Health Concern - Died playing video game

Earlier this year, a 38-year-old man died after a three-day gaming binge in the internet cafe, went unnoticed for hours until the worker try to wake him up and found him unresponsive. Authority believe he dead was due to over-exhausting.

Just because video game are so interesting and require high level of attention, people tend to forgot the basic human need while they are playing it. Cases of people found dead while playing video game were reported over the past few year.

No matter how fun a game is, gamer are advises to get up ad move around every 2 hours of gaming.

Sources: http://www.ranker.com/list/8-people-who-died-playing-video-games/autumn-spragg?format=SLIDESHOW&page=1

Author: Chin Wei Qing

Video Games May Reinforce Racist Stereotypes

If you don’t play video games, this hashtag probably hasn’t crossed your social media feed… or if it has, you may not understand what it means or why it exists.

According to game journalist, #GamesSoWhite was initiated as a companion to a much less confrontational hashtag, #INeedDiverseGames, in response to a series of articles that all seem to indicate that the video game industry has a problem with lack of diversity in developer personnel, and the evidence of this is how few video games feature characters of color, either as protagonists, or at all.

Source: http://jelanigreenidge.com/2015/06/04/why-gamessowhite-is-a-problem-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Author: H'ng Yee Jin

Gender Stereotyping

Gender stereotypes are a common theme through many video games. For many young people still developing their perception of the adult world, the commonly used stereotypes in video games can be harmful and create a distorted representation for players of roles and abilities of the sexes. 

Female characters particularly are entrenched in stereotypes. Male characters appear more frequently in video games compared to females and talk significantly more; typically achieving more and demonstrating more leadership skills and opportunities compared to female characters. Women are often represented as passive and subordinate characters that depend on men, while often sexual relationships are key to their role in the game. Female characters are often categorized into four groups of characters: sex objects or prizes, victims, feminists and heroes.

Source: http://www.videogames.org.au/inappropriate-content/

Author: H'ng Yee Jin

Violence from video games

Young children have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy, which makes them more vulnerable to the effects of media violence. They may become more aggressive and fearful if they are exposed to high levels of violence in video games.

According to the book Grand Theft Childhood by Doctors Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner, children who play primarily M-rated games (whether the rating is due to violent or sexual content) are more likely to be involved in fights or bullying.

Source: http://mediasmarts.ca/video-games/concerns-about-video-games

Author: H'ng Yee Jin

YouTube fights back against Spam

Swedish gamer Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg with more than 30 million subscribers on Google's online video site announced that he would permanently disabling comments on his videos and he will turn to other platforms such as Twitter and Reddit to reconnect with fans.

PewDiePie isn’t alone: YouTube now attracts more than a billion viewers a month, yet whatever the content – whether its the new Taylor Swift video or a dog falling off a skateboard into a basket of kittens – the comments section will often be a warzone of insults, links to dodgy sites, and self-promotional tweets directing people to competing videos of dogs skateboarding into kittens.

However, YouTube has attempted but largely failed to clean things up.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/03/pewdiepie-switches-off-youtube-comments-its-mainly-spam

Author: H'ng Yee Jin

Grand Theft Auto V Beta Test - Phishing Scam

Pre-release access to games through beta tests or various forms of early access have become common nowadays that we tend to expect it and overlook it as being some sort of scam. Especially with major titles like Grand Theft Auto, we would expect its developers to be trustworthy when it comes early game access.

However, Rockstar, the developer of Grand Grand Theft Auto confirms that there is no public beta for its latest release, Grand Theft Auto V.

It is believed to be an online phishing scam that could not be traced. It is not by the developers of Grand Theft Auto V and everyone is urged not to acquire the “pre-released ‘beta’ test” of Grand Theft Auto V. 

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-warns-against-grand-theft-auto-v-beta-scams/

Author: Ong Jun Chao

Gamers Spent a Fortune on In-Game Purchase

Freemium games have evolved into one of the most profitable models in the gaming industry, with mobile versions and their in-app purchases generating about $US7-8 billion in iOS revenue last year.

Just like many freemium games, League of Legends offers gamers the core game for free and then charges for additional premium content such as in-game currency, customisations and extra contents, but take note that the premium content is optional.

Players on the League of Legends subreddit discussed just where the money was coming from — namely, players spending thousands of dollars per year to keep up with new content.

One Redditor by the name of DTSuteru estimates that he spent around $US2,000 since he began playing the game in March 2013.

Another user by the name of cguo0516 estimates having spent more than $US4,000 on the game over the past three years.

Gamers need to have a sense of self-control when it comes to spending on in-game purchases.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/redditors-explain-how-they-spent-thousands-of-dollars-league-of-legends-2015-3

Author: Ong Jun Chao