Video Games

Quote: "I didn't feel real good at the plate. But this is my first time seeing most of these pitchers. I'm playing against guys I've seen only on video games." -- Pirates rookie Warren Morris, who's hitting .275It's a fact: The game in Miami drew a holiday crowd of 21,943, well below the Cardinals' road average of 33,634.Who's hot: Reds relievers are holding opponents to a .203 average and have an 0.82 ERA in their past eight games, a span of 33 innings.Who's not: The Mets' Al Leiter has given up 10 home runs, one more than all last year.

How do you stay calm before a game?Glen Rice, forward, Charlotte Hornets (recently traded to the Los Angeles Lakers): "I play video games. I am crazy about video games. Basketball and football are my favorites."Neil Smith, defensive end, Denver Broncos: "I get scared before every game. I don't stop being nervous until the game starts."Suzy Hamilton, middle-distance runner: "I listen to John Tesh music. His music inspires me. I also picture myself running across the finish line."VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.SIKIDS.

How do you stay calm before a game?Glen Rice, forward, Charlotte Hornets (recently traded to the Los Angeles Lakers): "I play video games. I am crazy about video games. Basketball and football are my favorites."Neil Smith, defensive end, Denver Broncos: "I get scared before every game. I don't stop being nervous until the game starts."Suzy Hamilton, middle-distance runner: "I listen to John Tesh music. His music inspires me. I also picture myself running across the finish line."Big DreamsKen Griffey, Jr.; Outfielder, Seattle Mariners -- "I'd like to win the World Series so that I could jump on the pile of players!"

What does it take to teach a person to kill?It's harder than you might think. But, according to critics of violent video games, our children might be training themselves right under our noses.The idea that video violence relates to real-life violence is hardly new. A number of research studies have created a controversy but offered no clear answer.Carolyn Rauch, a senior vice president of the Interactive Digital Software Association, says most of these studies fail to establish a link between video violence and real-life violence.

WASHINGTON -- Amid the tinkling of bells and singing of carols, there is this year another, grimmer set of seasonal sounds: the thip-thip of electronic gunshots, grunts of video combat and primal screams of a cyber-opponent being ripped to shreds.These, according to the National Institute on Media and the Family, are the sounds of video and computer games that are getting youngsters hooked on murder and mayhem.The Minneapolis-based media watchdog group, joined yesterday by two Democratic U.S. senators who have played a prominent role in past efforts to reduce violent content, urged parents to exercise caution before buying video and computer games as holiday gifts.

Next time you're at the video store, take a stroll down the computer- and video-game aisle and peruse those covers. If you suddenly feel overwhelmed by testosterone, it's not your imagination.The ratio of males to females pictured on the games' covers runs roughly 13-to-1.Studies show one-half of males on game covers are portrayed as dominating; one-third of females are portrayed submissively.Things don't get better beyond the cover: In the 47 top-selling video games of 1994, one-third of female characters are treated as victims.

Through the one-way glass, you can see the young Asian agent writhing in pain. Still, she refuses to talk. You are not a violent person. But you know what you have to do.You are, after all, a CIA recruit who has discovered a plot to assassinate the U.S. president. And this is, after all, only a game -- one that incorporates the best that digital technology has to offer. You turn up the voltage. She screams.So goes the interactive revolution."The Great Game" is one of a new crop of video games that give players control over ever more realistic -- and violent -- fantasy worlds.

Spectrum HoloByte Inc. announced yesterday it will form a new company in Hunt Valley with Capital Cities/ABC Inc. to create and sell sports-oriented video games.The venture was called a good strategic move by game industry analysts, who noted that Spectrum, owner of Hunt Valley-based MicroProse Inc. -- maker of some of the top-selling strategy and flight simulation games -- has not had success breaking into the important sports game segment.The alliance with the ABC television network is key because increasing competition in the computer game industry has made it important for new entrants to give themselves a boost into consumers' consciousness by using a familiar brand name, said Johnny Wilson, editor of Computer Gaming magazine in San Francisco.

As if 3-D sight and true sound weren't enough in today's computer video games, a former defense contractor will introduce a device that will give Nintendo and Sega-ophiles another dimension: tactile feedback.Imagine playing a computer fighting game and being able tsense the body blows, crunches and strikes. Or being on the receiving end of a video tackle in Troy Aikman's Football, and actually feeling what it's like to lick turf.The device is called the Interactor, a plastic vest that usepatented electromagnetic field technology that can listen to audio output from almost any source and translate it to body-pulsing vibrations.

