http://www.mavav.org/

" MAVAV is dedicated to educating parents in today' s fastest increasing threat and danger to
our child' s health and way of life"

PURE GARBAGE!

LOL I guess they will ban public school also
And throw out the tVs with no perental controls

Does fantasy violence like devil may cry gets banned

What is so hard about giving them a strong upbringing?
I guest my parents were very good in teaching me to behave.
Everything that wasn' t just (not so) common sense

reminds me of Law an Order " especially heinous"

Common sense has been annouced as useless once again.

We should make t-shirts!

ROFLCAKES!!!
If you consider video games as adictive you might as well extend that to things like playing basketball and lifting weights. Such a ridiculous web site.
Here is a good article on video game politics http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-stein31jan31,0,1016689.column?coll=la-news-comment
haha I' ll have to add that to my VGP site.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA From that site

Fact: Video games aren' t just for " fun" anymore, the video game industry made a net income of $6.3 billion in 2002, surpassing even the movie industry. Developers profit and continue to take advantage of today' s youth with cute, loveable, addictive, and recognizable franchise characters. A practice and strategy similar to those used by the tobacco industry.

hehe I decided to send them an email

On your web site http://www.mavav.org/resources/ you claim video games make people violent.

" Danger: Do video games make people violent?
Yes. What was once a debatable question, is now fact. New research has concluded that video game violence and behavior related violence are in fact closely related."

Could you please direct me to where I can find this research? I' ve seen many reports from studies on the relation of video game violence and real violence but none that lead to the conclusion video games make people violent.

I' ll let you know what I get for a response.

Yes games is a threat,when sick kids/teenage playes them
Its the same when they listen to music like marlyn manson,or see horror movies.
Parents pretend always like their kids are angels,there must be a reason why they flip out,and now they blame games.

I' m not angry im not racist,im not a sexist apparently im a amazing super person.
The game did not affect me.
Thus im better then all :)

Man, those people should use their time raising their children instead of writing such crap. No wonder kids are monsters nowadays. It seems parents need to blame their bad work on something besides themselves.
Research in Sweden has shown that videogames do not make people violent at all.
I don' t think videogames make people violent. I think that it' s the other way around: People who are violent from the beginning are attracted to violent games. But their violent actions would have been carried out regardless of playing videogames or not.
If videogames are violent then the old thing everyone played as kids " cowboys and indians" should be concidered VERY violent. I mean, you' re killing native americans. And you don' t see any blood so you don' t understand how horrible it is. At least in videogames we see that shooting someone is bad.
BTW, I think Arnold S. has caused kids to be violent more than videogames has. I think everyone has heard kids go " hasta la vista baby" and make machine gun noices and stuff. At least in the 90s.
" I' ll be back"

" Danger: Do video games make people violent?
Yes. What was once a debatable question, is now fact. New research has concluded that video game violence and behavior related violence are in fact closely related."

Write them something like

" Dear (whatever their name is)
I' ve been moved by your article on Videogames.I' ve noticed that my child is playing videogames and is getting very hard to deal with.I' ve been very anxious seeing my son kill a turtle in Mario (with it' s own shell - how sick is that?) and jumping on poor little fellows heads.

I think he can' t distinguish those games from reality.

I tried to make him stop ...

I tried everything - I beat him regularly (he was in hospital like 5 times), starve him , abuse sexually and nothing really works.I mean it' s strange cause when I play tamagochi and don' t feed it, it dies."

..that' s the same crap sexually repressed middle-aged losers have been going on about since Elvis...

...and Arnold Shwartawhatever is the biggest elected moron since Dubya...

Dont blame games on the lack of YOUR parental skills.

seems like everybody who plays gta becomes a mass murder, hell i think games should be baned completely and instead we will all suck our thumbs waiting for somebody tell to us what to do. Becuase, obiously we very stupid people.

OY GEVALT!!! THOSE IBBLEDICK ALTER COCKERS HAVE GONE MESHUGGINAH!!!(Stuffs crazy yiddish speaking midget back into skull).
Honestly, I don' t see why they' re still going on about this. I mean it' s not like they' re doing anything about violence and sexuality when it' s nice and accessible on T.V., but as soon as a controller hits a kid' s hand, the angry letter writing mothers of America all put a petition in to the pope to recognize video games as a major heresy. And saying videogames are a widespread addiction is like saying that the libraries should close because reading too long will cause eye strain!

