Video games trivia | 100 did you know facts (part 4)

Video games are currently gaining more and more fans. With more of them becoming part of pop culture.

So let’s find out some trivia and facts about videogames.

1. In the early days of the industry, it was more common for a single person to manage all of the roles needed to create a video game
2. As platforms have become more complex and powerful in the type of material they can present, larger teams have been needed to generate all of the art, programming, cinematography, and more
3. This is not to say that the age of the “one-man shop” is gone, as this is still sometimes found in the casual gaming and handheld markets, where smaller games are prevalent due to technical limitations such as limited RAM or lack of dedicated 3D graphics rendering capabilities on the target platform
4. Development studios need to be able to pay their staff a competitive wage in order to attract and retain the best talent, while publishers are constantly looking to keep costs down in order to maintain profitability on their investment
5. Typically, a video game console development team can range in sizes of anywhere from 5 to 50 people, with some teams exceeding 100
6. In May 2009, one game project was reported to have a development staff of 450
7. The growth of team size combined with greater pressure to get completed projects into the market to begin recouping production costs has led to a greater occurrence of missed deadlines, rushed games and the release of unfinished products
8. A phenomenon of additional game content at a later date, often for additional funds, began with digital video game distribution known as downloadable content (DLC)
9. Developers can use digital distribution to issue new storylines after the main game is released, such as Rockstar Games with Grand Theft Auto IV (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony), or Bethesda with Fallout 3 and its expansions
10. New gameplay modes can also become available
11. For instance, Call of Duty and its zombie modes, a multiplayer mode for Mushroom Wars or a higher difficulty level for Metro: Last Light
12. Smaller packages of DLC are also common, ranging from better in-game weapons (Dead Space, Just Cause 2), character outfits (LittleBigPlanet, Minecraft), or new songs to perform (SingStar, Rock Band, Guitar Hero)
13. A variation of downloadable content is expansion packs
14. Unlike DLC, expansion packs add a whole section to the game that either already exists in the game’s code or is developed after the game is released
15. Expansions add new maps, missions, weapons, and other things that weren’t previously accessible in the original game
16. An example of an expansion is Bungie’s Destiny, which had the Rise of Iron expansion
17. The expansion added new weapons, new maps, and higher levels, and remade old missions
18. Expansions are added to the base game to help prolong the life of the game itself until the company is able to produce a sequel or a new game altogether
19. Developers may plan out their game’s life and already have the code for the expansion in the game, but inaccessible by players, who later unlock these expansions, sometimes for free and sometimes at an extra cost
20. Some developers make games and add expansions later, so that they could see what additions the players would like to have
21. There are also expansions that are set apart from the original game and are considered a stand-alone game
22. Some examples are Ubisoft’s expansion Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Freedom’s Cry, which features a different character than the original game
23. Many games produced for the PC are designed such that technically oriented consumers can modify the game
24. These mods can add an extra dimension of replayability and interest
25. Developers such as id Software, Valve, Crytek, Bethesda, Epic Games and Blizzard Entertainment ship their games with some of the development tools used to make the game, along with documentation to assist mod developers
26. The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they may be a factor in the commercial success of some games
27. This allows for the kind of success seen by popular mods such as the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike
28. Cheating in computer games may involve cheat codes and hidden spots implemented by the game developers, modification of game code by third parties, or players exploiting a software glitch
29. Modifications are facilitated by either cheat cartridge hardware or a software trainer
30. Cheats usually make the game easier by providing an unlimited amount of some resource
31. For example weapons, health, or ammunition; or perhaps the ability to walk through walls
32. Other cheats might give access to otherwise unplayable levels or provide unusual or amusing features, like altered game colors or other graphical appearances
33. Software errors not detected by software testers during development can find their way into released versions of computer and video games
34. This may happen because the glitch only occurs under unusual circumstances in the game, was deemed too minor to correct, or because the game development was hurried to meet a publication deadline
35. Glitches can range from minor graphical errors to serious bugs that can delete saved data or cause the game to malfunction
36. In some cases publishers will release updates (referred to as patches) to repair glitches
37. Sometimes a glitch may be beneficial to the player
38. These are often referred to as exploits
39. Easter eggs are hidden messages or jokes left in games by developers that are not part of the main game
40. Easter eggs are secret responses that occur as a result of an undocumented set of commands
41. The results can vary from a simple printed message or image, to a page of programmer credits or a small videogame hidden inside an otherwise serious piece of software
42. Videogame cheat codes are a specific type of Easter egg, in which entering a secret command will unlock special powers or new levels for the player
43. Although departments of computer science have been studying the technical aspects of video games for years, theories that examine games as an artistic medium are a relatively recent development in the humanities
44. The two most visible schools in this emerging field are ludology and narratology
45. Narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls “Cyberdrama”
46. That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction
47. Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from Star Trek, arguing for the video game as a medium in which the player is allowed to become another person, and to act out in another world
48. This image of video games received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as Tron, eXistenZ and The Last Starfighter
