15-Year-Old Killed For Not Passing GameWhen 15-year-old Olivier Baptiste refused to hand over the video game he was playing to his 18-year-old friend William Suarez, Suarez pulled out a .32-caliber Smith and Wesson from his waistband and shot Baptiste in the head. This according to police, who have charged the alleged killer with manslaughter, illegal possession of a firearm, assault with a dangerous weapon, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling. Witnesses told authorities that Suarez then put the gun down on the kitchen counter and began saying, "This just didn't happen," according to court documents.http://www.wickedlocal.com/brockton/news/x125179664
Stephen King defends videogame violenceGood for the soul, even if you've flogged yoursBy Nick Farrell: Thursday, 10 April 2008, 8:18 AMWORDSMITH and writer of scary stories about small town America, Stephen King has slammed moves to ban violent video games.King said that such a move would be undemocratic and it was up to parents to monitor their children's entertainment.The writer of Salem's Lot, and the Shining, said that he was no computer game fanboy, but was outraged when he heard that a bill in the state of Massachusetts could ban the sale of violent games to anyone aged under 18.He said he was miffed when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous. Not to mention undemocratic.There are similar rumblings in the United States, Britain and Australia about banning violent games.King said games only reflected a violence that already existed in the society. He pointed out that there already was a rating system for videogames and banning them was pointless.Kids of today will find them if they want them.
Susan Arendt of Game|Life shared the story of an encounter she once had in a game store: “A woman was trying to buy her 12-year old daughter some games for Christmas, and overhearing me talking about games, asked me for advice. She picked up one of the Resident Evils and asked me if it was any good. I told her that it was an excellent game, but quite violent and scary. ‘Oh, that's no problem,’ she replied. ‘But there's no, you know, people having relations in it, is there?’
Parents prefer violence to sexAt least on their kids' gamesBy Nick Farrell in Loughborough: Monday, 14 April 2008, 7:15 AMA US gaming site for parents, WhatTheyPlay.com, has been running a survey of its readers in a bid to find out what their preferences on games their child should play.A question of the day posed the question as a parent, which would you find most offensive in a video game?The results were surprising. Parents were happy with their children seeing scenes of graphic violence but were a bit squeamish when it came to two adult sharing a passionate snog together.More parents were okay with swearing or even the odd severed head in video games just so long as human relationships were not mentioned.This might be a US thing. A similar poll at a Norwegian gaming site found that 65.8 per cent would be more offended by violence than sex. It might just be what you are used to.In the former British Colony of Virginia there are guns and more violence. In Norway there are beautiful fjords and long summer nights which are perfect for the shag in Norway.
I don't really blame them. Violence in video games compared to two people doing the monkey?My kid's going to be watching some vital organs explode, bi-yatch!
Bloke stabbed while queuing for GTA IVBlimey, I knew it was realistic, but…By Andrew Thomas: Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 11:27 AMLITTLE DID I KNOW when I wrote yesterday that gamers would never experience the violence of GTA IV for real unless they were very unlucky, that a very unlucky geezer was about to be stabbed while standing in line to buy a copy and another had his jaw broken.Queues formed outside many games shops when the much-hyped game went on sale and around a hundred punters had gathered at Gamestation in Croydon, South London, when a 23-year-old gameist was stabbed several times by a hooded passer by while standing in the queue.The real cops were summoned and took him to a real hospital, where he was later discharged.All this excitement was experienced at absolutely no charge to the participants, the knife wielder having legged it before the plod turned up, possibly in a stolen car. It would be nice to think so.Meanwhile, another hapless gamer was on his way home having coughed up forty quid for the game, when he was set upon by a group of ruffians and relieved of his copy along with several of his teeth.The miscreants punched the victim to the ground and gave him a good kicking, breaking his nose and jaw. Police described the villains as being clean shaven, so they obviously weren't avid fans of the game.
Blame the parents insteadBy Sylvie Barak: Friday, 09 May 2008, 4:54 PMA NEW BOOK PUBLISHED by a couple of Harvard boffins reckons that video games are really not to blame if your child turns out to be a deranged and psychotic mass murderer.The Harvard Medical school husband and wife team, Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, published their study findings in a new book aptly entitled: "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do". In it, the pair write that that there is really nothing to support all the hysterical allegations about video games corrupting today’s youth.The study took a somewhat ‘hands on’ approach, with the researchers putting more emphasis on talking to video game playing kids about their feelings, rather than testing them in lab situations.What the results showed was that in today’s world, most kids found that playing video games was a very social activity, which helped them bond with others and maintain friendship bonds with others.There was a slight correlation, however, between kids who liked to play “mature-rated games” and aggressive behaviour manifestations, but the researchers were rather quick to point out that it was unclear whether this meant that violent games made kids aggressive, or whether aggressive kids just preferred to play fight games.The study did point out, however, that amongst girls who chose to play Mature rated games, about 40 per cent had been involved in some sort of physical fight within the last year, compared to only 14 per cent of non mature rated female game players.The boffins noted that they were surprised to discover how popular the M-Rated games actually were among girls, citing the surprising fact that "Grand Theft Auto" was the second most popular video game for girls after the rather more sissy Sims.Still, Kutner and Olson were at pains to point out that it was the social context that should ring alarm bells for parents, rather than the game playing itself. For example, Kutner told Reuters that a girl who stays home and plays over 15 hours a week of only violent video games should probably have her parents worried, whereas “for boys (the danger sign) is not playing video games at all, because it looks like for this generation, video games are a measure of social competence for boys." µ
Boy gamers are different to girlsShrinks startled by the obviousBy Silvie Barak: Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 7:34 PMPLAYING VIDEO GAMES brings out the territorial beast in men, according to a new study, which claims that this is the reason men love gaming.Boffins at Stanford University hooked 11 young men and 11 young women up to magnetic resonance machines and made them play a game in which a successful action resulted in gaining territory. The men's brains apparently went berserker with joy whenever they captured any territory, whereas women were noticeably under-whelmed by the experience.Scientists have put this down to male brains pumping reward feelings through men's bodies whenever they feel they have done something noteworthy (like capturing virtual computer territory apparently).The part of the brain pegged by researchers as the region linked to reward and addiction, the mesocorticolimbic centre, is apparently to blame for the phenomenon. Three structures in particular, the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, are purportedly the main cause for all the bizarre grunting and frantic finger flexing emanating from living rooms the world over.Allan Reiss, who headed the study explained "I think it is fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial," perhaps sexistly adding "It does not take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species. They are the males." Try telling your wife that, we dare you.But not to worry, men can always defend themselves with the fact that another study, conducted in Penn State university, reckons that gaming can actually improve a player's mood and enhance creativity, so it can't be that bad after all.
