We have been playing video games since computers were created. The first video games were programmed on mainframe computers by scientists and engineers in the 1950’s (Ebbers, Mike; O’Brien, W.; Ogden, B. (July 2006)). Video game arcades started in the mid-70’s. Children and adults alike threw quarters into a wide range of video game genres. Individual games could be found everywhere in public places such as convenience stores, bars, restaurants – pretty much anywhere people gathered. Then came console games in the late 70’s with the start of Pong, Atari and more. At the end of the 2000’s, video games included different modalities such as VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality). We now have at least four generations of gamers with their own relationships with video games. These are the stories I would like to tell.

Areas of interest: How video games affect 1) how people interact with each other, 2) their relationships with the games as well as 3) their immersion in the game and the gaming worlds they inhabit and 4) their relationships to those places.

In these areas, the discussion will focus on the relationship players had with video games across each generation, from Baby Boomers to Zoomers. Each decade had their own relationship to video games and how they affect how people interact with each other. This includes their relationships in the game, immersion in the game and the gaming worlds they inhabit, and their relationships to those places. In these areas, the discussion will often focus on the relationship players had with video games across each generation.  

The video game research I have engaged in includes:

• Game Transfer Phenomena in location-based games
• Place attachment through playing location-based games such as Ingress and Pokemon Go
• Player preference and their relationship with place attachment and social capital in location-based games

Generations (childhood, adolescence, young adult, middle age, silver gamers)