Difference between revisions of "First Person Shooters"

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	==History==		==History==
−	[[File:doom.jpg|thumbnail|right|Doom (1993)]] While the earliest versions of first person shooting games can be accredited to the game Maze War and Spasim in the year 1978 <ref name="history_games">Staff, GamesRadar. “A 43-Year History of First-Person Shooters - from Maze War to Destiny 2.” Gamesradar, GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies and TV You Love, 1 May 2017, www.gamesradar.com/bullets-bombs-history-first-person-shooters/. </ref>, the main rise to popularity of the genre was coined with Wolfenstein and Doom <ref name="history_games"></ref>. These games were the first to employ modern graphics and mechanics and were followed by numerous other successful first-person shooting games like  [[Wikipedia:Duke Nukem 3D|Duke Nukem 3D]], [[Wikipedia:Quake (video game)|Quake]], and [[Wikipedia:Counter-Strike (video game)|Counter-Strike]].	+	[[File:doom.jpg|thumbnail|right|Doom (1993)]] While the earliest versions of first person shooting games can be accredited to the game Maze War and Spasim in the year 1978 <ref name="history_games">Staff, GamesRadar. “A 43-Year History of First-Person Shooters - from Maze War to Destiny 2.” Gamesradar, GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies and TV You Love, 1 May 2017, www.gamesradar.com/bullets-bombs-history-first-person-shooters/. </ref>, the main rise to popularity of the genre was coined with Wolfenstein and Doom <ref name="history_games"></ref>. These games were the first to employ modern graphics and mechanics and were followed by numerous other successful first-person shooting games near the end of the 1990s like  [[Wikipedia:Duke Nukem 3D|Duke Nukem 3D]], [[Wikipedia:Quake (video game)|Quake]], and [[Wikipedia:Counter-Strike (video game)|Counter-Strike]].
	While the earliest version of first-person shooters would be limited to PC, the expansion of the genre to console gaming opened an entirely new audience to first-person shooting games. [[Wikipedia:Halo: Combat Evolved|Halo:Combat Evolved]] released in 2001, and displayed the powers of FPS games using the [[Wikipedia:Xbox|Xbox]] console. Halo’s success paved the groundwork for the development and focus of game companies of producing first-person shooters for console gaming.		While the earliest version of first-person shooters would be limited to PC, the expansion of the genre to console gaming opened an entirely new audience to first-person shooting games. [[Wikipedia:Halo: Combat Evolved|Halo:Combat Evolved]] released in 2001, and displayed the powers of FPS games using the [[Wikipedia:Xbox|Xbox]] console. Halo’s success paved the groundwork for the development and focus of game companies of producing first-person shooters for console gaming.

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Revision as of 16:06, 15 March 2019

First-Person Shooters are a genre of video game where the player’s character is seen through the first person perspective and centers on using shooting weapons to defeat enemies and advance through levels. These games typically use single or co-operative story modes, and in recent years have seen the expansion of multiplayer aspects, where a player can play against others online. Since their rise to popularity with the games Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, first-person shooters have become the most popular video game genre. This success on such a large scale has also brought ethical implications for first-person shooting video games, such as their focus on violence, their bias towards genders in game design, and the issues of online communication methods.

History

While the earliest versions of first person shooting games can be accredited to the game Maze War and Spasim in the year 1978 ^[1], the main rise to popularity of the genre was coined with Wolfenstein and Doom ^[1]. These games were the first to employ modern graphics and mechanics and were followed by numerous other successful first-person shooting games near the end of the 1990s like Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, and Counter-Strike.

While the earliest version of first-person shooters would be limited to PC, the expansion of the genre to console gaming opened an entirely new audience to first-person shooting games. Halo:Combat Evolved released in 2001, and displayed the powers of FPS games using the Xbox console. Halo’s success paved the groundwork for the development and focus of game companies of producing first-person shooters for console gaming.

Online Multiplayer

The popularity of first person shooting games saw a marked increase with the addition of online multiplayer modes. Services like Xbox Live expanded the market for simpler connections of players to an online service, as games before like Quake and Counter Strike typically faced issues with slow connections and dial up broadband services. Halo 3, a first-person shooter developed by Bungie, was able to use the online aspect of Xbox live to make their multiplayer mode be widely successful. The same year Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, released with similar success to it’s online mode. These games are coined with helping pioneer the online rise of first person shooters, and serving as a template for future first person shooters with multiplayer options.

