, though, the competition froze and the fans lined up outside to pick up their pre-ordered bits of heaven.

The anticipation and fanaticism of the loyal fans at GameStop was a testimony to the remarkable growth of the video game industry in the past year.

2007, in particular, was the best-selling year ever for video games – the industry overall experienced a 43% increase from 2006's sales to generate $18 billion in total revenue.

The statistics, published by retail information group NPD, mark an interesting new place in the world for video games; now, more than ever before, games are branching out to a larger audience and striving to be looked upon with greater respect from consumers.

Stephen Johnson, Lead Editor of video game network G4TV's website, says there’s a good reason for the sales jump: "The year that just passed was sort of a landmark year for video games. Because there were three very, very strong consoles out, and all three of them have a selection of really great games that are on a technologically higher level than anything that has previously come out, it has caused consumers to buy a lot of video games."

And the statistics prove it. Game consoles jumped 73% from 2006, generating $5.12 billion. Software, in a similar manner, managed to rake in $9.5 billion, a 28% increase over 2006.
Amanda NeMoyer, A Medill sophomore who said she doesn't play games frequently, said that developers "have started to make games that appeal to more people like Guitar Hero and Rock Band that more people who wouldn't consider themselves very into video games can find fun."

Reilly Brennan, Vice President of Media Relations for game publisher Midway, took that one step further and applied it to the developers’ responsibilities: “It's up to us to make these games accessible not just to people who are into this stuff and want the hardcore experience, but also new players - we kind of make it accessible to everybody.”

Which is something that the gaming industry has yet to fully accomplish. According to the Entertainment Software Association’s latest research, adult gamers have already been playing video games for an average of twelve years. Most gamers, then, have been playing for a long time, and newcomers to the video game medium are hard to come by.

Scott Olstad, a Medill Sophomore who calls himself a gamer, thinks the that gaming industry will remain more or less the same in the near future.

“I think casual games will have a much wider role, which is a good thing, but I think it's not going to look too vastly different from what we have now.”

In contrast, Perry Gunderman, an 18-year-old Evanston resident who's been playing games since he was a toddler, foresees big changes in a small time period for the games industry: “I imagine that one out of every three people will own a video game unit by 2010 or 2011."

Whether or not video games become fully mainstream within the next 5 to 10 years, the current generation of games has seen a shift in the intrinsic ability of video games to affect audiences. Better graphics, more impactful plotlines, smoother gameplay, and movie-like voiceovers make it more possible than ever to tell a great story using the video game medium.

Johnson believes these new methods of storytelling have helped with sales and audience expansion: “The technological limitations that gaming used to have it no longer has, and that frees up a lot of people to create more interesting artistic experiences like BioShock and Shadow of the Colossus, and that'll draw more people into gaming. It becomes less about what button you push... and more about an overall artistic expression.”

There are obvious differences between the way gamers and non-gamers looked at the future of gaming. On the whole, those interviewed who didn’t play games said they wouldn’t gain the status of movies or literature, and those who did said that video games would eventually break into the mainstream.

Either way, the gaming industry is steadily growing, and we can only wait to see whether or not it breaks through society’s mold.

Olstad’s take: “There's going to be a time when games hit a tipping point in the mass market where people can view them not as a child's play thing, or not as something that corrupts your kids, not as juvenile; people will see it as a legitimate form of art, just the same as literature and movies. And people will treat it with that kind of respect. But we're definitely not there yet, and it's gonna be a while before we get there.”

Radio Story for "Multimedia Storytelling" Class: