Video games are a popular phenomenon amongst youth, especially those in high school. Some staff members at West share the love for games, and are discussing upcoming ones with their students.

“The consumption of video games has become a significant economic, cultural, and entertainment phenomenon worldwide,” stated by the Association for Information Systems.

     Staff and students were asked to share what games they were excited about. The most common games that were talked about amongst students and staff from a given list are Minecraft Dungeons, Halo Infinite, and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. 

     Minecraft Dungeons is an action based role-playing game made by Mojang, and is similar to Minecraft: Story Mode. It’s inspired by classic dungeon crawlers such as The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Nethack. Players can play solo or online with up to four people.

“It’s a timeless game and a cultural touchstone,” said senior Evan Diviney.

     Halo Infinite is a first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries. The game is a sequel to Halo 5 and will continue Master Chief’s story, who is a well-known character in the Halo franchise.

“I started playing Halo a couple of years ago with my dad, who’s played before,” said sophomore Kody Brown. 

     Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is an action-adventure, Lego-themed video game. It’s the sixth game in Traveller’s Tales Lego Star Wars series. All in game dialogue is planned to be fully voiced by a selected cast.

“The Lego Star Wars games were the first video games I owned and beat. It has a huge nostalgia factor,” said Brown.

“Lego games are funny and easy, and not a huge time sink. It’s the saga, which will have partly to do with the new [Star Wars] movie,” says Spanish teacher Ken Beiser “I like the idea of replaying the older games to earn trophies” [in-game achievements on Playstation consoles].

     Lego Star Wars seems to be one of the most popular games that are being talked about amongst students and teachers. When asked what games they were interested in, those who were interviewed chose Lego Star Wars from the given list. It brings in a nostalgia factor for those who’ve played the previous games. 

    They’ll have great graphics and better animations than in years past due to years of development in technology. 

“Improvement over time is achieved by applying three evolutionary operators: selection, reproduction, and mutation,” said Luis de la Vega-Hazas, Francisco Calatayud and André Iglesias.

These 2020 games are highly anticipated and are expected to have viral popularity upon respected releases.