In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.

The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the Planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.
In Gears of War II, Epic Games went more in depth of the reason Dominic Santiago is in the COG army. It shows through out the story that Dominic has an emotional crisis with his wife. As in the first Gears of War, your main objective is to get obliterate the Locust Hordes from planet Sera except Dominic Santiago gets “personal” with the Hordes because they have enslaved his beloved wife. As the gamer is focused on the main objective of the game, the story also entwines with Dom’s personal problem which dramatizes the story and engages the gamer into the game deeper. Unlike the first Gears of War, the second one takes place underground of planet Sera. The Coalition of Government (COG), takes action against the Horde’s stronghold in order to put an end to the war. New characters are introduced and some die a horrifying death which enriches the games campaign mode. Upon entering the underground world of the Hordes, Marcus and Dominic run into trouble left and right. Marcus, commanding the Delta squad which consists of Dominic, Baird, Cole and B. Carmine, discover an abandoned COG outpost in which they are ordered to investigate. Further along, Delta discovers some abandoned humans along the way. As they further went down the locust cave(hollow), they discovered the Dominic’s wife was indeed alive. However she was so weak and tortured by the locust she had to be put down in order to end her suffering. Enraged by the death of her wife, Dom and Marcus go out and try to save jacinto, which is mankinds last resort, from been taken over from the locust. Eventually, in order to win the battle they had to make a hole in jacinto in order to flood the hollow and kill the locust. Once again the COG are victorious..well at least for now.
In the first Gears of War, there are plenty of unique weapons and the characters presented are diverse and can leave you with a cold chill down the spine. The characters are unique in their physical appearance and the emotions that they show brings a completely new style of game play to the table. There are a number of characters that Epic Games have created with carefully crafted appearances such as Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Baird Damon and Augustus Cole as the main protagonists. In the second series of Gears of War, Epic Games have added more characters and weapons to accompany the games outstanding action sequences. Although the “good” side of the force has added a few artillery to the collection, the Hordes have also increased their weapons load and new characters in the second series.

The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team.
However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in Co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that picked hard difficulty. Also what’s neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited. Also when been attacked from behind, one person can give some covering fire while the other person flanks from behind and kills the locust.
Along with the game play, Gears of War brings interesting weapons to its arsenal. One weapon is the Boltok Pistol. The Boltok is powerful magnum that fires single blasts.
The pistol has a powerful rounds along with its small clip and slow reload. Yet if reloaded perfectly, it will fire faster bringing enemies to a stop. The Boomshield is a shield in which it protects you from enemy fire and lets you fire back with a pistol. However since the Boomshield is heavy, your character will move slowly and make you vulnerable from the back end. A very powerful weapon which acts like a grenade launcher is the Boomshot. The boomshot consists of having shells when launched straight at an enemy it is instantly a one hit kill. However if one shoots it close, the result can be that you die along with you enemy. The frag grenades in the game are very useful in gears of war. The can be used as a melee weapon or a projectile. If an enemy gets close enough, you can stick the grenade to your enemy and shortly after will be blown to pieces. They can also be stuck to walls and other things. This is useful since it can be used defensively or offensively. Another type of grenades are the flash and the ink. Just like the frag grenades, the flash and ink can be stuck to walls or on enemies. The flash grenade temporarily stuns the enemy so you can run away or go up to them and shoot them. The ink frag explodes leaving a trail of poison gas in the air and anyone in the way( enemies or allies) can be killed by it so it must be used carefully. In the game, there are three standard weapons each character has including the shotgun, assault rifle, and hammerburst. When used at closed quarters, the shotgun can become a devastating weapon, turning bodies into little pieces. The assault rifle is always good taking down enemies from med to long range. A substitute for the assault rifle is the hammerburst. The hammerburst is gun which shoots short bursts of rounds and is a little bit more damage than the assault and can zoom in. There is a so the flamethrower which burns the enemies to death. The long range weapons in the game consists of the Longshot sniper rifle and the torque bow. With the Longshot one can zoom in from very far way and has the capability of downing an enemy or killing them with a head shot. As with the torque bow, it is basically a bow which needs to be charged before been shot at the enemy. If aimed carefully, it is a one hit kill. Yet, if the bow is not fully charged, it cannot penetrate the enemies skin therefore , bouncing off the body. Finally, we have the Hammer of Dawn which is a device that one can aim on open space and a beam from the sky will shoot down on destroying any enemy in its way.
Even though Gears of War has these unique features, many people still like to compare which of the two Xbox giants is better. The first person shooter halo 3 has been compared to gears of war on things relating such as multiplayer, story, and graphics. In the following video, it compares these features in a detailed fashion.



