The impact of playing video games

Computer gaming has been a huge part of many of our lives. Since the 90's the video game market sales increased. In 1995, $3.8 thousand million of games were sold. The video game market has shot up as time has gone by. According to (http://www.statista.com/statistics/278181/video-games-revenue-worldwide-from-2012-to-2015-by-source/) in 2012 PC games had a total yearly-revenue of  $14.44 billion, going up to $17.72 billion in 2013, moving on to $20.92 billion in 2014, finally, resulting in $21.6 billion total revenue in 2015.

Nowadays it's hard NOT to find somebody who has been hooked to a video game at least once in their life times. Games come in various genres from
-Simulation (WHICH IS MY FAVORITE!)
-Adventure
-Action Adventure
-Horror
-Role-Playing Games
-Strategy
-Vehicle Stimulation

 

   

And many more to choose from! Many gamers manage to distinguish their favorite genre as they spend hours, days and sometimes even years in their gaming experiences. After playing all the Sims series games (The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4, Sim City, Sim Coaster, Zoo Tycoon, The Sims Life Stories) since #TBT 2006, I have come to figure that my favorite genre is definitely Simulation. 

Sure, that does not mean that all I ever play is The Sims, I as many other gamers do take pleasure in playing games such as L.A. Noire, The Last Of Us, Minecraft (YES, I'M AN 8 YEAR OLD BOY!), GTA, Far Cry and many more games that I cannot possibly think of right now. 

People tend to wonder, why are computer games so popular these days? 

I'd answer that within a blink of an eye - Because they're fun! There is no feeling better than coming home from a tiring day of school/work, hearing the sound of your laptop/pc turn on, clicking on the game, and waiting for it to load just so you can drift away for a few hours into a world that is much different (and sometimes) better from/than yours. 

Unfortunately, almost every good thing has silly people trying to bring it down such as a "crazy feminist" known as Anita Sarkeesian who believes that most video games portray women as Damsels In Distresses and most video games such as GTA should be banned from the market due to inequality and violence towards women which is absolutely ridiculous if you'd ask me. Many people may like to believe that video games make people violent and is that true? No, not at all! Unless you're like the crazy guy who killed John Lennon after reading The Catcher In The Rye.

 Another question most individuals ask is, do computer games make you more isolated? No, I don't think so. Anything computer-related or anything that does not involve social interaction is isolating. Isolating yourself by playing video games is no difference from spending hours working on a Microsoft Word Document, in my opinion. 

Lastly, many wonder if networked computer games make you more or less social? To be very honest, the games I play do not require others to be around to play with. Games like minecraft can be fun if it's multiplayer (UNLESS THEY STEAL YOUR DIAMONDS AND SET YOUR HOUSE ON FIRE) but personally, I don't enjoy it very much. I like to be left alone as I mentioned, in my own gaming world where nobody can disturb me and tell me what to do.

-Anjana