Video game

A video game is typically user controlled, interactive software that generates visual feedback on a monitor based on a user's input, that is played for entertainment. Various different types of games exist, some where two or more people can also play, either cooperating, or in competition with each other.

Platforms

Video games can appear on many different platforms including console video games, computer video games, arcade games, and hand held devices including handheld game consoles, PDAs, and cellular phones.

Video games are typically manipulated via an input device. This input device varies from platform to platform but may include a joystick, a mouse, a keyboard, pedals, a phone number pad, or a console specific controller. Video game controllers have evolved over the years, and now are even motion sensitive, and can tell when the person holding the controller is moving his or her hands in a certain manner (such as when fishing or bowling).

History

The first video games

One of the first video games that come to mind is Pong, however this was not the first patent filed detailing what would later be described as a video game. U.S. Patent #2,455,992, titled "CATHODE-RAY TUBE AMUSEMENT DEVICE," is arguably the first video game patent ever filed in the United States.

Controversy

Video games, as they have risen in popularity, have come under criticism by parents groups, religious groups, politicians, and other groups for in-game depictions of crime, violence, drug use, sex, profanity and other activities and topics typically looked upon negatively in public perception. Some critics of video games claim that playing video games can negatively influence children's behavior and even influence children to commit crimes in mimicry of actions that they see in-game. Proponents of video games argue that this is not the case, and some claim that video games are in fact beneficial to child development.

See also

• Console video games
• Computer video games
• Entertainment Software Rating Board