lalala, violent games facttts.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/05/17/the-link-between-video-games-and-violence/
The PsychCentral website continues to explore violence and video games. Below are different facts that tests have actually proven in regards to how viiolence and video games are linked.

*Girls especially should not play M-rated games
*Video game is an important social development interaction for boys. Parents should keep this in mind when taking such time away from them in punishment.
*And of course, all things in moderation. Playing a video game for 6 or 8 hours straight is unhealthy behavior at any age.

I think its funny that they think girls shouldnt play mature rated games. I used to play a good bit of video games with my brother when i was younger, with my brother. I played all kinds of games from raching to shooting, and i am fine! I was not affected by the mature video games i did play. I am assuming that girls might be more impressionable perhaps? Maybe if they played mature video games they would be negatively affect (in a quicker manner) than boys would.

I know my brother grew up playing video games. sure it wasnt what he did every hour of his life, but he certainly played for a little while everyday. It is an extremely social event when it comes to little boys. I remember boys coming over to hang out with my borther and play video games, so i can understand that it is an important social output for boys.

I dont think anyone needs to play video games all day long. hwat a waste of time! I think the longer a child or even a teenager is exposed to video games (bad violent ones) the quicker they can be affected by what they are seeing. If a child surrounded himself with something for so long, it is going to rub off on them.

moreee violence!

The PsychCentral Website continues to research the affect of violence and video games.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/05/17/the-link-between-video-games-and-violence/

The website explaores what the research does show, in a nutshell, then is this:

*Teens who are already angry or aggressive likely should be limited in their playing of violent video games
*Teens should not play M-rated games

The first fact is pretty standard if you ask me! I would already have assumed that kids and teens that are already angry are more likely to be affected by violent video games! Kids that deal with anger should not be surrounded with things that might continue to make them angrier. I would think they would want to be surrounded with things and people that lift them up and help their mood, not the opposite!

I know the rating system for video games are made to ensure that younger kids arent exposed to more than they should be at their age, but how accurate are the ratings? Speaking from personal eperience, my parents didnt really care about the ratings when it came to which video games they bought for me and my brother. I think hat the rating systems are wayy to serious anyways. SOme of the games that are rated mature that i have personally played shouldnt be, because there isnt anything on the games that are that bad. On the other hand there are games that are extremely bad! Girls getting raped, and killed, kids that deal with anger problems should definitely not be playing these games!

Myth/facts 11

After looking at the last myth presented by the American Psychological Association, like the last i would actually believed it if i didn't know any better. People would think that the US is extremely full of violence, so why wouldnt video games make violence increase? Well thats actually wrong! I looked at the diferent crime numbers from the census bureau, from 1980 to 2007 and crime is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down! It decreased soo much over the years. 2007 was 3 years ago, so i am assuming if crime has continually decreased!

Myth 11. If violent video games cause increases in aggression, violent crime rates in the U.S. would be increasing instead of decreasing.
Facts: Three assumptions must all be true for this myth to be valid: (a) exposure to violent media (including video games) is increasing; (b) youth violentflash crime rates are decreasing; (c) video game violence is the only (or the primary) factor contributing to societal violence. The first assumption is probably true. The second is not true, as reported by the 2001 Report of the Surgeon General on Youth Violence (Figure 2-7, p. 25). The third is clearly untrue. Media violence is only one of many factors that contribute to societal violence and is certainly not the most important one.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/law_enforcement_courts_prisons/crimes_and_crime_rates.html

Myth/facts 10

The American Psychological Association, has taken into consideration 11 myths and facts that surround violence and video games, and have used different analyses to determine how the myths are in face myths.

Myth 10. Arousal, not violent content, accounts for video game induced increases in aggression.
Facts: Arousal cannot explain the results of most correlational studies because the measured aggression did not occur immediately after the violent video games were played. Furthermore, several experimental studies have controlled potential arousal effects, and still yielded more aggression by those who played the violent game.