QuoteBoy gamers are different to girlsShrinks startled by the obviousBy Silvie Barak: Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 7:34 PMPLAYING VIDEO GAMES brings out the territorial beast in men, according to a new study, which claims that this is the reason men love gaming.Boffins at Stanford University hooked 11 young men and 11 young women up to magnetic resonance machines and made them play a game in which a successful action resulted in gaining territory. The men's brains apparently went berserker with joy whenever they captured any territory, whereas women were noticeably under-whelmed by the experience.Scientists have put this down to male brains pumping reward feelings through men's bodies whenever they feel they have done something noteworthy (like capturing virtual computer territory apparently).The part of the brain pegged by researchers as the region linked to reward and addiction, the mesocorticolimbic centre, is apparently to blame for the phenomenon. Three structures in particular, the nucleus accumbens, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, are purportedly the main cause for all the bizarre grunting and frantic finger flexing emanating from living rooms the world over.Allan Reiss, who headed the study explained "I think it is fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial," perhaps sexistly adding "It does not take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species. They are the males." Try telling your wife that, we dare you.But not to worry, men can always defend themselves with the fact that another study, conducted in Penn State university, reckons that gaming can actually improve a player's mood and enhance creativity, so it can't be that bad after all. http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/28/boy-gamers-different-girls
Shrinks confused about gaming addictionPorn more socially acceptableBy Nick Farrell: Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 8:35 AMA SHRINK trying to understand addiction to internet gaming thinks that society believes that it is more socially acceptable to be addicted to porn.Dr Jerald Block told The Boston Globe that those who worry about spending too much time playing videogames have more shame than those who watch too much porn.Society seems to understand that porn is something people do, but a gaming addiction is hard to describe to your mates.Part of the problem is that studies incorrectly target youths and adolescents. Kids find it easier to talk about game use, while adults keep it a secret.Freud would have a field day with Brock. Apparently the test question about whether or not you have a problem with too much gaming is "How do you feel when your hard drive fails?"He claims that Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho decided against killing additional victims in favour of systematically wiping his hard drive. In other words his last act was to turn against his own computer.
Alliance To Study Video Games for Math and Science Educationby David Nagel07 October 2008Video games have always had detractors, but a growing movement in academia and industry recognizes them as educational tools. This week, eight colleges and universities joined Microsoft in launching a new alliance to study the benefits of video gaming for math and science instruction and STEM (science, technology, education and mathematics) equity.The consortium, dubbed the "Games for Learning Institute," is being led by New York University and includes Columbia University, City University of New York (CUNY), Dartmouth College, Parsons, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Rochester Institute of Technology and Teachers College. These members are matching an investment from Microsoft Research of $1.5 million, for a $3 million total funding effort.This is not the first project to study the value of video gaming in science and math education. Just last month, the United States Department of Education (DoE) itself awarded a grant of $9.2 million to the Education Development Center, a nonprofit education research organization, to study how video games can be used in middle school science instruction in the classroom. But the Games for Learning Institute is different from other recent research initiatives. It's focused particularly on identifying which aspects of video games most engage students and on developing "relevant, personalized teaching strategies that can be applied to the learning process," based on the findings."While educational games are commonplace, little is known about how, why or even if they are effective," said John Nordlinger, senior research manager for Microsoft Research's gaming efforts, in a statement released on Tuesday. "Microsoft Research, together with NYU and the consortium of academic partners, will address these questions from a multidisciplinary angle, exploring what makes certain games compelling and playable and what elements make them effective, providing critically important information to researchers, game developers and educators to support a new era of using games for educational purposes."The research efforts of the consortium will focus on middle school STEM subjects and how video games might be used as learning tools. According to information released today, the research will involve a wide range of student populations but will pay particular attention to females and minority populations. DoE statistics and recent research show that females and some minority students are underrepresented in both the percentage of undergraduate STEM degrees received and the percentage of positions in STEM careers held. (For example, women account for less than 20 percent of all engineering degree recipients at every level, although, on the whole, women receive about 60 percent of all degrees awarded by colleges and universities in the United States. (See "Women Lose Ground in IT, Computer Science" and "Report: STEM Gap Widens for Underrepresented Minorities" for further information and references. Some DoE statistics covering females in STEM majors can be downloaded in PDF format from the National Science Foundation's site here.)
