In 1983, the video game market collapsed due to saturation of low-quality products and the rise of the PC.
According to History Computer, this decline continued until 1985, when Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System with ROB the Robot and Super Mario Bros. According to Statista, Nintendo, which was sold as a toy and required “quality assurance,” revived the video game industry, and in North America he sold more than 33 million units.
Nintendo's resurgence in the gaming industry ultimately made video games more visible than ever. Multiple gamers said video games left a lasting impression and shaped them.
“Video Games and Competitive Play”[ly] It's a way for people to come together, share common interests, meet each other in ways they can't through everyday interactions, and learn new things,” said John Schrader, former Vice President of Growth and Marketing at Generation Esports. says Mr.
In the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy, the main character Phoenix Wright grows as an individual as he learns to trust his clients and pursue the truth.Meanwhile, Wright forges meaningful bonds while rekindling his childhood friendships. And meeting new people who influence him.
But it's not just Wright and other video game characters who are growing; multiple gamers themselves say video games have helped them grow as people and in their relationships.
Growing up with video games
YouTuber Andrew Hattelt said his favorite game console is Nintendo. He has collected over 700 games, but in his complete collection he is missing only 4. After he picked up a copy of Power Blade 2, which is one of the most unusual games he owns, Hatelt realized there were a lot of Nintendo games he owned but never had a chance to play. .
Hattelt said that starting November 27, 2021, he challenged himself to complete every game in Nintendo's library, one of the most difficult video game consoles. Two years later, Hattert has played more than 500 games and his confidence has grown.
“Now I no longer think, 'Oh, why not?' You can't do that,” Hattelt said. “Because he's been through over 500 times that I've now been through that sometimes seemed impossible, and yet he was able to do it.”
Pepperdine has four esports teams: Overwatch, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Valorant, and League of Legends. According to the Pepperdine esports website, teams typically have around eight players who practice regularly and participate in video game tournaments.
Senior Juli Wagner, former captain and current coach of Pepperdine's Overwatch team, said she led the team to an undefeated season and the program's first playoff appearance in the fall of 2023. She learned how to be a leader from her experience in the team.
“We played a lot of schools that were very difficult, so we had to find a way to get around that and strategize,” Wagner said.
Sophomore Ray Truter is the captain of Pepperdine's Super Smash Bros. team and said he was one of the top 100 Fortnite players in Asia a few years ago. While Truter competed, he learned to improve his body by exercising and changing his diet.
“When I was competing in Fortnite, I was eating foods that increased my reaction speed, such as fish, blueberries, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds,” Truter said. “I thought I'd sleep a lot.”
Schrader, who has held multiple jobs in the esports industry, said esports can help students learn academically and develop social relationships in ways that can't be taught anywhere else.
“Esports has also proven to be a great way to improve mental well-being,” Schroeder said. “There are a number of different studies that show that participating in esports improves mental health.”
Multiple people said one reason they choose video games over other forms of entertainment is because players can grow with their characters.
Tyler Maddock, an employee at Game Zone, a vintage game store in Salem, Mass., said that while it's difficult for any medium to elicit emotions in people, video games can be successful because players can influence the outcome. He said there are many.
“You become an active participant in the story, which creates greater empathy,” Maddock said. “And in many cases, they feel a greater sense of agency.”
Maddock said horror games typically take agency away from the player and consider the character's struggle to survive throughout the game.
Bonds created through games
In video games, the protagonist is rarely the only protagonist. The presence of the protagonist's friends and companions is equally important. Multiple gamers said that video games, like the characters in the games, help them form strong bonds with people.
If Truter hadn't been playing Smash Bros. at Genesis Labs, he said he never would have met his soon-to-be best friend, Pepperdine junior Lucas Lorimer.
“My best friend Lucas, if I wasn't a video game player, I wouldn't have met him,” Truter said. “And my relationship with him has been great not only for my personal growth as a person, but also for my faith.”
When Ms. Pepperdine was remote during the 2020-21 school year, Mr. Wagner was accompanied by her and four other students, senior Cole Chuan, Graphic DEI senior editor Joseph Heineman, Class of '21 and former graphic Member Anastasia Condron and Class of ’20 graduate Grace Ramsey said they participated. Together she builds Pepperdine's campus in Minecraft.
The experience allowed Wagner to connect with her classmates virtually.
“I couldn’t physically go there in person because it was closed,” Wagner said. “But because we were building it, we can enjoy it and talk about it.”
Another aspect of the game is the world of fan translations and ROM (Read on Memory) hacks. Fans translate the game into languages never before released, or add their own ideas and quality of life improvements. Text speed in Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been increased.
Hatelt has participated in both ROM hacking and fan translation, including when he created one of the most popular Super Mario World ROM hacks, Super Mario Omega.
The potential of community in gaming is realized through ROM hacking and fan translation.
“When you're working on a project, you need a lot of different people coming together,” Hattelt says. “Someone to help with the art, someone to help with the story, someone to help with game design and programming.”
It was after an exchange with a Polish man that Maddock joked that “world peace is potentially achievable.” Although neither of us spoke the other's language, we still communicated simply by listing different game titles.
“It was a moment where different points of view, different points of view, different lifestyles came out. I don't know what this guy and I have in common,” Maddock said. “But he knows there's one thing we have in common: We both really love the game.”
Bonds formed through video games are important because humans tend to fear people who are different from themselves, Maddock said, but finding common ground through video games can help bridge those differences.
“At least there's an option to bring some common ground between the two of you,” Maddock said. “You remove the barrier between us and them, and you return to us.”
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