Tag: video games

New study shows violent video games do not make teens more aggressive

A pair of researchers with the University of Oxford and Cardiff University has conducted a study aimed at determining whether playing violent games cause young people to become more aggressive. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Andrew Przybylski and Netta Weinstein describe their study that involved surveying approximately 1,000 teens and their parents in Great Britain and what they learned from them.

As video games have become more life-like and violent, people are questioning whether teenagers playing such games might become more aggressive. Some studies have been conducted, but thus far, but results to date are inconclusive. The researchers with this new effort suggest past efforts to study the impact of video games on teams excluded a critical factor—the opinions of the parents. To overcome that problem, the researchers surveyed approximately 1000 14- and 15-year-old adolescents of both genders and their parents.

The teens were asked questions surrounding video game play, such as how much they played, what kinds of games were involved, and the ratings of the games. They were also asked if they thought games made them more aggressive, particularly immediately after playing. The parents were asked similar questions regarding video game play by their child and perceived aggressive tendencies.

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Mandatory Inclusion in Video Games: A Threat to the Essence of Entertainment?

In the last decade, video games have gone from being simple entertainment tools to becoming a powerful cultural platform capable of influencing millions of people around the world. However, this evolution has also turned the industry into an ideological battlefield, where the focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) generates debates about its impact on the quality and essence of games.

Is inclusion a tool for cultural enrichment or an imposition that compromises the player experience?

The rise of DEI ideology in video games is no coincidence. According to a report by the Entertainment Software Association, more than 71% of Americans play video games, and half spend more than eight hours a week on this activity. With such a wide audience, video games have become an ideal medium for spreading political and social ideas.

Recent titles such as God of War: Ragnarök have reimagined characters based on Norse mythologies, such as Angrboda, depicting her as a black woman.

While proponents argue that these changes promote inclusivity, detractors criticize the lack of respect for the cultural traditions that inspired the game. In a similar case, Spider-Man 2 received praise for “its relentless promotion of queerness,” which created polarization among gamers.

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Pokémon Go Player Data Being Used to Train AI & Construct ‘Large Geospatial Model’

Millions of users’ location and imaging data is being compiled to construct a global virtual model of the real world, ostensibly to build new augmented reality experiences, the company behind the popular mobile game Pokémon Go has revealed.

In a blog update Tuesday, Niantic explained they’ve been enlisting Pokémon Go players to participate in efforts to construct a Large Geospatial Model (LGM), which the company says “could guide users through the world, answer questions, provide personalized recommendations, help with navigation, and enhance real-world interactions.”

The company says the LGM constructs a comprehensive AI world model by leveraging its Visual Positioning System (VPS), which was “built from user scans, taken from different perspectives and at various times of day, at many times during the years, and with positioning information attached, creating a highly detailed understanding of the world. This data is unique because it is taken from a pedestrian perspective and includes places inaccessible to cars.”

“The LGM will enable computers not only to perceive and understand physical spaces, but also to interact with them in new ways, forming a critical component of AR glasses and fields beyond, including robotics, content creation and autonomous systems,” Niantic said. “As we move from phones to wearable technology linked to the real world, spatial intelligence will become the world’s future operating system.”

“Over the past five years, Niantic has focused on building our Visual Positioning System, which uses a single image from a phone to determine its position and orientation using a 3D map built from people scanning interesting locations in our games and Scaniverse,” the company wrote.

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USAID’S Disinformation Primer: Global Censorship In The Name Of Democracy

A report from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) outlines how the government agency has been encouraging governments, tech platforms, establishment media outlets and advertisers to work together to censor huge swaths of the Internet. The 97-page “disinformation primer,” obtained by conservative firm America First Legal under the Freedom of Information Act, purports to be fighting fake news. However, much of the organization’s focus appears to be on preventing individuals from finding information online that challenges official narratives and leads to increased questioning of the system more generally.

