Grand Theft Auto IV's realism all bad?

A lot of media reports about GTA IV's blockbuster release last week focus on the negative. Don't get me wrong, this violent game is appropriately rated "M" for ages 17+ only in the US, but listen to this in Slate.com and see if it isn't somewhat encouraging: "Based on my play experience [with GTA IV] so far and in talking with reviewers who have finished the game," Chris Baker writes, "I get the sense that freewheeling killing sprees will no longer be the main draw. This is partly because the central missions and story are so well-conceived and well-written compared with previous iterations of the game and partly because the violence is far more disturbing." It's no longer cartoonish, he writes. "Shoot an innocent bystander, and you see his face contort in agony. He'll clutch at the wound and begin to stagger away, desperately seeking safety.... I felt unnerved. What makes Grand Theft Auto IV so compelling is that, unlike so many video games, it made me reflect on all of the disturbing things I had done." Maybe this disturbance is healthy? Could it be that GTA4 signals a future of more thought-provoking game play (at least for healthy players)? Baker's view was echoed in a thoughtful New Zealand Herald piece covering GTA4's release: Some GTA players "have referred to the 'uncanny valley' hypothesis - that when facsimiles of humans, such as game avatars, look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion" or "repulsion, eeriness or discomfort," CNET reports. Interestingly, this is in the context of New Zealand law, which says it's illegal for anyone to make a game rated R18 (this country's game rating for ages 18+ only) available to minors. Even parents who do so "could face three months in prison or a $10,000 fine" (the law, in effect since 1994, has never been enforced). [Here's Slate's Chris Baker in a discussion about GTA4 with readers of WashingtonPost.com.]

This just in: In its first week of release, GTA4 made $500 million in sales, the Wall Street Journal reports. Its maker, Take Two Interactive, said retailers sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, claiming that a record for first-week sales of a videogame." Halo 3 sold $300 million its first week, the Journal added.

'Grand Theft Childhood'?

The release this week of the latest version of Grand Theft Auto (IV) sparks a new flood of headlines about 1) how the hot videogame industry is headed for the stratosphere (USATODAY) and 2) videogame violence. Interestingly, a $1.5 million study by two Harvard Medical School professors funded by the US Justice Department found that the connection between violent videogame play and violent videogame players "may be more tenuous than previously thought," the Harvard Crimson reports. The study resulted in a new book by Profs. Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner, Grand Theft Childhood, which says "videogames do not affect all children equally." The Crimson adds that "Olson said that gaming - including playing 'M'-rated games - is such a widespread teenage phenomenon that it should not be considered abnormal." What is abnormal, the authors suggest, is excessive videogame play. They advise a balance of gaming and other activities. A thoughtful post about Kutner and Olson's research in the OpenEducation.net blog suggests that parents play with their kids as "a great way to keep the conversation going and help you navigate the game. Parents may initially find the skills and dexterity very challenging but abandonment is not the answer." Why? Well, for one thing, the study cites the view of Michael Jellinek, M.D., professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, "that a parent’s awkwardness 'can be used to your advantage when it comes to strengthening relationships with your children'.” Here's the Chicago Tribune's meaty coverage of the swirl around GTA IV's release, Chicago-style.

New guide to videogame parental controls

The videogame ratings board and Parent Teacher Association have teamed up to help parents get a better handle on videogame safety. They've published a free parents' guide to both the ratings system and the parental controls on game consoles, including step-by-step instructions for the controls' settings on PLAYSTATION 3, the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PSP, as well as the game controls in the Windows Vista operating system. You'll also find advice from "GamerDad" Andrew Bub about online gaming and a family discussion guide with talking points. "The booklets were distributed to all 26,000 PTAs, and are available in both English and Spanish on both the ESRB and PTA web sites," according to the organizations' press release (there's a link right to the guide from the presser).

New game ratings for UK

Britain is working on a new game-ratings system to replace its old, unworkable one, The Guardian reports. "A legally enforceable cinema-style classification system is to be introduced for videogames in an effort to keep children from playing damaging games unsuitable for their age." The system will make it illegal to sell a game to a child below that game's recommended age (maybe not to a parent unaware of the game's rating?). Under the current system, videogames aren't affected by the UK's Video Recordings Act unless they depict "'gross' violence to humans or animals" or sex. Those require age limits, leaving "up to 90% of games on the market" rating-free. Some games are also classified voluntarily by a European system. "Policing such regimes is difficult as it is possible to buy games over the net and simply tick the box stating the purchaser is over 18."

World of Warcraft passes big milestone

The world's biggest multiplayer online game just passed the 10 million player mark, Yahoo Games reports. World of Warcraft has a "population" greater than Sweden's and Israel's, it adds. "Warcraft players number more than 2.5m in North America, while Asian subscribers account for the majority of the remainder."

High school classes in videogame design?

That's what the Ohio Supercomputer Center is promoting, the Cleveland Morning Journal reports. "The process of creating a video game involves reading, comprehending, doing math and physics, plus problem solving to make the game's characters and other features function realistically," the Center says, adding that getting high school students involved in the process gets them hooked on math and science. "Video game design isn't just for entertainment; similar 'games' are used in medical training," editorializes the Morning Journal, citing an Associated Press report. The Orlando Sentinel tells the story of one such class at Edgewater High School in Orlando. "Now offering a four-year track in digital design, the program hopes to reach students who may show great promise in art and other creative pursuits in addition to the basic math and science skills," according to the Sentinel. In Trenton, N.J., Giancarlos Alvarado is designing a videogame called Earthquake Terror: After Shock with his fifth-grade students, game news site Kotaku.com reports. While we're on the subject, here's a library now loaning out videogames: the Guilderland Public Library. The Albany Times Union reports that the library sees videogames as "a gateway to other library materials, such as strategy guides and books that introduce teens to careers in programming."

Game worlds: Growth economy

The virtual economy is strengthening - for gamers, anyway. This is a business story, but of interest to us parents because it offers indicators of where the industry's going. Electronic Arts will soon be offering the next version of its popular Battlefield Heroes game for free, the New York Times reports. You heard right - it will be downloadable for free. EA will make its money on advertising and in-game sales of virtual gear - weapons, clothing, etc. This is not a big leap of faith, of course. EA tested the approach in South Korea, "the world’s most fervent gaming culture," according to the Times, which adds that "in 2006, the company introduced a free version of its FIFA soccer game there ... [and] signed up more than 5 million Korean users," generating more than $1 million a month in virtual-objects sales. [See also "Virtual money, real income" and "Converting virtual cash to real."]

Videogame misconceptions

This news story about Wisconsin legislation to put a tax on videogames reflects the widespread misconception in the US that videogames are a "kids thing." That's how the bill's author, state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, described them to WISC-TV. The motivation is good - to raise money to have youth "who commit non-violent crimes" tried in the juvenile system. "Currently, 17-year-olds are treated as adults," according to WISC-TV. The only problem is, videogames aren't a kid thing, actually. "The average videogame player is 33 years old," according to Entertainment Software Association research, and PC World blogger Matt Peckham points to the same data in asking, "Is there any way we could put an age cap on the tax? You know, since you say it's a 'kids-kids' thing, which pretty obviously means you're not talking about the ESA's '67% of American heads of households play computer and video games' statistic. I assume 'heads of households' means adults (not kids), but maybe I'm out on a limb there." Tongue firmly planted in cheek, Peckham likens a videogame tax to a cigarette one, putting a stigma on a product that probably doesn't deserve it. But taxing videogames is also about as effective as fining retailers for selling age-inappropriate games to minors, since "the average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old," again according to ESA research. "In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18." Here's one more notable statistic for anyone overly influenced by all the news media coverage about violent videogames: "85% of all games sold in 2006 were rated 'E' for Everyone, 'T' for Teen, or 'E10+' for Everyone 10+." [Here's the ESA's page on third-party research.] The really violent games are rated "M" for Mature or "AO" for Adult Only. Before anyone buys a game, it always helps to check a game's rating either on its packaging or at the ESA's game ratings site, ESRB.org.

Wii-related 'parental challenges'

A California mom was "lucky" enough this past fall to walk into a toy store right after a fresh shipment of Nintendo Wii consoles had been received. So she bought one for her child as a gift, only too soon to discover some "hidden costs." "Be prepared for "post-Wii stress disorder," she wrote in the Los Gatos Weekly Times. In the last four paragraphs of her story, she suggests how parents of Wii players can prepare themselves (including if they get hooked themselves).

Controversial 'Cool Girl' game in Oz

Is it a way for "cool girl" wannabes to vent their frustrations, does it teach them to bully, or does it simply entertain? Those are the questions reportedly surrounding a new mobile-phone game in Australia that's drawing international attention. Called "Coolest Girl in School," the game - quite an anomaly because designed specifically for girls - "invites young players to 'lie, bitch, and flirt your way to the top of the high school ladder'," reports Sydney-based SmartHouse magazine. It went on sale last week and the Australian Family Association called for it to be banned. The game was designed by Adelaide-based developers Holly Owen of Champagne for the Ladies and Karyn Lanthois of Kukan Studio, who said they were surprised by the pre-release international attention.

Uninformed game givers

Sixty percent of kids 8-17 expect to 1) get a game they didn't want or a game for a console they don't have, or 2) not get any or all of the games they asked for, according to a study by Weekly Reader Research cited by USATODAY. It also found that 80% of kids said they'd ask for a videogame this holiday season, and 59% for a game console. Their five favorites are Guitar Hero, Mario Party DS, Super Mario Galaxy, My Sims and Halo 3. Key advice for getting the right games, USATODAY says: know what console the child has and know the child's game picks. I would add: Know the games' ratings! Go to ESRB.org to see if a child's pick is age- and maturity-level appropriate. Meanwhile, as the New York Daily News reviews the three top consoles: Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, the Los Angeles Times reports that Microsoft is pushing to broaden the market for Xbox Live and the online gaming it enables. See also "Support for young videogamers," zooming in on what online gaming can be like for tweens and teens.

Related links

A mom's change of heart. See this from a mom who went from videogame critic to buyer because of research she read about active videogames.

Senators critical on ratings. Four senators, including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, sent a letter recently to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board calling on it to "review the rating system for video games since Manhunt 2 received an 'M' for Mature" rating instead of an Adults Only one, Information Week reported.

WhatTheyPlay.com's giving guide - for parents who want to learn more about game consoles

USATODAY's "Joysticks to the world: A videogame Gift Guide" for kids, tweens, teens, adults, and older/casual players

Readers, your views and stories are always welcome. Email them anytime to anne[at]netfamilynews.org, comment here, or - ideally - post them in our forum at ConnectSafely.org. I sometimes reprint for the benefit of your fellow readers.

Real music, fake guitars

The two hottest videogame (console, not computer) titles of the season, according to the San Francisco Chronicle - Rock Band and Guitar Hero III - are also among the most social. "The fun ramps up considerably with more players." On the other hand, "there's something mildly distressing about living in a society where cash-strapped public schools are more likely than ever to be cutting their music programs, and yet the must-have game of the season teaches you to play a fake guitar" and "the plastic Guitar Hero guitar is pretty much useless around the campfire. (Even as kindling.)" But writer Peter Hartlaub is only half serious (don't miss the wisdom of his distinction between "happiness" and "fun."

Socializing + gaming: Trend

For once, 30- and 40-somethings may be leading a trend: the blending of social networking and online games. Some analysts call MySpace and Facebook "massively multiplayer games in disguise," the Daily Globe reports. The article's about sites like Kaneva.com that are "less about skill levels and escapism and more about joining friends and strangers in virtual spaces where chatting, comparing fashions, going dancing — and, yes, slaying monsters — are all options." The Daily Globe describes the experience of "a 41-year-old homemaker" who spends "hours online every day playing Kaneva," a "shopping-and-partying game - where she operates a virtual nightclub and hosts parties - because it helps her interact with people, not provide escape from them as traditional games often do." Both sides see financial gain from this trend, with social sites adding gaming features and game sites adding social ones.

Videogames: Great teachers for good & bad

They are very effective teaching tools, a new study found, including for teaching aggression. "Students who played multiple violent video games actually learned through those games to produce greater hostile actions and aggressive behaviors over a span of six months," reports Science Daily, citing a study of almost 2,500 young people - "Violent Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis" - to be published soon in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. It worked with 430 kids in grades 3-5, 607 in grades 8 and 9, and 1,441 students with an average age of 19, assessing "aggressive thoughts and self-reported fights, and their media habits - including violent video game exposure. Teachers and peers were also asked to rate the participants' aggressive behavior." With the grade-school students, "playing multiple violent videogames increased their risk of being highly aggressive … by 73%, when compared to those who played a mix of violent and non-violent games, and by 263% compared to those who played only non-violent games." The study's authors are father and son J. Ronald Gentile, distinguished teaching professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York, and Douglas Gentile, assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University. At the University of Victoria in Canada, researchers Kathy Sanford and Leanna Madill have some comments on the kinds of literacy videogames can teach.

Manhunt 2: Heads up, parents

Manhunt 2 was released on Halloween to reports that it's taking videogame violence to a new level (e.g, see these from the Associated Press and a CBS News station). It's now rated "M" for "Mature" for 17+, since its maker, Rockstar Games, modified it a bit last summer. "Made for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2," the AP reports, the blood-drenched game has been sparking controversy since June, when the Entertainment Software Rating Board gave it a rating of "adult only" that would have excluded it from some big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc." In it, reports CBS in Springfield, Mass., "players act out killing and torturing someone with tools like a sledgehammer or shovel. And this is a toned down version." CBS Evening News in New York reported that Manhunt 2 is "even more intense when it's played on Nintendo’s Wii, which gets players to act out the violence." Here's ABC News's "Ultimate Parents' Guide to Video Games", complete with an explanation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board's ratings and descriptors, as well as a glossary of video and online game terms.

Videogaming reduces a gender difference

University of Toronto researchers not only found that there's a "spatial attention" difference between men and women, but also that women can catch up to men in this ability rapidly to switch attention among different objects by playing videogames "for only a few hours." "One important application of this research could be in helping to attract more women to the mathematical sciences and engineering - since spatial skills play an important role in these professions," the university's news site quotes Prof. Ian Spence as saying. While we're on the subject, don't miss a thoughtful piece in the New York Times about what needs to happen before videogames are an art form on the level of film. "If games are to become more than mere entertainment, they will need to use the fundamentals of gameplay — giving players challenges to work through and choices to make — in entirely new ways…. Like cinema, games will need to embrace the dynamics of failure, tragedy, comedy and romance. They will need to stop pandering to the player’s desire for mastery in favor of enhancing the player’s emotional and intellectual life."

The 'Halo [3] effect'

Get ready, parents of gamers. You may've already heard from a real authority at your house that today's the day for Halo fans - Tuesday is release day for Halo 3, and it's " almost guaranteed to be a blockbuster hit," the San Jose Mercury News reports, citing the view of many analysts that it's likely to be the top-selling videogame of 2007 and likely to "boost flagging sales" of the Xbox 360. After all, "the evil aliens of the Covenant and the Flood" have taken control of Earth, and it's up to Master Chief, "humanity's last defender" to take control back. Halo 3 is rated M (for "Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Violence") by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Videogames increasingly social

Increasingly, experts are saying that banning a teen's use of social networking is like banning (or more likely inhibiting) his or her social life. That's increasingly true with videogames too. "People tend to play with friends and family more often than they play by themselves, contrary to the stereotype of the anti-social gamer that stays in their room all day," the Tehran Times (Iran's English-language paper) reports in "7 steps to make videogames good for your kids" (the article's actually a reprint of About.com's Guide to Nintendo Games but illustrates how universal videogaming is). The tips are great - they include: "Buy some active games" (like Dance Dance Revolution or games for the Wii), "buy extra controllers so you can join in," "keep the system in the open," and "don't be afraid [from all the media about violence in videogames]." As for excessive game play, the South Jersey News Online zooms in on the signs, adding that "70-90% of US youths play videogames." A tragic example of excess in videogames just occurred in China, where a 30-year-old man "died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge" in a Guangzhou cybercafe. The Associated Press had that story.

For female gamers

US society has evolved since the '60s, but videogaming is stuck in a pre-Feminism time warp, and the Los Angeles Times profiles someone working on that problem: Christa Phillips, screenname TriXie, "a goodwill ambassador for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live online game service. Her online group, GamerchiX, functions as a virtual Grand Central Terminal for women and girls who tread into the testosterone-steeped world of console gaming." TriXie told the L.A. Times that some women get either trash-talked or hit on ("or both") the minute they join the Xbox Live fray, which can be a bit of a deterrent. She estimates that 10-20% of Xbox Live's 7 million members are women. For those unfamiliar with Xbox Live, the service is used to find opponents ad teammates and to chat either via voice (usually using headsets) or instant messaging." This article offers some great context on the female gaming community as a whole too.

