The New York Times on Manhunt 2: less violent than R rated movies

The "controversy" over Rockstar Games' and Take Two Interactive's Manhunt 2, a violent action game, set to be released later this year has gone through the roof in the last week or so.

The British and the Irish banned it outright, and ESRB, the US organization which rates video games, issued it an Adult Only (AO) rating, which effectively kills the game in the United States. The AO rating means Microsoft, Nintendo nor Sony will allow its release on their video game platforms since all of them have licensing agreements with developers that prohibit releasing AO rated games. All major retailers in the United States also do not carry AO rated video games.

The video gaming industry has been silently sitting idle watching the fireworks and trying to remain quiet as if not to attract too much attention afraid of something else "bad" might come out of speaking out.

A New York Times journalist, Seth Schiesel, however did not remain quiet. He has written an article comparing Manhunt 2 to modern horror movies, all of which are rated R, a much less restrictive rating than the AO rating for Manhunt 2.

He found out the R rated horror movies are far more violent than the video game that's currently been labeled as a "murder simulator" and the most violent video game to date. But such is the power of objective research, rather than letting yourself be influenced by alarmists with self-serving agendas and by fear of "not doing something".

Whyville - making learning science cool with games

The Escapist Magazine has an interesting article about Whyville, a sort of virtual world for young kids to learn about science through playing mini-games and communicating with other kids of their age.

Whyville is a web based virtual community launched in 1998. It's being sponsored by organizations such as NASA.

Positive news from West Virginia's Dance Dance Revolution expirement continue to pile up

The Escapist Magazine writes about West Virginia's expirement to provide all public schools in the state with Dance Dance Revolution games to combat childhood obesity.

The article describes the positive results as experienced by Ryan Walker, a sixth grade student from Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Vicarious Visions - a video game developer based in Albany, NY speaks out against the New York State anti-video game bills

Karthik Bala, the CEO of Vicarious Visions, a video game developer based in Albany, NY, has written an editorial in Times Union, a newspaper serving the New York State's capital region.

He's speaking out against the two different anti-video game bills recently introduced in New York State Senate and Assembly. He's pointing out how similar bills in other states have been struck down on constitutional grounds, and warns the legislators not to go down the same route wasting tax payers' money.

He rather recommends politicians spend our money on educating parents about the video game rating system already in use and about parental controls available in every video game console platform currently on the market.

I couldn't agree more.

Video Games Turn 40

It's been 40 years this month since Ralph Baer invented Pong.

Within those 40 years the video game industry has surpassed both the music and film industry in terms of annual revenue generated. No small feat for "kids stuff".

The 1Up.com article recaps the history of inventing Pong.

Mr. Baer, thank you for all the wonderful gaming moments.

Wisconsin gamers raise $14K to help their fellow schoolmate

For the second time this year Kaukauna High School students stepped up to raise money for a schoolmate in trouble. In March they raised $13K for Michael Ederer, who was diagnosed with cancer, and this Monday they raised $14K to help Tiffany Pohl, who was seriously injured in a car crash.

The students were selling raffle tickets to win a Nintendo Wii, and tickets to play video games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution.

Nicely done!

Games are Good for You

Ben Silverman's article on Yahoo! Games discusses five different positive aspects of video games.

They are:

1. They can improve your eyesight.
2. They can help you focus.
3. They can help you lose weight.
4. They can help you understand classic literature.
5. They can literally save your life.

Ben is a kindred spirit.

Progress report on West Virginia and Dance Dance Revolution

About a year ago the State of West Virginia decided it's going to add Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) into the physical education curriculum on all of its 765 public schools.

They've since added DDR on all 185 of their middle schools. The New York Times is writing about the results of the expirement.

Virginia Tech and video games

MSNBC has published an excellent article about how video games get blamed for every violent act by a young male in the US. It goes on to discuss how certain people went on to blame video games for the Virginia Tech tragedy even before anyone knew anything about the shooter.

It quotes Dr. Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at USC, who says it's disingenuous to blame video games, because pretty much all young males have, at some point in their lives played video games and despite every young adult male being a gamer youth violence rates are at an all time low.

It's a good read to get past the blame game.

My anti violence declaration

Gaming blog Joystiq.com has written a declaration about violence in video games from the gamers' perspective.

It lists a few statements that should be obvious to anyone with common sense. It's too bad most people these days do not have common sense, so people have to spell these things out.

The list includes, among others:

• I know the difference between right and wrong.
  
