Society

People who are addicted to playing computer games show some of the same personality traits as people with Asperger’s syndrome.
This is the conclusion of Dr John Charlton of the University of Bolton and Ian Danforth of Whitman College, USA. Their results will be presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in Dublin on Thursday, [...]

Increasingly, creators are taking the definitions of “play” and “learn” in new directions, often blending the two creatively into serious games, according to a report released by Social Technologies, a global futurist research and consulting firm based in Washington, DC.
“This shows the maturity of the gaming industry as a medium for educating children — and [...]

To celebrate the end of their second year online, the UK Frag Dolls have launched a brand new version of their community Web site.
The UK Frag Dolls are a group of passionate girl gamers brought together by Ubisoft in 2005. They are advocates for the idea that gaming should be enjoyable and fun for people [...]

In an effort to help the FPS community and hardcore fans from around the world stay on top of everything that’s going on in the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars universe, today id Software and Splash Damage launched a new Community section of the game’s Web site. The new section is devoted to all-things Enemy Territory: [...]

It’s official - women who play video games have sex more often! Gametart, the UK’s largest online games rental company, carried out the survey throughout January to see how the recent influx of the likes of Pink PSPs and DS Lites would affect gamers’ sex lives across the country.
The results were surprising.
Of our sample of [...]

If you are like many people, you have friends that just don’t understand gaming. There are a few variants to non-gamers; some of them can be great candidates for gaming conversion. How do you convince a person that has no interest in gaming to play games? Similar to the way you became a gamer yourself, [...]

Years of research have led a small group of dedicated child psychologists and therapists to develop the first game that is specially designed to help children of separated and divorced parents to cope with the new reality in their lives. Introducing the launch of Earthquake in Zipland, one of the most innovative and important interactive [...]

Kids and adults will stay glued to video games this holiday season because the fun of playing actually is rooted in fulfilling their basic psychological needs.
Psychologists at the University of Rochester, in collaboration with Immersyve, Inc., a virtual environment think tank, asked 1,000 gamers what motivates them to keep playing. The results published in the [...]

Alice Hill of RealTechNews writes:
From the company that gave you a game where you can literally kick prostitutes to death comes the hotly anticipated “Bully.” Rockstar Games announced today that Bully would be hitting store shelves in October 2006.
First, a bit about the game:
The game’s main character is 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who must defend himself [...]

A groundbreaking meeting took place in Brussels today involving consumers, publishers, and developers of video games throughout the European Union. Participants including parents’ representatives heard a panel of independent experts, including psychologists and media specialists, express their views about the impact of videogames on players, especially the younger ones. Patrice Chazerand, secretary general, ISFE, was [...]

There’s never been a bigger time for games - specifically online games, than right now. The fact that people have always enjoyed the competitive and mentally stimulating nature that a game can provide is just a part of the reason. What makes it so compelling via the Internet is that there are clear advantages that [...]

First televised eating contests, and now this! May Wong of the Associated Press (via The Boston Herald) writes:
Professional video gaming is set to debut on cable television later this year, potentially paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan [...]

Alice Hill of RealTechNews writes:
Wait, I thought prior stories and studies have indicated that one of the reasons that America’s children are more overweight than before is because, instead of going outside to play, they stay inside and play video games. A study at the University of Miami seems to indicate that video games [...]

The history of the video game does not go back for centuries, but it goes back farther than you may have imagined. The earliest ancestor of the game we play today is a game called “Tennis for Two” that was introduced by inventor John Higginbotham back in 1958. This video game consisted of a horizontal [...]

I’ve seen drunken Dwarf paladins fall off their epic mounts in World of Warcraft, and now I understand the connection! Tor Thorsen (who sounds like he could be a Dwarf paladin, himself) of GameSpot writes:
Researchers conclude “violent” games foster more “permissive attitudes” toward drugs, alcohol, and sex.
Anti-game activists got another bit of ammunition today, courtesy [...]

If you are a video or computer game purchaser or user, you may or may not be familiar with the rating system for this type of software. Whether you are buying for yourself or someone else, it is important that you understand how the system works and how the actual game rating is determined. For [...]

In the old days, choosing a video game system for children wasn’t all that hard. After all, parents didn’t have to worry about games carried by systems like Atari (there was nothing threatening about Pac-Man or Space Invaders). Today, however, with the proliferation of games with mature content available on games supported by the major [...]

I think it is wise to actually get some proof together before assuming that violent games are the scourge of society. I mean, let’s prove the case before convicting the idea, you know?

With the Next Gen consoles, will there also be a problem with Next Gen piracy as well? As much as I hate to say it, I believe that there could be…

It’s interesting how we can watch a group of people getting slaughtered on TV, then all it a documentary. Yet, we go nuts when a kid decides it is cool to play a game where they can gun people down. Newsflash people - this problem did not come from video games. It came from human [...]