Videogames as art

"Just like paintings, sculptures, plays, films, or symphonies, videogames can both display breathtaking aesthetics and convey powerful messages. Videogames can carry the twin payloads of beauty and purpose as any other artistic medium," writes CNET editor Will Greenwald. Click "PRESS START" on the page and you'll see screenshots of 10 examples, among them Bioshock (featuring "brilliant art deco-inspired level design and fascinating analysis of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and the Objectivist movement"), Okami, Metal Gear Solid, Eternal Sonata, and Alice. Meanwhile, CNN reports that producers in this very visual artistic medium have "largely ignored … the blind." "With that in mind, a team of researchers at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in Massachusetts set out this summer to make a music-based video game that's designed for mainstream players and also accessible to the blind."

CA videogame law update

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appealed a federal court's injunction against a law banning violent videogame sales to minors, the Associated Press reports. "The law, signed by the governor in 2005, prohibits the sale or rental of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18 and requires that such games be clearly labeled. Retailers who violated the act would be fined up to $1,000 for each violation." The judge had found the law unconstitutional, saying its definition of violence was too broad and its supporters had failed to show a clear relationship between videogame play and children's behavior. "His decision echoed a string of rulings in other states where similar laws were blocked by challenges by video game industry groups," the AP added.

Videogamers & the 'game of life'

Parents of gamers (and gamer parents) might be interested in a thoughtful piece in the Ottawa Citizen by education technology Prof. Constance Steinkuehler at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Referring to the perception gaps between gamers and politicians and between gamers and people over 35, Professor Steinkuehler cites Pew Internet statistics ("more than eight out of every 10 kids in America have a game console in the home and over half have two or more") indicating that we might want to bridge this divide that she straddles. "I talk to parents, teachers, librarians and other professors about the social and intellectual value of gameplay. And I talk to game players and designers about why education is important and how research on learning might have something important to say about how games are designed and experienced." Here are the intellectual practices gaming involves which she studies: "collaborative problem solving, reading and writing practices that use highly specialized language, scientific habits of mind such as hypothesis testing and revision, skills in information and communication technology (IT literacy), and argumentation." Steinkuehler says that "such practices are the mainstay of online gameplay. Together, they form that 21st-century skill set so crucial to democratic success." She also talks about online games as "third places" or useful "hangouts" (see "Digital hangouts" posted in this blog Monday). And speaking of videogames, the Washington Post just profiled "the new face of videogames" on Capitol Hill, Michael Gallagher, the Entertainment Software Association's new president, who keeps a Nintendo DS in his suit coat pocket.

Videogame tournament on TV

Watch out, Masters and March Madness. This week CBS Sports broadcast the World Series of Video Games, held in Louisville, Ky., last month. Reporting the day before the series aired (Sunday), the New York Times says that "viewers flicking channels looking for a ballgame or golf tournament may instead encounter a couple of young guys rocking out on plastic guitars, or some (literally) disembodied digital boxers throwing uppercuts, or a fanciful animated wizard casting a spell." Definitely a sign of videogames' mainstream-ization, but it is challenging making videogame play interesting on TV to people who don't play videogames. The show, the Times reports, consisted of highlights form the whole gaming series.

Xbox: 'Family-friendly'

Could the Xbox be going the way of the Wii? Microsoft has announced "several efforts to broaden the appeal of their machine to families," the New York Times reports. The efforts include more Xbox games for children and families and "a deal to distribute films from the Walt Disney Company on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Internet service."

Game console news

If you have an Xbox 360 player at your house, you may’ve heard of “the red ring of death.” Explains a Seattle Post Intelligencer blog, “when an Xbox 360 suffers an indeterminate major hardware failure, the normally green ring of power lights turns red and the system will not boot up. This is not a software crash but a total hardware failure, and the sad owner of the Xbox [used to have] to mail it to Microsoft and then pay $140 for them to service it and mail it back.” It’s not a problem for most 360 owners, MS says, but for those who have experienced it, good news: Microsoft is extending the Xbox 360’s warranty, saying it will devote $1 billion+ to the repair costs,” USATODAY reports. “Microsoft said it should take two to four weeks to repair damaged consoles.” Meanwhile, there’s good news for PlayStation fans too: Sony’s taking $100 off the price of its PS3, USATODAY reported in another article. The new price is $499, and Sony “plans to introduce a $599 package with a larger (80-gigabyte vs. 60-GB) hard drive and one game next month.” Analysts say PS3 sales have lagged a bit in the face of the Nintendo Wii’s success.

