GamePolitics.com

More than 300 people will attend the Games For Health Conference. The event opens tomorrow in Baltimore.

From the GFH press release:

The conference will explore the intersection of next-generation game technologies and health issues… attendees will participate in over 60 sessions provided by an international array of 75 speakers, cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care.

Topics include exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, epidemiology, training, cognitive exercise, nutrition and health education.

Presenters include Dr. Richard Satava; Starlight Foundation; HopeLab; Realtime Associates; Virtual Heroes; XRtainment Zone; Archimage; Dr. Mark Baldwin of MindHabits; Electric Owl Studios; Noah Falstein of The Inspiracy; and Games for Health
co-founder Ben Sawyer.

The Games for Health Project was founded in 2004 and supports community, knowledge and business development efforts to employ game tech in order to improve health and health care. The conference press release describes the Games for Health Project as:

…produced by the Serious Games Initiative, a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars effort that applies cutting-edge games and game technologies to a range of public and private policy, leadership and management issues…

As a kickoff to the GFH Conference, a special news briefing for bloggers will be held at 1PM Eastern on Thursday: (more…)

Last week we were treated to Jack Thompson’s view of Grand Theft Auto IV on the Glenn Beck program.

This evening we’ll hear what should be quite a different perspective as Drs. Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner, authors of Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games will appear on Beck’s show.

(CNN Headline News, 7PM & 9PM).

Kids shouldn’t play Grand Theft Auto IV, says Knoxville, TN child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. John Robertson, and almost everyone would agree.

But Robertson can’t fathom why adults would want to play the ultra-popular crime adventure, either. In an interview with Knoxville’s WVLT-8, Robertson said:

There’s a line between we think about something and then we plan to do it and we act upon that. And that line gets more and more blurred, is what’s happening.

Yes, [games like GTA IV] are for mature audiences. But why would adults even be playing them? I have no idea. You get rewarded for going to the prostitute. You get more health benefits, and then if you steal her money, beat her up and steal her money, you get more.

Just going to church on Sundays isn’t going to necessarily negate hours and hours of raping, pillaging, and murdering. [In playing Superman, Batman, and G.I. Joe] there was morality. There was a sense of justice. There was a sense of right and wrong in that. [GTA IV has] totally flipped that.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has issued a statement critical of the opportunites for virtual drunk driving in GTA IV:

Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. This is why MADD is extremely disappointed by the decision of the manufacturers of the game Grand Theft Auto IV to include a game module where players have to drive drunk.

Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable. MADD is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to reclassify Grand Theft Auto IV as an Adults Only game, a step up from the current rating of Mature and for the manufacturer to consider a stop in distribution – if not out of responsibility to society then out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.

The Boston Herald looks at Second Skin, a documentary film about gamers who play massively multiplayer online games like Everquest and World of Warcraft:

New York filmmaker Peter Schieffelin Brauer discovered the games also are saturated with love, addiction, deceit and personal redemption…

The poster boy for video-game addiction is Dan, an unemployed lost soul from Philadelphia who admits to playing the equivalent of 170 days of “EverQuest” …Dan enters a 12-step rehab program based on Alcoholics Anonymous. One step involves the dramatic shattering of game CDs into a fishbowl…

But “Second Skin” is not “Scared Straight” for gamers. Much of the film celebrates virtual romances that survive the transition from 3-D graphics to human flesh. MMORPG couples, the movie asserts, “fall in love from the inside out,” and physical appearances aren’t the predominant reason for attraction.

I’ll cop to an innate mistrust of most things corporate, but when a company does something this cool, honor must be paid.

So, my heart is warmed by a Macworld report that Microsoft will distribute hundreds of Xbox 360 game kiosks to US children’s hospitals:

The first hospitals to receive the kiosks are Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California…

The kiosks are set up with a variety of Y-rated TV programs, G-rated movies, and games rated E and E10+ by the ESRB. They come with headsets and Xbox Live Vision Cameras, and have been configured to communicate with other kiosks over a dedicated Xbox Live network designed specifically for this purpose…

Microsoft is partnering on the kiosk program with the Companions in Courage Foundation, a nonprofit that builds interactive playrooms in hospitals.

When we speak of positive uses of game tech, it doesn’t get much better than Nothing But Nets, an online game offered by the United Nations in order to highlight the need for mosquito netting in Africa.

After all, World Malaria Day is April 25th.

In Nothing But Nets the player steers a motorcycle and delivers mosquito bed netting to needy villagers. As games go, it’s not state of the art, but it does drive home the need to combat mosquito-borne illnesses with proper netting.

