In a provocative guerilla work, street artist TMNK uses a Grand Theft Auto IV billboard to make a point about black-on-black violence:

A perfectly legal Billboard advertisement promoting a video game where the participants commit acts of violence, for fun. And scrawled on it a message that is considered illegal, vandalism. One message paid for by a business who simply wants to make money, regardless of the cost. The other, written freely, in hopes of sounding an important alarm, despite it’s potential cost to the author...

There are more of US killing US, than terrorists killing us. And in my community there are more of US killing Us than Cops Killing US.

The controversy continues over a torture quest found in the recent Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft.

As GamePolitics reported last week, the "Art of Persuasion" quest gained notoriety when MUD co-creator Richard Bartle wrote about his discomfort with for the mission's requirement that the player torture information out of a prisoner.

Some were appalled by the quest while others excused it as just a game. However, in a thought-provoking column, Wired's Clive Thompson looks deeper and argues for even more instances of virtual torture in games:

Torture has devastating repercussions. It permanently erodes the character of the torturer and, worse, of the public that condones the torture... From my perspective, Americans aren't thinking very seriously about those consequences...

 

Why? Partly because U.S. officials refuse to describe or admit clearly what they're doing. But equally important, I think, is that our mass culture is filled with wildly misleading ideas about how torture works... Which is why we need more torture in videogames.

Games are excellent vehicles for helping people inhabit complex, difficult situations... What's more, gamers love this stuff. Several of the biggest recent games were praised precisely because the moral acts inside them had long-term consequences. In BioShock, you could either save or exploit the Little Sisters... In Fable, decisions made in the first 15 minutes of play... change the moral tenor of your home town 15 years later...

I'd like to see games that had more torture — and better torture — in them. In this alarming chapter of American history, they might wind up fueling the best public debate yet.

Last week, GamePolitics reported that a soon-to-be-released drug dealing game for the iPhone had been renamed in an apparent effort to win App Store approval. Drug Lords, developed by a-steroids, had its name changed to the less offensive Underworld.

Despite new title, the mother of a British heroin user wants the game banned, according to UK tabloid the Daily Star. Thelma Packard's daughter Amy has been in a coma for seven years after dabbling with heroin as a 17-year-old. Mrs. Packard told the newspaper:

My daughter’s life has been ruined by drugs. If this game is allowed to come out, impressionable kids will play it and Amy’s mistake will be repeated over and over again. Youngsters like Amy are exactly the people who download and play games like this on their mobiles.

 

I just want to help other families avoid the nightmare that’s wrecked mine.

As we move into the season of giving, it's heartwarming to learn that a top exec with EA Vancouver is giving back to his community in a major way.

As reported by the Globe and Mail, senior VP Rory Armes (left) is among Canadian execs who have gotten involved with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit which connects businesses with social service organizations.

From the newspaper report:

For Mr. Armes, a commitment to help Vancouver's at-risk youth seemed like a natural fit... His mid-October tour took him to the Potluck Cafe, the Urban Native Youth Association, PLEA Community Services Society of B.C., and Directions Youth Services.

"It drove a point home," says Mr. Armes. "Most of us have teenaged children and we could identify with the problems faced by the kids we met. In our case we could see an immediate fit between what they need and what we can provide."

That fit included making the Potluck Cafe a sort of unofficial caterer to Electronic Arts, and donating used computer equipment and software to Directions Youth Services.

"They told us they needed things that would help boost the self-esteem of the kids they dealt with," Mr. Armes says...

"We are also offering paid time off through the week to any of our people who might want to spend the hours from, say, two to four teaching these kids how to operate the software," he adds.

GP: Kudos to Rory Armes and EA!

Via: Our sister-site GameCulture

A study released by watchdog group Common Sense Media this week strongly correlates the amount of time children spend with media to poor school performance as well as negative health outcomes such as obesity, substance abuse and smoking.

Media and Child and Adolescent Health: A Systematic Review is, essentially, a survey of research on the topic conducted over the past 30 years. The study was carried out by researchers from the Yale University School of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and California Pacific Medical Center.

