Entertainment

The evolution of video games

Video games have changed a lot in the last 30 years. In the 1990s, Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers looked very high-tech.

In 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved was released. It was the first game where a player could explore a limited 3D map. The engine also allowed the player to have different experiences. For example, the enemies acted differently every time you played the same map.

Visuals: The death of cinema?

Did you watch the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony this year? Chances are you didn’t, and you weren’t alone. The 2021 edition was the least viewed and lowest rated in the award show’s history, according to Nielsen Ratings. Take a look at this graph from CNBC below: 

The 2021 ceremony saw a staggering 56% drop off in viewership from the previous year, which was itself already one of the least viewed shows in Oscar history. Now of course, these are just award shows. What about Box Office numbers? IMDB reports that the global cinema gross in 2020 was $2.1 billion, a loss of over $9 billion from 2019.  

Visuals: Computer games heroes

When computer games appeared, men were their target comsumer. Games were created for men, and the main characters in games—protagonists—were mostly men too. Women were mostly presented as characters who needed help. For instance, Mario and Princess Peach. 

Recently, the gaming industry has started targeting women too. More female protagonists are appearing.

Look at the graphs below and discuss them with your teacher.

The Golden Age of Television

Over the past 20 years, American television entered a Golden Age. Before the turn of the millennium, most TV shows followed familiar patterns: crime shows and situational comedies—also known as sitcoms—consisted of self-contained episodes with little plot development through a season or the run of the show.

Then, in 1999, a network called HBO took a huge risk by investing $2 million per episode in The Sopranos, a show that broke with the familiar pattern of television productions. The Sopranos invested in character development and took its time to tell a compelling story. It was a massive success that showed that audiences were willing to sit through drawn-out shows as long as they were good. HBO reproduced that early success with Six Feet Under and The Wire.