7. Gaming And Entertainment
The first-person shooter was a fairly prevalent gaming genre in the eighties and nineties, but its popularity paled in comparison to the likes of platformers and other single player action/adventure games ranging from The Legend of Zelda to Metal Gear Solid. Single player games continue to sell reasonably well, but are fewer in number as first-person shooters (the Call of Duty series in particular) and sports games such as the FIFA franchise have grown rapidly and now dominate the market. Their growth can be almost solely attributed to the internet; as such games now focus on giving players the opportunity to hone their skills against other individuals from across the world instead of computer-controlled AI, though single-player modes are still present. This has forced action/adventure games to adapt to the times, with everything from Grand Theft Auto to Uncharted adding online modes as an extra in an attempt to stay competitive. Many games have even been released as online only, as MMORPGs ranging from the behemoth World of Warcraft to the browser-based Kingdom of Loathing attract players in numbers ranging from thousands to millions on a daily basis. Even more obscure forms of entertainment have embraced the technology who shells out for a copy of Trivial Pursuit anymore when they can endlessly browse the quizzes on Sporcle, for instance?