Teens' videogaming time: Study

Teen boys and girls who play videogames spend less time on reading and homework than those who don’t play videogames, a new study found. The videogame players, however, “did not spend less time than non-video game players interacting with parents and friends,” according to the study in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, ScienceDaily.com reports. The latter is *partly* good news for healthy development: "Particularly during adolescence, when social interactions and academic success lay the groundwork for health in adulthood, there is concern that video games will interfere with the development of skills needed to make a successful transition to adulthood." The survey respondents were given diaries in which they logged time spent playing video games, interacting with parents and friends, reading and doing homework, and engaging in sports and “active leisure.” Here’s Reuters’s coverage. Meanwhile, if you have an avid videogamer at your house, s/he may’ve already found this press release about how people can make $120/hour testing videogames: added incentive not to do one's homework?

Infected game mod

It’s a handy, cutting-edge form of social engineering using terrible, 1986-style graphics. The “Hood Life” mod (short for modification, a bit of code that enhances or offers an add-on to a videogame) for Grand Theft Auto is demo’d in a YouTube video, but the graphics are “crudely rendered, not up to the high standards of the GTA game itself,” CNET reports, but even so 54 people have downloaded the mod. “Watching the You Tube video is safe. The danger comes at the end when the video displays a site where you can download the game mod itself. Should you download the file and install, your computer will be compromised upon reboot.” There are also videos on YouTube that teach people how to write and distribute viruses, according to CNET.

China's videogame sweatshops

If someone at your house plays World of Warcraft and you want to understand the appeal or the ins and outs of this 8 million-player virtual world better, don’t miss “The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer” in the New York Times Magazine. It’s one of those stories that transports you almost to another planet, because it’s about China’s “gold farmers,” usually low-20-something professional gamers making sweatshop wages to do the tedious in-game work that gets their clients (gamers mostly in North American and Europe) into higher levels in the game by earning them “coins.” “Every World of Warcraft player needs those coins, and mostly for one reason: to pay for the virtual gear to fight the monsters to earn the points to reach the next level. And there are only two ways players can get as much of this virtual money as the game requires: they can spend hours collecting it or they can pay someone real money to do it for them.” But that’s only the beginning of the story.

'Videogame addiction' update

The committee of the American Medical Association that proposed designating videogame addiction as a mental disorder like alcoholism “backed away from its position” even before debate on the subject began at the AMA’s annual meeting, Reuters reports. Instead, the committee “recommended that the American Psychiatric Association consider the change when it revises its next diagnostic manual in 5 years.” Reuters adds that later, during the debate, addiction experts “strongly opposed” such a designation. Listing “videogame addiction” as a mental disorder in the American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders would “ease the path for insurance coverage of video game addiction.” Excessive use of videogames affects about 10% of players, according to Reuters. Here’s Gamasutra.com’s coverage.

Take Two game controversy

Take Two Interactive, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series of videogames, is embroiled in controversy again. It has suspended the release of its latest product, Manhunt 2, “because of a rating controversy in the United States and a ban in Britain and Ireland,” the Associated Press reports. The Entertainment Software Rating Board gave Manhunt 2 a preliminary rating of Adults Only, which can really put a damper on sales since stores like Wal-Mart won’t even put AO games on their shelves, and Nintendo and Sony “said their policies bar any content rated for adults only on their systems.” The game is about “the escape of an amnesiac scientist and a psychotic killer from an asylum and their subsequent killing spree,” the AP adds. “In the Wii version, the console's motion-sensitive remote is waved around to control a virtual murder weapon.” The game was supposed to be released in the US on July 10 for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 consoles. Meanwhile, Sony apologized to the Church of England for using one of its churches as a backdrop for one of its games, the Associated Press earlier reported.

Phone-sex number on game disk

A 12-year-old boy in Washington State got stuck in a particular level of the PlayStation 2 game Ratchet and Clank, so he called the tipline printed on the game disk and found he’d called a phone sex line, KNDO TV reports. “The number appears on multiple games, including top sellers like Hot Shots Golf, and a similar number on other games leads to the same service.” When the boy’s mom called Sony, the company said it hadn’t used that number for about two years and couldn’t be responsible for it.

