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Archive for June, 2007

20 June, 2007 | No comments

Video Games Might Not Be Good for You

By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
June 10, 2007

I don’t like video and computer games much for many reasons. Some of these reasons are scientifically-based and some are cultural. A few are “gut feeling.”

So first, lets limit our initial discussion of a “violent video game.” What is that?

Well, like pornography, you know it when you see it.

I’ll define a violent video game this way: it depicts death, murder, maiming, car crashes that could cause death or grave injury, and other forms of mayhem.

Now a tidbit of scientific study and analysis.

In November, 2006, the University of Indiana Medical School completed an interesting study on the parts of the human brain most engaged while playing activity-based or violent video games. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain function, the Medical School of IU found that adolescents who had played violent video games exhibited more brain activity in a region thought to be important for emotional arousal and less activity in a brain region associated with executive functions. Executive functions are the ability to plan, shift, control and direct one’s thoughts, ideas and behavior.

“Our study indicates that playing a certain type of violent video game may have different short-term effects on brain function than playing an exciting but nonviolent game,” principal study investigator Dr. Vincent Mathews said.

The group that played the nonviolent game exhibited more mental stimulation or activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain. The prefrontal lobes are believed to control inhibition, concentration and self-control. The non-violent game players also showed less activation in the area involved in emotional arousal.

“Therefore, we can attribute the difference between the groups specifically to the type of game played. Earlier studies showed a correlation between media violence exposure and brain functioning, but we did not actually manipulate the teens’ exposure to media violence in those earlier studies,” said William Kronenberger.

Future studies to better understand the duration and meaning of the relationship between exposure to media and brain function are planned.

There is something else to remember: because a child’s brain is still developing, there may be more chance of a long-term debilitating impact from over stimulating some parts of the brain while numbing other parts. We just don’t know for certain.

So parents beware: what we do know is that while playing violent video games a lot is going on in your child’s arousal part of his or her brain while the “thought” section (the cortex of the frontal lobe) of the brain is, well, turned off or nearly so.

Sounds a little like what drugs and alcohol do for the brain.

Medical professionals have concluded after many years of research that prolonged alcohol abuse by an individual results in a shrinkage of the brain. “Brain shrinking is especially extensive in the cortex of the frontal lobe - the location of higher cognitive faculties,” according to Dr. Adolf Pfefferbaum, M.D., co-author of “Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.”

One might conclude that alcohol has a greater impact in eroding the cortex of the frontal lobe than other parts of the brain.

Scientists also believe that the cortex of the frontal lobe of the human brain - the location of higher cognitive faculties – is somehow not stimulated or otherwise not properly working in rapists and other violent criminals.

Many experts have also opined that playing video games can be addictive, but we did not thoroughly investigate this so we’ll reserve comment until another time.

So, other than the fact that violent video games seem to “numb” the cortex of the frontal lobe of the human brain - the location of higher cognitive faculties and self control – while they stimulate the “arousal” part of the brain, we have no problem with video gaming to excess.

Why did the clergy of the Church of England blow a fuse a few days ago when they found simulated images of their beloved Manchester cathedral in a violent video game?

Because the new PlayStation 3 game, “Resistance: Fall of Man,” shows a virtual shootout between rival gunmen with hundreds of people killed inside the cathedral.

Church officials described Sony’s alleged use of the building as “sick” and sacrilegious.

Now, many of you avid video gamers will call this a typical religious over reaction. But I’ll bet at a few medical Schools, the brain experts will agree with the clergy.

Science can work with religion. Life isn’t all blind faith. Some of it is based on researched facts.

So have a ball playing your video games or watching your children achieve that trance like nirvana with the gear you gave him or her at Christmas!

We’ll leave smart readers to form their own conclusions on this and we highly recommend searching the internet using your favorite system for more information.

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll: All Humor the Same Part of Your Brain

20 June, 2007 | No comments

Church in row over computer war game

By Andrew Tristem
The Sunday Times
June 10, 2007

THE CHURCH of England has threatened legal action against Sony after a violent PlayStation 3 computer game depicts Manchester Cathedral as a back-drop for a battle.Church leaders accused Sony of “desecration” and said it had not asked permission to use the building.

The new game, Resistance: Fall of Man, sees a virtual shoot-out between warring soldiers inside a mock-up of the cathedral. Players assume the role of an army sergeant as a battle is held inside the cathedral, with troops shown taking aim from the nave.

Church officials described Sony’s use of the building as “sick” and sacrilegious and demanded its removal from shops.

Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, said: “For a glo-bal manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible.”

David Wilson, a Sony spokesman, said: “It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary.”

Video Games and What’s Going On In Your Child’s Brain

20 June, 2007 | No comments

Sony Lays an Egg: Manages to Make an Enemy of the Church of England

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press

LONDON - The Church of England accused Sony Corp. on Saturday of using an English cathedral as the backdrop to a violent computer game and said it should be withdrawn from shop shelves.

