Gaming News: Online Gaming News and Video Gaming // Current

^#1

Atari Offering Free Plays Of Classic Games

Imagine going back in time 30 years to a typical arcade and finding a dude in a painter's cap and a Pac-Man Fever shirt and... more

slagface
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Homosexual Sex Possible In Dragon Age: Origins

I was born of a whore and bred as an assassin, this could not be more true as Bioware's newest game, Dragon Age: Origins has... more

MrKLM
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Mercenaries Inc. Trailer Leaked From Closed Pandemic Studios

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was released last year but now we have learned that the now closed Pandemic Studios were working on... more

MrKLM
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Intelligence agency uses Xbox Live to attract new recruits

GCHQ, the organisation responsible for collating intelligence for the British government, is using Microsoft's online games... more

slagface
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Office Space Laid Off Game Developer Style

Early this morning we broke the news that Electronic Arts planned to close down Pandemic Studios, laying off 200. Now we have... more

lvp
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Assassin's Creed 2 Kills Predecessor

For those who didn't enjoy the first game, this sequel offers up some compelling reasons to dive into this franchise. For... more

rschupp1019
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Borderlands DLC: Zombie Island

Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned Preview The first installment of 'Borderlands' DLC is here. Check out this... more

Agent_Alpha
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Trine - PS3 Review

With video games, nostalgia can be a challenging affair. Oftentimes, the over-the-top epic from yesteryear just falls flat, which... more

DoucheVader
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Pete Rose Girlfriend Playboy Bound (PHOTOS)

Pete Rose, former MLB player and manager, talked his new girlfriend into auditioning for Playboy. He's cocksure that the... more

gmc1
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UNBAN DVD for any Xbox 360

There is code present on this DVD even though it appears to be a Video DVD on your Xbox 360. This code will alter certain parts of... more

pspcustomfirmware
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Black Friday deals: Target

Each day of this week leading up to Black Friday, I am posting up a different stores Black Friday ad as it relates to video games.... more

Xander756
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3D Dot Game Heroes Trailer Seems… Somehow Familiar

Man, I’m dealing with a wicked nasty case of déjà vu here. I just can’t quite put my finger on why this... more

ShadowPraxis
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Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user's thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor.

In the first study to use avatars to prime negative responses in a desktop virtual setting, Jorge Peña, assistant professor in the College of Communication, demonstrated that the subtext of an avatar's appearance can simultaneously prime negative (or anti-social) thoughts and inhibit positive (or pro-social) thoughts inconsistent with the avatar's appearance. All of this while study participants remained unaware they had been primed. The study, co-written with Cornell University Professor Jeffrey T. Hancock and University of Texas at Austin graduate student Nicholas A. Merola, appears in the December 2009 issue of Communication Research.

In two separate experiments, research participants were randomly assigned a dark- or white-cloaked avatar, or to avatars wearing physician or Ku Klux Klan-like uniforms or a transparent avatar. The participants were assigned tasks including writing a story about a picture, or playing a video game on a virtual team and then coming to consensus on how to deal with infractions.

Consistently, participants represented by an avatar in a dark cloak or a KKK-like uniform demonstrated negative or anti-social behavior in team situations and in individual writing assignments.

Previous studies have demonstrated these uniform types to have negative effects on people's behaviors in face-to-face interactions. For example, Cornell researchers Mark Frank and Tom Gilovich showed that dark uniforms influence professional sports teams to play more aggressively on the playing field and in the laboratory. Peña's research demonstrates how these effects operate in desktop-based video games, and sheds light on the automatic cognitive processes that explain this effect.

"When you step into a virtual environment, you can potentially become 'Mario' or whatever other character you are portraying," said Peña, who studies how humans think, behave and feel online. "Oftentimes, the connotations of our own virtual character will subtly remind us of common stereotypes, such as 'bad guys wear black or dress up in hooded robes.' This association may surreptitiously steer users to think and behave more antisocially, but also inhibit more pro-social thoughts and responses in a virtual environment."

According to Peña, these findings can be particularly useful to video game and combat simulation developers.

"By manipulating the appearance of the avatar, you can augment the probability of people thinking and behaving in predictable ways without raising suspicion," said Peña. "Thus, you can automatically make a virtual encounter more competitive or cooperative by simply changing the connotations of one's avatar."

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110211037.htmAlthough often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual... more

pjacobs51
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129 comments

13 days ago

^#14

PlayStation Release Horizon 11/23/09

After literally two solid months of triple-A title releases throughout October and November, do we really need more to play until... more

Trexman89
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0 comments

12 hours ago

^#15

Guy marries video game, We don't judge

That Nene Anegasaki, she's a charmer. She's also a video game character from extreme dating sim Love Plus, now wedded to... more

pjacobs51
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42 comments

4 days ago

^#16

Noby Noby Girl Reaches Jupiter

Noby Noby Boy was released on February 19th, 2009 and ever since then, the game has been keeping track of the lengths of every... more

Trexman89
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0 comments

11 hours ago

^#17

Former Pandemic Employees Issue Office Space-style Tribute

Last week, we posted news that Pandemic Studios, creators of Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries, and December 8th’s The... more

ShadowPraxis
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0 comments

16 hours ago

^#18

50 Things That Video Games Have Not Made Us Do.

Inspired by the media fiasco that Modern Warfare 2 censorship became, (your 8 year old will become a terrorist!) this is a funny... more

Rene_Rosa
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1 day ago

^#19

Did airport slaughter scene get Modern Warfare 2 banned in Russia?

I'll admit, I don't play a lot of video games. Nor do I blog about video games. I do, however, love to blog about Russia. And so it caught my eye this week when the two crossed paths. It was reported yesterday that Russia has apparently banned the sale of the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The deal is this: the game takes place in a world where Russia is ruled by extreme nationalists. At one point in the game, you're an undercover Army officer who participates in a bloody slaughter of civilians at an airport. It's perpetrated by a Russian extremist cell and the scene begins with its leader telling everyone "No Russian."

Paul Tassi at True/Slant played through the level and described it as such:
"You walk out into the security gate at an airport, with lines full of people swarming to get through to their flights. I cocked my head while playing, as did all the civilians who turned to stare at us, and before I knew what was happening, Makarov and his men opened fire. My jaw hit the floor as I watched them mow down about thirty people in under five seconds. But then the level actually begins, and it’s one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever taken part in. The game forces you to walk at a snail’s pace through the airport, so you get the full effect of what’s happening. All around you, fleeing civilians are being mowed down by Makarov’s team, and you witness some crawling away trying to hide, and some sitting up against walls, nursing their wounds....The entire time the scene was unfolding, I was just thinking in my head “This is the Mumbai Massacre, I am playing the Mumbai Massacre.”

The Russians understandably took umbrage to the scene and yesterday the internet was afire with reports of the game's banning. Today, however, Activision says the game has not been banned in Russia, but that the controversial scene has been removed. I haven't found anything about the game in a cursory look through the English-language Russian press, but if you see anything send it our way.

FROM THE NEWS BLOG: http://blogs.current.com/news/2009/11/17/did-airport-slaughter-scene-get-modern-warfare-2-banned-in-russia/

SOURCES: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10399131-71.html
http://trueslant.com/tassi/2009/11/16/reflecting-on-modern-warfare-2s-airport-massacre/
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/11/17/modern-warfare-2-not-banned-in-russia-according-to-activision/I'll admit, I don't play a lot of video games. Nor do I blog about video games. I do, however, love to blog about... more