Although Halo 3 won , Gears of War is still a game everyone must at least try once. From the graphics to the story it is a game that will have you wanting for more. It also provides a beneficial experience for those who are accustomed to the first person shooters, like the Halo trilogy. To simply say, Gears of War has set the standard for games to come including the graphical technology, the real life storyline, and the action and thrill the game provides the player.

Links
http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/GOW2/TheGame.htm#/weapons/GorgonPistol
http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14232680/gears-of-war-2/videos/gearsvshalo_120108.html

ROUGH draft

In 2006, Epic Games revealed a third person shooter game that helped satisfy the need for those who sought video games with a passion for action and cooperative team play. This popular game is soon to be a trilogy with two of the three games already successfully developed. The game was noted as the highest and fastest selling game of 2006 when the first of the two Gears of War sold over 3 million copies in the first ten weeks which set a high standard for other game developers to follow. Gears of War consists of realistic graphics provided by the Unreal Technology which will be explained furthermore and a similar character view to that of the “Resident Evil” franchise. Gears of War known as GoW, is a third person shooter with the “over the shoulder” look which allows the character to be moved in many ways when compared to other shooter games. For example, the characters can roll, duck, hide behind most objects, deliver a powerful thrust to the opponent when in need and climb. The versatility of the characters allow for a more intense and enjoyable game instead of the boring “hide and shoot” technique limited by past technology. The Gears of War realistic graphics are based off of the Unreal Engine created by Epic Games which was soon published by Microsoft Game Studios. There are three advancements of the Unreal Engine with each one setting a new standard of virtual graphics. It was first illustrated in 1998 in a number of award-winning games such as: Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, America’s Army and many more to list. The first Unreal Engine was put into the Unreal Tournament video game which was released in 1999. Unreal Engine 2.0 was used by Bioshock 1 and 2 and also, America’s Army. Gears of War used the Unreal Engine 3.0 pushing the limits slightly further. This advanced technology used for GoW made fantasy look ever closer to reality.






The story sets place in a planet similar to Earth known as the planet Sera. Shortly after the humans have colonized the planet they discover that there is a highly valued power source called “Imulsion.” The planet, sought after by many led the humans into a long and cold war for 79 years known as the “Pendulum Wars.” The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) was formed although it was minor and only an obscure world-government philosophy, it evolved into a legitimate political party during the wars. A corrupt day known as “Emergence Day” was the beginning of the tragedy that had befallen the human race. A civilization called the “Locust Hordes” were mutant-like creatures with certain human characteristics such as similar physical appearance (arms, legs, neck…) have begun their attack on humanity in order to extinct the human race. In the Hordes attempt to destroy humanity, they have managed to leave the COG as the only human government left on Sera.
Fourteen years after Emergence Day, a former COG soldier, Marcus Fenix had been reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Marcus Fenix has a right hand man by the name of Dominic Santiago who later introduces Fenix to the Delta Squad in which Fenix will be leading. In the first series of Gears of War, the objective of the Delta Squad was to obtain a powerful weapon called the “light mass bomb” in order obliterate all the Locust Hordes dwelling within the planet. During co-op story mode you play as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in order to successfully retrieve the bomb while the game deeply engages you in the never-ending action against the Hordes. With the ability dodge, hide, use team work and do almost anything to stop the Hordes in your way, the thrill leaves you wanting to play more and more.

