"Pause: Get out of the game," a videogame about the dangers of videogame addiction

By Jack Brummet, Games Editor

Pause: Get Out Of The Game is a game, or, what the original publisher called "an informational campaign"  to raise awareness about "the dangers of video game addiction."  Pause was developed by Dwayne Rajkumar.

The game "mimics the life of a video game addict as they play at the cost of ignoring their family, friends, responsibilities, and personal health. The player is presented with choices and the opportunity to stop playing at any time; consequences of continuing result in the degrading of their characters physical and personal life."

Not too shockingly, comments for their YouTube video are disabled.  And, alas, the game has disappeared from the net (so far). It was available for download in a couple of different locations, finally ending up on Dropbox, where it is also not available.

On YouTube, I found another anti-game screed, posted below.  It is a parody.

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The first videogame—"Tennis For Two," running on a Donner Model 30 with oscilloscope display

By Jack Brummet, Gaming Ed.

Tennis for Two may be the first videogame (1958)? It ran on a Donner Model 30 analog computer; the display was an oscilloscope.

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15 favorite videogames

By Jack Brummet, Videogame Ed.

                                             

There is a "thing" going around Facebook where you list 15 videogames that had an impact on them.  These are my fifteen.

title-platform-publisher

• Majestic (PC) Electronic Arts
• Castle Wolfenstein 3D (PC) Developed by Id Software; Publisher: Apogee Software
• House of the Dead (arcade version) and Typing Of The Dead (PC) Sega
• Super Monkey Ball (GameCube) Developed by Amusement Vision; Publisher: Sega
• Wario Ware: Mega Microgame$! (GBA) Nintendo
• SimCity (PC) Maxis
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (GameCube; I didn't play the N64 version) Nintendo
• Oregon Trail (Mac) MECC (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium)
• Katamari Damacy (PS/2) Namco
• GTA III (PS/2) Rockstar Games
• Tetris DS (NDS) Developed [originally] by: Alexey Pajitnov; Published by Nintendo
• Limbo (XBLA) Playdead 
• Silent Hill 2 (PS/2) Konami
• Scribblenauts (NDS) Developed by: 5th Cell; Published by WB Games 
• Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii) Ubisoft

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Contrary to what Grandma's Boy postulated, does marijuana help or hinder videogamers?

click to enlarge The President

The White House Drug Czar's office has stumbled through a varying set of warnings about the dangers of marijuana over the ten years. The cannabis that once would saute your brain or, more likely, lead to heroin addiction, has been downgraded. . .it is now a cause of feeble gaming.

The new ads posit that while reefer may not specifically kill you, it will turn you into a crappy gamer.

DARE send-up

The Drug Czar Office (now run by Seattle Police Chief Kerlikowske) is going one further: not only does marijuana cause you to spend hours of wasted time on your couch, it chisels away at your gaming skills.

"Getting high affects your brain in ways that may directly influence your gaming ability," warns the Drug Czar's web site. "Many of the skills required for beating a level, defeating an opponent, [and] beating games" are erased by marijuana use.

Some famous gamers in the zone

The site interviews a computer-generated character: "I used to have a good time with Lyle," she says. "We made a good team. He had skill. He had swiftness," she says. "Well, he used to, anyway. Then our last fight, Lyle decided to get high. And it was simply: sayonara skill, sayonara swiftness."

The 2009 US budget allocates $100 million for the Drug Czar's media campaign.

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Teen shoots parents who confiscated his Halo 3 videogame

Prosecutors at the murder trial of 17-year-old Daniel Petric say the teen shot both his parents because they wouldn't let him play Halo 3.

Petric, 16 at the time of the shooting, was forbidden to buy Halo 3 by his parents, Mark and Susan Petric. The teen snuck out to purchase the game anyway. When his parents discovered the game, they locked it up in a gun safe, along with the father's semiautomatic handgun.

According to the dad's testimony, Daniel walked into the room and said "Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you."

Petric then shot both parents in the head. The mother died immediately, but the father survived. In court, Daniel said: "Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family. I'm so glad you are alive." "You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy."

Prosecutors have not said whether or not they would file charges against the surviving parent for child abuse.
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Video: Be a game tester!

And now, cut to the commercial...


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