Video Games

Big Huge Games in Timonium closed last May, taking nearly 100 jobs with it. Nine months later, a local studio that was launched from the ashes of the video game-maker shut down, too. And Zynga, which created FarmVille and Words with Friends, closed its Baltimore County office several weeks ago. So why aren't local game developers freaking out? They're used to volatility - not this much, but quite a bit. And even with big game-makers facing tough competition and multimillion-dollar costs, tiny independent studios are popping up locally to take advantage of new opportunities in mobile and online gaming - and new ways of raising money to get games made.

For at least a generation of pop-culture consumers, the soundtrack of their lives has included themes from the likes of Mega Man and Super Mario. As they've grown up, the music of video games has branched out - to solo piano, to rock concerts and to symphonic performances. Among the developments is the University of Maryland's Gamer Symphony Orchestra, whose 100-plus members will take to the stage at College Park's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 4. "The quality of video-game music has grown exponentially over the years," says Joel Guttman, president-elect of the group, which specializes in arranging and performing pieces taken from the background music on video games such as Halo, Sonic the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy.

C hristmas is almost here, and this year video games are again among the most popular gift items. They also spark the most controversy. Electronic entertainment, from Xbox to online multiplayer games, often features brutal and bloody violence. This understandably concerns parents and teachers. But this sort of entertainment also promises a kind of wild freedom that is comparable, in some ways, to what philosophers describe as a "state of nature." The state of nature, according to political philosophers, is a hypothetical world in which humans exist without laws, principles and central authority.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. East Drive, 5300 block, 5:15 a.m. April 7. Side window broken and electric wires cut. Nothing stolen. McDowell Lane, 3800 block, between 5:30 p.m. April 1, and 6 p.m. April 2. Flat screen TV, video game and Xbox 360 stolen.

In a time where every artist utilizes multiple social-media outlets to make a name, it can be difficult to separate the aesthetic and the art. In the case of singer Lana Del Rey, the 25-year-old New York City singer born Lizzy Grant, she offers a couple headscratchers: a self-proclaimed groaner of a title ("gangster Nancy Sinatra") and strange genre-definers (her Facebook says her music is "Hollywood Pop and Sad Core"). On most days, this would have me running for the hills, yet here I am, listening to "Video Games" repeatedly.

A reader finds it ironic that the same court that cautions against teaching morality in the public schools says we must allow the teaching of immorality in violent children's video games Regarding your editorial "Virtual Violence" (June 29), don't you find it interesting that the same court that cautions us about teaching morality in public schools says that we must allow the teaching of immorality in violent children's video games? Al Funk, Timonium

The Supreme Court was right in ruling this week that video games, even ones that depict scenes of graphic violence, are protected speech under the First Amendment and that states can't pass laws restricting their sale to minors. The better approach is a voluntary rating system similar to the one that many video game manufacturers and sellers already have adopted, which is akin to the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings for violence and sexual content in movies. Yet, strongly as we support the constitutional principle at hand, we're troubled by the reasoning the court used to arrive at this conclusion.

The First Amendment to the Constitution holds such an important place in our society — socially, politically and legally — that special rules exist when our government attempts to abridge the cherished right to speak freely. The right is not absolute. It can be restricted, and — as in the case of not being allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theater — sometimes it has been, but only if the government can provide a "compelling" basis for the restriction; never if the basis rests on a myth.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. North Beechwood Avenue, unit block, between Oct. 5, 4:30 p.m. and Oct. 6, 6:30 p.m. Three controllers and 12 Playstation games stolen from garage. Kenwood Avenue, 100 block, Oct. 2, 12:16 a.m. Chain cut on storage shed adjacent to the Western School of Technology and Environmental Science building.

This year has already been a watershed event for games in many respects, but for the most part we have now settled into the post-E3 dog days. For many gamers, this is a great time to reboot and actually get outside for a change, because as far as the release calendar goes, we are in the eye before the storm. Even with titles like "BioShock: Infinite" and "Grand Theft Auto V" shelved until 2013, there are still quite a few gems yet to be released in 2012. "Borderlands 2" Sept.

