How Far We've Come

The other day I was playing Grand Theft Auto IV. While playing, some random memories popped into my mind for some reason. The memories were about the past video games I've played. Images of games like Lion King for the Super Nintendo, James Bond for the Nintendo 64, and Halo for Xbox quickly ran through my mind. At the time I was playing Grand Theft Auto IV and I became surprised, surprised at how far we've come. The first Grand Theft Auto was a bunch of squares stealing squares and getting chased by squares. So, it's stunning to see that we started with graphics from the game Pong and advanced all the way to the stunning visuals of Dragon Age. Not only have we advanced with our technology, but the game industry has significantly advanced too. In the past people could create games in a couple months by themselves. Now, we have hundreds of people working a year or more to create these works of art.
Games are art. People who say otherwise don’t understand at all. They don’t understand the effort the creators put into them. They don’t realize that many people spend hours and hours every day bent over a computer, programming or creating parts of video games. Then, after work is over they stay even longer and work over time so that the game can be finished quicker for fans and gamers. Composers spend weeks creating beautiful music to compliment all the themes within the game. Painters diligently paint stunning visuals to be used as backgrounds within the game. So much work and time is dedicated to games today. They are treated and cared for like children.
Thank you Bungie, thank you Epic, thank you Bethesda, Valve, Squareonix, Rockstar, EA, Bioware, Capcom, Activision, and Infinity. You have provided millions of people and I with games that have given us hours upon hours of enjoyment. Thank you!