Este es el ensayo

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

Henry Jenkins
MIT Professor

A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.

1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.

2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.
Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, "media effects." This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds. In these studies, media images are removed from any narrative context. Subjects are asked to engage with content that they would not normally consume and may not understand. Finally, the laboratory context is radically different from the environments where games would normally be played. Most studies found a correlation, not a causal relationship, which means the research could simply show that aggressive people like aggressive entertainment. That's why the vague term "links" is used here. If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences — which can contribute to anti-social behavior. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.

3. Children are the primary market for video games.
While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together.

4. Almost no girls play computer games.
Historically, the video game market has been predominantly male. However, the percentage of women playing games has steadily increased over the past decade. Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games. Spurred by the belief that games were an important gateway into other kinds of digital literacy, efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls. More recent games such as The Sims were huge crossover successes that attracted many women who had never played games before. Given the historic imbalance in the game market (and among people working inside the game industry), the presence of sexist stereotyping in games is hardly surprising. Yet it's also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent. In his book Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones argues that young girls often build upon these representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives.

5. Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.
Former military psychologist and moral reformer David Grossman argues that because the military uses games in training (including, he claims, training soldiers to shoot and kill), the generation of young people who play such games are similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions.

Grossman's model only works if:

* we remove training and education from a meaningful cultural context.
* we assume learners have no conscious goals and that they show no resistance to what they are being taught.
* we assume that they unwittingly apply what they learn in a fantasy environment to real world spaces.

The military uses games as part of a specific curriculum, with clearly defined goals, in a context where students actively want to learn and have a need for the information being transmitted. There are consequences for not mastering those skills. That being said, a growing body of research does suggest that games can enhance learning. In his recent book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Gee describes game players as active problem solvers who do not see mistakes as errors, but as opportunities for improvement. Players search for newer, better solutions to problems and challenges, he says. And they are encouraged to constantly form and test hypotheses. This research points to a fundamentally different model of how and what players learn from games.

6. Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.
On April 19, 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that video games do not convey ideas and thus enjoy no constitutional protection. As evidence, Saint Louis County presented the judge with videotaped excerpts from four games, all within a narrow range of genres, and all the subject of previous controversy. Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware." Posner adds, "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it." Many early games were little more than shooting galleries where players were encouraged to blast everything that moved. Many current games are designed to be ethical testing grounds. They allow players to navigate an expansive and open-ended world, make their own choices and witness their consequences. The Sims designer Will Wright argues that games are perhaps the only medium that allows us to experience guilt over the actions of fictional characters. In a movie, one can always pull back and condemn the character or the artist when they cross certain social boundaries. But in playing a game, we choose what happens to the characters. In the right circumstances, we can be encouraged to examine our own values by seeing how we behave within virtual space.

7. Video game play is socially isolating.
Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players — for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players. Sociologist Talmadge Wright has logged many hours observing online communities interact with and react to violent video games, concluding that meta-gaming (conversation about game content) provides a context for thinking about rules and rule-breaking. In this way there are really two games taking place simultaneously: one, the explicit conflict and combat on the screen; the other, the implicit cooperation and comradeship between the players. Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen.

8. Video game play is desensitizing.
Classic studies of play behavior among primates suggest that apes make basic distinctions between play fighting and actual combat. In some circumstances, they seem to take pleasure wrestling and tousling with each other. In others, they might rip each other apart in mortal combat. Game designer and play theorist Eric Zimmerman describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions. Media reformers argue that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims. Yet, a child who responds to a video game the same way he or she responds to a real-world tragedy could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed. Here's where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the "magic circle" of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play.


Henry Jenkins is the director of comparative studies at MIT.

Sources

Entertainment Software Association. "Top Ten Industry Facts." 2003. http://www.theesa.com/pressroom.html

Gee, James. What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Grossman, David. "Teaching Kids to Kill." Phi Kappa Phi National Forum 2000. http://www.killology.org/article_teachkid.htm

Heins, Marjorie. Brief Amica Curiae of Thirty Media Scholars, submitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Eight Circuit, Interactive Digital Software Association et al vs. St. Louis County et al. 2002. http://www.fepproject.org/courtbriefs/stlouissummary.html

Jenkins, Henry. "Coming Up Next: Ambushed on 'Donahue'." Salon 2002. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/

Jenkins, Henry. "Lessons From Littleton: What Congress Doesn't Want to Hear About Youth and Media." Independent Schools 2002. http://www.nais.org/pubs/ismag.cfm?file_id=537&ismag_id=14

Jones, Gerard. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-believe Violence. New York: Basic, 2002.

Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.

Sternheimer, Karen. It's Not the Media: The Truth About Popular Culture's Influence on Children. New York: Westview, 2003.

Wright, Talmadge."Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike." Game Studies Dec. 2002. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/

Habra que leerlo

MIT's Jenkins dispels eight video game myths

What we think and what we should know

By Nebojsa Novakovic: Thursday 15 December 2005, 00:10
IN HIS revealing essay, Professor Jenkins details the finer points of perception and myth.

Video games are new, culturally speaking, and plenty of opinions abound. Our conception of video games can't keep up with their development.

Jenkins' essay is based on extensive research and covers eight myths including 'only kids play video games,' 'girls don't play video games,' and 'video games make their players violent.' In fact, four of the eight paragraphs discuss violence and video games, so it might better be described as a five-point essay.

However, the emphasis on myths of violence is not unwarranted, since there are many arguments out there and much legislation in the works regarding the topic.

I personally find myth six "Video games are not a meaningful form of expression" to be the most disturbing, at least for Americans. Jenkins writes, "On April 19, 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that video games do not convey ideas and thus enjoy no constitutional protection."

Does this mean that anything can be deemed to convey no ideas by a court and be taken out from under the protection of the first amendment? Can paintings and songs be legally censored via this loophole? And if something doesn't convey ideas, how in the world could it convince people to commit acts of violence? Since video games supposedly do that to too.

I hope Jenkins' well-founded article is taken seriously by law makers and parents alike. The vast canyon between perception and research data regarding video games is in dire need of a bridge. µ

Secuela asegurada

En la pagina de marvel venía algo. más o menos así:

¡4 por 2 = 7/4/07!

Ok, so my math’s a little off, but fans can rejoice because Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four, are back on the big-screen in a sequel to this year’s blockbuster feature film, set to debut July 4, 2007! The original four cast members will reunite with director Tim Story and writer Mark Frost. The first film, which earned over $150 million dollars, was credited with saving not only the world from Dr. Doom, but the U.S. Box Office from a record-breaking 19-week losing streak. Who will the FF save next? Keep checking Marvel.com for more updates!

Adios

Paramount buys rival Dreamworks

Spielberg's more recent films have been released on DreamWorks

Hollywood giant Paramount Pictures has bought one of its best-known rival studios, Dreamworks SKG.

Viacom, which owns Paramount, has agreed to pay $1.6bn (£914m; 1.36bn euros) - more than $1bn in cash, plus taking over Dreamworks' debts.

It gives the company the talents of one of the most famous filmmakers in the world, ET director Steven Spielberg.

And it appears to show that even a top name like Spielberg cannot create a new independent film studio these days.

Dreamworks was established 11 years ago to combine three talents in the world of film, animation and music - Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Spielberg is known around the world for directing huge Hollywood hits like Jaws and Schindler's List.

Geffen had been a top record producer and Katzenberg a leading light at Disney.

NBC outbid

By buying Dreamworks, Paramount has now acquired an impressive library of films, which includes Gladiator, American Beauty, and Saving Private Ryan.

It reportedly plans to sell off the library, expecting it to fetch $850m to $1bn.

The deal does not include Dreamworks' animation studios - the creators of hits such as Shrek - but it does include the right to distribute already-made animated Dreamworks films.

Paramount will also take over a television division with long-running popular shows like Spin City.

NBC Universal, a unit of GE, had offered $900m but was outbid. Last Friday, it was given an extra hour to improve on its offer but walked away.

BBC North America business correspondent Guto Harri says Viacom hopes the deal will enable it to establish Paramount as an industry leader.

He adds that for Dreamworks, the deal is the final proof that despite the talents involved, the company has failed to become the ambitious media conglomerate that it had once hoped to be.

Recent Dreamworks films include Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and War of the Worlds - coincidentally a joint production with Paramount.

Spielberg and Geffen will reportedly stay with the company.

Images

Reacciones en el nido

La culpa es nuestra: Blanco

En conferencia de prensa, Cuauhtémoc mostró su molestia por la forma en que se perdió con Tigres.