#

##

#The game play for gears of war is very unique. There are different types of modes you can do. For example for every game mode(exception wingman) there are two teams of five. One team is the COG (humans) and the other is the locust(monsters). The most popular game mode for gears of war is execution in which you try to eliminate the other players from the other team. However, you cant just shoot them and watch them die. You must shoot the enemy enough times so that the enemy ends up crawling on the ground. The opponent will remain on the ground until he is revived by another teammate or killed by an execution move by your character. Another way to kill the opponent is to get a one shot kill. This happens by either getting a headshot or blowing up the opponent with a boomshot (similiar to a grenade launcher). Another game type that is quite fun is called Annex. In this gametype the objective of the game is for both teams to capture a specific location on the map. Usually the point to capture will be located by a weapon. When a team captures the location and hold that location they start to collect points for each second they last. The maximum amount of points a team can get is 60 points per each position. After a team has captured 60 points, a new location is shown. Teams get infinite lives while playing annex. The first team to get to 180 points wins the round and the first team to win two rounds wins the match. Guardian is also another game type which consists of a leader in each of the teams. This game mode has the same rules as execution except for one factor. As long as the leader is alive, each teammate gets infinite lives. So the best thing to do in this mode is to kill the leader and then kill the rest. The first to win three rounds wins the match. An interesting capture the flag mode is called submission . It basically combines the modes execution and annex but with a twist. Both teams rush to get the “flag” which in this case it is actually an AI-controlled player. The "flag" will wander the map and attempt to kill anyone who gets near. To "capture" him, you'll have to first down, then escort him as a meat shield all the way back to your base, all while your opponents are trying to kill you and shoot at the "flag". Because, if shot at enough, your meat shield flag will break free, go berserk and deal out the pain. Infinite respawns are also included in this game type. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. Wingman is when you and a buddy team up, sharing a single character model in this five teams of two game mode. It has the same rules as execution but the first team to get 15 kills or more first wins the match. The last game mode which I think is the best one is horde mode. This is basically a mode where you can have up to five people playing and trying to survive the hordes of locust. When a level is chosen, everyone must start out in wave one. As you progress further into the waves, the enemies get smarter, tougher, and more accurate. The basic goal here is to make it all the way to wave 50 without losing. Yet as long as one person survives a wave, the whole team can still advance to the next wave. This is by far the most challenging since teamwork is needed in order to win and advance all the way to the very last wave of locust.
The campaign mode in Gears of War 2 allows for a single player or two players playing cooperatively to complete the game's story mission as Marcus or Dominic(Main characters in GOW). There is a variety of difficulty for the experience veterans and for the novice gamer. There is also an 'Insane' difficulty which is unlocked after the player completes the game at least once. Players in co-op mode can select different difficulties depending on their skill level. For example if one player chooses hard and the other easy, the AI will adapt to those difficulties. So when the AI shoots the player with the easy difficulty, it wont do as much damage as to the player that choose hard difficulty. Also whats neat about the Co-op is that there is sometimes a double forked path in which both players would have to split up and try to help each other advance. For instance, One player might have to pull on a lever to help the other player open the door so that they can both be reunited.

Week 8

“History of Military Gaming” written by Carrie McLeroy is about how video games slowly progressed to become a tool for the military. I found it intriguing that people as far back as the 1st Century began to use tactics and strategies to overcome the enemy though I‘d say it‘s safe to bet they relied a lot on brute force. Back then the tactics used were of simple basic planning but it was the starting point for devices used today to train the soldiers. Using video games and simulation to help understand what it’s like out on the battle field has many benefits that can cause a major decrease in incidents related to training and minimal waste of ammunition. Although training virtually can be beneficial, it can’t truly bring the emotion of fear unless your out there doing the real thing.

The Germans were so effective in their campaigns and winning battle after battle and careful strategizing and planning must have been a huge factor to their victories. “The Germans were creating the foundations of mathematically driven warfare that would be programmed on computers in the 1950’s.” as stated by Roger Smith, chief scientist and technology officer for the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation. The Germans have taken the next step up with probability and advanced mathematics that have lead to today’s advanced simulations and understandings. Hopefully the continuation of video game developing for the use in military combat training is growing to prevent casualties amongst soldiers.