I would have never thought in a million years that arousal would be related to violent video games. I am not sure how everything is correlated, but I am assuming it has something to do with the brain and how the chemicals respond to different feelings and levels. Perhaps the people who are actually affected by violence in video games have different chemical balances or even imbalances in their brains? I am not really sure, but perhaps this is the case. Speaking from personal experience, I cant say I was ever aroused from playing any violent video games. I was never affected in a violent fashion either.

Week of April 27th

This week, my partner and I were able to complete the game! We worked together to ensure everything worked, over the weekend and now it is time to present. With the game finished for the demo and the presentation complete, I hope that the presentation goes well. I am happy with the presentation template which is complete, there are pictuers and different examples of the game as well. On thursday I presented the game i think it went well. The lady at globaloria misunderstood the main point of our game which was kind of disappointing because I feel like I failed in explaining it. But at least we are happy with the outcome.

Week of April 20th

This week i was extremely successful. I worked on the presentation template. I have most of the text needed for the presentation into the template, but I would like to make it pretty :). It was extremely convenient that Monica created the template for us, and all we had to do was exchange all of the information with our own because i felt extremely overwhelmed!!!! Not only is the game due next week, but my partner is not going to be here to help me present and i hope i do well. Mos tof our buttons are workin gin the game and we just need to work on making the car videos for the game. I hope we can get finished on time.

Week of April 13th

This week my partner and i successfully started the design process of our game. I specifically designed the racetrack portion of the game, in photoshop. My partner went in and toggled the different levels and colors and what not. On thursday the 15th we were able to finish designing the different pages of our game including text. We imported the different game pages into FLash to start the coding process. We have to delete the text that we created in photoshop, and re enter it into flash, so that we could turn it into buttons.

Myths, Facts, WOAH!

As I have continued researching this topic throughout the semester on the American Psychological Association Website, it seems that a lot of the myths that are presented are virtually the same, so this week I have decided to talk about the next two myths, (8 and 9).


Myth 8. Unrealistic video game violence is completely safe for adolescents and older youths.
Facts: Cartoonish and fantasy violence is often perceived (incorrectly) by parents and public policy makers as safe even for children. However, experimental studies with college students have consistently found increased aggression after exposure to clearly unrealistic and fantasy violent video games. Indeed, at least one recent study found significant increases in aggression by college students after playing E-rated (suitable for everyone) violent video games.

Myth number 8 is kinda of stupid pardon my extremely unintelligent use of a word, but I mean, come on! Have you ever heard people tlaking about watching what you say in from of their children because they pick up EVERYTHING? I would assume that the same goes for video games. "Kids say the darndest things", right? So I'd say that it is safe to say that "kids do the darndest things" too! Kids pick up on everything. For example, if i kid is watching a show where the character bop each other on the head with something, kids are going to try and emulate that! Is there anything wrong with kids watching a show where people bop each other over the head? No, but it is safe to say that kids will definitely try and act like that. So I would say, that the same is true for kids and video games, what they see even if it is mild and a gaame rate for everyone, they still might try and act like that!

Myth 9. The effects of violent video games are trivially small.
Facts: Meta-analyses reveal that violent video game effect sizes are larger than the effect of second hand tobacco smoke on lung cancer, the effect of lead exposure to I.Q. scores in children, and calcium intake on bone mass. Furthermore, the fact that so many youths are exposed to such high levels of video game violence further increases the societal costs of this risk factor (Rosenthal, 1986).

I would personally agree with this myth. I don't really see how people who play video games can get a fake video game mixed up with reality? I personally know the different between fiction and reality, so i guess its hard to imagine that people would be that confused! So the above fact states that "violent video game effect sizes are larger than the effect of second hand tobacco smoke on lung cancer". This is pretty intense! I would have never guessed that second hand smoke has less of an effect on lung cancer than video games and violence! Shoo, i guess since i was never affected i didnt realize!