From a political standpoint, it is interesting to note that lead researcher Ezekiel Emanuel of the NIH is the brother of President-elect Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Common Sense Media CEO and founder Jim Steyer (left) discussed the Obama connection with Time:

[Rahm Emanuel] will have a strong position in the incoming Administration. And I am optimistic that you'll see a renewed emphasis, from the White House on down, on media, technology and kids. In that sense, I'm very hopeful that Barack and Michelle Obama will be parents-in-chief and role models-in-chief for our country. Barack talked about it repeatedly through his campaign—turning off the TV, turning off the video games, doing your homework, talking with your kids.

Steyer also told Time that the study deliberately stayed away from issues of violence and media:

The research team decided that there was a voluminous amount of studies that focus solely on media and violence. So they wanted to stay away from that... This report doesn't say, nor would Common Sense ever suggest, that media is the cause of all society's ills, or the sole cause of childhood obesity or risky sexual behavior or smoking or alcohol use among teens. But it is a significant contributing factor...

The study's politicial potential is also emphasized in a press release on the Common Sense Media website which quotes former FCC chairman and CSM board member William Kennard:

The new administration has shown a commitment to children and has already made important statements about how it will focus new attention on technology and media. There is a unique opportunity to make real change in the role that media plays in our children’s lives.

Virtual Peace, a simulation project underway at Duke University, uses game technology to train users in diplomacy and crisis response skills.

Prof. Tim Lenoir is leading the interdisciplinary project, which, ironically, has received assistance from Virtual Heroes, the North Carolina developer best known for its work on the America's Army recruiting game. Lenoir commented:

We’re trying to train people how to collaborate in groups -- particularly in internationally sensitive situations. The goal is to create an environment where people can practice their negotiation skills -- and it’s a whole lot better use of the gaming engine than shooting ’em up.

Players in the game assume the roles of various crisis response organizations such as Oxfam, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization.

The recent, high-profile Brandon Crisp tragedy once again brought the debate over video game dependency to the forefront. But, does obsessive video game play necessarily equal addiction?

Not according to Keith Bakker (left), the founder of the Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam, Europe’s first and only clinic to treat game addiction. After running Smith & Jones for two years, Bakker has concluded that compulsive gaming is a social problem, not a psychological one.

Bakker told the BBC: 

These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies.  But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem.

Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication...

If I continue to call gaming an addiction it takes away the element of choice these people have.  It's a complete shift in my thinking and also a shift in the thinking of my clinic and the way it treats these people. 

In response to these observations, the clinic has altered its treatment program to help compulsive gamers develop “activity-based social and communications skills to help them rejoin society.”

Bakker feels that his clinic may no longer be needed if “parents and adults in the community took more responsibility for the habits of their children.”

Via: gamesindustry.biz

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics correspondent Andrew Eisen typed this story with his left hand while playing Wii Tennis with his right.

Comedian and activist Bill Cosby likened Grand Theft Auto to a prison prep course during an appearance in Greenwood, Mississippi on Thursday.

Cosby, who urged the local African-American community to take an active role in bettering their neighborhood, dismissed Rockstar's controversial game series, saying:

Cost your mother $250 to buy that for you so you can practice your entrance exam (to prison).

Cosby's remarks were filmed for an upcoming documentary. Among his other comments:

The drug dealer is not in your culture, nor is the prostitute, nor is the glorified pimp if you teach black pride. They have no pride. They don’t know their culture.

Via: Greenwood Commonwealth

That was quick.

On Monday, Animal Rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) took a bite out of Majesco's new Cooking Mama title for featuring too many meat-eating recipes.

By Wednesday, Majesco had issued a rather mild response, pointing out that roughly half of the recipes in Cooking Mama: World Kitchen are meatless.

Eager for the last word, PETA closed out the week by petitioning Cooking Mama to commit to an all-veggie edition of the popular game franchise:

Dearest Mama,

 

…It’s great to hear that you want to “make the world a happier place,” because that’s pretty much what we want to do too (though it seems that we might have different tactics …). I do hope that you seriously consider making a vegetarian diet a part of your strategy for world happiness.

 

By adopting a vegetarian diet, you can save more than 100 animals per year. Plus, vegetarians live longer and have a considerably lower carbon footprint. I know that—as you are a digital being—these benefits don’t exactly apply to you, but I still urge you to take the pledge to be veg for 30 days.

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics correspondent Andrew Eisen...

UPDATE: Popzara has an interview with a PETA spokesperson on the Cooking Mama saga...

