Buzz Gnosis

When you think about it, it’s hard to believe that video games have really only been around for about 30 years. No other industry has progressed as rapidly and as successfully in that time as the video game market. Think about it this way: in the late 1970s, the most sophisticated gaming system was Pong. An electronic ball, two moveable electronic paddles on each side of the screen and a single white line dividing the screen was considered the apex of video game technology, and it was tremendously popular. Pong was the game to have, which made sense because it was just about the only game you could have.

Today, video games are so advanced that it is sometimes difficult to tell where the game ends and where real life begins. After all, the Nintendo Wii system mirrors actual human movement, so you are, in fact, really bowling when you play a bowling game on the Wii. There is almost no separation between the game and real life. The game IS real life.

So video games have advanced tremendously over the past three decades, and they’re now a major component of the entertainment industry, responsible for generating billions of dollars of revenue for their manufacturers. And even though they’re just games, they’re a serious business, with thousands of man-hours put into designing a single video game. In fact, you can actually go to school now if you’d wish to learn how to design a video game. That’s the career choice for many young people in Wilmington, DE and around the globe. Just a quarter century ago it would have been hard to imagine that designing a video game would ever be a viable career path, but it’s a sign of just how much the video game industry has grown.

As a result of their worldwide popularity, video games now attract top voice talent. A-list actors and actresses have lent their voices to video games, including Nathan Fillion, Jack Black, James Caan and even Marlon Brando. Clearly, video games are more than just games when they can draw such acclaimed voice talent.

Video games have come a long way – just image where they’ll be in another 30 years.