The church said Sony did not ask for permission to use Manchester cathedral and demanded an apology.

The popular new PlayStation 3 game, "Resistance: Fall of Man," shows a virtual shootout between rival gunmen with hundreds of people killed inside the cathedral. Church officials described Sony's alleged use of the building as "sick" and sacrilegious.

A spokesman for the Church of England said a letter will be sent to Sony on Monday. If the church's request for an apology and withdrawal of the game is not met, the church will consider legal action, the spokesman said.

Sony spokeswoman Amy Lake told The Associated Press on Saturday that the company's PlayStation division was looking into the matter and would release a statement later.

But David Wilson, a Sony spokesman, told The London Times: "It is game-created footage, it is not video or photography. It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary."

The Very Rev. Rogers Govender, the dean of Manchester Cathedral, said: "This is an important issue. For many young people these games offer a different sort of reality and seeing guns in Manchester cathedral is not the sort of connection we want to make.

"Every year we invite hundreds of teenagers to come and see the cathedral and it is a shame to have Sony undermining our work."

The bishop of Manchester, the Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch, said: "It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem. For a global manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photorealistic quality and then encourage people to have gunbattles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible."

During the game, players are asked to assume the role of an army sergeant and win a battle in the interior of a cathedral.

20 June, 2007 | No comments

That would be Sir Lorenzo, if you don’t mind

Today this blog was mentioned on Free Gamer! If you don't understand what the fuss is about, all I can say that for somebody that is into open source gaming, that is pretty much the equivalent of being given a knighthood or a sainthood or something like that. So from now on that is Sir Lorenzo ;-)

Let me just state once more what a great resource Free Gamer is. Within the free software gaming community it really is second to none. I know Charlie puts in a lot of good work to keep providing us gamers with news. Maintaining a quality blog (as opposed to blogs dedicated to mindless rabbling about Paris Hilton) takes quite a bit of time. If you like the site, head over there and give some support.

If you read the article I linked to above, you will notice that he's actually asking for some community feedback. Let Charlie know what direction you would like Free Gamer to take.

20 June, 2007 | No comments

The online doco

The online documentary: /Invite. It's about World of Warcraft, and the communities present in it - Click here :(

Well it ain't pretty because I seriously lack web design skills - it would look a whole lot different if I knew how to use flash. I also would like to write more, and clarify certain ambiguities that may arise for people who are not familiar with the game at all. There are whole serious of things I would have liked to add to this documentary, but unfortunately I do not have any more time, and I did not have any more time to allocate to this particular subject.

Let me know if there are any big issues on the online documentary that I can quickly fix up :)

20 June, 2007 | No comments

Video Games and What’s Going On In Your Child’s Brain

By John E. Carey
December 29, 2006

We sat down to research all the information on video games and their positive and negative impact on the developing minds of our children and we have this: no conclusion.

The reasons are many. First, the video gaming industry is now a powerful economic force on a par with Hollywood’s mighty movie industry. This means that the industry employs a lot of people, pays investors a lot in dividends and it pumps out information that may or may not be propaganda. In fact, it is difficult to find fact from fiction when researching the video gaming industry. We recommend that careful sleuths determine who funded the study or report du jour before trumpeting the good or evil found therein.

Second, there is a well documented generational divide between youngsters that play video games (almost all of whom are under the age of forty) and those severely impaired by age like me (I’m darned near 52!). According to the video gaming industry, anyone over the age of forty knows nothing and can't be trusted on the subject of video gaming. But because I played life and death video games for 20 continuous years while I was in the U.S. Navy, putting torpedoes into simulated enemy submarines or shooting down computer generated hostile aircraft and missiles, I largely recuse myself from the “normal” anti-video-game over 40 crowd.

Thirdly, video games are everywhere. On Christmas, our pastor voiced concern that a pre-schooler seemed transfixed by a hand held game. An amazing 89 per cent of British households with children now boast a games console, with distribution right across the socio-economic groups. American households with children have even more video game: more than 94% of households surveyed.

So let’s just consider one preliminary finding of fact, as far as we can determine, on video gaming.

“This data differs from our earlier studies because in this study adolescents were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent game,” said William Kronenberger, associate professor of psychology at the IUSM Department of Psychiatry. “Therefore, we can attribute the difference between the groups specifically to the type of game played. Earlier studies showed a correlation between media violence exposure and brain functioning, but we did not actually manipulate the teens’ exposure to media violence in those earlier studies.”

Future studies to better understand the duration and meaning of the relationship between exposure to media and brain function are planned.

There is something else to remember: because a child's brain is still developing, there may be more chance of a long-term debilitating impact from over stimulating some parts of the brain while numbing other parts. We just don't know for certain.

