International day of videogames

Welcome, like every Wednesday, to a new Shibumi blog post. In this case, we will discuss a special day; August 29th. This day is celebrated as the world day of something… does it ring a bell? Let's see it!

August 29th is known to be Video Game Day. Nowadays, video games have both advantages and disadvantages and many prejudices, especially for those of the older generations. In this post, we will explain what video games are, and a bit of their history, we will dismantle some myths and we will see which deliveries await us these last months of the year. If you are interested, stay until the end!

What are video games?

As  Ceiban Training explains to us in one post on their blog, “A video game is an interactive entertainment-oriented application that, through certain commands or controls, allows you to simulate experiences on the screen of a television, a computer or another electronic device. ” In addition, these also integrate a sound and audio system. The main function of a video game is to constitute a means of entertainment for users.

When was the first video game invented?

There are several data that indicate that the first video game was developed around 1950 by Josef Kates. It was a 4-meter-high machine in which you could play the popular game "Three in a row". Such a machine was presented at the Canadian National Exhibition.

Although the earlier machine called "Bertie the Brain" was a great invention and considered key to the history of video games, it did not fully represent the definition of a "video game".

So, which was truly the first video game? Well, it is considered that the first video game was released a few years later, in 1958. Physicist William Higinbotham, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, created "Tennis for Two", which was also the first cooperative game. Higinbotham, in addition to having created what is considered the first video game, was also the one who created the nuclear bomb.

Video game myths

Over the years, various video game myths have been spreading everywhere. Who has not heard the typical: "video games make children violent" or "video games make children not develop their skills well and increase school failure" But, is all this true? Let's see it!

Violence and video games:

A group of scientists from the University of Ohio conducted a study to see if it was true that video games make children violent. They chose a total of 220 children between the ages of 8 and 12 and divided them into three groups. The first group played video games of armed violence, the second of violence with swords and, finally, the third did not play any games related to violence. After playing, they were taken to a room to play “heroes and villains”. This room had toy guns that had a marker on the trigger to know how many times they fired if they picked up the gun. The result was that both the first and last groups were more likely to catch it.

Another 2020 study conducted by the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, and endorsed by Sarah M. Coyne and Laura Stockdale, was conducted for the same purpose as the previous one. The youngsters were followed up at 10 years of age. They divided them into three groups: 4% of them played violent video games from an early age; 23% of them enjoyed titles that had moderate violence from an early age; 73% of them played highly violent ones. The result of the study revealed that those who were more exposed to violence did not behave more aggressively than those who played little or not at all.

Therefore the myth is: false.

Video game addiction:

Video games can cause addiction and develop poor social skills, such as watching TV, reading a book... Abusing entertainment produces mainly negative effects on people. The activities must be regulated with the rest of the tasks. If it is controlled, there should be no problem playing them. In addition, video games are another hobby that can be used to share time together.

The myth is: it depends on how you manage it.

Video games cause attention problems and damage eyesight:

The Child Mind Institute, one of the most prestigious institutes in the world in the study of the child's mind, discredited this myth and stated that there is no evidence that video games cause ADHD.

On the other hand, any screen can affect and damage your eyes, not just video games. In addition, an article by the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology published in 2017 "blue light from screens does not affect vision or cause blindness, but the discomfort is due to digital eye strain."

Therefore those myths are: false.

Upcoming releases

We have reached the last section of the blog post, where we will review the following deliveries that await us from September to the end of 2022.

Here we leave you a list of the most anticipated ones!

September:

• ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition (Switch)
• September 1st:
• Anno: Mutationem (Switch)
• September 2nd:
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
• The Last of Us: Part 1 (PS5)
• September 9th:
• Splatoon 3 (Switch)
• September 20th:
• Evil West (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
• September 27th:
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic (PC) 
• Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection (Switch)
• September 29th:
• Valkyrie Elysium (PS4, PS5)
• September 30th:
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC, PS4, Switch)
• FIFA 23 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)

October:

• October 4th:
• Overwatch 2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
• October 8th:
• No Man's Sky (Switch)
• October 10th:
• 9 Years of Shadows (PC)
• October 14th:
• Dragon Ball: The Breakers (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox)
• October 20th:
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Switch)
• October 21st:
• Gotham Knights (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)
• Persona 5 Golden (PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
• October 28th:
• Bayonetta 3 (Switch)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
• Resident Evil Re:Verse (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
• Yomawari: Lost in the Dark (PC, PS4, Switch)

November:

• November 2nd:
• Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom (PC, PS5, Switch)
• November 8th:
• Sonic Frontiers (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
• November 9th:
• God of War: Ragnarok (PS4, PS5)
• November 11th:
• Tactics Ogre: Reborn (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch)
• Valkyrie Elysium (PC)
• November 17th:
• Goat Simulator 3 (PC, PS, Xbox)
• November 18th:
• The Dark Picture Anthology: The Devil in Me (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series x/S)
• Pokemon Scarlet/Purple (Switch)
• November 30th:
• Evil Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC)
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC)

These will be some of the upcoming video game releases, there are some that we can't wait to try! Which ones are you waiting for?

At Shibumi we are grateful that you read us in one more publication. We hope you liked the post and see you next week in a new one. Enjoy those of you who still have vacations!