It' s all a ploy.

America is run by the Illuminati and before long they' ll be putting subliminal messages in all digital entertainment...

I think that Al Quaida play too many video games too! What else could POSSIBLY be the reason for all the violence?!

The facts of the matter are:

-parents need to be parents.

-some kids WILL be bullies.

-people WILL kill other people

I mean, the world IS becoming more and more violent. Video games are a " reflection" of that, not a cause! People need to think rationally once in a while.

Nah, the world hasn' t changed one bit.

See, hundreds of years ago the west (Europe) led a " Holy" Crusade into the Middle East, the ' Kindom of Heaven' if you like. We occupied the land and massacred 100' s of 1000' s of innocent people all in the name of God.

The world isn' t getting more and more violent at all. It just gets more coverage!

With the advent of television and the internet in the 20th Century, violence has simply been more visible. You can see it on the news, in film, read about it in the paper or on the internet, hear about it on the radio, shit, ...even download video of people blowing things up on your phone (if you' re so inclined). It' s always been there, you just now see more of it.

Nobody wants war, but some countries need it to keep their economies above water!

Oscar Wilde once said.. " I think that God, in creating Man, somewhat overestimated his abilities."

And oh how it rings true!

that' s amazing, those articles on the Mothers Against People Who Aren' t Steroid Shootin' Jocks. (not at all meaning to insult physically active people in any way) are irroneous to the last degree, as well as what we call in the scientific community, bullus crappum. its latin for something but i dont know what...

anyway. my dad lets me play M rated games because he knows that it is easy to distinguish from what is right, and what is wrong. and on top of that, that bit about making people violent and reclusive is total nonsesense. i blast the heads off of many a spanish zombie cultist in resident evil, and can still come to concience with god in church every week. the only way i consider violence in video games to be a true sin, is when you know that the person/character you commited it on didn' t deserve it. and even still, you need that escapism to stop you from going psycho on people in the real world
i can' t tell you how many a day i' ve come home from school ready to hurt someone, only to take it out on a polygonal punching bag. see it' s like those nutty fifties comedies where the repressed scrawny do-good kid comes home from school and punches his pillow in retaliation, only we use our shoulder buttons.

hahahaha nicley said eddie_the_not_so_hated

Seriously, I' m getting tired of all this fucking shit going on in America with parent organizations, blaming everything that is wrong with their kids on something else. Damn!!!! Chee saw is right, there will be kids that kill, kids that beat up on other kids etc. Studies have shown that.....FUCK THAT!!! You' re just trying to make money MAVA. Going as far as writing a letter to the pope to consider games a herecy? So what do you think that' s gonna do to churchgoing people? It sure ain' t gonna make ' em stop playing video games, just like sex before marriage being a sin isn' t making teenagers stop having sex and have babies when they' re 14. I tell to MAVA, have you watched Maury lately??? There are bigger issues at hand than videogames.

Also, videogames don' t make kids violent. In that case, write a letter to the pope to make movies a herecy, and rap and rock music a herecy, cuz that' s what' s making dumb-thug-gangsta-wannabees violent. Suicide Solution by Ozzy made people kill themselves (Ozzy rocks, those ppl are dumb for taking it too far). In my opinion, rap, hip-hop, whatever u wanna call it is what' s making " some" kids violent, cuz they listen to it, they dress like thugs and try to act like one. And i speak this cuz I see it everyday where I live, especially in High School, and the other High Schools I' ve been to. One kid from my high school (about 17 years old) all thugged out, listening to rap and what not, thinking he was tough and a thug, killed someone. His attitude was always " what u looking at" , " i' m the coolest" , I wear my belt below my ass, I have a serious face on all the time and what not. Got into fights all the time and got his ass kicked all the time, cuz he wasn' t tough, but he thought he was. So one night, him and his gangsta buddies too (wannabees) were walking past a gas station, saw a guy was looking at them (this guy was filling up on gas), went up to him, grabbed him, broke a beer bottle in his head (yes they had beers with them and they were getting drunk on the streets cuz they were cool) then stabbed him with the broken bit. The guy died. There are sooo many more stories like this...

