INTRODUCTION

Today, the video game business is a $10 billion-a-year industry. With the sales of video game software and home and portable consoles, the industry takes in a larger annual income than do the motion picture, music, and publishing industries combined.

The old video games were in black and white, could display only a few polygons on the screen at a time, and used “blips” and “bloops” as the entire soundtrack. Today, video games can be found in high definition (HD), displaying millions of colors and emitting stereo surround sound.

Now is a great time to start thinking about a career in computer gaming. Along with the Internet came the birth of online gaming, which is the future of video games. More than ever, gamers are uniting over high-speed Internet connections to compete in epic battles, help each other solve puzzles, form online communities, and make new friends. Whether the future of gaming lies in massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), motion sensor controllers, or even virtual reality video games, the computer gaming industry is at the forefront of exciting careers in cutting-edge technology.