10.3 Influential Contemporary Games

Guitar Hero and Rock Band brought new means of marketing and a kind of cross-media stimulus with them. The songs featured in the games experienced increased downloads and sales—as much as an 840 percent increase in some cases (Peckham, 2008). The potential of this type of game did not escape its developers or the music industry. They released games dedicated solely to one band, such as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and The Beatles: Rock Band. These games meshed together the dynamics of a music documentary, greatest hits album, and game. They included footage from early concerts, interviews with band members, and songs that allowed users to play along. Upon the release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the band’s catalog experienced a 40 percent increase in sales (Quan, 2008).

The rock band Metallica made its album Death Magnetic available for Guitar Hero III on the same day they released it (Quan, 2008). Other innovations include Rock Band Network , a means for bands and individuals to create versions of their songs for Rock Band that users can download for a fee. The sporadic history of the video game industry makes it unclear if this type of game will maintain market share or even maintain its popularity, but it has opened new avenues of expression as a form of media.

The Grand Theft Auto series

The first game in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series debuted in 1997 for the PC and Sony PlayStation. The game had players stealing cars—not surprising given its title—and committing a variety of crimes to achieve specific goals. The game’s extreme violence made it popular with players of the late 1990s, but players especially loved the open-world elements of the game. They could pursue specific narratives and goals, but if they wanted to drive around and explore the city, they could do that as well in a large variety of cars, from sports cars to tractor-trailers, depending on the player’s goals. Players could also take the violence to any extreme they wished, including stealing cars, killing pedestrians, and engaging the police in a shoot-out. This sandbox type of game permits users to freely pursue objectives of their choice (Donald, 2000).

The GTA series has evolved over the past decade by increasing the realism, options, and explicit content of the first game. GTA III and GTA IV, as well as a number of spin-off games, such as the recent addition The Ballad of Gay Tony, have made the franchise more profitable and more controversial.  These newer games have expanded on the idea of an open video game world, allowing players to have their characters buy and manage businesses, play unrelated mini-games (such as bowling and darts), and listen to a wide variety of in-game music, talk shows, and even television programs. However, increasing freedom also results in increasing controversy, as players can choose to solicit prostitutes, visit strip clubs, perform murder sprees, and assault law enforcement agents. Lawsuits have attempted to tie the games to real-life instances of violence, and political investigations into video game violence have routinely targeted GTA games (Morales, 2005).

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (WoW), released in 2004, hosts a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) loosely based on the Warcraft strategy franchise of the 1990s. The game is conducted entirely online, though players access it through purchased software and subscription fees. Each player chooses an avatar, or character, that belongs to one of several races, such as orcs, elves, and humans. These characters can spend their time on the game by completing quests, learning trades, or simply interacting with other characters. As characters gain experience, they obtain skills and earn virtual money. Players also choose whether they can attack other players without prior agreement by choosing a PvP (player versus player) server. The normal server allows players to fight each other, but only if both players consent. Players can reserve a third server if they want to role-play or act in character.

Various organizations have sprung up within the WoW universe. Guilds within the universe ascribe to specific codes of conduct and work together to complete tasks that individuals cannot accomplish alone. The players organize the guilds; WoW developers do not maintain them. Each has its own unique identity and social rules, much like a college fraternity or social club. Voice communication technology allows players to speak to each other as they complete missions and increases the social bonding that holds such organizations together (Barker, 2006).

WoW has taken the medium of video games to unprecedented levels. Although games such as Grand Theft Auto allow players a great deal of freedom, WoW depends on the actions of millions of players to drive the game, which means people can live their lives through a game in a literal sense. In the game, players can earn virtual gold by mining it, killing enemies, and killing other players. It takes a great deal of time to accumulate gold in this manner, so many wealthy players choose to buy this gold with actual dollars. This technically goes against the rules of the game, but no one can enforce these rules. Entire real-world industries have developed from this trade in gold. Chinese companies employ workers, or “gold farmers,” who work 10-hour shifts finding gold in WoW so that the company can sell it to clients. Other players make money by finding deals on virtual goods and then selling them for a profit. One WoW player even “traveled” to Asian servers to take advantage of cheap prices, conducting a virtual import–export business (Davis, 2009).

The unlimited possibilities in such a game expand the idea of what constitutes a game. WoW challenges conventional notions of what makes a game by allowing the players to create their own goals. Some players may want to increase their character’s experience points; others may feel more comfortable engaging in role-playing, whereas others use the platform to make a profit. This kind of flexibility leads to the development of scenarios never before encountered in game-play, such as the development of economic classes.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

The Call of Duty series of first-person shooter games has seen record-breaking success in the video game market, generating more than $3 billion in retail sales through late 2009 (Ivan, 2009). Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released in 2009 to critical acclaim and a great deal of controversy. The game included a 5-minute sequence in which the player, as a CIA agent infiltrating a terrorist cell, takes part in a massacre of innocent civilians. The player did not have to shoot civilians and could skip the sequence if desired, but these options did not stop international attention and calls to ban the game (Games Radar, 2009). Proponents of the series argue that Call of Duty’s Mature rating should discourage minors from playing the game. They also point out that the games contain less violence than many modern movies. However, the debate has continued, escalating as far as the United Kingdom’s House of Commons (Games  Radar, 2009).

Wii Sports and Wii Fit

The Nintendo Wii, with its dedicated motion-sensitive controller, launched in 2006. The company had attempted to implement similar controllers in the past, including the Power Glove in 1989, but it had never based an entire console around such a device. The Wii’s simple design combined with basic games such as Wii Sports appealed to previously untapped audiences. Nintendo included Wii Sports with the purchase of the Wii console to serve as a means to demonstrate the new technology. It included five games: baseball, bowling, boxing, tennis, and golf. Wii Sports created a way for group play without the need for familiarity with video games, as the game felt closer to participating in outdoor social games such as horseshoes or croquet than Doom. The game excluded objectionable content: no violence, no in-your-face intensity—just a game that any generation could access and enjoy. Retirement communities sometimes organized Wii Bowling tournaments, and many people found the game offered e a new way to socialize with their friends and families (Wischnowsky, 2007).

Wii Fit combined the previously incompatible terms “fitness” and “video games.” Using a touch-sensitive platform, players could do aerobics, strength training, and yoga. The game kept track of players’ weights, acting as a kind of virtual trainer (Vella, 2008).Wii Fit used the potential of video games to create an interactive version of an exercise machine, replacing workout videos and other forms of fitness that had never before considered Nintendo a competitor. This kind of design used the inherent strengths of video games to create a new kind of experience.

Nintendo found most of its past success marketing to younger demographics with less controversial games than the 1990s first-person shooters. Wii Sports and Wii Fit saw Nintendo playing to its strengths and expanding on them with family-friendly games that encouraged multiple generations to use video games as a social platform. This campaign became so successful that rival companies Sony and Microsoft imitated the initiative, and released the Sony PlayStation Move and the Microsoft Kinect. Both failed to achieve the same popularity despite the increased graphical capabilities.