The addition and widespread use of multiplayer and online modes have also led to a rise in competitive gaming and E-sports, as players of first-person shooters became able to play on a global scale.

Ethical Implications

Promotion of Violence

First-person shooters have faced criticism for their promotion of violence and other aggressive values. Critics of first-person shooters have cited that many mass shooters such as Adam Lanza, the Columbine shooters, and Cho Seung-Hui, were reported to have numerous hours spent playing violent first-person shooting games^[2], often linking their behavior and these video games together. This link has brought to question whether these games can influence our identities and the values that we hold. First-person shooters then must be examined by their embedded values^[3], so the argument can be made that the consequence of playing violent first-person shooters promote values like violence and aggression, or promote disvaluing things like empathy. Evidence of these embedded values of first-person shooters can be seen in represented in studies, which have indicated that video game players often idolize the aggressive and violent traits of the protagonists of violent video games^[4], or made players of violent games more emotionally desensitized^[5]. It can also be seen that the act of shooting is a built-in consequence to first-person shooters and as a result makes them an aggressive genre of video games, as it is difficult to make the act of shooting with a weapon a non-violent or aggressive action ^[3].

Bias towards Genders

While first person shooters may be the most popular video game genre, women players only make up 7% of the players of first person shooters ^[6]. Such a drastic disparity in demographics has sparked questions as to why the first person shooter genre is so sided towards male players. However, nearly double this amount of women, 17%, are seen playing the game Overwatch^[7], which has been accredited with a more gender-balanced design in mind that appeals to both men and women (yet still faces challenges in its design). This change in the number of women playing exemplifies that it is in the design of these specific games that cater more to males than females. This is especially true in first-person shooter game's expressive values^[3], as first-person shooters often promote male protagonists or overly sexualized female character models. Studies have even revealed that playing violent shooting games decreases empathy of violence towards females and creates increased masculine beliefs in its players,^[8] which makes it apparent that the design of the games does impact the values held by its players.

This bias in first-person shooters can also be attributed to the values of those designing them. In the game industry, women only make up 22% of the workforce^[9]. As expressive values are defined as representing the values of the designers^[3], then it follows that the male-dominated video game industry would create games that have drastic disparities in the representation of genders in their design. This reveals the two levels of ethical problems first-person shooter's gender bias can be addressed at: the lower level of the actual designs within the games themselves, or the bias in the workforce designing the games, as the workforce is able to put their expressive values in the design of the games as they are making them.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Staff, GamesRadar. “A 43-Year History of First-Person Shooters - from Maze War to Destiny 2.” Gamesradar, GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies and TV You Love, 1 May 2017, www.gamesradar.com/bullets-bombs-history-first-person-shooters/.
2. ↑ Lindsay, Emma. “The Trouble with First Person Shooters Is Deeper than First Person Shooting.” Medium, Medium, 5 Mar. 2018, medium.com/@emmalindsay/the-trouble-with-first-person-shooters-is-deeper-than-first-person-shooting-157888e66807.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Brey, Phillip. “The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics.” The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, by Luciano Floridi, Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp. 41–57.
4. ↑ Konijn, Elly A., et al. “I Wish I Were a Warrior: The Role of Wishful Identification in the Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Adolescent Boys.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 43, no. 4, 2007, pp. 1038–1044., doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.4.1038.
5. ↑ “Violent Games Emotionally Desensitizing.” Violent Games Emotionally Desensitizing - Universität Bonn, www.uni-bonn.de/Press-releases/violent-games-emotionally-desensitizing.
6. ↑ Yee, Nick. “Beyond 50/50: Breaking Down The Percentage of Female Gamers By Genre.” Quantic Foundry, 14 June 2018, quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/.
7. ↑ McKeand, Kirk. “Twice the Number of Women Play Overwatch than Any Other FPS.” PCGamesN, www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatch-female-player-count.
8. ↑ Gabbiadini, Alessandro, et al. “Acting like a Tough Guy: Violent-Sexist Video Games, Identification with Game Characters, Masculine Beliefs, & Empathy for Female Violence Victims.” Plos One, vol. 11, no. 4, 2016, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152121.
9. ↑ O'Brien, Lucy. “Women in Video Game Development in 2017: A Snapshot.” IGN, IGN, 20 Dec. 2017, www.ign.com/articles/2017/12/20/women-in-video-game-development-in-2017-a-snapshot.