There are also opportunities for the player to sign up as a donor or a fundraiser, but these are not required to play.

Via: Kotaku

Gamers will definitely want to catch Adam Sessler’s G4 interview with Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, authors of Grand Theft Childhood, a new book that is gaining enormous attention in gaming circles.

Discussing concerns that violent video games cause real-world violence, Kutner said there’s “absolutely no evidence for that.”

The authors also viewed video games as a “marker of social competence,” noting that boys who didn’t play video games were at a higher risk for getting into fights and having other problems at school.

The authors did note that boys and girls who play only violent games for 15+ hours per week have a higher likelihood of getting into trouble at school.

All in all, Grand Theft Childhood goes a long way toward debunking past criticism of games by researchers, pundits and media opportunists.

An MCV UK report on a recent episode of Am I Normal?, a TV show featuring Dr. Tanya Byron, has caused some concern among gamers.

During the program, Byron, author of the widely read, British government-commissioned report on the effects of video games and the Internet on children, looked at video game addiction. Byron made comments that appeared to liken video game addiction to dependence on street drugs:

It might seem ludicrous to compare a childish computer fantasy game with hard drug addiction. But addiction counsellors offering treatment to gamers argue that there are key similarities in the way that the consumer gets hooked into coming back for more…

[Staff at an addiction clinic] treat computer game addicts exactly as they treat cocaine addicts.

Spong did a little more digging on the controversy, and found that the show was taped last summer. That is, before Byron accepted Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s commission to undertake her video game review. A comparison the Byron Review to her comments on the program leads Spong to ask:

It might be us, but we do tend to see a change in attitude in the Review itself compared to the TV show. Could it be that Byron - like the industry - learnt something along the way?

GP: Maybe it’s me, but this one looks a bit overblown. If game addiction does exist - and that’s an enormous ”if,” since the American Medical Association hasn’t decided that it does - wouldn’t we expect that it would impact victims in much the same manner as more traditional depencies such as alcohol, gambling and drugs?

I mean, it’s not as if Dr. Byron advocated that violent games should be banned like heroin as this guy did…

When students in Scotland use game tech to persuade peers that binge drinking is a bad idea, that would seem like a positive thing.

But a critic says that ThinknDrinkn is “irresponsible.”

Compute Scotland reports that the game was created by a joint effort of students from Paisley Grammar School and St. Andrew’s Academy along with assistance from the University of the West of Scotland’s School of Computing. Binge drinking is apparently quite the problem in that area, with an estimated one-third of 15-year-olds getting drunk every week. From Compute Scotland’s report:

In the game, the players have to find and help a friend who has been drinking and whose condition is constantly deteriorating. Game players will have to provide fluids and food to a drunk friend and either take them home or to hospital, avoiding obstacles including youth gangs along the way. They will also have to answer various questions related to alcohol misuse and can use links to useful websites to find relevant information.

Thanks to the success enjoyed by the game, variations are being studied which would address issues with drug abuse, gambling and sexual health.

But not everyone likes ThinknDrinkn. As Spong reports, Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education objects:

It is irresponsible to confront children of just 11 or 12 with the idea of a friend lapsing into unconsciousness because they have had so much to drink.

Spong notes:

This is the same Nick Seaton who earlier this year told anybody who would listen that introducing Nintendo Wiis into schools was, “pandering to the views of the physically idle”. 

Thanks to: GP Correspondent Colin “Jabrwock” McInnes for the heads-up on ThinknDrinkn…

The city of Elgin, Illinois will offer citizens an opportunity to try out a life-sized game system that is designed to promote aerobic play.

As reported by the Courier-News, the NEOS game system will be set up in Elgin for the city’s Healthy Kids Day on April 12th and will remain in place until April 20th. City Parks Development Coordinator Paul Bednar told the newspaper:

I just got to talking to [NEOS manufacturer Playworld] about it and they said they were allowing different cities to borrow it for a couple of weeks at a time and let people try it out.

As described by the Courier-News:

Much in the spirit of the popular arcade music video game Dance Dance Revolution, NEOS involves players interacting with the game, requiring people to move about nonstop for 45 to 60 seconds at a time.

According to game’s Web site, up to four people can play one of nine games that test reflex speed, hand-eye coordination and memory retention, requiring players to hit or kick lighted touch pads.

A NEOS system costs about $30,000.

A new study maintains that people who are addicted to video games exhibit characteristics similar to those who suffer from Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism.