• I know that people have played Cops and Robbers for generations without becoming real robbers.
  
• I know that video games are a safe way to let out my aggression without hurting anyone.
  
• I know, in the end, that these are only games.
  

British Board of Film Classification studies video gaming

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), an independent organization that rates film and video releases in the United Kingdom, has published their research on playing video games.

The BBFC prefaces the press release about the research with the following.

Video games tend to polarise opinions in a way that other entertainment media do not. People who do not play them cannot understand their attraction and that lack of understanding can lead to some games being demonised.

Well said.

The research is one of the first research on why people play video games and what do the gamers think of their gaming habits. The research included gamers from 7 to 40 years old, parents of young gamers, gaming industry representatives and games reviewers.

One of the most poignant, especially during this time when the witch hunt against video games has been fueled again by the tragic events at Virginia Tech University, findings of the research state:

gamers are virtually unanimous in rejecting the suggestion that video games encourage people to be violent in real life or that they have become desensitised. They see no evidence in themselves or their friends who play games that they have become more violent in real life. As one participant said: "I no more feel that I have actually scored a goal than I do that I have actually killed someone. I know it’s not real. The emphasis is on achievement."

The research also found out that most gamers find violence on television and in films more upsetting and more real than violence in video games.

Video games used in Physical Ed classes to keep kids in shape

Monroeton Elementary school in North Carolina is using Dance, Dance Revolution video game to keep their kids in shape during PE classes.

According to the news article the kids are much more enthusiastic about exercising using the video game than they would otherwise be. A lot of them are playing the game at home, too, so that they'd get better when competing against their classmates at school. The end result is more exercising.

Nintendo Wii keeping the elderly active

A retirement community in Lincolnshire, IL got a Nintendo Wii as a Christmas present and the residents haven't looked back since. The retirees living in the community have taken video gaming to heart and are having 20 person Wii Sports Bowling tournaments Sunday afternoons.

Looks like video game addiction is not just for the young.

Anshe Chung becomes the first virtual millionaire

A Second Life resident, Anshe Chung, is the first virtual millionaire, according to a press release she's put out.

Anshe is a virtual real estate tycoon in Second Life, a virtual world game, where she buys, develops and sells virtual real estate.

Second Life currency can be exchanged freely to real currency. According to the current exchange rates her in-game assets are now valued in more than $1M USD in real US currency.

Her press release states she's made her million entirely within the virtual world in two and a half years starting with a mere $9.95 investment in a paid Second Life account.

Burger King scores big with video game tie-in

Burger King Holdings reports its quarterly earnings ending at 12/31/2006 were better than expected. Net income increased from $27M to $38M over the same period last year. Quarterly revenues were up 9%.

Burger King is stating one of the reasons for the better than expected results is the cross marketing campaign with Microsoft. Burger King and Microsoft created Burger King branded video games for the XBox 360 video game platform and sold the games at Burger King locations for $3.99 each.

Michigan State University developing a MMO game to teach Chinese online

Michigan State University's Confucius Institute is developing a Massively Multiplayer Online game to teach Chinese to US high school students. The effort is sponsored by the Chinese Government.

The goal of the program is to make learning Chinese more interesting to US teenagers by taking advantage of the interactive elements of Massively Multiplayer Online games.

Child's Play Charity breaks the one million USD mark

Charitable donations for the Child's Play Charity have crossed the one million USD mark for the first time ever.

That's over $400K more than last year.

Well done gamers!

Get Well Gamers expand their network

The Get Well Gamers charity has managed to increase the number of hospitals in its network by more than 25% during 2006. They can now also accept electronic donations through Network for Good.

Get Well Gamers is one of the charities taking donations towards providing children's hospitals with video game related items. It's a great cause and well worth your donations.

The ESA Foundation Nite To Unite charity dinner raises $800K USD

The Entertainment Software Association Foundation's annual Nite To Unite charity dinner this year raised $800K to benefit Web Wise Kids, HopeLab, Working Achievement Values Education and PAX. The ESA Foundation will also establish a scholarship program to support minorities and women pursuing educational opportunities in the computer and video game field.

The ESA Foundation charity game pack raises over $1.5M USD

In 2005 The Entertainment Software Association assembled a pack of four games sold at retailers nationwide since the 2005 holiday season.

The $1.5M will be distributed to various children's charities, incl. assisting the production and distribution of 6,000 copies of HopeLabs' Re-Mission cancer game.