There are some rare cases when some ppl will actually become violent because of games, but that' s rare. I think there is a lack of good parenting. One of the main things that make kids do whatever they wanna do is " if you hit me i' ll call the cops on you" . WTF is that shit!!! Is that what they teach in kinder garden, or pre-school, or even elementary? I know some parents get abusive, but the way they teach it is " if mommy or daddy hits you, call the police" . And I' ve seen this whole idea that hitting kids is not a good way to educate children...no fucking wonder I see kids doing whatever they want, getting whatever they want, cuz their parents won' t punish them for being out of order. That alone makes him think he can' t be touched, and then other things affect him and he/she becomes violent. Let' s blame it on videogames. My dad hit me when I was little when I was over the line. Good thing he did, cuz I wouldn' t have learned, cuz apparently I was a bad kid. Some kids you don' t need to hit, but some are just looking for it. I dunno what you guys think about slapping kids, but in my opinion it is one of the reasons kids are growing up the wrong way nowadays. My friend' s cousin hits his mom (he' s 15) in the face, punches her, and then tells her " what u gonna do, hit me? ill call the cops on you" . They have too much freedom, too many rights and shit.


Sorry i rambled on about this but I come from a different country, different culture and all these things surprised me when I came to canada. It' s something I get pretty mad about. And a lot of people I tell this to, agree with me. I didn' t write everything I have to say about the topic, cuz Id need 2 pages.

But yeah, MAVAV, go get some parenting lessons, watch some TV, make your kids stop playing videogames and you' ll see. There will be no difference at all. And stop trying to ruin it for all us others!!!

I totally agree with the sentiment here across the board, and violent crime throughout the ages has pretty much stayed at the same level (excluding major conflicts) It actually tires and depresses me (especially as I have to give lectures regarding this topic) that this axe is ground so feverently in the states and with such vigour, I mean, where is the educated voice of reason comming from the gamers themselves? It' s always cut out from the media' s reports - over sensationalism of any part of the games industry gets my goat, but even more so I feel sorry for the *rap you guys have to go through in the states. Honestly, It makes me sick.

and Killer, despite your nick, don' t worry about the " ramble " i pretty much agree!

who here thinks the quote " life is just a video game, we all gotta die sometime.." really implicates the industry. dammit, give me a newspaper to chew on... grrrr.....


perhaps there should be a put gams in a positive light kind of campaign set up world wide to pressurise the other way? Or is that just joining them in their own petty games?

Look back at night-trap now on the mega CD. A collosall budget, a failing title and the biggest fu-rore since mortal combat - but what was it? Women in nighties, being hussled into a room by men in black suits?!?!? I mean!! This was only a decade ago...!

true. about the nick, lol, I thought it was gonna be only temp. I used to be Albogino, but then I got banned for making a false topic (it was meant to " make people look" ). Thinking it was only gonna be temporary, I re-signed up with KiLLer, which I used to use in Counter Strike. I guess is got stuck with it, I kinda don' t like it either, too harsh.

Lol, i saw a documentary about that game, ahahah, whoever made that must' ve been on meth.

I would like to add that as a whole in North America violent crimes are decreasing while video games are getting more popular. This is blatant evidence that there is no correlation with violence and videogames. But try telling these undersexed brain dead losers any logical deductions and they still insist on pushing their fucking agenda. I hate these people.

Better living through video games?
CAROLYN ABRAHAM

From Thursday' s Globe and Mail

When he snags downtime from his schoolwork, Ryerson University student Brad Evans gabs with friends, grooves to Kanye West on his MP3 player and races virtual hotrods on his Sony PlayStation. All at the same time.

Before you assume gadgets and video games fry the minds of the future, consider this: Canadian researchers are finding evidence that the high-speed, multitasking of the young and wireless can help protect their brains from aging.

A body of research suggests that playing video games provides benefits similar to bilingualism in exercising the mind. Just as people fluent in two languages learn to suppress one language while speaking the other, so too are gamers adept at shutting out distractions to swiftly switch attention between different tasks.

A new study of 100 university undergraduates in Toronto has found that video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests. If they also happened to be bilingual, they were unbeatable.

" The people who were video game players were better and faster performers," said psychologist Ellen Bialystok, a research professor at York University. " Those who were bilingual and video game addicts scored best -- particularly at the most difficult tasks."

The York study, which tested subjects' responses to various misleading visual cues, is to be published next month in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. Three other studies published in the past two years have also concluded that action video games can lead to mental gains involving visual skills and short-term memory.