We have a raft of questions like “What exactly constitutes a violent video game?” We are sure the video game industry will lead the way in defining this hot topic so as not to impede sales.

Sounds a little like what drugs and alcohol do for the brain.

One might conclude that alcohol has a greater impact in eroding the cortex of the frontal lobe than other parts of the brain.

Many experts have also opined that playing video games can be addictive, but we did not thoroughly investigate this so we’ll reserve comment until another time.

So have a ball playing your video games or watching your children achieve that trance like nirvana with the gear you gave him or her at Christmas!

We’ll leave smart readers to form their own conclusions on this and we highly recommend searching the internet using your favorite system for more information.

And we promise to continue our own research and to report back to you in due time on this web site.

++++

We asked a friend with more than 20 years of experience in the computer industry to comment on this article and here is what he said:

Well, I am against violent video games.

I'm sure there are decent, educational games out there struggling tosurvive, but let's face it: murder practice games are what we aretalking about here. These things are sick, and no amount of rationalizing ("maturity is the ability to discriminate between realityand fiction") changes that. As the games get more realistic, the line between fantasizing about splattering someone, and actually doing it,will get a fuzzier....me no like.

And then there is the other social implication, which I don't think many have yet grasped: work is becoming more like a video game.

If there is ANY rationale for encouraging video games, it lies here, but beware....society is rotting from within (and, no, I do not think I'm being melodramatic).

When I started in industry, people met with each other, looked eachother in the eye, and made agreements. Fast forward to today, and watchwhat happens at work....very, very much like a video game, my friend.

You sit at your work station (or is it a Play Station?) and intercept a constant stream of "incoming"...survival depends largely on your abilityto deflect attempts by others to pin Action Items on you, quickly making yourself NOT the person who has to take follow-up steps. Even worse....watch what constitutes "human interaction" in the workplace nowadays:

*people on conference calls, where they have their phones on mute whiledoing e-mails, basically paying minimal attention to others.

* a discussion in a roomful of people often has them clustered around acomputer screen...no eye contact at all....everyone looks at the screen.Eye contact has disappeared from the business landscape....and we allknow what that means in war theory, right? You have no emotional tie tothe other person, and your reason to treat that person humanely erodes.

* a person doing a presentation no longer stands up in front of the audience. The speaker always sits at a computer, points with a cursorat something on the screen and speaks to the room at large withoutmaking eye contact with anyone (p.s. almost everyone in the room islooking at his/her computer, doing e-mails).Did I mention that, as a business "executive" I get maybe 200 e-mails aday?

Even high up in an organization, you are trapped into a cycle of REACTION rather than planning, thinking, strategizing. It's a videogame. This, very largely, is why I quit (the computer company I was working for….name withheld) (n.b. they are no different from any other large company...or at best they are only a hair ahead in this race towards poorer human interaction).

So, in conclusion....the only thing my child asked for for Christmas was an X-Box. The joint parental response was a loud "NO!"
*******************************
The Writing is On The Wall:
Computer Games Rot The Brain

By Boris Johnson
The Telegragh (London, UK)
December 28, 2006

It's the snarl that gives the game away. It's the sobbing and the shrieking and the horrible pleading — that's how you know your children are undergoing a sudden narcotic withdrawal. As the strobing colours die away and the screen goes black, you listen to the wail of protest from the offspring and you know that you have just turned off their drug, and you know that, to a greater or lesser extent, they are addicts.Some children have it bad. Some are miraculously unaffected. But millions of seven- to 15-year-olds are hooked, especially boys, and it is time someone had the guts to stand up, cross the room and just say no to Nintendo. It is time to garrotte the Game Boy and paralyse the PlayStation, and it is about time, as a society, that we admitted the catastrophic effect these blasted gizmos are having on the literacy and the prospects of young males.

It was among the first acts of the Labour Government to institute a universal "literacy" hour in primary schools; and yet, in the six years following 1997, the numbers of young children who said that they didn't like reading rose from 23 per cent to 35 per cent. In spite of all our cash and effort, the surveys increasingly show that children (especially boys) regard reading as a chore, something that needs to be accomplished for the sake of passing tests, not as a joy in itself.

It is a disaster, and I refuse to believe that these hypnotic little machines are innocent.

We demand that teachers provide our children with reading skills; we expect the schools to fill them with a love of books; and yet at home we let them slump in front of the consoles. We get on with our hedonistic 21st-century lives while in some other room the nippers are bleeping and zapping in speechless rapture, their passive faces washed in explosions and gore.

They sit for so long that their souls seem to have been sucked down the cathode ray tube.They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious.

These machines teach them nothing. They stimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory — though some of them may cunningly pretend to be educational. I have just watched an 11-year-old play a game that looked fairly historical, on the packet.

