Introduction to Computer Programming

In 1958, William A. Higinbotham, an engineer at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, created the world’s first computer game, a rudimentary two-player tennis game, to entertain visitors to his lab (Poole, 2000, p. 15). Since then, the computer/video game (from now on computer game) industry has become one of the most aggressively growing business sectors in the United States and in the world. In 2001, U.S. sales of computer games and related hardware increased 43 percent to $9.4 billion, surpassing movie box-office revenue of $8.3 billion in the same year (Takahasi, 2002). Global sales in the game industry were over $25 billion as early as 2002 and are expected to exceed $46 billion by 2009 (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2006). In the United States, it is estimated that 67 percent of American heads of households play computer games (Entertainment Software Association [ESA], 2007). Already in 2000, game playing was regarded as the most entertaining media activity, relegating television watching to the second place (Interactive Digital Software Association [IDSA], 2000). Obviously, games are emerging as one of the most dominant forms of entertainment. This trend will go further, thanks to the increasing penetration of high speech Internet connection and the declining prices of computers, video-game consoles, and mobile entertainment devices.

The growing popularity of computer games and some tragic incidents such as the Columbine High School massacre have sparked various academic studies on social and psychological effects of playing computer games. In the current chapter, we try to provide an extensive review of the computer game literature with a special focus on studies published during the last decade. The current review will cover a wide range of research traditions (from effect studies to uses and gratifications studies) and game genres (from entertainment to serious games). More specifically, we will provide a comprehensive review of the following four research...