How did an Italian Plumber Become a Superstar?
This is a special blog about video games. People who have read “How did an Italian Plumber Become a Superstar?” can find more information about the games discussed in the paper and additional facts about the rise of video games. While things were bad in the video game console market, Atari, a video game company introduced another game that became a popular, Pac-Man! When asked what his main goal was in the design of the game, Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man, explained to “a game that would attract female players in the hope of reviving arcades as popular social meeting places” (The Rise of Video Games, Discovery Channel) The character Donkey Kong had been originally Mario’s first arch nemesis. The game, Super Mario Bros., was introduced with new characters that had their own history. Also read pages 35-51 for a full analysis in Power Up by Chris Kohler. Space Invaders was such a phenomenon in Japan that it triggered a 100-yen coin shortage. Sega was a rival to Nintendo. The rebellious blue hedgehog, Sonic competed with an Italian plumber. Although video games started as a leisurely pursuit, it became a lucrative vocation not only at game industries but also on online virtual worlds. Gamers with high level of expertise have made money at tournaments and through virtual business transactions. In Dallas, Texas, professional gamers enter a world class tournament every year to win cash and prizes. Online gamers who make money through virtual business transactions are called game farmers. How exactly is a mystery. Video games have caused a worldwide epidemic of video game addiction; most of its victims are of the youth. Some kids actually find the video game environment more comforting than with their friends and family. Centers to treat video game addiction have opened in China, Korea and in Canada. There, gamers are encouraged to play sports, slowly weaning off video games. Some of the popular video games, like Doom and Tomb Raider, were so popular that Hollywood based film and TV on the made. Vice versa, great movies became great video games. For example, Star Wars unleashed many kinds of video games in the star wars galaxies. Some games educate people and reveal the harsh realities of war and worldwide conflicts, like the video game that was based on Darfur. Mario was called Jumpman before he came to the United States. Video game music composers have more restrictions than classical composers. For the allotted time for a battle, a composer has to write only several minutes of music. He is restricted from writing lengthy works of theme development. In my opinion, the music on Mario’s soundtrack not only motivates the gamer but also cheers Mario on in his quest. With the rise of video games and technology came the rise of a new genre in music. Once video games expanded their storage capacity, wide varieties of music compositions were released, many of which were great works of music. These great works were then able to compete for the Grammy awards in 2000. The genre is hardly distinguishable from music played in concert halls and in fact are played in those same halls. (Highly) Recommended for further reading: Power Up by Chris Kohler