Video games seem to be increasingly showing up on the radar of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

GamePolitics readers will recall that earlier this month PETA gave props to Sega for ditching a Samba de Amigo commercial which featured a trained chimp.

The animal rights group has once again strayed into the video game habitat with Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals, an unlikely parody of Majesco's Cooking Mama: World Kitchen. The new Wii title launches tomorrow. A PETA press release explains why the group is howling mad about the new game:

Majesco's game is so heavy on dishes that are made from dead animals that the only things missing are the blood and gore...

In the original version, players score points for assembling a meal. That also applies in PETA's parody, but with this Thanksgiving dinner, players also must go through the motions of plucking the turkey's feathers, pulling out the bird's intestines, and cutting off the animal's head. All the while, a demonic cleaver-wielding Mama takes delight in the agony. When the player beats the game, Mama has a change of heart and replaces her bloodlust with a craving for tofu-turkey.

Does that qualify as a spoiler? In any case, unlockable content in the parody game include vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes as well as hidden camera footage from a turkey slaughterhouse.

PETA spokesman Joel Bartlett dismisses claims that the parody game is making a mountain out of a mole hill:

We're having a bit of fun at Mama's expense, but there's nothing funny about the suffering endured by turkeys and other animals who are killed for food. With all the delicious vegan alternatives available, there's no need to make the carcass of a tormented bird the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table.

Gene Koo of Valuable Games live-blogs an appearance by serious games guru Ian Bogost (left) at a Harvard study group led by Nicco Mele:

Video games [serve] as a centrifying values issue, making it very cheap [for politicians] to decry video games. Ian mentions the ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association), and the idea of a union of video game players, or a common identity among gamers, “weirds” him out.

Gamer demographics — if there are political games, whom will they reach?: There’s a lot of bad data, but… see the Entertainment Software Association. The better question is to break them down by style/type. Ian’s own games — TSA game since 2006 has approached 50M plays. (< $10K to build).

An Obama game could really sell. Who wouldn’t buy an Obama game? Well...

So what about an abortion game that attempts to help each side understand the perspective of the other side of the debate? ...

Nicco mentions that the [Howard] Dean [2004] campaign’s game did inspire people to donate, get involved. Ian wonders if this idea will “peak” (novelty factor).

The problem is that the vast majority of these [political] games are meaningless tripe. See Ian’s discussion of Pork Invaders, in the Gamasutra article, and also the contrast with Tax Invaders as a rhetorical device.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

Kotaku reports that a Fallout 3 side quest involving the possible detonation of an unexploded nuclear bomb has been edited out of the Japanese version of the best-selling game.

Developer Bethesda has made changes to the Japanese Fallout 3. The side-quest The Power of the Atom has been changed. Non-playable-character Mr. Burke has been taken out of this side-quest, removing the option of detonating the nuclear bomb.

 

That's not all, the name of a weapon was changed as it was deemed "inappropriate" for Japan. Smart money says the weapon is mini-nuke launcher "Fat Man" for obvious reasons. The online reaction from the Japanese users seems to be largely disappointment to these edits. Fallout 3 goes on sale in Japan this December.

Japan, of course, is the only nation to have been attacked with a nuclear weapon to date, so cultural sensitivities to the issue are understandable. The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War II was nicknamed "Fat Man."

With so much emphasis these days on computers, HDTVs, game consoles, handhelds and mobile devices, are we turning into a society of screen heads who have lost the ability to concentrate?

A noted British judge considers the modern jury pool and says yes.

U.K. newspaper the Telegraph reports that the Rt. Hon Lord Igor Judge of Draycote, the Lord Chief Justice of English and Welsh courts, said in a speech:

Most [young jurors] are technologically proficient. Many get much information from the internet. They consult and refer to it. They are not listening. They are reading. One potential problem is whether, learning as they do in this way, they will be accustomed, as we were, to listening for prolonged periods.

 

Even if they have the ability to endure hours and days of sitting listening, how long would it be before some ask for the information on which they have to make their decision to be provided in forms which adapt to modern technology?

 

Our system of jury trials depends on 12 good men and women and true coming to court and listening to the case. Orality is the crucial ingredient of the adversarial system.

