Researchers at the University of Connecticut and Wake Forest University claim that when players fight against human-looking opponents, those players become more aggressive. They even go so far as to say that games with these types of opponents in them may be more likely to provoke violent thoughts and words than games where monsters are the enemy.

Organizers of The Boston Festival of Indie Games announced that game designer and producer Robin Hunicke will deliver the keynote address at this year's event to take place Saturday, September 14, 2013 at the Stratton Student Center and the Johnson Athletic Center on the MIT campus.

Organizers of the Boston Festival of Indie Games announced the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to fund the annual event dedicated to independently developed games by game developers in the Greater Boston Area. The event takes place September 14 at MIT's Stratton Student Center and Johnson Athletic Center.

If you weren't able to attend the Curry College event a few weeks ago (it took place a day before PAX East in Cambridge Mass.) called "Video Gaming Panel Discusses Violence, Sexism and the Future of Gaming" then you can check out the video to your left or by visiting this link.

Emergency room simulation On Call has won "Best in Show" at the Serious Games and Virtual Environments Showcase at the 2013 SSIH International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare in Orlando, Florida. The game was developed jointly by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Becker College, and the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute.

Earlier this month we reported that the Massechusetts Department of Transportation pulled arcade shooting games from Mass Turnpike rest stops after a single complaint from a Newtown, Connecticut family including such titles as Time Crisis and Beach Head 2000.

Two U.S. lawmakers have asked federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice to answer a series of questions about the prosecution of Reddit co-founder and internet activist Aaron Swartz. In a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) want to DOJ to explain why federal prosecutors sought up to 50 years in prison and $1 million in fines for Swartz, who committed suicide prior to his trial. Swartz was arrested in 2011 for downloading 4.8 million documents from the academic archive JSTOR.

Mayor Robert Dolan of Melrose, Massachusetts revealed on Thursday that the city will launch an initiative similar to one put forward and then canceled by community leaders in the town of Southington, Connecticut.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has removed several arcade games from a state Rest Stop after citizens complained about it because it is fairly close to Newtown, Connecticut. According to a Boston Globe report, Andrew Hyams, his wife Tracey, and their son Josh, said that hearing people playing arcade games at a rest stop in Charlton on the Massachusetts Turnpike on Christmas Eve reminded them of the of the Newtown massacre.

Politico is reporting that regular Fox News contributor, syndicated talk show host, and psychiatrist Keith Ablow is considering a run for political office in Massachusetts. If he would attempt such a run it would be in the special election for Senator John Kerry's seat - assuming he is named the new Secretary of State replacing Hillary Clinton.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) has laid off an undisclosed number of employees at its Turbine Games studio in Boston, Massachusetts. The company laid off these employees even as it hired several veteran game developers including designer Ken Rolston (who was previously working for Big Huge Games- a company owned by 38 Studios.)

According to a Boston.com report, two auctions to sell of the tangible goods of the now bankrupt 38 Studios will allow online bidders to participate. Up for sale are the company's computers, office equipment, office furniture and more. Sorry, there are no game assets or intellectual property to bid on...

The Boston Festival of Indie Games has extended the deadline for game submissions, allowing those who have not yet submitted their games to be included in the indie game showcase to get their entries in. Game submissions are now being accepted until midnight PST (3 am EST) on Monday, August 20.

The Providence Journal has several stories related to the ongoing saga of 38 Studios. The first story details the testimony of Richard Wester, chief financial officer for 38 Studios in bankruptcy court this week in Delaware.

The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) revealed a new program for students looking to jump into the wonderful world of game development called the MassDiGI Summer Innovation Program. The summer program, which will being in May at Becker College (Worcester, Mass), will be preceded by the MassDiGI Game Challenge competition being held April 13-15.

PAX East will keep Boston as its home until 2023, thanks to a new deal with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Organizers will also donate $325,000 ($25,00 annually) to Becker College's Massachusetts Digital Games Institute. PAX East has been hosted in Boston since its launch two years ago.

The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (DiGI) has been awarded a five-year, $500,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Commerce. DiGI launched in April of this year with the help of grant money provided by Worcester's Becker College and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The large chunk of grant money will be used to help the game industry with such things as marketing, business development, and hiring employees in the state.

Destructoid's Nick Chester has left the building to dance his pants off at a new gig. In an open letter to the community Chester announced that he would be leaving the popular web site to become a publicist for Cambridge, Ma.-based music game giant Harmonix. Here's some of what Chester had to say to the Destructoid community:

The Learning Company, a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt subsidiary, has filed a lawsuit against Zynga in the Massachusetts district court over "Oregon Trail" missions in its Facebook game FrontierVille. The complaint alleges that Zynga is infringing on its classic educational game Oregon Trail and seeks an immediate injunction to halt Zynga's missions while the court sorts the whole mess.

The lawsuit uses a YouTube trailer of Zynga's missions as evidence that the similarities between them and its classic game - now also a Facebook game - are striking.

TLC says in its complaint that the social game maker's use of its intilectual property is "deliberate theft of the goodwill associated with the iconic The Oregon Trail Mark, which the company has spent millions of dollars promoting since 1971."

You may remember our report on a small coastal Massachusetts town that banned coin operated games from grocery stores and bars in 1982. Well recently, the town of Marshfield voted on lifting the ban and the results were surprising. By a vote of 655-554 at a recent Marshfield Town Meeting, residents rejected lifting the town's ban on coin-operated video games. It has been 29 years since the people of Marshfield chased Donkey Kong out of town and it looks like him and his ilk are still unwelcomed.