April 5-9

This week was extrememly productive!! Not only did I start working on animating characters for our final project, but I completed the sound and animation assignments in the same day! At first I had trouble with the sound assignment bc the tutorial was off. The guy in the tutorial was using flash 2.0 and we are using 3.0 so the set up adn the diplay is different. It made me feel good that I was able to successfully figure out the assignment on my own :). The animation assignment was extremely easy because my professor had us working on animating different things in the begnning of the semester. That was a huge help! At first it was time consuming because I had to figure out the different steps of animating, but with any software it takes awhile to really grasp. It also helped that I had also been working in flash in my other class (motion).

Getting to the end!!!

It is finally the end of March! The finish line is quickly approaching but I feel like I am successful in my weekly assignment in class. This week I finished working on the Navigation assignment. Although I struggled at first, I finally got it posted. I kept making the same mistake over and over again, in posting it to my wiki. But I finally figured it out. I also successfully worked on and completed the animation assignment. I knew what I was doing since we worked on animation at the beginning of the semester. This past week has been extremely productive.

i like flash games, like wo.

This past week of March 22, I worked on two different projects. The first project I worked on was the "navigation buttons project" and then my partner and I devised a timeline through the end of the semester of what is left and what jobs we are each going to have. The first part of the buttons project was simple and I thought that the tutorial was extremely easy to understand and helpful. I was not extremely successful as the second part of the project when I had to code which buttons did what. I watched the tutorial a few times and was still unsuccessful. I was pretty frustrated because I worked on the project for two class periods and felt like I didn't get anywhere. After repeating the process about 7893 times, and checking my code 7894 times, I still am lost on what I am doing wrong, and hope to get is sorted out in class.

Wo!

http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.aspx

The above link takes you directly to the American Psychological Associations section where they speak specifically about video games and violence! I feel like I am on a roll with the different myths and facts that the APA uncovers so I am just gonna continue on with that and add more info from different websites regarding this topic of video games and violence. Below is myth number 7, which I find to be pretty interesting, considering so many people have mixed views and opinions on this topic.


"Myth 7 Violent video games affect only a small fraction of players.
Facts: Though there are good theoretical reasons to expect some populations to be more susceptible to violent video game effects than others, the research literature has not yet substantiated this. That is, there is not consistent evidence for the claim that younger children are more negatively affected than adolescents or young adults or that males are more affected than females. There is some evidence that highly aggressive individuals are more affected than nonaggressive individuals, but this finding does not consistently occur. Even nonaggressive individuals are consistently affected by brief exposures. Further research will likely find some significant moderators of violent video game effects, because the much larger research literature on television violence has found such effects and the underlying processes are the same. However, even that larger literature has not identified a sizeable population that is totally immune to negative effects of media violence."

So basically I am assuming that anyone is susceptible to the effects of violent video games. This myth that Violent video games affect only a small fraction of players, was corrected. As of right now, there is no "set" number of people who have been effected. Also, all different types of people are said to be effected in some way, shape, or form from violent video games. I remember watching a video on the different effects on people from violent video games, and there were all different age levels tested from youth to young adults. I assume as people study this more there will be a more specific number of people who are effected.

while researching the website for "Safe Youth", I discovered that they covered this topic only briefly as well. http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/faq/mediaviolstats.asp
The website information was based on different types of violence in media, including TV, and music videos as well. The study states; "A 2001 review of the 70 top-selling video games found 89% contained some kind of violence. Almost half of all games (49%) contained serious violence, while 40% contained comic violence. In 41% of the games, violence was necessary for the protagonists to achieve their goals. In 17% of the games, violence was the primary focus of the game itself." These numbers prove that children and anyone who is playing video games are being introduced to this violence. The level of violence on each game differs, but the player is being exposed to some sort lots of times. I feel that the type of violence presented on the video game, can effect the violence presented from the player. If the player is being introduced to extremely violent games the way he or she reacts might different then different violence from a different video game.

yikes!

