Caracas, Mar 3 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela passed a law banning video and war games and toys prompting violence to help improve child education and prevent misconduct, another step towards fighting all forms of violence.

The new ruling imposes a fine and 2-5 years in prison on the import, production, distribution, sale, hiring and use of video games and toys inciting violent behaviour.

This legislation defines as aggressive every audiovisual material promoting and inciting violence, the use of weapons and toys imitating weapons or stimulating violence and hate.

It finally demands to d

Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson has made much of his life's work studying how violent video game play affects youth behavior. And he says a new study he led, analyzing 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide, proves conclusively that exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive, less caring kids -- regardless of their age, sex or culture.

The study was published today in the March 2010 issue of the Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal.

Actually, "boring" isn't exactly what a former EA Criterion Senior Designer (Black) said about current FPS games on the market. But because Tom's is more of a family-friendly site, we can't quote Stuart Black's true feelings about the current crop. Needless to say, he's not too thrilled, and made his feelings perfectly clear in a recent interview with The Official Xbox Magazine.

"There's a lot of cover-based shooters out at the moment," he said. "But when a guy hunkers down behind something, you've just got to sit there and wait for him to pop his head up.

"Video games have been with me for most of my life. The industry is a medium that I discovered at a young age in my cousin’s bedroom, huddled in the corner waiting for the older kids to finish playing and wondering when it would be my turn. Mesmerized by 16-bit Italian plumbers and plucky elves trying to save their respective princesses I imagined myself as a part of these worlds. They were something that I could relate too.

Kids fighting over the family video game console? Won’t do chores or homework? Grounding the kids away from video games not working? Well, [H] forum member "TheBluePill" says it’s hammer time!

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1496149

*editors note* While the Xbox 360 is used in this example, it is important to note that this tactic works on the Wii, PS3, cell phone or any other offending device.

So did you see it? On last night's opening episode of Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance (a title that responsibly portrays the delicate practice of family counselling as some sort of dangerous sport), the straight-talking presenter tackled the problem of violent video games.

Together with Dr Doug Gentile she orchestrated an experiment in which 40 boys were asked to play games for 20 minutes – half played a football sim, the other half "a first-person war game". They then had to view some violent news footage. Throughout, each participant had their heart rate monitored.

The U.S.

Victorious gamers enjoy a surge of testosterone – but only if their vanquished foe is a stranger. When male gamers beat friends in a shoot-em-up video game, levels of the potent sex hormone plummeted.

This suggests that multiplayer video games tap into the same mechanisms as warfare, where testosterone's effect on aggression is advantageous.

Against a group of strangers – be it an opposing football team or an opposing army – there is little reason to hold back, so testosterone's effects on aggression offer an advantage.

In an overlooked announcement just now making the rounds, LucasArts has revealed that the dead shall walk again in Sony Online Entertainment's MMORPG Star Wars: Galaxies, with a series of quests inspired by the upcoming Star Wars novel 'Death Troopers.' "Players will be able to join together to fight horrific new enemies with a frightening affliction," LucasArts explains, with the book's blurb detailing "The dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry." Death Troopers the novel arrives on October 13, while Death Troopers the quest line was then slated for a vague fall release. LucasArts has vowed to continuing supporting Galaxies after the launch of BioWare's new Star Wars MMO The Old Republic.

Cage the Elephant's "Ain't No Rest for Wicked" serves as the score to this Broderlands trailer. All four of the game's characters--Mordecai the Hunter, Lilith the Siren, Roland the Soldier, and Brick the Brick--are highlighted. The game's crazy cover art is acted out in animated form to close. The shooter-RPG hits the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 20.