Ars Technica notes:

Science writer Jonathan Gitlin covered one such story for us a few months ago, noting that "there are a number of scientific studies that back up many of these points, such as the one that showed that receiving e-mail messages affected volunteers' performance during IQ tests more than a toke on a joint, although I'm yet to hear of anyone smoking a spliff at work and trying to claim that it's not an issue because 'Bob over there is checking his e-mail.'"

GP: What do you think, GP readers? Is your screen time affecting your ability to focus in the traditional manner?

UPDATE: This entire story is a hoax. My bad for falling for it, although it came from what I thought was a reliable website. Won't make that mistake again with that person or his site.  The Escapist has more...

With more than 10 million subsrscibers, World of Warcraft is the most successful MMO of all time.

So, how does World of Peacecraft sound?

The Click Heard Round the World reports that the Religious Society of Friends - aka the Quakers - plans a December  launch for WoP, an MMO based on Quaker themes. Blogger Rik Panganiban cites a draft press release from the Quaker United Service:

The Quaker United Service is pleased to announce the beta-release of the new MMORPG "World of PeaceCraft," the first massive online game for a Christian religious denomination.  Full of fun quests and adventures, the WoP will extend traditional Quaker values and historic testimonies -- such as their work to end the slave trade, protesting against war, and worshipping in silence -- into an immersive, 3D environment.

Not just for Quakers, the game promises to be inclusive of those from other faiths and spiritual traditions.  WoP CEO Thad Thomas promises that "whether you are a Buddhist, Muslim, Jew or just a curious agnostic, you will find much to do and enjoy in World of PeaceCraft."

Panganiban says that in-game quests will follow the course of Quaker history:

You begin in 17th Century England... preaching against the evils of war and unjust rule, meeting in clandestine locations to avoid persecution, and facing beatings and imprisonment at every turn.  Then you are transported to the early 1800s in the United States, helping shepherd escaped slaves to freedom as part of the Underground Railroad. Later quests involve you in the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, and the anti-death penalty and anti-war protests of today.

Look for WoP on PC and Mac in December.

Citing "cultural sensitivities," GamingIndians reports that Fallout 3 won't go on sale as scheduled next week in India.

By way of explanation GamingIndians cites a terse statement from Microsoft India, which is - or was - handling Fallout 3 distribution there:

Microsoft constantly endeavors to bring the best games to Indian consumers in sync with their international release. However, in light of cultural sensitivities in India, we have made the business decision to not bring Fallout 3 into the country.

Only the Xbox 360 version was planned for the Indian market.

GP: It's a bit of a mystery, but if I were a betting man, I'd speculate that Fallout 3's post-nuclear apocalypse theme has something to do with the decision.

After all, India has been in a stare-down with neighboring Pakistan for decades. Both sides are nuked up and as recently as 2002, almost went to war.

Via: Destructoid

The video game violence controversy has come to the Caribbean.

As reported by The Nation Newspaper, government officials in Barbados are under pressure to ban violent video games, or at least enforce their content ratings.

The flap began on Monday when the head of the National Organisation for Women called for a ban on violent games and toy weapons.

In lobbying for a ban, Yvonnes Walkes said:

We need an approach to reverse this culture of violence and force that the Deputy Commissionerof Police... spoke about. We have to start with the children, the schools and the parents...

We have to be aware and be vigilant to get measures in place. This will also be one of our main focuses during our 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women...

In response to Walkes' remarks, video game retailers requested that the government intervene with legal restrictions against selling games to underage players. Mahesh Mahtani, manager of a game shop, pointed to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas:

We do not sell [GTA:SA] at all, because it is the worst we have seen, with very strong sexual content and
sexual crimes. In fact, any games that depict gang violence and gang warfare, we generally do not encourage.

However, another store manager, Brent Cook, felt that singling out video games for blame in the nation's violence epidemic was unfair: 

It comes down to practising good parenting... You have to monitor everything your child does.

GP: While the article is not clear on this point, it seems that some Barbados retailers are voluntarily enforcing content ratings. Perhaps other retailers may feel that having the force of law behind them would make it easier to turn down underage buyers.

In the U.S., vastly improved ratings enforcement at point-of-sale, especially among major retailers, has significantly reduced the rate of M-rated game sales to minors. But those improvements came in response to political pressure and were fostered by strong industry trade associations for game publishers and retailers.

Last month GamePolitics tracked Xbox Live's inaugural use of political polling among its members. In that survey, XBL users overwhelmingly gave the nod to Barack Obama as their choice for president - and that was before anyone knew about those now famous in-game Obama ads.