I was on a roll with blogs but somehow I fell off the bandwagon once the anticipation of spring break caught up to me....I have stayed on time with my learning log, and find it extremely helpful to look back at my progress and see what I have worked on previously. On the week of March 9, I worked on choosing a topic. I reamamber specifically reading in animal vegetable miracle about water and how in arizona they were saying it was safe for residents to drink and use but not safe for fish for example. This made me think, what are we really drinking?? So my parner Bruno came up with the idea of making our game about water. I came up with the trivia part where the players are tested on their knowledge about different sources of water and which is the safest for consumption.

ummmmm hello?!?!

This myth is actually ridiculous to me. People actually thinking that there are no studies that link video games to violence?! That is kind of like saying, there are no studies proving that eating McDonalds all of the time will make you fat, or saying that doing drugs can harm you. This is such an ignorant myth! First of all, through my research I have uncovered probably about three different methods in merely testing this! Not only are their results, but there are so many different ways that this theory is tested and proven. Now this is not to say that EVERY person on the face of the earth is affected in a negative way from playing violent video games but there definitely have been cases where that was the case.

As always, I continued to search the American Psychological Association website in regards to this issue. Myth six below shows us what some people believe in regards to this. But yet again, the APA corrects any misguided assumptions. I always assumed that the people most susceptible to an actual change in behavior from playing violent video games might have been elementary or middle school aged kids. I thought this because most of them are still in the growing and development process and this might affect this in someway, (behavior-wise). The fact presented to us in relation to the myth states that students have been reported to become violent at school because changes in behavior. So, this proves my assumption in that it does in fact affect school aged children, even though a specific age was not mentioned.

Myth 6. There are no studies linking violent video game play to serious aggression.
Facts: High levels of violent video game exposure have been linked to delinquency, fighting at school and during free play periods, and violent criminal behavior (e.g., self-reported assault, robbery).

more myths, facts, and video games!

I am so uninformed about this topic, and I really think looking at different facts and myths is broadening my horizon in the world of video games!

Myth 5. Correlational studies are irrelevant.
Facts: The overly simplistic mantra, "Correlation is not causation," is useful when teaching introductory students the risks in too-readily drawing causal conclusions from a simple empirical correlation between two measured variables. However, correlational studies are routinely used in modern science to test theories that are inherently causal. Whole scientific fields are based on correlational data (e.g., astronomy). Well conducted correlational studies provide opportunities for theory falsification. They allow examination of serious acts of aggression that would be unethical to study in experimental contexts. They allow for statistical controls of plausible alternative explanations.



I feel as if I keep reiterating the same things, but every study should be taken into consideration! In order to accurately talk about this myth and fact I got a little bit of background information on what a correlation study actually consisted of, rhather then basing the blog off of my ignorance! On the IBM website, (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2luw/v8/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.db2.udb.doc/admin/c0006909.htm), it actually explains what a correlation study is.

"Use the Correlation transformer to determine the extent to which changes in the value of an attribute (such as length of employment) are associated with changes in another attribute (such as salary). The data for a correlation analysis consists of two input columns. Each column contains values for one of the attributes of interest. The Correlation transformer can calculate various measures of association between the two input columns. You can select more than one statistic to calculate for a given pair of input columns.

The data in the input columns also can be treated as a sample obtained from a larger population, and the Correlation transformer can be used to test whether the attributes are correlated in the population. In this context, the null hypothesis asserts that the two attributes are not correlated, and the alternative hypothesis asserts that the attributes are correlated."

From this, I gathered that basically the person doing the test makes a hypothesis; (which is pretty standard in most testing, no matter what type). You create a table with 2 different sides. Its basically a test that makes a comparison between to different subjects. So for example, perhaps one side of the table could represent changes in behavior, whle the other side represented changes in the video game. The test will be able to accurately show how these 2 "subjects" related to each other. It is extremely important to see how these 2 things relate to each other in this study because it is exactly what is being tested! This test would definitely be successful, because it would make the 2 different sides more clear especially since they are easliy seperated and can be compared more clearly.

Another week...

