1. Gaming Theory and Game Studies

2. Game studies Games as a new area of study
Academic interest in games took off in the 1980’s
Three ways to look at games academically
Social sciences approach
Humanities approach
Industry approach

3. Social Sciences
The social sciences approach attempts to explore ‘what games do to people’
They investigate both the positive and negative impacts of playing games
Positive:
Using games to aid teaching
Cognitive benefits
Stress relief
Etc.
Negative:
Video game content and its Potential influences

4. Games, Gender and Society class here
Humanities
The Humanities approach tries to examine ‘what meanings are made through games’
What different play styles might mean
What sub-context the game may try to convey
Video games are looked at as cultural artifacts that have embedded meanings, and that can be examined to explain deeper trends in society and culture.
Games, Gender and Society class here
at UB - DMS 448

5. Industry and Engineering
The Industry approaches examine what and how to make successful games, or, what makes a game successful.
The industry approach does not only look at how to make commercially successful games, but also games that have deeper intrinsic values, from innovation, affecting different experiences, and entertainment value.
While the engineering approaches explore the extent to which video games have promoted and driven engineering advancements in areas such as computer graphics, artificial intelligence and networking.

6. Importance and Prevalence Of Video Games
The international video game revenue is estimated to be over $80 billion for 2014, which is more then double the international film industry in 2013.
55-70% of americans play video games
Nearly 100% of boys and 94% of girls under 18 play video games.

7. Sources http://online.lovetoknow.com/how-many-people-play-video- games