Games, Games, Games

Every year in the end of August, the community of computer gamers convenes at the leading fair of video and computer games GC - the Games Convention - in order to learn to know the latest developments in this sector. Prior to the fair, the people who see to it that nobody gets bored in front of the computer screen, meet at the GC Developers Conference.

In 2008, Europe's leading developers' conference attracted about 1,200 participants from more than 40 countries, most of them coming from North America, Britain and Germany. The number of participants from Eastern Europe clearly rose, compared with the past years. The mostly young visitors will certainly not know what a lot of work the most popular computer applications require. At least two years of development pass between the idea and the marketable realisation of a computer game.

Many young people cannot image life without their digital leisure time organisers, and also young children playfully occupy themselves with computer applications for learning or entertainment. According to the 2007 JIM Study, for which 1,200 young people aged 12-19 in Germany were interviewed by phone, nearly half of them (45 %) have Internet access in their room - just as many have a game console. More boys (59 %) than girls (30 %) own a game console, and they use it more often: 50 % of the boys play computer games daily or several times a week, but only 17 % of the girls do so. There is also a difference concerning the educational level: 55 % of the pupils of Hauptschulen (lower secondary modern schools) have a game console, but only 34 % of the pupils of Gymnasien (higher secondary schools). The educational milieu also influences media adoption: young people with a high educational level adopt the world of media creatively and competently through different activities, while children and young people with a lower educational level adopt media more consumption-oriented (Source: Helga Theunert, 2006: Neue Wege durch die konvergente Medienwelt, p. 196).

The industrial federation BITKOM reported a 20 % turnover increase of consoles and games in Germany in the first half of 2008, compared to last year's period. Still new user groups are tapped; increases mostly concern young children and girls, who showed less interest in computer games until now. According to the 2008 KidsVerbraucherAnalyse, 63 % of the interviewed girls use hand-held devices such as the Gameboy, which means an increase of 13 % compared to the 2006 study. The share of the boys of 72 % has remained the same. Console games show the same tendency: 45 % of the girls (13 % increase) and 60 % of the boys (4 % increase) play with them. With increasing age, the interest in computer games decreases (according to the 2007 JIM Study): 40 % of the 12-13 year old children play daily or several times a week, while only 25 % of the 18-19 year old do so. The 2006 KIM Study exploring the media handling of 6-13 year old children confirms that the main phase of use coincides with adolescence: The share of the interviewed who own computer games and use them intensively is lower in the younger age groups - 43 % of the 6-7 year old children play less than half an hour per day, while only 23 % of the 12-13 year old do so.

The necessary critical distance concerning content and the self-restriction required for limiting the time spent with gaming can hardly be assumed for children and young people. Therefore reflected supervision by parents and teachers is required. But pedagogues, parents, teachers and social workers are often helpless when confronted with the fascination computer games exert on young age groups.

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