In partnership with nonprofit Rock the Vote, XBL has just completed a new round of polling. This time users were asked to name which issues were most on their mind.

So what's the answer? In the words of Deomocratic campaign strategist James Carville, it's the economy, stupid. Here are the numbers:

• 35%        Jobs and the Economy
• 19%        Environment
• 18%        Foreign Policy
• 14%        Health Care
• 14%        Education
   

At this point it's fair to say that XBL has jumped into the election season with both feet. In addition to user polling and a voter registration drive, the online service is offering election 2008 gamerpics and themes, as well as a music video from The Presidents of the United States of America's new album.

On Monday, GamePolitics spoke to project manager Ben Vaught about the injection of politics into the XBL user experience. Vaught hadn't seen the results of the new poll at that point:

The reason we do these polls is that Xbox Live is more and more becoming a bellwether of where youth voting trends are going… This [new] poll is really a chance for Xbox Live members to tell the presidential candidates... this is why were voting, this is why this election matters to us…

 

I thought [the Obama ads were] amazing. This is a community of over 14 million members. They’re active and engaged, they’re vocal. And it's not just about games and entertainment. They're also active and engaged and feel very stongly about the direction of their country… If Xbox Live was a state, it would be the seventh largest with 20 electoral votes.

[Rock the Vote] is very happy with how everthing is turning out. For Rock the Vote, they’re going to where younger voters are this election and this year they’re on Xbox Live. With Microdoft and Xbox, we know that the presidential election is important and we’re really trying to do our part to encourage turnout and for people to vote.

The United Nations Population Fund has awarded Champlain College's Emergent Media Center a $600,000 grant to develop an interactive game aimed at preventing violence against women in developing nations. The target audience for the game will be young boys and the game will be rolled out in South Africa initially.

Toward that end, a group faculty and students from Champlain visited Cape Town in August. For more information, check out the Emergent Media Center's blog or join its Facebook group

While video games generally catch more heat for violence than sex, there have been a fair number of lust-fueled controversies in game land. Now, Playboy tech writer Damon Brown documents them in his new book, Porn & Pong: How 'Grand Theft Auto,' 'Tomb Raider' and other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture.

Salon has a lengthy interview with Brown who starts with Custer's Revenge and touches (appropriately, we might add) on everything from Leisure Suit Larry to Hot Coffee and beyond. Not one to leave out the online crowd, Brown includes a section on game-related cybersex:

One of the things I write about is the first documented cyberspace rape in a text-only environment called LambdaMOO. A user found a loophole that allowed him to control the actions of other players. He could make one player hurt or have sex with another player and so on. The malicious user went rampant through the game universe, forcing players into sexual acts, and was repeatedly kicked off the game, but he always managed to come back under a different user name.

The Playboy writer also explains his theory of why most protagonists in sexually-oriented games are male:

Most of the creators of these games are straight, most are white and a portion of them are Asian. [Game designers] want to have a protagonist the player can identify with and, on a different level, the designer himself can identify with. People identify with Larry, because everyone's been desperate and had those moments where they can't pick up anyone, or they want to be Niko Bellic, this awesome tough guy who can maintain five girlfriends across the city of New York.

In the future, Brown sees erotically-charged games becoming much more, um... interactive:

Our grandchildren are going to have amazing sex lives -- I can't think of a better way to say it. Connecting vibrators and other types of tools to the computer and getting pleasured by a professional or a long-distance lover is a brilliant idea. It will connect people in a much deeper way than the Internet or a webcam that's going 15 frames per second...

 

From talking to people at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Vegas in January, I understand the basic idea is that teledildonics will take off in a mainstream way any moment now. I'd say within five years it's going to become standard equipment for a lot of people.

UPDATE: Over at Edge Online, editor Colin Campbell has an entertaining whinge at the entire subject of sex in games. Best line:

Words like teledildonics leave me dizzy with nausea.
 

Is there a point in targeting an older game that, based on lukewarm reviews, probably wasn't a big seller even when it was new?

MTV Multiplayer reports that the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals is lobbying to have Nintendo DS title Dementium: The Ward removed from store shelves. The game is of the survival-horror genre and is played from a first-person aspect. From the MTV story:

...it seems that the organization was concerned that the game might “encourage discrimination and prejudice” against those with psychiatric disorders.