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO, México, diciembre 6, 2005. ‘Fue lamentable lo que pasó, se nos complicó el partido y no lo creíamos, cayeron tres goles muy rápido. Pero hay que ver que nos enfrentamos a un equipo que sabíamos iba a ser muy complicado, como fue porque a Tigres hay que darle su mérito porque jugó muy bien’.

De esta manera nuestro delantero, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, resumió lo sucedido en el Azteca el domingo pasado en el juego ante Tigres, aceptando que ellos son los únicos culpables del fracaso por los errores que cometieron.

‘Estamos bastante dolidos y molestos por la forma en que se perdió, creo que nos confiamos y cuando quisimos ya no pudimos, ahora hay que trabajar fuerte y prepararnos para el próximo torneo’, abundó.

Nuestro atacante señaló también que no estuvieron concentrados los 90 minutos y reconoció que viven uno de los peores momentos porque de nada les sirvió ser superlíderes ya que no lograron el campeonato y además fueron eliminados de la Copa Sudamericana.

‘Estamos conscientes de lo que pasó, pero el futbol da revanchas, y hay que trabajar para estar más atentos’.

De igual manera, el Temo dijo sentirse triste por la afición, sobre todo porque ‘pudimos haber hecho más y llegar a la final. Estábamos cerca de otro título, tenemos un gran plantel, pero se nos complicó el partido. Nos sentimos tristes por nuestra afición y estamos en deuda con ella’.

Por último, sobre la continuidad de nuestro técnico Mario Carrillo en el timón, Blanco indicó que desconoce la situación y reconoció que el estratega realizó un buen trabajo.

‘Hay que esperar la decisión que tome la directiva y ver que la culpa es de todos y no solamente de él’, puntualizó.

El Améric a y Carrillo ya no son un item

La decisión ha sido tomada
Carrillo, fuera del América

La decisión ya fue tomada: Mario carrillo deja la dirección técnica del América.
Aunque la información oficial será ofrecida en los próximos días, una vez que regrese de Europa Guillermo Cañedo, presidente del club, es un hecho la separación de Carrillo.
A Mario, quien está hospitalizado y es objeto de análisis médicos, se le reconoce, la conquista del título en el Clausura 2005, la corona del Campeón del Campeones y, también, la impresionante serie de 28 juegos sin derrota que hilvanó el equipo tan sólo en el torneo de liga.
Sin embargo, en la decisión de prescindir de sus servicios han obrado en contra los desempeños del equipo en la Liga (Apertura 2005) y en la Copa Sudamericana, competencias en las que no se consiguieron las metas; y el declive del equipo en épocas recientes, cuando cayó seis veces en los últimos nueve encuentros.
La derrota por 4-1 con Tigres y la consecuente eliminación de la liguilla fue la gota que derramó el vaso.
El cambio de técnico, de hecho, forma parte de la reestructuración global que se ha implementado desde hace tiempo en el América, en cuya primera etapa ha tenido mucho qué ver la labor de Carrillo.
De ahora en adelante, se van a mencionar muchos nombres como posibles sustitutos de Carrillo, pero nada se conocerá en forma oficial sino hasta el regreso de Cañedo, quien acudió a Leipzig para, en su condición de directivo de la Concacaf, presenciar el sorteo del Mundial de Alemania.
sólo en el torneo de Liga.

_______________MOVIES__________________

Este año (donde la ganona fue la conclusión de STAR WARS) sólo resta ver dos peliculas de esas que se suelen estrenar en verano.

KING KONG

Ya saben, un remake de la original dirigida por el Ex panzon Peter Jackson(se encargara de HALO) que espera tener la mitad del exito de su trilogía LOTR, y tiene buenos elementos para lograrlo, digo, es un tema que a casi todos nos llama la atención, cuenta con grandes efectos especiales, no va a tener mucha competencia y en esas fechas mucha gente no sabe que hacer on su tiempo libre.

Y.....chaka cha chan

La primera de las cronicas de Narnia (no sabemos cuantas vaya a llegar al cine), voy a ir a verla este viernes y ya les contare
Nunca he leido los libros (no sabia ni de su existencia)
No es un tema que me guste o llame la atención, pero primero debere ir para juzgar