The video game industry is in its adolescent stage. This is always an awkward stage. New things start growing out of sensitive places, many new disrupting conflicting feelings are born, and one's place in the world becomes confusing. This is the state of the video games industry at this point. The casual gamer's market has exploded with the success of Nintendo's Wii and DS, the once dominant Sony is now firmly in third place in the new console war, anxiety about the place and effect casual games will take is heady, and games in general are reaching the cost, popularity, and production values of films and television.

Video games were conceived at the birth of the computer and television broadcasting technology. A little known engineer for a small Defense Industry firm, Ralph Baer, in 1966 stormed up the idea to develop a game for television sets. He wrote a few pages of notes containing his ideas which he patented and which eventually turned into one of the first gaming systems, the "Brown Box" by 1968. This could play ping-pong, volleyball, handball, soccer, hockey and others.

Video games at this time were obscure and infantile. They generally lacked complexity and had no force in the entertainment industry. Although they showed promise, as the original machine designed by Baer, the Magnavox Odyssey, and the more successful Atari Pong gained financial backing. And thus the video game industry was born.

The evolution and history of the video game industry is quite voluminous despite its short time in the making. It is the material of books and long-winded articles. So, I won't go into too much more detail concerning the history aspect.

In keeping with Moore's Law, computer processing and in hardware technology expanded, advanced, and became cheaper. Soon we got Nintendo's famous Nintendo Entertainment System and later Super Nintendo, then The Sega Genesis, and later in '94 Sony's Playstation.

The 90's were the major growth period of all aspects of the industry from sales and economic size, to advancement in graphics and the processing power of the computer. During the late 90's, with the release of such games as Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil showed the promise for integrated gaming and cinematic storytelling with the potential depth and length of novels.

During its inception in the 70's, not many expected video games to become as popular as they are today.

But wow has the industry exploded, it is now a multi-national, multi-billion dollar industry. It is also the fastest growing division of the entertainment industry.

I would like to postulate what will become of the video game industry.

Casual gaming will enter into the public consciousness just as pop movies and pop novels and pop television gained popularity. As more people start consuming a particular product, more brackets for marketing and creating these products has to be made. This is what the Wii has done. They have cornered a whole new uncharted area of the gaming market, the casual gamer. The hardcore gamer is still there. As a gamer, this is what eases my mind. However, some things still do worry me.

The PS3 has not even come close to selling as many units in the same space as their PS2. This means that the Wii has managed to convert some former PS2 owners. There have been quality titles released for the Wii (I will not include Wii sports). But the games are overwhelmingly driven toward the casual gamer, the gamer that likes simplicity over complexity, and likes to play with friends. The Wii is also easier to develop for. It has the gimmicky wiimote. This is what has made it so popular. It has developed the same kind of beginning as the PS2.

But, it has the smell of fad (remember when all your school friends had yo-yos?). OMG, everyone go out and get a Wii. This is what I am counting on.

I have not seen anything extremely innovative in what the Wii has done so far. The motion sensor is cool I suppose, but I have yet to see how it is really any better or can do anything extraordinarily different than a normal controller. It requires movement yes. But if I wanted exercise or to play tennis or golf, why wouldn't I simply go out and do the real thing?

So, I hope that the Wii will have only cornered the casual gaming market and not take away from the hardcore gaming market. This seems feasible as a part of the development of the industry. It happened with books and film as well. That is, as these mediums became more popular they branched into different sub markets appealing to different demographics. The people who appreciate games as more of a art-entertainment will continue to be supplied, while a new (or not so new?) pop gaming market emerges more strongly than before.

Who knows though, the Wii may surpirse me and turn out to be a return to the simple roots of gaming which, in the view of some, may be more edgy than what Microsoft and Sony are doing.

My only hope is that the Wii does not stagnate advancement and innovation and doesn't make impossible games that require higher development costs and time.