Video games are one of the biggest and most successful entertainment mediums in the world. The revenue that is grosses is in the billions. There are millions of people that play games every year and gaming has transcended generations and have become a big part of pop culture.

However, just like other forms of entertainment, video games have not escaped controversy over the years. In fact, because video gaming is an interactive media and has grown at a more astonishing rate than other forms of entertainment, has gotten a lot more controversy than others.

In fact, video games today have a lot more controversies surrounding them than ever. Many of these controversies are small, but some of so big and complex, that they sometimes overshadow gaming as a whole and puts a bad light on the industry.

Of course when you think of video game controversies, the first thing that comes up is the violence. Specifically, if video game violence causes real-world violence in children. This is the longest-running controversy in the industry that has been around as long as gaming has been around. This is a very divisive topic; some believe it causes violence, others believe it doesn’t. There have been countless studies that have been done over the years to find a correlation and many politicians and officials have tried to go after gaming and ban violent games from store-shelves.

Another big topic of controversy in video gaming is feminism in video gaming. For years, video gaming has had a big male dominant demographic and many women in  the video games have been portrayed as damsels in distress or as over-sexualized. However, as the media has been expanded over the years, so does the female gamer demographic. Nowadays, there is just as many female gamers as male gamers. 

Also, many people are trying to break the troupes of women in gaming and try to make them just as strong and empowered as the make characters. Of course, many male gamers do not want to break away from the status quo and will criticize and verbally attack any female or supporter of this movement.

Speaking of movement, that brings up the next controversy, GamerGate. GamerGate started as a online forum post that quickly began to take over the landscape of video gaming. It basically is a way for people to try and change the way we view journalism and ethics in video gaming, as many people believe that video game developers and publishers pay or “find ways” to get journalism sites to give games good scores and or publicity. However, nowadays, this movement has begun to personally attack members in the industry and even hack people’s personal information.  Now, people are divided on whether this movement is doing more harm than good.

The final set of controversies are smaller but can have a big impact. There is the “console war” where over-exageratted fans of a platform, or”fanboys” personally attack and ridicule others of different preferences.

There is also the debate between the graphics and resolution capabilities between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

This website will dive deeper into each of these controversies with in-depth charts, presentations, and information. Hopefully, you will know a little more about what shrouds the gaming industry after viewing this website.