As reported by Videogamer.com, the research was produced by Dr. John Charlton of the England’s University of Bolton and Ian Danforth of Whitman College in the United States:

391 “computer game players”, 86% of whom were male, were questioned… Results found that the closer the players got to [game] addiction the more likely they were to display negative personality traits. With stronger signs of game addiction came three personality traits that would usually be associated with Aspergers: neuroticism, and lack of extraversion and agreeableness.

The researchers believe that video game addicts can not be classified as having Aspergers syndrome, but do share characteristics because they find it easier to empathise with computer systems than other people.

According to Dr. Charlton:

The thinking in the field is that there is a scale along which people, even those considered to be ‘normal’, can be placed upon. And that people such as engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists are nearer to the non-empathising, systemising, end of the spectrum, with people with Aspergers syndrome even further along again.

Our research supports the idea that people who are heavily involved in game playing may be nearer to autistic spectrum disorders than people who have no interest in gaming.

GP: Interesting stuff, although the underlying concept of “video game addiction” itself has not yet been accepted as a diagnosis by the American Medical Association.

GamePolitics has just tracked down a WCVB-5 news report which aired prior to last week’s video game hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature.

Prominently featured is Dr. Michael Rich (left), director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston. Dr. Rich, who has previously been critical of the potential “training” capabilities of the Nintendo Wii controller, alternately refers to violent games as “killing simulators” and “murder simulators.”

Oddly enough, also located in Boston is Dr. Cheryl Olson of Massachusetts General Hospital. Her upcoming book Grand Theft Childhood, reports that playing violent games can be a non-threatening source of relaxation for 12-14-year-olds.

We wonder if these Boston healthcare professionals with seemingly opposite views are in communication with one another?

A badly-wounded Iraq War veteran, missing since February, has been found dead inside a culvert in Charlotte County, Florida, according to Indiana’s News and Tribune.

As GamePolitics reported last month, 24-year-old Eric Hall, still suffering from grievous combat wounds as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, fled a relative’s home after a session of Call of Duty 4. Hall, who had previously caused a traffic accident in his native Indiana after hallucinating an Iraqi roadblock, may have experienced a flashback of some sort. Relatives report that his combat experiences, which included seeing his best friend decapitated at Fallujah, left him badly traumatized.

It’s not clear why Hall crawled 60 feet into the roadside culvert. His motorcycle was found nearby.

Gamers and parents of gamers will likely find Dr. Cheryl Olson’s new book reassuring.

The Massachusetts General Hospital researcher contradicts much of the standard research on video game violence, offering a real-world approach based on studies of real children. With Grand Theft Childhood (co-authored with Dr. Laurence Kutner) set to release in April, Olson spoke with GameCouch’s Terry Bosky:

From the start, our research was designed with parents in mind… we wanted to help parents and policymakers understand what’s normal, when to worry about violent video games, and when video games might benefit some kids.

Olson believes that some of the best-known studies have serious flaws:

The most-publicized studies came from a small group of experimental psychologists, studying college students playing nonviolent or violent games for 15 minutes. It’s debatable whether those studies are relevant to real children, playing self-selected games for their own reasons…

Also, the most-published researchers have built their careers around media violence… [that is] just a small part of what we do, so we could look at the issue with fresh eyes and no agenda.

Olson found that games helped 12-14’s sort out their feelings:

This included playing games to “help get my anger out,” to forget problems, to relax, and to feel less lonely… When we began our research, we didn’t fully grasp how politicized and emotional this topic was.

What about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV ?

One of the most surprising things in our research was how many kids aged 12 to 14 are playing Grand Theft Auto games; the series was #1 among boys, and #2 among girls. So, parents can assume that their teens will play GTA IV sometime, someplace…

We found is that most children who play GTA don’t see the characters as role models, and don’t see the game as like real life. In fact, the “unreality” is one thing they like about the series. They can test boundaries and try things that, as one boy put it, “hopefully, will never happen to you.

Don’t miss the full interview at GameCouch.

Playing violent video games desensitizes players to real-world violence.

It’s an oft-repeated mantra among video game critics like Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Miami attorney Jack Thompson.

But new research from Finland casts doubt on the desensitization theory. As reported by Shacknews, a team of researchers in Helsinki found that, rather than exulting, gamers became angry and anxious after killing an opposing character in James Bond 007: NightFire. Perhaps even more surprisingly, players had a positive response to their own character’s death.