Gamecock Media Group distributes the game in Japan. CEO Mike Wilson told MTV:

Gamecock’s position is that this story, like many before it, boils down to a lack of understanding or appreciation (and therefore fear of) games outside our little sub-culture. I’m sure the people involved have only the best intentions.

 

The co-publisher/distributor for the game in Japan, Interchannel, will deal with the situation appropriately. In the meantime, we’re thrilled that this quick bout of paranoia has brought so much attention to our first lovechild with [developer] Renegade Kid… The game is groundbreaking on the platform and it deserves the attention and success it is seeing.

GP: Advocacy groups tend to be well-intentioned but are often ill-informed when it comes to games. In a similar vein, here in the U.S. the National Alliance on Mental Illness went after Manhunt 2 last year because the group felt that the game's asylum setting stereotyped psychiatric patients as violent.

Citizen Sugar reports on a new, web-based game offered by the British Red Cross.

Traces of Hope is designed to raise awareness of the plight of children in war-torn Uganda:

Players aim to help Joseph, a boy whose home and family has been torn apart by rebels, find his missing mother. The game site says: "He has a satellite phone, you have the web – together you’ll make a great team. Time is running out; guide Joseph through sickness, fire and violence as together you follow his traces of hope."

 

By placing clues for the game around the Internet, the game creators hope to blur the boundary between the game and the real world conflict. Since atrocities in the region often go unnoticed, perhaps this educational entertainment will help some wake up.

Cnet Asia has more:

After registering your email, Joseph contacts you and the game begins... The game is part of the Civilians and Conflict Month, a media blitz to raise awareness on the plight of those displaced and separated from their families because of war.
 

San Francisco's Current TV has created a four-minute video which examines the issue of homophobia in online gaming.

During a portion of the segment GayGamer.net editor Flynn DeMarco discusses the 2007 hate attack which took his site offline temporarily.

Via: Joystiq

What organizers claim will be the largest online protest ever is to be staged tomorrow within online game/social networking site Habbo Hotel.

Participants will gather in the Euro-teen hangout for an antiwar rally sponsored by Habbo and War Child, a U.K. group which assists kids affected by war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. According to War Child's website:

War Child and Habbo are teaming up for what promises to be the largest online protest ever. On 19th September, in the run up to UN International Day of Peace, teens will gather in Habbo hotel to raise awareness about the effects of war. Habbo is a virtual community of millions of young people, who hang out, play games and get involved in these kind of events.

Via: The Click Heard Round the World

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released the results of the first-ever national, publicly available look at youth and video games.

Teens, Video Games & Civics examines how and why games are played and details the relationship that gaming has to social and civic engagement among teens in the United States.

In gathering their data, Pew conducted phone interviews with 12-17-year olds along with a parent. The results of the 75-page report are a fascinating glimpse into how video games fit into the lives of teens. Major conclusions include:

• Almost all teens play games.
• The most popular games played by teens today span a variety of genres and ratings.
• Gaming is often a social experience for teens.
• Close to half of teens who play online games do so with people they know in their offline lives.
• Teens encounter both pro-social and anti-social behavior while gaming.
• The most popular game genres include games with violent and nonviolent content.
• Parental monitoring of game play varies.
• There are civic dimensions to video game play.
• The quantity of game play is not strongly related to teens’ interest or engagement in civic and political activity.
• The characteristics of game play and the contexts in which teens play games are strongly related to teens’ interest and engagement in civic and political activities.
• Playing games with others in person was related to civic and political outcomes, but playing with others online was not.
• Civic gaming experiences are more equally distributed than many other civic learning opportunities.

Pew notes that:

Video gaming is pervasive in the lives of American teens... Opportunities for gaming are everywhere... When asked, half of all teens reported playing a video game “yesterday.”

While racing, puzzle and sports games were determined to be the most popular, Pew found that two-thirds of American teens enjoyed action and adventure games, which may contain violent elements. A listing of teens' Top 10 most popular games was headed by Guitar Hero, Halo 3 and Madden. Grand Theft Auto was 8th.