Another week has passed...and I feel absolutely frazzeled. I feel like I can't keep up! Everything is due, and I kind of want to rip out my hair even though I like it. Regardless, I feel I have continued to be productive and stay on time with everything in my Flash games class. In Flash, we have been working this week on "Imagining our Games". I partnered up with Bruno, and we came up with a concept involving water which was talked about in "Animal Vegetable Miracle". My team still needs to come up with all of the fine details in the game, but it is certainly a work in progress. In the book, the author talks about water sources and how not all water sources are actually healthy; even those people are expected to drink from! Now, I don't know about you, but I like to know what im drinking. I was once told that you should read the first few ingredients on a food label and if you can't pronounce them, then don't bother buying them.....the same goes for water!!! We want to create a fun and informative game so that players can be more aware of water, and what makes it clean and unclean. I feel like I have accomplished a lot this week in coming up with game concepts and such, but Team Pup and Suds still has a longgg way to go!

Week of Feb 15

This week has been very productive. I learned how to make a Mini Game this week in Flash, and I'm pretty excited that I actually understand what I did after I did so! I followed the Globaloria directions and created a Mini Game, where a little bunny goes after a carrot. Everything the bunny "eats" the carrot, or basically collides with it, you get a point. I was able to successfully execute; game control looping, collision detection, keeping score, keyboard control, an intro into Action Scripting, and I was able to work with movie clips. Most of the directions were very clear, only a few confused me. I'm pretty excited that I created this game, even if it is for beginners.

"When genetically modified plants go wild"

*What is the main objective of the online resource?

The main objective of this article is to better inform people of how GM's crops are at times contaminated, and that their "experimental" crops are hazardous. The article states; "Clearly this shows that the companies and the government don't have as much control over experimental crops as they need to have". Some of the experimental crops contain differnent chemicals and other un-natural substances which are harmful to the body and I feel that GM needs to pay more attention to this issue.

**What are one or two of the main messages conveyed in this resource?
I feel that the main message is about the different contaminated crops that are being produced through GM. I'd like to be more aware of what I consume, and I had no idea they are lax about this situation...

***Briefly describe a game you could create to teach these messages.
I could make a game that teaches the students what different crops are, and what might be used in them as a contaminate. For example, a student could choose between drinking regular milk with all of the chemicals and hormones in it, or organic milk which is more natural.

Week 4!

Every week I discover more and more in regards to this sensitive subject. What measures must we take in order to determine the truth behind this theory? Last week, we looked at the myth in regards to "laboratory experiments being irrelevant". I came to my own conclusion that they are in no way irrelevant because I feel that one taking the proper steps to uncover this should look at it from every angle.

(http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.aspx)

This week's myth from the American Psychological Association, explores a different type of irrelevancy, which revolve around field experiments rather than laboratory experiments. Myth number 4 that the APA uncoveres reads below:

"Myth 4. Field experiments are irrelevant (aggression measures based either on direct imitation of video game behaviors (e.g., karate kicks) or are normal play behaviors.

Facts: Some field experiments have used behaviors such as biting, pinching, hitting, pushing, and pulling hair, behaviors that were not modeled in the game. The fact that these aggressive behaviors occur in natural environments does not make them "normal" play behavior, but it does increase the face validity (and some would argue the external validity) of the measures."

Continuing from last week, I feel that all measures should be taken. Laboratory experiments, and field experiments. Just because a select few may think that either of these ways are irrelevants, they are both relevant in some way or another. How can it be irrelevant for someone to test the aggression level of a person who is imitating the movements they witnessed first hang in a video game? Maybe when the person being tested performs these type of movements, they become extremely violent or more aggressive than usual. Perhaps this has something to do with them seeing it in a video game? I feel that the tester would be more successful if he/she did participate in field experiments.

tbc...

Playing to kill?

VG & Myth 3. Laboratory experiments are irrelevant (trivial measures, demand characteristics, lack external validity). Violence???

Week 3 of discorvering the truth behind video games and violence brings us to myth and fact 3 as well.

"Myth 3. Laboratory experiments are irrelevant (trivial measures, demand characteristics, lack external validity).