"Virtual reality" is actually here.In what is apparently the nation's first retail-level use of "Wild Palms" technology to entertain the "Barney" set, a Baltimore-area company called Family Funjungle has installed an early version of the "you-are-there" medium in its newly opened family entertainment center in Perry Hall.Through a device called the InVideo System, children as young as 2 can experience the illusion of flying over the trees, swimming with fish, or standing in a thunderstorm that rains real cats and dogs.

Some guys play video games. Some play rock music. Tyler Merchant and his buds do both and see the two as inseparable. "They're kind of indistinguishable from one another, really," says Merchant, 26, who plays bass for Entertainment System, one of 10 bands that will be playing at Saturday's 64 Bit Gen Gamer Fest, featuring groups whose music is taken directly or derived from video games. "It's a celebration of the [gaming] culture in general, with an emphasis on the music." Sitting around a table at Fells Point restaurant Meli on a recent afternoon, the organizers of this year's fest, set for 5 p.m. Saturday at the Ottobar, sound passionate about two things.

Spurred by the success of Nintendo's "Wii Fit," video games are suddenly more and more about fitness. The "Wii Fit," a video game that acts as a virtual exercise coach, guides players through yoga moves, basic strength training and aerobics. Since it was released in the U.S. about a year ago, "Wii Fit" has sold more than 6 million copies. Nintendo's success has attracted the attention of not only its competitors (a slew of next-generation fitness-themed games such as "EA Sports Active" are on store shelves or will be by Christmas)

Video games Playing can boost skills such as problem-solving Parents, don't put away those video games just yet - today's gamer may be tomorrow's top surgeon. Researchers who gathered in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed a series of studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools - from increasing younger students' problem-solving potential to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons. The conclusion? Certain types of video games can have benefits beyond the virtual thrills of blowing up demons.

Here's what college student Paul Oliver can't do so well: Count backward or recite the alphabet in reverse, and he's not so good at getting the linear progression of things. He couldn't put a comic strip in order if its panels were mixed up, for example. That's what he found out from a psychological test pinpointing his learning disorders. Here's what he can do really well: Write computer game programs and get others excited about doing the same. At 24, Oliver's passion for gaming has grabbed the attention of Microsoft, which chose him to be among a handful of student partners in the Mid-Atlantic, and paid his way to a Seattle convention this week.

Once upon a time, in the countryside west of Baltimore, a council of elders issued a challenge to a motley crew of apprentice conjurers. In just five weeks, they would have to master battle strategy, hand-to-hand combat and dragon-hunting. Learned well, these skills would help them best their adversaries in their quest for the ultimate treasure: A career developing video games. "This is a very competitive industry," Eric Jordan told the students gathered in a classroom at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

PLYMOUTH, England -- In the controversial video game Manhunt 2, you're required to sneak up behind your victims, hit them over the head with a garden spade and then use that same weapon to decapitate them. As blood gushes, you're supposed to feel satisfied that you're ready for the next challenge. To some, this scenario captures everything that's wrong about video games. They're too violent, detractors say, and they glamorize violence. Children might be tempted to copy them. While this is an understandable concern, it misses more obvious problems with many video games today: primarily, an utter lack of moral consequence.

Michael Foehrkolb will be out of the office today. He has aliens to slaughter, a plague to stop and friends to humiliate. Although he's been a fan of video games for most of his life, the 35-year-old network administrator has never taken a day off work just to play a new one. But then again, there has never been a game more anticipated than Halo 3. The game arrives in stores today on the heels of a marketing blitz and a potential payout worthy of...

Soulless. Repetitive. Clunky. Those are some of the kinder words that critics have bestowed on video games based on Hollywood films. But many of those games have still sold well thanks to the movie marketing blitz that accompanies box-office releases. For example, the Enter the Matrix game, which one critic called "astoundingly dull," sold 2.3 million copies in the United States. The James Bond title GoldenEye: Rogue Agent rated an average of 65 percent -- the equivalent of an F -- from more than 200 reviews, according to GameRankings.

Dave Taylor always knew his lust for playing Fallout and Total Annihilation bordered on the pathological. The video games would hold the software programmer in such a vicelike grip that he often would play for 24-hour stretches, forestalling sleep, skipping meals and twisting himself in knots to delay bathroom breaks. "It's super unhealthy," he said. "But man, I'm just so swept away in another world and so focused on my goals that I don't care. It hurts to be away from the game." Now some doctors are lobbying to give his condition a formal medical diagnosis: video-game addiction.

Tennessee Titans fans are biting their nails now that their quarterback, Vince Young, has been chosen to grace the cover of EA Sports' Madden NFL 08. It's a big honor in a world where more kids are likely to play Madden than watch Young on TV, but there's a catch: the notorious Madden curse. Since 2001, every athlete who has appeared on the Madden box has been injured the next season. Last year's model, Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander, broke his left foot and missed six games.