49. Ludologists break sharply and radically from this idea
50. They argue that a video game is first and foremost a game, which must be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and the concept of play that it deploys
51. Espen J. Aarseth argues that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to gameplay
52. For example, Aarseth is critical of the widespread attention that narrativists have given to the heroine of the game Tomb Raider
53. Simply put, ludologists reject traditional theories of art because they claim that the artistic and socially relevant qualities of a video game are primarily determined by the underlying set of rules, demands, and expectations imposed on the player
54. While many games rely on emergent principles, video games commonly present simulated story worlds where emergent behavior occurs within the context of the game
55. The term “emergent narrative” has been used to describe how, in a simulated environment, storyline can be created simply by “what happens to the player”
56. However, emergent behavior is not limited to sophisticated games. In general, any place where event-driven instructions occur for AI in a game, emergent behavior will exist
57. For instance, take a racing game in which cars are programmed to avoid crashing, and they encounter an obstacle in the track
58. The cars might then maneuver to avoid the obstacle causing the cars behind them to slow and/or maneuver to accommodate the cars in front of them and the obstacle
59. The programmer never wrote code to specifically create a traffic jam, yet one now exists in the game
60. An emulator is a program that replicates the behavior of a video game console, allowing games to run on a different platform from the original hardware
61. Emulators exist for PCs, smartphones and consoles other than the original
62. Emulators are generally used to play old games, hack existing games, translate unreleased games in a specific region, or add enhanced features to games like improved graphics, speed up or down, bypass regional lockouts, or online multiplayer support
63. Some manufacturers have released official emulators for their own consoles
64. For example, Nintendo’s Virtual Console allows users to play games for old Nintendo consoles on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. Virtual Console is part of Nintendo’s strategy for deterring video game piracy
65. In November 2015, Microsoft launched backwards compatibility of Xbox 360 games on Xbox One console via emulation
66. Also, Sony announced relaunching PS2 games on PS4 via emulation
67. According to Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem, creating an emulator for a proprietary video game console is legal
68. However, Nintendo claims that emulators promote the distribution of illegally copied games
69. The November 2005 Nielsen Active Gamer Study, taking a survey of 2,000 regular gamers, found that the U.S. games market is diversifying
70. The age group among male players has expanded significantly in the 25-40 age group
71. For casual online puzzle-style and simple mobile cell phone games, the gender divide is more or less equal between men and women
72. More recently there has been a growing segment of female players engaged with the aggressive style of games historically considered to fall within traditionally male genres
73. According to the ESRB, almost 41% of PC gamers are women
74. Participation among African-Americans is lower
75. One survey of over 2000 game developers returned responses from only 2.5% who identified as black
76. When comparing today’s industry climate with that of 20 years ago, women and many adults are more inclined to be using products in the industry
77. While the market for teen and young adult men is still a strong market, it is the other demographics which are posting significant growth
78. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) provides the following summary for 2011 based on a study of almost 1,200 American households carried out by Ipsos MediaCT
79. The average gamer is 30 years old and has been playing for 12 years
80. Eighty-two percent of gamers are 18 years of age or older
81. Forty-two percent of all players are women and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry’s fastest growing demographics
82. Twenty-nine percent of game players are over the age of 50, an increase from nine percent in 1999
83. Sixty-five percent of gamers play games with other gamers in person
84. Fifty-five percent of gamers play games on their phones or handheld device
85. A 2006 academic study, based on a survey answered by 10,000 gamers, identified the gaymers (gamers that identify as gay) as a demographic group
86. A follow-up survey in 2009 studied the purchase habits and content preferences of people in the group
87. Based on the study by NPD group in 2011, approximately 91 percent of children aged 2-17 play games
88. Multiplayer video games are those that can be played either competitively, sometimes in Electronic Sports, or cooperatively by using either multiple input devices, or by hotseating
89. Tennis for Two, arguably the first video game, was a two player game, as was its successor Pong
90. The first commercially available game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, had two controller inputs
91. Some have had the ability to expand to four, eight or as many as 12 inputs with additional adapters, such as the Multitap
92. Multiplayer arcade games typically feature play for two to four players, sometimes tilting the monitor on its back for a top-down viewing experience allowing players to sit opposite one another
93. Many early computer games for non-PC descendant based platforms featured multiplayer support
94. Personal computer systems from Atari and Commodore both regularly featured at least two game ports
95. PC-based computer games started with a lower availability of multiplayer options because of technical limitations. PCs typically had either one or no game ports at all
96. Network games for these early personal computers were generally limited to only text based adventures or MUDs that were played remotely on a dedicated server
97. This was due both to the slow speed of modems (300-1200-bit/s), and the prohibitive cost involved with putting a computer online in such a way where multiple visitors could make use of it
98. However, with the advent of widespread local area networking technologies and Internet based online capabilities, the number of players in modern games can be 32 or higher, sometimes featuring integrated text and/or voice chat
99. Massively multiplayer online game (MMOs) can offer extremely high numbers of simultaneous players
100. Eve Online set a record with 65,303 players on a single server in 2013