The study, The Psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic Emotional Responses to Violent Video Game Events tested 36 young adults, monitoring physiological data in synch with game play action. From the report:

From this perspective, the fact that wounding or killing the opponent elicited negative, not positive, emotional responses might be reassuring… Given that the player knows that it is only a game, events that, in the real world, are perceived as threatening may be perceived as positively challenging…

There was no evidence for desensitization of emotional responses as a function of repeated exposures to violent game events…

So, why do players react positively to their own character’s demise? The study authors speculate that the character’s death represents a respite from the tension of playing. The authors found a similar “tension break” effect in a 2005 study using a non-violent game, Super Monkey Ball 2.

A recent Fox News story, Researchers: Video Games May Hurt Nature, cited a report from the National Academy of Sciences which suggests that outdoor activities such as fishing, camping and visits to national parks have decreased over the last two decades as video games have become more popular.

Said study co-author Oliver Pergams:

The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor videophilia has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health, especially in children.  Videophilia has been shown to be a cause of obesity, lack of socialization, attention disorders and poor academic performance.

To be fair, nothing in the PNAS study singles out video games or a harmful effect on nature.  Indeed, the only mention of video games in the study is in a footnote explaining the newly-coined term “videophilia:”

Is love of nature in the U.S. becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, Internet use, and oil prices.

The study describes videophilia as “the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media.”  The study authors are merely concerned that the “decline in people’s appreciation of (and attachment to) natural areas…does not bode well for the future of biodiversity conservation.”

-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent Andrew Eisen

Australian gaming site Atomic MPC has a wide-ranging interview on video game topics with Dr. Guy Porter, a researcher at the University of Sydney.

Porter told Atomic that his interest in video game issues was sparked in part by Jack Thompson’s incessant claims that violent games are behind school shootings:

Previous studies have suggested… while certain games may make some individuals more aggressive, it is equally likely that these individuals will choose to play violent games in the first place.

Therefore it is difficult to separate cause from effect. This finding appears to be more significant for young children than adults. Existing studies tend to be of a poor quality and are by no means conclusive. There is a need for better designed, longer-term studies.

So, can violent games be blamed for actual violence? Porter told Atomic MPC:

It is very difficult to establish a link between the use of violent video games and real world acts of violence… there are so many other variables which have not been controlled for in previous research – these include social factors such as drugs, alcohol, mental illness, access to guns, and so on.

Regarding the controversial Thompson, Porter said: (more…)

While the Nintendo Wii  has been riding a wave of nonstop positive press since its November, 2006 launch, a physician and a child psychologist in Boston are concerned that the system may train younger players for violence.

A video news report on WBZ features Dr. Michael Rich of Children’s Hospital:

You are learning the muscle memory necessary to do those acts, to stab someone, to chop someone, to shoot someone. It’s one step closer to a virtual reality in which you are actually doing these things to people.

We see the folks that use more violent media tend to be more violent. What we’re seeing [in MRI brain studies] is that on some level the virtual violence is equated by our brain the same as real violence.

Also interviewed was Dr. Susan Linn of watchdog group the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood:

A significant number of [younger children] listed M-rated games as their favorite game to play…

I think parents are in the dark… You would have to play the game and you would have to get good at the game to get to the really violent parts, so it’s hard for parents. 

Although ESRB content descriptors are already listed on video game packaging, Dr. Rich called for additional labeling:

What we need to do is give them the same information that’s provided on a can of food they buy in the store or on a cigarette package that says here’s what’s contained in this, here’s what it may do to you. You choose.

GP: Both Rich and Linn have been heard from before concerning the Wii controller. As reported by GamePolitics, the pair expressed similar concerns prior to the release of Manhunt 2 last year.

Much has been written of late about a proposal before the New Mexico legislature that would levy a 1% tax on video games and TV sets. 

Now Adam Thierer (left), a senior fellow at the conservative Progress and Freedom Foundation, has examined the legal precedents and argues that they don’t bode well for the so-called “No Child Left Inside” law. In a well-reasoned op-ed for Cnet, Thierer writes:

Any time government officials single out a specific type of speech or expression for unique treatment (or blame, as seems to be the case here), it raises sticky legal issues…

Older court cases dealing with other media have also made it clear that public-policy makers are forbidden from using the power to tax in an effort to discriminate against speech or expression that they disfavor. In cases such as Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936), Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue (1983), and Arkansas Writers’ Project, Inc. v. Ragland (1987), the Supreme Court has held as unconstitutional state laws that singled out newspapers or magazines for unique tax burdens.

The New Mexico tax proposal raises similar fairness questions. Why just blame video games… How about a tax on social-networking Web sites or instant messaging?

…Perhaps we should tax Sudoku books, chess boards, and even arts and crafts! After all, the goal here is to do whatever it takes to get kids outside, right? Or is it really just to get kids to stop playing video games?