“America’s Army” is a video game developed with the help and the ideas of the US army. This link: http://www.americasarmy.com/intel/ is to the video game main website in which you can view the heroes of today and learn about the rankings of the soldiers and what they do. Video games such as America’s Army engages the player in the important aspects of what a solider in a real battle does. Besides using video games, I’ve always thought that the military had realistic cockpits and virtual simulators that can portray the image of war far better than anything controlled by a joystick. Upon reading the article “Military Training Is Just a Game,” I found that using virtual simulators were effective but it was extremely costly even for the military. Michael Macedonia, chief scientist at the army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation in Orlando Florida states “It’s not really about shooting things, learning how to shoot your weapon is easy. The challenging thing is leading.” Some games such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six PC game focuses a lot on the keeping your swat team alive and planning. Many war games put a strong emphasis on the gun where it feels as if you can take out the entire terrorist squad with a powerful gun. Games that are meant to train the soldiers must be more than about the weaponry and focus on leadership and how to react in times of danger.

Who ever knew that the military had a whole bunch of Xbox 360 and Wii controllers in their top secret lockers? According to “Wii All You Can Be? Why The Military Needs The Gaming Industry” by Glenn Derene talks about how the US military needs the help of some of the worlds top video game industries. When it comes to picking the best analog for whatever the military has up there sleeves, they seem to have favored the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers because of the “portability, durability and easy ergonomics of the gamepad make it ideal for military use.” says Glenn Derene. I can understand how they prefer the controllers over the use of anything similar to a computer keyboard type layout because it’s a lot easier to use your thumbs to move the joysticks rather than having to type and click your way through.

Week 7 Post

According to Richard Heeks, author of “Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on Gold Farming”… “gold farming means the real-world sale of virtual goods and services produced in online games.” Making a business to sell virtual items for real-life money is definitely the dream job for any gamer. This informative article about gold farming was intriguing because of the fact that people, many people at that, are willing to spend money after money for online game services. While engaging in the article, I found that not only do the gold farmers make real money for online gaming services, it is one of the earliest form of online employment. Going online today, I see hundreds of ads online that is similar to gold farming, except it doesn’t involve video games. Every day I see ads that say that you can make as much as ten thousand dollars just for posting advertisements on other sites! As great and easy as it sounds, most are a fluke and many people fall prey to false advertising.

One would certainly think that playing video games while earning money is preposterous a few years ago but it has been something that has been going on for quite a while. According to Richard Heeks, “First, MMORPGs really began to grow in industrialized countries with the launch of Ultima Online in 1997.” The first MMPORG has boosted the gaming community and started the process of gold farming since 1997. I find that this kind of employment would usually attract students from high school and maybe some young adults. Upon reading the article, I found that gold farmers work a hard 12 hour daily shift while working seven days a week! Now of course, this job has positions and ranks according to research done by Richard Heeks, and it seems that the staff get paid a mere $140 US dollars/month while the higher ups get paid much more. Although fun as it may sound to play games and get paid, the hours put into gold farming does not equal in earnings for a $140/month, although it can be great for pocket change or if you simply just enjoy playing the game while earning some money. I can see great potential in this job for younger people but I don’t think it would actually make the cut on most people.

Cheating in video games? Who’s never tried to do such a thing? People cheat and there are consequences for doing so. That’s the human nature and people have been doing it for decades for many purposes. Some people cheat to get ahead in the competition, some people cheat because it involves less work, and some people cheat for the joy of it. Upon reading the article “Cheaters: A Special Report” by a Game Informer staff member, there are two kinds of cheating in the world of video gaming which I agree on. Playing in single player mode and cheating is a lot less harmful than cheating online during multiplayer. Although it is a lot difficult, gamers are willing to risk their gaming account because playing online and winning increases the points that other online gamers see and in turn can get the respect and bragging rights. Robert Bowling, Call of Duty 4 community manager at developer Infinity Ward states, “You always think your ahead of the curve, but no matter how much internal testing you do or how much we play the game ourselves, your endless community is always going to find things you didn’t see.” Cheating ruins other gamers experiences online and although game developers are trying to find ways to stop the glitches and cheats, new ways to spoil the game are always going to be there.

