Computer Games Industry

When Was It Started? 
The first recorded game that was created was by A.S Douglas in 1952. He created a graphical version of Tic-Tac-Toe. However The official digital video game industry began in 1971 with the release of the arcade game, Computer Space. The following year, Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong, the original arcade version of which sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets. 

Since then computer/video games have allowed us to become submersed in our own versions of reality (simulation games e.g. The Sims) and to entertain us throughout out everyday lives. Hundreds of genres (Action, Horror, First person shooter, sports etc.) and consoles have emerged allowing us to try different methods of playing from the Playstation controller to the Xbox Kinect that doesn't need a controller to be 'controlled'.

By Who? Where?

Computer Space is a video arcade game released in 1971 by Nutting Associates, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would later found Atari Inc.

How big is it?

The worldwide the game industry in 2007 was valued at $44.9 billion. This number was expected to grow 9.1% annually to $48.9 in 2011 and $68 billion in 2012, making it the fastest-growing component of the international media sector. 

What were the key milestones for the industry? 

The first key milestone was in 1971 when the introduction of video games were shared with the home market with the release of the early video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. 

The Magnavox Odyssey

However, both the arcade and home markets would be dominated by Pong clones, which flooded the market and led to the video game crash of 1977. The crash eventually came to an end with the success of Taito's Space Invaders, released in 1978, sparking a renaissance for the video game industry and paving the way for the golden age of video arcade games.pace Invaders would go on to sell over 360,000 arcade cabinets worldwide, and by 1982, generate a revenue of $2 billion in quarters, equivalent to $4.6 billion in 2011.

Narrative, Representations and audience.

All video games have different narratives, contain different representations of the characters and have a variety of different target audiences.  
One example of a video game's narrative, representation and audience is GTA 5. Gta 5's narrative surrounds 3 men and tells their story through their life of crime. 

Many representations of different people are shown. One representation is of race. One thing that I have noticed after playing the game is that any black people are all shown to be criminals. If you enter the downtown neighborhood all characters are black and usually attempt to shoot you. Where as the white people tend to live in the rich neighborhood.
No religions are shown throughout the game and only one disabled person is met who tends to be cranky, mean and never leaves the house, just as some stereotypes of disability states. 
The women in the game are also shown in a negative light. Although not a character in the game the woman on the poster is shown wearing a bikini and another is shown leaning over a car. The women both seem to be shown as sexual object for men meaning that the target audience is most likely young adult males. By using these female character's it would attract more men to the game. These things have been created because of the dominant ideology, White, Middle Class, Middle Aged, Straight men. This is also who the game is predominantly aimed at.

Another game is The Last Of Us. In this game the narrative is to survive the apocalypse and to lead a young girl to safety.

In this game the protagonist is a White male called Joel and one of his main goals is to protect a young girl named Ellie. Throughout the game Joel is the only playable character and sets out to get this young girl to safety. As Joel is constantly protecting a girl it makes men seem more powerful and strong as if one of their main abilities is too protect whereas the women seem helpless and weak. The young girl is seen as the 'damsel in distress'. No religions, disabilities, or race are shown in this game. The vast majority of characters are white and any characters of another race do not have a developed story line so their representation is unknown. This is again down to the dominant ideology. Due to the protagonist being male the target audience is most likely men.