Gaming as a hobby: how games and technology open up a new world for us

Games are not serious ”,“ games are for children ”,“ you’re an adult! ” – today we hear such phrases less and less. Partly because the games themselves have changed. If earlier entertainment was designed for a narrow category of people, now the breadth of genres and technical capabilities of developers have reached such heights that everyone can choose a game to their liking.

The leap that the gaming industry has made is clearly visible when comparing the graphics of popular games of the past decades and the current ones – today it is a real work of art. For their development, even leading Hollywood actors are attracted, who give their characters not only voices, but also appearance. Until quite recently, it was impossible to dream of this.

This explains, in part, why the video game industry shows good coverage every year. So, according to a recent study by the company MY.GAMES, the volume of the Russian video game market alone in 2023 grew by 35%by making 163.4 billion rubles… Another study by Bitkom shows that one in two people now play video games at least from time to time.

These days, the success stories of companies related to gaming follow one another: software sales and demand for consoles are growing, and Let’s Play videos are setting new records in terms of audience size. Games offer more than interactive entertainment and creative opportunities. They serve as a platform for communication between friends, family members and acquaintances. In a Bitkom study, for example, a third of those surveyed said that during the time of “social distancing” they kept in touch with other people through online games, and in May 2023, the story of an illustrator from London, who told about business meetings not in Zoomand in Red dead redemption 2

What are the main milestones on the way to the conquest of universal recognition by games?

Equipment development

Imagine two sliders opposite each other, bouncing the ball, and of course, all in black and white. What is it? 1970s ping pong, the pioneer of modern computer and video games. At the time, he could be found in many gaming halls. With the advent of computers in apartments in the early 1980s, games became more sophisticated – they were released first on floppy disks, then on CDs, and now they are simply downloaded from online stores.

The desire to plunge into new, virtual worlds has remained unchanged, but the requirements for technology have changed. In particular, to appreciate the high level of graphics, you need a quality monitor. Odyssey g9 equipped with 49-inch curved screen with resolution DQHD 5120 x 1440 pixels… For comparison: 16-bit processor Intel 1978 year had a resolution of 320 x 200 pixels. And that’s for 8,500 German marks. Image display at the time was no match for current technology: while RGB coverage was considered a big hit in the early 1980s, today it is primarily about impressive lighting and shadow effects, high-contrast detail and high frame rates. Thanks to QLED technology, response time 1 ms, 240Hz refresh rate and HDR 1000 game worlds displayed on the Odyssey G9 are able to captivate both the novice and the avid gamer.

The size of the monitor matters for those gamers who have a critical viewing angle. And this applies not only to shooter fans. The Odyssey screen is ideal for the gamer to enjoy the beauty of virtual landscapes (for example, in Forza horizon or the same RDR II) or imbued with the spirit of a certain era (say, the next Assassin’s Creed). Adversaries in games on a wide screen are also better visible. For example, when playing The Witcher, Odyssey shows many more enemies than the standard diagonal.

Whether it’s strategy, racing, or survival games, all genres of games get more complex graphics over time. For example, carefully rendered pixel art was followed by the first 3D games of the mid-1990s – like a first-person shooter Doom or action adventure Tomb raider with the famous Lara Croft. At the same time, the social aspect began to prevail in games. For competitive sports in Starcraft strategy game or team tactical shooter Counter-Strike local clubs have become the venue for LAN parties on weekends.

Games unite

LAN parties have evolved into esports, and since the early 2000s, professional player competitions have quickly spread around the world. Tournaments, which are mostly held virtually, inspire millions and turn some gamers into glorified world stars.

Esports is more of a social phenomenon: fans come together to support their team or favorite player. Samsung is an official partner of the esports organization T1 Entertainment & Sports (T1), as well as the Russian virtual motorsport championship in the discipline Forza Motorsport… In April, as part of the League of Legends Spring Split Finals, with the support of Samsung a show match was held in which some of the most titled and successful esports teams met behind the mobile version of Wild Rift Navi and LCL Stars… The victory was won by Navi, playing on smartphones Galaxy S21

For those who are not going to devote themselves to esports, but simply spend their evening playing their favorite console game, the company offers not only monitors, but also TV. TV sets Samsung Neo QLED were voted the best TVs for gaming according to Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker (VDE), an electrical engineering certification institute in Germany. This is not surprising: if earlier consoles like Dendy were unpretentious, then modern consoles put forward certain requirements for displays – the image quality of the game and its performance depend on their characteristics. Neo QLEDs provide 120Hz refresh rates and less than 5.8ms latency to help unlock and maximize set-top box performance. The player can see the smallest details of the gameplay and enjoy smooth images at maximum speed.

However, regardless of whether you are a fan of PC gaming, whether you like to play on TV or mobile devices, the growing popularity of such a hobby as a whole “fuels” technological development. The demand for such entertainment cannot be ignored, which means that new exclusives and equipment await us ahead, playing on which you will forget about everything in the world.

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