“The Social Network Game Boom” written by Sande Chen focuses on the social networking that involve some major social websites such as Facebook and Myspace. I am a victim of the mini games on Facebook and MSN especially when I find myself bored out of my mind unable to find anything else to do. One thing that I notice when I play these games is that I have the ability to play with my friends that are online. Being able interact with my friends while playing the game definitely helps to be more social while playing and it also benefit’s the game developers. Video game developers try to expand their product to a wide range of people and what better way to do so than posting games on popular social websites? A simple interesting game played on Facebook can be an advertisement to a upcoming game to improve their sales. Overall, I think that the internet is a powerful tool for advertising and obtaining needed information in which everyone can benefit from. Anything from online employment such as gold farming to having political debates, we would be back in the Stone Age if it wasn’t for the internet.

Food, Water, and The Internet

Our world is getting more and more advanced every year and technology is becoming more essential to our daily lives. The internet is important to our lives as clothes, food and shelter because we thrive on the information that we obtain. The World Wide Web has allowed people from around the world to obtain information that people without internet cannot. According to “Young Adults and Virtual Public Spheres: Building A New Political Culture” by Alan E. Rycroft, “young adults favor the Internet for news and information gathering.” I myself, use the internet 90% of the time whenever I need to gather information. Alan also says that the internet provides a more diverse culture and a more efficient way of gathering information from many points of view all over the world whether it’s politics or news.

Being accessible anywhere around the world, the internet provides the tools to allow people to express their thoughts and ideas. For example, there are many websites that allow people to communicate through the web which allows diverse opinions from people around the world about anything from video games to politics. Alan E. Rycroft states that “The fact that young people are now exposed to a wide variety of opinions, well beyond the narrow confines of corporate media reporting, and that many take the opportunity to learn more about issues that interest them, helps compel many young people to take action and use the Internet as a political communications and organizing tool.” I think it is in the human nature to take interests in things that we as an individual are intrigued by.

Using the internet for politics and news is one thing but using video games to portray what is happening around the world such as wars and economic crisis is a whole other idea. In “The Civic Potential of Video Games” written by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, and Chris Evans, the question “Are teens that have civic gaming experiences more committed to and engaged in civic and political activity?” I think it does because gamers who enjoy games like “Call of Duty” and “Star Craft” become more interested in things that relate to the game. When I played the “Call of Duty” series, I was more amused at the storyline in the single player mode than I have ever been in any history or civics class I have ever taken. The story of the video game allowed me to play as a soldier of WWII and it was definitely more interesting than reading books about WWII. Playing the game kept me engaged and all the while helped me learn in a fun and interesting way about how WWII was like. Not many young adults like to deal with politics, especially if they would have to pull the books out, I think that there is no better way than to engage young students and adults about civics than video games that help engage in civics.

Alcoholics, Druggies and... Video Game Addicts?

Everyone knows that video games are entertaining especially at times when there is nothing to do, but not many, especially the adults providing their children with the games know that it can be extremely harmful. After reading those articles online, studies have proven that video game addiction is similar to that of having a gambling or alcohol addiction. It has never crossed my mind that addiction to video games can be classified as something so dangerous and life threatening. Although it is not as severe has having a constant state of yearning for alcohol, it can still ruin lives.

Every now and then I watch the news channel and I find that an emotionally wrecked thirty-five or forty-five year old male being put behind bars because he was addicted to alcohol. Can you imagine a sixteen year old kid reenacting that forty-five year old because he did what he thought he could do in video games? Maybe the kid, after playing countless hours of the violent games provided by the gaming industry today, thought that he can get imaginary and start shooting the “bad guys” with his or her daddies hand gun to be the hero. Video games can be fun but it also needs to be limited to a certain extent.