Parent videogamers

I love the parenting message in this Associated Press story, and I think it applies to teen social networking as well as videogaming. Across the US, according to the AP, many parents say hanging out with their children in the virtual worlds of videogames brings kids closer “by providing a safe, convenient way to stay in touch and talk to their children on their own terms.” Eighty percent of the parents who play videogames (35% of US parents) play with their children, according to an Entertainment Software Association study cited by the AP. One dad said “the time spent with his daughter … matters much more than the games themselves,” and the AP cites an expert saying that “videogames equalize the physical size differences between fathers and their kids. That means children often have the edge in a video game, and they may feel more willing to communicate.” That’s something I’ve been suggesting since I started writing this newsletter – that empowering kids (letting them be, e.g., the family chief technology officer or just asking them to guide a parent through software preferences) fosters both communication and mutual respect, which is increasingly protective of online kids. It’s protective because on the 24/7 user-driven Web it’s so easy, when parent-child communication breaks down, for kids to operate at greater risk online “underground” where parents can’t be involved.

Peaceful videogames?!

Yup. The New York Times reports that the focus of videogame makers around the world is shifting away from “violent killer videogames” to the sort of game that promotes exercise, vocabulary-building, and nutrition. “The strategic shifts in the game industry come as critics and government authorities are growing impatient with violence in video games,” according to the Times. “The justice ministers of the European Union vowed last week to press for stricter regulations on the sale of ‘killer games’ to children.” Game manufacturers aren’t just responding to regulators, though, they’re trying to broaden their market, as Nintendo did by introducing the Wii console. Examples are Ubisoft’s My Life Coach with nutrition advice and Electronic Arts’s Sommelier wine guide for the DS and Boogie for the Wii, with which users “sing and dance along with cartoon characters,” the Times reports. Other even more high-minded examples are Food Force, developed by the UN Food Programme, and PeaceMaker about finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (see “Gaming for peace!”).

Professional videogame league

Videogaming competition will soon be on DirecTV. There are six teams in the new Championship Gaming Series league, CNET reports: “the San Francisco OPTX, the Los Angeles Complexity, the Chicago Chimera, the Dallas Venom, the Carolina Core, and 3DNY from New York. Each team has a general manager and 10 players [or “thumb jockeys”].” You may have heard of some of the games they’ll play: Counter-Strike: Source, Dead or Alive 4; Project Gotham Racing 3, and FIFA '07. And this is an international sport, of course. Besides DirecTV, the league is backed by “the UK's BSkyB and Asia's Star networks.”

AMA on 'game addiction'

The American Medical Association is looking into whether videogame play can become an “addiction.” The AMA has released “an extremely readable” but “cautious” report summarizing the current “state of knowledge” on the subject, ArsTechnica reports. “In terms of ‘gaming addiction,’ the report suggests that it is likely to be a subset of internet addiction, as it most frequently occurs in players of MMORPGs [massively multiplayer online role-playing games]. In both of these addictions, the current definition is currently informal - the described symptoms actually most closely resemble pathological gambling, rather than an addiction. In either case, the report notes, ‘there is currently insufficient research to definitively conclude that video game overuse is an addiction’." ArsTechnica links to the report. (See also “Notable fresh videogame findings.”) Meanwhile, a Wired News blog reports that a new study entitled "Report of the Council on Science and Public Health: Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games," co-authored by Mohamed K. Khan, MD, Phd, is urging the AMA to recognize videogame addiction as a disorder. And Dow Jones reports that the AMA has taken steps in that direction.

Videogames, boys & 'muscularity'

The University of Illinois released an unusual study about youth and videogames. Researchers there “discovered exposure to video gaming magazines has a stronger influence on pre-adolescent boys' drive for muscularity, or desire for muscle mass, than does exposure to magazines depicting a more realistic muscular male-body ideal,” United Press International reports. It’s the extreme muscularity depicted in videogame mags’ that seems to have such appeal – interestingly, for Caucasian not African-American boys. Self-image doesn’t seem to come into play – the results were the same for all body types.

Parents using game ratings

Contrary to what has been reported, parents are pretty smart about videogame ratings these days. They’re increasingly relying on them “to guide their decisions about what titles to allow their children to play,” TechNewsWorld reports. “In fact, 73% of parents said they make a point of checking the Entertainment Software Rating Board's rating every time they consider either a game rental or a purchase.” In other finds by a recent study the ESRB commissioned, 60% of parents with kids under 17 never allow their kids to play M-rated games; 91% take a game's rating into consideration when deciding to purchase a game, 52% call it “a very important” part of the purchase decision, and 17% call it “the most important” part.