No one is certain how this translates to general learning or everyday life. But Mr. Evans, 21, an aerospace engineering student, said years of gaming have added valuable dimensions to his thinking.

" I grew up with video games, starting with Nintendo and SuperMario . . . from the age of 8 or 9," he said. " I know it helps with my dexterity; it' s good for co-ordination and faster reflexes."

Prof. Bialystok suspects video gamers, like bilinguals, have a practised ability to block out information that is irrelevant to the task at hand.

" It' s like going to the gym," she said. " You build up the ability to control impulses with practice."

Brain-imaging research released this week shows that the physical inability to silence mental noise is key in making the elderly prone to distraction and poor multitaskers.

That study, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, shows the elderly lose the ability to power up brain regions, such as the frontal lobe, needed to focus on a task, and to turn down activity in inner brain regions that are most active when a person is in idle or default mode.

" You can' t turn off the extraneous things . . . the areas involved in thinking of the self -- ' What do I have to do? . . . Gee, I have a really bad headache," said study leader Cheryl Grady, senior scientist and associate director at Toronto' s Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest.

In contrast, the brain images of people between ages 20 and 30 displayed a far more dramatic see-saw effect activating and de-activating regions as they shifted out of idle to task. The study found this pattern begins to dull in middle age and actually results in cognitive deficits beyond age 60.

Dr. Grady said the results suggest that the brains of today' s youth might grow up differently.

" Young people using all of these gadgets all of the time, at the same time, it may actually make a difference when they' re old, like bilingualism does," she said. " We know that practice changes the brain, as with playing an instrument, a motor task -- it makes physical changes in the brain. Maybe those kids who play video games and who are also bilingual will be the best of older adults at filtering out distractions."

Neuroscientist Shitij Kapur, chief of research at Toronto' s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said " it would be quite reasonable to expect that these teens are good at multitasking, because they grow up in a world that demands it."

But, he noted: " Today' s teens may be better than their grandparents, but when they are in their 70s, their grandchildren will say, ' Hey, he can only play three games at the same time and I play seven.' It' s relative impairment. Their grandchildren will not think any higher of them."

Prof. Bialystok first noticed bilingual children were proficient in blocking out irrelevant information about 20 years ago. When asked to identify a grammatically correct sentence, for example, both bilinguals and monolinguals are, by age 5, able to choose, " Apples grow on trees," over " Apple trees on grow" as the correct one.

But when it came to asking " Apples grow on noses" versus " Apples nose on grow," only the bilingual children were able to choose the right answer. Although the first sentence is grammatically correct, monolingual children could not get over its silliness. " That' s crazy," they' d shout, " You can' t say that!"

" We have been able to show on a huge range of cognitive tests that bilinguals are always better at problems with tricky, misleading information," Prof. Bialystok said.

On average, she said, monolingual children take a year longer to learn to block out irrelevant information and focus on a specific task.

Skeptics have argued that this matters little since monolingual children eventually catch up to bilingual ones. As well, children fluent in two languages can take slightly longer in tests identifying objects and also go through a period when they might have smaller vocabularies than those fluent in just one language.

But for anyone of two minds about learning a second language, researchers are finding that bilingualism -- be it in French, Greek, Portuguese or Hindi -- has lifelong benefits.

" Does bilingualism protect you from cognitive decline? Every study we' ve done suggests that it does," Prof. Bialystok said.

The York team recently compared 94 bilinguals and monolinguals between the ages of 30 and 80. It found that while both groups started showing cognitive decline by age 60, the rate of slowing for bilinguals was much slower.

Now young people who play video games are showing this similar pattern of high performance in resisting irrelevant impulses. The current report compared 50 avid players against 50 non-players and then subdivided each group between bilinguals and monolinguals.

When asked to describe the colour of the word " blue," for example, when it is written in green ink, non-players were far more likely to choose the dominant impulse and say " blue," though the colour is green. " The [video game players] are much harder to mislead, to trick," Prof. Bialystok said.

Although Prof. Bialystok is a strong proponent of bilingual education, she is less enthusiastic about video games. Recent studies have found overexposure to violent video games may desensitize children to violence and that gaming can become addictive enough to distract from other activities.

" I' d still be plenty concerned if my child played them all the time," Prof. Bialystok said. " Sure, they' re getting better at rapid search and response problems, but I really would prefer my child read a book."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060209.wxbrains09/BNStory/Science/home

Take that MAVAV, u losers.