Facts: Arguments against laboratory experiments in behavioral sciences have been successfully debunked many times by numerous researchers over the years. Specific examinations of such issues in the aggression domain have consistently found evidence of high external validity. For example, variables known to influence real world aggression and violence have the same effects on laboratory measures of aggression (Anderson & Bushman, 1997)."

I can see again why this is a myth as well. I feel, that the people who are studying this, and the affects video games have on people should take all of the necessary/proper measures. Regardelss to whether the people being observed in their homes or in a lab setting, I think the results would most likely be similar. There may bea few slight discrepancies, but nothing too skewing. For example, I believe if people were tested and monitored at home while they were playing these games that they may be a little more relaxed then they would if they were in an actual laboratory. But, I think once they started playing the games, they would probably "get in the zone" (if you will), and clue into what they were playing rather than where they were.

If the poeple being monitored came into the testing in the lab, there is a slight chance that they would be nervous, and that may skew the test results slightly, but I do not think it would be bad.

My Blogroll

I decided to follow these different blogs because they all fed into my theme of video games and violence, and all are coming from different angles. I really like the blog i found which is based on psychology. I like this, because most of my research come from the American Psychological Association website. I like how the website talks about every aspect of video games and violence, including the research of it. I enjoy this area of research because there are soo many different opinions on the topic! Does violence really affect the way people interact with others? I think that it is better to follow blogs of people that are either professionals, like the psychological blog, or people that actually play video games. I think so because people that actually play video games have 1st hand experience, probably know people that may or may not have been affected by violent video games, know the most about video games in general, and are probably more likely to know more about which video games are the most violent and have been said to affect people the most.

Progress

I totally love my Flash Games course so far. I love learning new software, and from this class I have already started working with two new programs, Adobe Flash, and Illustrator. I am completely new to both of these programs, but seem to be catching on... I am a very visual learner, so I like how my teacher shows us how to work the software before we execute. We are reading a book called "Animal Vegetable Miracle", and we are everntually going to produce flash games from different themes in the book, so right now we are working on creating different fruits and vegetables in Adobe flash. I struggled at first, but after practicing, I was happy with the fruits and vegetables I created :). With our fruits and veges ready to go, we learned how to animate them. I liked doing this process...even though it took awhile for me to figure out, I feel like everytime I practice, I get a little bit better! I hope to create some more fruits and vegetables!

Animal Vegetable Miracle

In the beginning of the book, the woman talks about the water source they had in Arizona. The books states that since the main water source was virtually disappearing, that they had to get a new one. Once turned on, people of Arizona were encouraged to drink it, but dont put it in fish bowls, because it would kill the fish. Now, I dont know about you, but I wouldnt want to have anything to do with that foul water! We could possibly create a game that teaches about different water sources, determines the pros and cons of those sources and then make it fun, but having the student dictate the water flow or something like that.

Another game could be based on the different healthy food groups. Most students learn about the different food groups from boring books and the same pictures over and over. Why not interact with them? Perhaps the students could learn about different grains, and vegeatbles and fruits and meats, and put them in the different groups. Although this may be an easy game, it will reiterate where the foods go, and why they are so important.

Video Games and Violence, Week 2

I was disappointed when i didnt turn into the Incredible Hulk after i played a very violent video game, Halo. Tanks, guns, rocket launchers, the goal of the game is for you to mutilate your opponent. Again, another violent video game that ironically had no effect on me. After re-reviewing the American Psychological Associations website, and artice on video games and violence, I came across myth, and fact # two.

#2 "The studies that find significant effects are the weakest methodologically.
Facts: Methodologically stronger studies have yielded the largest effects (Anderson, in press). Thus, earlier effect size estimates -based on all video game studies- probably underestimate the actual effect sizes."

-Basically, the myth is that the most significant outcomes, or the most significant results are discovered when people have been tested using the weakest methods or procedures. Why would a doctor or someone who is geuinely researching this topic want to use weak procedures? Of course it is a myth because you would need to use significant methods in order to produce the proper outcome.