Big Huge Games in Timonium closed last May, taking nearly 100 jobs with it. Nine months later, a local studio that was launched from the ashes of the video game-maker shut down, too. And Zynga, which created FarmVille and Words with Friends, closed its Baltimore County office several weeks ago. So why aren't local game developers freaking out? They're used to volatility - not this much, but quite a bit. And even with big game-makers facing tough competition and multimillion-dollar costs, tiny independent studios are popping up locally to take advantage of new opportunities in mobile and online gaming - and new ways of raising money to get games made.

Hannah accompanies Jessa to visit her father in upstate New York. The opening scene shows them waiting at a sparse train station to be picked up, Jessa looking like Anne of Green Gables clutching her carpet bag. Their dialogue as they wait for Jessa's dad is deliciously funny. Hannah has to pee but the station consists of only a platform. Jessa directs her towards some shrubbery to relieve herself. Hannah is aghast: "You want me to cross the tracks, and step on the third rail potentially.

Zynga, the video game maker best known for FarmVille and Words With Friends, has closed its Timonium office as part of a broader corporate consolidation, company officials said Monday. The company also made changes at three other offices, closing and consolidating some in Texas and New York. The company did not say how many jobs were being cut, but said that the moves affected about 1 percent of its work force of more than 3,000. About half of those in the Timonium office were relocated.

People anxious about seismic demographic shifts already under way in the Western Hemisphere may be a bit unnerved by Caridad Svich's futuristic drama “The Tropic of X,” receiving its English-language premiere from Single Carrot Theatre - the company's first venture in its temporary headquarters in the former home of Everyman Theatre. The playwright's vision conjures a world where North and South America have fused into a strange melange where languages and longings converge, or collide.

What an ignorant, dishonest and pathetic response to Sandy Hook today from the National Rifle Association. As a media critic, I will limit myself to the disingenuous attack on the media from Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the organization. Of course, it's a shameless attempt to avoid accepting any responsibility by his organization. But in the interest of a sane discussion about media violence -- rather than the demagogued, crazy-right-wing-paranoid speechifying of LaPierre -- some social science research, facts and context need to be presented.

Deb Tillett has been around the world, pursuing a career in technology that started a few decades ago in the suburbs of Baltimore. She learned the ropes of the video game world while working at one of the local companies - MicroProse - that gave birth to an industry that's now thriving in Hunt Valley and other parts of Baltimore County and Maryland. Earlier this year, she took over the helm at the Emerging Technology Center, Baltimore's main technology business incubator, after that organization's longtime head, Ann Lansinger, retired.

WHAT WAS THAT Baltimore County promotion booth doing in San Jose, Calif., when thousands of America's computer game developers gathered there in March for their annual convention? Trying to snake away a little more business for Baltimore County's Hunt Valley, which has become one of the nation's leading production centers outside California for entertainment and military simulations. A dozen programming companies are now based there, employing 600 people. This is a dramatic change from 1985, when programmer Sid Meier, joined by Bill Stealey, set off to revolutionize what was still largely a board game industry.

Handgun-wielding robbers who burst into a video-game store in Harford County over the weekend made off with more than just cash. They also stole more than 100 copies of the highly anticipated "Call of Duty: Black Ops," which won't go on sale until Tuesday. At least two men were involved in the robbery, timing it for when the GameStop in the Festival at Bel Air shopping center on Bel Air South Parkway was about to close on Saturday night, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said Sunday.

Arda Ocal (@arda_ocal) of theScore Television Network and The Baltimore Sun spoke with Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) about the new WWE video game, CM Punk, a comedy show and his books.    

A new space at the Savage branch of the Howard County Library is giving teens the opportunity to experiment with the latest digital technology. And the HiTech digital learning lab has developed a following, with some students coming every afternoon, three days a week, for hours at a time. On Wednesday afternoon, two teenage girls curled up on a colorful ottoman and scrolled through social media on iPads, chewing bubble gum and gossiping. A boy plugged a guitar into a computer, ready to play along with YouTube videos and record his progress on the instrument.