Video games are what kids do these days. Anything from Super Mario to World of Warcraft. I remember going to school and hear kids talking about video games throughout recess and lunch. I have also joined in a couple of the discussions they had putting my own perspectives about the “current” games. I’ve never asked or bothered trying to know, but I’ve always thought that as soon as they opened the front door to their house, they were on the computer playing games. With no disrespect to any of them, I really had thought that they had nothing else to do because they were so used to playing games to feed their addiction to everything. They were always in a group of two or three and was never social as they would not expand outside of their group. Kimberly Young, PsyD, Clinical director for the center of the Center for Online-Addiction stated “an intelligent child who is unpopular at school can “become dominate in the game.” “The virtual life can becomes more appealing than real life.” You can’t blame the kids for finding comfort in their games back home because it was surely a lot easier than trying to be “big” at school although, at such an early age, you can expect consequences.

One thing I’m sure we can all agree on is that games are definitely something we can all play to become the imaginary hero or heroine or the worlds greatest villain. Weather it’s just changing your characters clothes or finding the right hairstyle that you have always wanted on the video game character, you find it satisfying and for some, overwhelming. Being a hardcore video gamer is not the least bit dangerous as being an alcoholic or a drug addict but it does ruin the character you can be in real life opposed to that of the character you want to be in video games. Undeveloped social skills and poor physical activity can seriously ruin who you can become. In todays world, people that have strong social skills and a healthy physical appearance is prized and is favored among others. Engaging in the entertainment video games provide, exercise of anti-addiction for the game should be maintained with self control. Parents with young children should set a limit to the amount of time spent on playing video games, as I would expect that the last thing a parent would want to see is their own children struggling for their own lives after something they thought would be so harmless.

Sexism Portrayed In Video Games

I have never realized how sexism in video games were such a complex and questionable topic. Being a guy, I have never paid much attention to anything besides how eye catching and enjoyable the game was. I can see how games that stereotype females much like the Super Princess Peach games affect young kids. Kids from a young age learn things from what they do and when they start playing games that focus on female characters being stereotyped, kids will see things that way. Why do females portray that kind of role in video games? Is it because their are not enough females in the video game industry? Or maybe the majority of females that don’t play video games overcome those that do and don‘t really affect the outcome of the game for women?

Super Mario is definitely a classic! This game is what got me through elementary school with a smile on my face. I have occasionally played this game with my family and enjoyed every minute of it. I would have never thought that this family fun game or any of the Mario-related games would be a suspect in the matter of sexism! I am sure that there are females who find a blonde girl wearing a pink dress portraying the very symbol of women being stereotyped outrageous and unethical. Although, there are many games out there that cause a bigger impact than games like Mario or Super Princess Peach.

Video Games today are filled with violence, money and sex. Female roles in games have noticeably risen at a slow but steady rate often hurting the image of women. These games actually have females playing their own role in the game but they are far from being respectful to female gamers. When and if females are in video games such as Grand Theft Auto, they are occasionally portrayed very negatively. In Grand Theft Auto, females are walking along the city streets as prostitutes. These prostitutes play the role of a health pack… in a very sexual way. While you play as the criminal beating on police officers and stealing cars left and right, you can go to a prostitute to replenish your health when it’s low though you will have to pay the prostitute money. What makes it more disturbing is the fact that you can actually go and beat the prostitute and take your money back if you wanted.

Video games such as Tomb Raider and Blood Rayne actually have females as lead characters. These characters not only shoot, roll, jump and kick like the male characters, but it is noticeably obvious that their breasts are larger than average and tend to jump around with every step. Is this what the video game developers do to attract consumers? Whatever it is that they are doing, it seems to be positively impacting male consumers and negatively affecting female consumers. Who’s to say that because of games portraying woman as a sexual symbol has the average age of male gamers gone up? Disturbing and immature? Yes. Maybe in the near future the symbolism of women will change in video games. For now, we can only hope that kids don’t play games that disgrace the image of females or it may never be over.



This is a short video of male gamers finding Lara Crofts breasts highly amusing (no nudity). It's kind of hard to see but apparently he actually recorded this while playing the game because it was that interesting. Kind of hilarious if you ask me.