Gaming – no longer just a game

Gaming means different things to different people. For my neighbour Bill, it is what keeps his teenage son in his bedroom, glued to his computer screen for hours on end, re-enacting World War III or some such epic fantasies with other gaming fanatics around the world. Since Bill hardly sees his son anymore, he finds it hard to keep track of exactly what it’s all about. However, he is concerned, probably rightly, that all this gaming is leading to both a lack of sleep and a lack of concentration on more mundane things such as schoolwork. “What are his prospects going to be if all he can do is play these games?” he laments.
However, maybe his son might be on to something significant after all. Because there is more to gaming these days than meets the eye. It may have gone unnoticed by many, but with the stealth of an F-35 Lightning II fighter-bomber sneaking up on its target, the gaming industry has evolved, seemingly overnight, into a huge and lucrative business, and one which is dwarfing other previous kings of the entertainment industry. By way of comparison, the highest-grossing film of 2022 was “Top Gun – Maverick,” which took $1 billion at the box office in its first month. But the biggest game, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II”, took the same amount in just ten days.