Your average guilt-ridden parent might assume that it taught the child something about the Vikings and medieval siege warfare. Phooey!

The red soldiers robotically slaughtered the white soldiers, and then they did it again, that was it. Everything was programmed, spoon-fed, immediate — and endlessly showering the player with undeserved praise, richly congratulating him for his bogus massacres. The more addictive these games are to the male mind, the more difficult it is to persuade boys to read books; and that is why it is no comfort that Britain has more computer games per household than any other EU country, and, even though they are wince-makingly expensive, an amazing 89 per cent of British households with children now boast a games console, with distribution right across the socio-economic groups.Every child must have one, and what we fail to grasp is that these possessions are not so much an index of wealth as a cause of ignorance and underachievement and, yes, poverty.

It hardly matters how much cash we pour into reading in schools if there is no culture of reading at home; and the consequences of this failure to read can be seen throughout the education system. Huge numbers are still leaving primary school in a state of functional illiteracy, with 44 per cent unable either to read, write or do basic sums.B y the age of 14, there are still 40 per cent whose literacy or numeracy is not up to the expected standard, and a large proportion of the effort at Further Education colleges (about 20 per cent) is devoted to remedial reading and writing.

Even at university, there are now terrifying numbers of students who cannot express themselves in the kind of clear, logical English required for an essay, and in many important respects if you can't write, you can't think.

The Royal Literary Fund has, in the past few years, done a wonderful job of establishing Writing Fellows at our universities, offering therapy for those who can't put their thoughts on paper; and yet the fund admits that the scale of the problem is quite beyond its abilities.It is a shock, arriving at university, and being asked to compose an essay of a couple of thousand words, and then discovering that you can't do it; and this demoralisation is a major cause of dropping-out. It's not that the students lack the brains; the raw circuitry is better than ever. It's the software that's the problem. They have not been properly programmed, because they have not read enough.

The only way to learn to write is to be forced time and again to articulate your own thoughts in your own words, and you haven't a hope of doing this if you haven't read enough to absorb the basic elements of vocabulary, grammar, rhythm, style and structure; and young males in particular won't read enough if we continually capitulate and let them fritter their lives away in front of these drivelling machines.

Gordon Brown proposed in his Pre-Budget Report to spend £2,000 per head on improving the reading of six-year-old boys. That is all well and good, especially when you consider that the cost of remedial English in secondary school soars to £50,000 per head. But it would be cheaper and possibly more effective if we all — politicians, parents, whoever — had the nerve to crack down on this electronic opiate.

So I say now: stop just lying there in your post-Christmas state of crapulous indifference. Get up off the sofa. Can the DVD of Desperate Housewives, and go to where your children are sitting in auto-lobotomy in front of the console. Summon up all your strength, all your courage. Steel yourself for the screams and yank out that plug.And if they still kick up a fuss, then get out the sledgehammer and strike a blow for literacy.

20 June, 2007 | No comments

Xiangqi: Chinese Chess

I started to learn how to play XiangQi last weekend, a really fun chess-like game. There is a cool online version of XiangQi; no plug-ins required, only a JavaScript enabled browser. Over the next few weeks, I'll be searching for portable versions available for download as well.

Until then, if you want to learn how to play, you can check out Wikipedia and An Introduction to Xiangqi for Chess Players.

20 June, 2007 | No comments

DotA Allstars 6.44b Realese Updated Fix

Belom lama di realese 6.44 dah realese 6.44b, kayaknya masih banyak bug di heroes barunya.
Latest changelog
Download

Kira-kira yang bagus yang mana ya di antara heroes-heroes barunya.
Cobain dulu agh..Enak nih :D

20 June, 2007 | No comments

Game Online Indo yang bakal launching

RF Online (Rising Force Online)

http://www.rf-online.web.id/

DOMO (Dream of Mirror Online)

http://domo.joypark.com.tw/English/GameInfo/Synopsis_01.aspx

Angel Love Online

http://www.angelloveonline.net/
http://www.angelloveonline.web.id/

Silahkan di review bagaimana penilaian anda masing-masing mengenai games diatas, klo yang paling atas kayaknya dah pada tau ya.. cukup buat mengisi waktu liburan panjang, semoga open beta nya tidak memakan waktu lama.

Buat yang doyan DotA 6.44 dah keluar, ada tiga heroes baru buat scourge dan sentinel. Scourge (Dark Seer, Pit Lord, Undying) Sentinel (Storm Spirit, Templar Assasin, Sacred Warrior).

Download link Change Log

19 June, 2007 | No comments

Free Game News: Wogger Mini – Chapter 62

Wogger Mini #62 is online! Wogger needs to do the rope climb today, and it’s pretty easy: just click the rope near where the butterflies are to make Wogger climb it. Count 1,2,3 and then watch Wogger descend the rope. Repeat until you figure out what to do next!