George Mallet, a long-time resident who petitioned the town to consider repealing the law at annual Town Meeting, thought resident had come around.

Developers could get a decent 25 percent tax credit on production cost if their products bear a "Made in Massachusetts" logo. According to data provided to Develop by a tax specialist firm, any developer making less $1 million would be eligible for the 35 percent payroll credit. The savings would not be transferred to individuals, but to studio accounts. In other words, if the bill were to be passed, Massachusetts studios could attract better talent with bigger wages.

The information comes from a new Develop feature that taps two executives from specialty tax services provider Alliantgroup, who details the benefits of the bill. Alliantgroup managing director Dean Zerbe and senior associate Angelique Garcia said that the proposed tax breaks for video game studios would turn Massachusetts into a "safe haven" for games studios.

The ECA has issued an "Action Alert" asking its members to help influence a Massachusetts net neutrality law sponsored by Massachusetts Representative Tom Sannicandro. The full alert from the ECA is below:

"The internet has allowed mass communication and collaboration on a scale never before seen in human history. People from vast distances are able to work together on projects and weigh in with thoughts concerning issues that matter to them. We ask you to add your thoughts regarding an issue that should matter to you – net neutrality.

Massachusetts Representative Tom Sannicandro has recognized this tool for what it is and will introduce a bill concerning Net Neutrality that involves people’s input using LexPop. You can get started and add your thoughts about Net Neutrality here.

Speaking to Joystiq, former Red Sox pitcher and current CEO of 38 Studios Curt Schilling talked a bit about his company's growth over the last year and his decision to move his studio from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. Schilling said that the company's 150 - 160 employees are already in the process of moving to the brand new facility in Rhode Island.

"The team is incredibly excited. It's our building! We have all six floors -- it's our studio and we're alone. It's our space," Schilling told Joystiq at an EA GDC event. "Gavin -- the studio GM -- and I, we really took a Disney approach. There's no detail too small for us in the new studio to make it a place where people walk in and say, 'I wanna work there.'"

The Owlchemy Labs, a Massachusetts-based developer of wacky and silly games, is taking some local heat from advocacy groups for its iOS game Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration. In Smuggle Truck, players drive a pickup truck loaded with illegal immigrants. The goal of the game is to bring them over a fictional border while avoiding bumps that make them fall off the back of the truck.

Owlchemy Labs claims on the product page for the game that it was created out of a "the frustration our friends have experienced in trying to immigrate to the United States. With such a troublesome issue being largely avoided in popular media, especially video games, we felt the best way to criticize it was with an interactive satire."

The company also claims that they "maintained a meticulous eye to avoid depicting stereotypes and specific locales."

The Boston Herald offers an editorial on state representative Vincent Pedone's proposal to offer tax breaks to the game industry in Massachusetts. The author, Edward L. Glaeser (professor of economics at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming book "The Triumph of the City"), compares it to the disastrous results of Evergreen Solar and ponders aloud if this is all "throwing good money after bad?"

Correction: I erroneously wrote earlier that "Massachusetts has a thriving video games industry - mostly in the Western part of the state in and around Boston." This is quite incorrect and doubly embarrassing because I actually live in Massachusetts (I do know where Boston is, for the record). A revised story below:

Massachusetts may join Texas, Georgia and countless other states that offer some sort of tax incentives to the interactive entertainment industry. According to a report in the Boston Herald, supports of the effort want to expand the "the state’s $2 billion video game industry to $20 billion" within the next five years. To do that, the state will have to be willing to invest in incentives, but opponents say the state is already in the red.

One of the initiative’s supporters, State Rep. Vincent Pedone (D-Worcester) said it is too early to say what the effort would cost, but wants to expand the industry:

Becker College administrators, elected officials and other interested parties want the video game industry to grow in Massachusetts. A recent series of pitches at the Southboro, Mass.-campus attempted to kick start the process at the college level. Through education and tax credits and other incentives at the state level, Massachusetts can be a more attractive location for game companies, echoed many of the speakers.

To that end, Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray announced at the conference held at Becker College this week that a campus-based policy and research institute will be established.

Over the next 90 days, state officials and administrators at the college will work to establish that institute. Murray said the state would also work toward implementing a broader plan to support the video game industry.

"We think there's a unique opportunity right now to begin work on this comprehensive statewide plan," Mr. Murray said.

Worcester, Massachusetts is a burgeoning videogame hub, anchored by Becker College, which was rated by the Princeton Review as having the fourth best videogame design program in the United States.

Even after losing Curt Schilling and his 38 Studios to neighboring Rhode Island, indications are that Massachusetts still has no plans to institute incentives or tax credits designed to lure, or keep in place, game development companies.

To be fair, Schilling’s deal with the Ocean State, in which his company initially received a guaranteed $75 million loan, before it was pared to approximately $51 million, was an incentive that was more-or-less created (or expanded anyway) to entice a single company.

Following a recent rash of violent crime, the district attorney for the Massachusetts county of Middlesex is attempting to pin at least some of the blame on violent videogames.

District Attorney Gerry Leone, when asked about the recent transgressions, stated that “None of this surprises me,” adding, “I find young people have a more cavalier attitude toward crime than they've ever had.”

Continuing, Leone stated that today’s youth are “not really drawing the boundaries between a bad choice and a really seriously bad choice.” Why? “I attribute that to the numbing of our young people,” answered Leone.