VGN for May 27th, 2005

Friday, 27 May 2005

VGN for May 27th, 2005

Video game news:

Addicted to video games...
26/05/2005 12:28 - (SA)

Washington - A neglected baby cries alone. Crazed by lack of sleep, a young boy threatens suicide. A marriage crumbles over a lone obsession.

Yet another grim tale of 21st Century social breakdown? No, these are the victims of America's newest social scourge ... video game addiction.

As Sony and Microsoft ready new generation weapons, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox consoles for a pitched battle next year, hundreds of thousands of children and young adults are struggling to contain their obsession with older machines.

Psychologists and psychiatrists estimate that even before the new wave of gaming consoles hits the stores, one in eight players already suffers from some kind of video game dependency.

There are few long-term scientific studies on video game addiction.

But the reach of the video obsession is borne out by the popularity of one online game Halo 2. By early 2005, one million players, had staggeringly clocked up nearly 100 million hours on the game, according to industry figures.

Video gamers who take their obsession too far show symptoms similar to alcohol or drug addicts, says psychologist David Walsh, founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Or maybe it's not their fault...

It's up to parents to monitor the video games children play
By James Derk

In recent years, there have been many controversies about the violence, sex and other content issues in video games.

It usually rears its head following a violent episode in real life and the investigation shows the teen perpetrator was a video game player.

However, parents like me are faced with a real conundrum on the hard drives of our children because, unlike the movie industry, the gaming industry has done a lousy job of policing itself.

Consider the current crop of video games; recent titles have included slaughter of police officers, incredible amounts of sexual content, gang violence and more.

Et tu, Japan?

Kanagawa to ban U-18s from playing violent video games

YOKOHAMA -- Kanagawa Prefecture is poised to designate violent video games as harmful publications and ban their sale to those under 18, Kanagawa Gov Shigefumi Matsuzawa said.

Kanagawa expects to implement the ban by early June and will require video games that are designated as violent to be sold separately from regular games.

Anybody found selling designated violent video games to children under 18 will be liable to a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

Matsuzawa is urging other governors of prefectures around the capital to follow in Kanagawa's footsteps.

"Unlike movies or videos, children playing video games get the sense of actually being on the scene when they see them. We need to regulate these games," Matsuzawa said.

Kanagawa inspected six popular video games believed to contain extreme violence. One in particular was deemed to be excessively cruel.

On May 30, the game will be presented to the prefecture's child welfare council to determine if it should receive a rating. If it does, it will be required to be sold separately.

It's building hand eye coordination, Dad!

Video Games Can Teach Good, Bad Behaviour

May 23, 2005 12:33 pm US/Mountain
FT. COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) Today's video games are so realistic that they often mimic training tools used for law enforcement, soldiers, airline pilots and train engineers, CBS4 News reports.

Experts say video games are an excellent way to teach children various things and, at the same time, improve their hand-eye coordination, but some groups question the message some video games are teaching.

Even if a child doesn't have an X-box, Playstation or Gamecube at home, chances are that child has plenty of chances to play at a friend's house.

The parents of Mike Vogler, 10, told CBS4 they let him play some "teen-rated" video games. In one, he can hunt and shoot zombies.

"Some of the games I just say, 'Absolutely not,'" Mike's mother Karen said.

"We have to balance what the teenager likes to do with what our 10-year-old likes to play," said Mike's father, Bob. "And he wants to do everything his older brother does, so it really makes it hard."

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What I've been playing:

Morrowind Game of the Year Edition: Thanks Cybertron!!

VooDoo Vince

Various Demos

God of War

Anime news:

Anime at Universal!!

MetroCon!!