ABSTRACT
Compared to other media like print and film, digital video games are a relatively recent invention. These games can be played on a range of devices, including personal computers, arcade machines, consoles, smartphones and media tablets (we use the term ‘video game’ to refer to all such digital games). Early video games were simple affairs, with basic graphics and simple goals. For example, one of the first commercial video games was an arcade game called Pong (Atari, 1972), a kind of virtual tennis in which each player controlled a stick-like paddle and hit the virtual ‘ball’ from their side of the screen to their opponent’s side.