Pew also concluded that gaming is a social experience for teens and that parental monitoring varies. Surprisingly, only a small (13%) subset of parents said they believed that games had a harmful effect on their kids:

• 90% of parents say they always or sometimes know what games their children play.
• 72% say they always or sometimes check the ratings before their children are allowed to play a game.
• Parents of teens who play games are generally neutral on the effect of games on their children, with nearly two-thirds believing that games have no impact one way or the other on their offspring.
• 62% of parents of gamers say video games have no effect on their child one way or the other.
• 19% of parents of gamers say video games have a positive influence on their child.
• 13% of parents of gamers say video games have a negative influence on their child.
• 5% of parents of gamers say gaming has some negative influence/some positive influence, but it depends on the game.

Civic engagement was one of the main focal points of the study. Games, however, seemed to have a mostly neutral effect in this area, with much depending on the civic-mindedness of individual gamers:

Neither the frequency of game play nor the amount of time young people spend playing games is significantly related to most of the civic and political outcomes that we examined—following politics, persuading others how to vote, contributing to charities, volunteering, or staying informed about politics and current events. There is little evidence to support the concern that playing video games promotes behaviors or attitudes that undermine civic commitments and behaviors.

 

At the same time, there is little evidence to support the idea that playing video games, in general, is associated with a vibrant civic or political life. The frequency of gaming was related to only two civic and political outcomes—political interest and protesting—with differences only emerging between the highest and lowest frequency of game play.

If you enjoy commenting on GamePolitics, the odds are that you are more aware of political and civic issues:

Teens who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically.

GP: All in all, this is very positive news for gaming. Pew Internet gets it right when it comes to the pervasiveness and social elements of gaming. Moreover, parental responses show that games are perhaps not regarded as the "murder simulators" some critics would suggest.

Get the full text of Teens, Video Games & Civics here...

Game publisher Electronic Arts, Xbox maker Microsoft and leading retailer GameStop are among 259 corporations that have been awarded perfect scores for their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.

The announcement comes by way of advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and is contained in its 2009 Corporate Equity Index. HRC Foundation President Joe Solmonese commented:

The 2009 Corporate Equality Index shows that corporate America understands that a diverse workforce is critical to remaining successful and competitive. In the absence of a federal law that prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, it is up to employers to take the lead and implement policies that ensure all their employees are protected.

Game-related companies which also received perfect scores include retailers Best Buy and Target; PC manufacturers Dell and HP; chip maker Intel; online auction site Ebay; and search companies Google and Yahoo. Also on the list, Apple, increasingly seeming like an up-and-coming game biz player.

GP: We've been beating on EA and Microsoft of late over a couple of (well-deserved) issues, but must give credit where it is due. Well done!

Earlier this month British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spotlighted the topic of food waste in the U.K., which he said costs the average household about £8 ($16). Brown's comments, which included criticisms of "buy one, get one free" promotions run by supermarkets, sparked some derision in the UK.

Via the Wasted Food blog, we've learned of an online parody game, Gordon Brown and the Kingdom of the Wasters:

You get to control the British Prime Minister as he tries to recover good food like bananas and cupcakes while avoiding rotten items like fish bones.

 

Apparently, dastardly opposition leader David Cameron is the one throwing away the good food. The goal is to catch Cameron and stop him from giving another press conference. Zelda, it’s not.

Students in Denmark will soon have an opportunity to explore the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict thanks to a new PC game.

Reuters reports that Global Conflicts: Palestine puts players into the role of a journalist on assignment in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In order to gather their story, players can interview civilians, soldiers and militants. When they've finished collecting information, players write an article on the conflict and receive a grade, determined by the game

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, one of the game's designers, spoke to Reuters about the project:
 

The goal for them is to recognize there are different perspectives, that the story can be also be told in different perspectives...

Hot Coffee it most definitely is not.

As reported by Joystiq, the University of Connecticut is soliciting proposals for a "safer sex video game."

According to UConn bid specs, the goal of the project is "to test the feasibility of using a PC-executable game (non-Flash) format to change the safe sex practices of an otherwise hard to reach group – urban emerging adults."

The University wants vendors to make the game "fun, motivating, and efficacious." That last one's not a dirty word, by the way.

If trials are successful - and no, GP does not know where you go to volunteer - the game will be distributed "broadly." As Joystiq notes, Europeans are already ahead of us in using game tech to teach safe sex.

Proposals from game developers are due back to UConn officials in November.