Game On

Grade Level: 7-12
Subject: Fine Arts/Technology

On October 26, 2007, Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2) celebrated its seventh birthday. Despite its relatively old age, it remains the best-selling gaming console in history with more than 120 million consoles shipped. Game manufacturers continue to make compatible products.

With new types of player interaction, however—like the Nintendo Wii, in which game play involves real physical action—the PS2 may soon find an end to its golden age.

The PS2 will certainly not be the first game to come and go as graphics technology improves. The first computerized game, tic-tac-toe, was invented in 1952. In the 1970s, games continued to be simplistic in content and presentation. As the lure of gaming arcades grew, so did the profit and investment into the gaming industry. This led to the original home-based versions in the late 1970s and through the mid-1980s, like Atari's Space Invaders. Since then, graphics and related game technologies have gotten more and more sophisticated.

Today, the home-based game system has grown to extend beyond one's television set. Hooked up to the Web through broadband connections, gamers can play one game as a team or as separate opponents. Some gaming systems even offer headsets so teammates can talk to one another during play, even if they live thousands of miles away from each another.

The debate over the merits of video gaming—especially those based on violent scenarios, like the popular Grand Theft Auto series—is complex. But regardless of that moral debate, video games are here to stay, in one form or another, and they will continue to influence our culture on many levels.

For this week's lesson, you will get inside the box and take a tour behind the scenes to see what makes these games—and gamers— tick. You will also get a related look at movie animation, which is similar in concept to how games are developed.

The Revolution

Start your trip at PBS to uncover The Video Game Revolution. Begin in the History of Gaming section. To get a grip on the evolution of the industry, browse the Interactive Timeline.

What role did Ralph Baer play in this revolution? Why were video games first introduced in arcades rather than for home use? What was the significance of the Atari 2600 system? What are some of the factors that made a game or game system a hit or a flop? In what ways did the content of games evolve over time?

Next, go Inside the Games to see How a Game Is Made. Make sure to watch the videos (RealPlayer required). How exactly do the developers go about Creating the Characters and Putting It All in Motion? Why are details about the characters' environment important in The Game World?

What roles do the Code and Postproduction efforts play in a game's popularity? Why does a company spend so much money and effort in Marketing a game?

Read some of the Personal Gaming Stories and check out the Classic Game Cheats, if you have time. Why do you think programmers would allow cheats?

Now, explore some of The Impacts of Gaming by browsing the Essays and the Guide to Game Ratings. Why do many parents and institutions, including schools and government agencies, choose to restrict the availability of violent video games to young people? Do you agree or disagree with the reasons they cite for doing so?

Discuss with classmates how you think video gaming will evolve in your lifetime. What are the biggest factors that will drive this development and why?

Before leaving the revolution, visit the Arcade to and select your challenge level for the Ultimate Classic Game Quiz. Also, test your skill at Name That Game and Play a Retro Game. Talk with classmates about how classic games similar to today's video games and how they are different.

More on Animation

You have looked at how art and coding have played their roles in video game development. However, video games are not the only form of entertainment to use digital technology to produce high-quality art.

Before digital animation, movie companies, like Disney, relied on hand-drawn and colored panels that were then photographed in a series. The series would be put together like a printed flipbook, giving the illusion of motion. Today, creating animated scenes are still labor-intensive but are a lot more flexible and give a better illusion of depth.

Like video games, animated movies are created in a similar way. Stories, plots, characters, scenery, and so forth need to be planned out in advance. To get an idea of how this is done for movies, visit Pixar's How We Do It section. Read the introduction, and then click the viewfinder's handle to go to the next screen. As you move through the series of 14 screens, think about how this process compares with that for video game development. Compare and contrast the similarities and differences with classmates.

Newspaper Activities

Browse current issues of The Sacramento Bee and pick out three articles that you think are especially interesting. Think about which article provides enough information that you can turn it into a storyline for a game. Using that story, write an outline describing a set of main characters, the scenes, and the goal of the game. Story and related game should be non-violent in nature. Based on the outline of your story, sketch out each character and scene. Then, sketch out one storyboard that illustrates how the game would work. Present your storyboard to classmates for discussion.