The fact produced by the APA, is that "methodologically stronger studies have yielded the largest effects". Basically rather than the weakest methods producing the most effects, the best methods produced the most effects, and probably the most relevant. I rememeber watching a video on video games and violence in one of my early Comm classes. They showed different tests that were performed on the videos to people being monitiored as they played video games. There were different age limits that were being tested as well as different games being played...the more violent the better. The "guinea pigs" were hooked up to different monitors including heart rate and blood pressure in order for the doctors to record any spikes or changed in these areas, as the games grew more intense. From personal experience, I dont really remember my bp or hr spiking when I played video games :p. Regardless, I feel that this type of testing is extremely thurough and would be considered methodologically strong.

Semester Research Topic!!!

I can still remember the cheat codes to my first pc video game "Doom". The codes,idkfa, and iddqd, would give you all of the most amazing weapons and you couldn't ever die no matter what monster attacked you! I loved being invincible :) Even though this game was evtremely violent and gory, ironically I did not grow up to be a sociopathic killer, or something along those lines. (and neither did my brother). It's becoming more and more prevelant, that people believe that violence and video games are related. I want to learn more about this. If they are related, then why didn't me or my brother or other family members that grew up around violent video games become violent ourselves? I was to explore why some people believe that children and adults alike, are affected negatively by video games. Is this theory even feasible? If so, what makes some people violent, and others not violent? Could it be that the people that are said to have been negatively affected by video games could have other underlying problems or past traumatic experiences that caused them to become violent as an outcome? Maybe children and adults that are violent "because of video games" were abused as children, or they never had any parental direction?

To begin my research I came across the "American Psychological Association's" website. They have 11 different myths and facts regarding video games and violence posted within the article and I plan on exploring myth and fact number one today.

"Myth 1. Violent video game research has yielded very mixed results.
Facts: Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior. Average effect sizes for experimental studies (which help establish causality) and correlational studies (which allow examination of serious violent behavior) appear comparable (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)."

Above statement came from the American Psycological Association's website that focused on violence from video games;(http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.aspx)

In the statement above, it says (in regards to different results from violent video games), that there haven't always been negative or any results from the video games. I guess thats where I fall if I were to have been evaluated. I think its very interesting how people have become so differently affected by video games, and im excited to learn about this even more!

Do I read blogs regularly??

As embarrassing as it may be, I read blogs that are on Facebook, for example. I started "blogging" when I was in high school, with my Myspace account. I don't have that anymore, but ironically Myspace is where I learned what a blog was and how to actually use them! I remember I used the Myspace blog to advertise a car I was selling! Interestingly enough people were interested! I also have family all over the US! Lots of my family members have blogs for us to read so that we can be clued in on whats going on with them, and how their family is growing! I love looking at blogs of my cousins, and their kids, just to see how they've grown. I really enjoy writing blogs for my different classes. I am a mass comm major and a photogpraphy digital imagery minor. Ironically in most of my classes we write blogs! I love this method of writing and exression much better than simply writing a term paper because we are able to customize our blogs, write what we want to write about, express our feelings and struggles in different classes, while at he same time still continuing to practice writing and building those skills that will always be necessary for when we enter the workforce. In one of my photography classes, we would write on a class blog and answer questions rather than taking quizzes. I loved doing that because you could go much deeper into the subjects we were studying rather than just choosing a,b,c, etc.

Flash Games

I am excited for this class because I have no idea what to expect. I really do not know what the "Flash" program is, so I'm anxious to learn it. I expect to learn not only what Flash Games are, but how you use them, and what they are used for. As some of my fellow students said that there is a good bit of coding involved, I am a little intimidated. The only coding I have ever worked with has been in a web design class in the Dreamweaver program. As web design is tedious, once I first grasped the coding, it seemed to flow pretty easily from there. I hope that Flash coding is the same way! I expect that this class is going to be like my animation class in that i will need to keep reiterating the different steps used to create the Flash games. I learn the best by repetition, so hopefully, if I have trouble grasping the program or even the coding, I was eventually be able to fully understand it.