The document calls for regulating video games and online message boards, steering individuals away from alternative media and back towards more elite-friendly sites, and for governments to work with advertisers to cripple organizations that refuse to toe official lines financially. Furthermore, it highlights government-backed fact-checking groups like Bellingcat, Graphika, and the Atlantic Council as leaders in the fight against disinformation, despite the fact that those groups have close connections to the national security state, which is an overwhelming conflict of interest.

The news that a government agency is promoting such a program is worrying enough. However, we shall also see how USAID itself has promoted fake news to push for regime change abroad.

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THE FEDS ARE COMING FOR “EXTREMIST” GAMERS

GAMING COMPANIES ARE coordinating with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to root out so-called domestic violent extremist content, according to a new government report. Noting that mechanisms have been established with social media companies to police extremism, the report recommends that the national security agencies establish new and similar processes with the vast gaming industry.

The exact nature of the cooperation between federal agencies and video game companies, which has not been previously reported, is detailed in a new Government Accountability Office report. The report draws on interviews conducted with five gaming and social media companies including Roblox, an online gaming platform; Discord, a social media app commonly used by gamers; Reddit; as well as a game publisher and social media company that asked the GAO to remain anonymous.

The Intercept reached out to the companies identified in the GAO report for comment, but none responded on the record at time of publication.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have mechanisms to share and receive domestic violent extremism threat-related information with social media and gaming companies,” the GAO says. The report reveals that the DHS intelligence office meets with gaming companies and that the companies can use these meetings to “share information with I&A [DHS’s intelligence office] about online activities promoting domestic violent extremism,” or even simply “activities that violate the companies’ terms of service.” Through its 56 field offices and hundreds of resident agencies subordinate field offices, the FBI receives tips from gaming companies of potential law-breaking and extremist views for further investigation. The FBI also conducts briefings to gaming companies on purported threats.

The GAO warns that FBI and DHS lack an overarching strategy to bring its work with gaming companies in line with broader agency missions. “Without a strategy or goals, the agencies may not be fully aware of how effective their communications are with companies, or how effective their information-sharing mechanisms serve the agencies’ overall missions,” the GAO says. The report ends with a recommendation that both agencies develop such a strategy — a recommendation that DHS concurred with, providing an estimated completion date of June 28 this year. 

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Call of Duty to snoop on players for ‘hate speech’

Games publisher Activision has announced that it will use artificial intelligence to listen in on the voice chat of ‘Call of Duty’ players and punish anyone using “hate speech” or “discriminatory language.” 

The feature was rolled out on Wednesday for US players of Call Of Duty’s ‘Modern Warfare II’ and ‘Warzone’ titles, and will be launched globally with ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’ on November 10.

In a statement on Wednesday, Activision said that it will use a machine learning tool to “identify in real-time and enforce against toxic speech,” including “hate speech, discriminatory language, harassment and more.” 

Activision’s announcement made no distinction between private chat among teammates and public chat audible to all players in a server. Presumably, both will be subject to the same monitoring.

Call Of Duty’s code of conduct bans insults based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, culture, faith, and country of origin. Players deemed to have breached this code of conduct will be punished with temporary voice chat restrictions, temporary account bans, or permanent bans for repeat offenders, Activision said.

Around 90 million gamers worldwide play Call of Duty every month. At present, Activision depends on reports from other players and text chat monitoring to weed out allegedly “toxic” conduct. According to the developer, around one million accounts have been penalized since the launch of ‘Modern Warfare II’ last October.

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The Urban Legend of the Government’s Mind-Controlling Arcade Game

IN A SUBURBAN ARCADE NEAR Portland, Oregon, in 1981, a dull, digital glow bounced off the faces of teenagers who clutched joysticks, immersed in the game. Tiny lines and dots danced or exploded with high-pitched beeps across them all, but one game cabinet, Polybius, drew the longest lines.

Gamers who tried it couldn’t stop playing, and began acting oddly: they were nauseous, stressed, had horrific nightmares. Others had seizures or attempted suicide, many felt unable to control their own thoughts. It was only later that they recalled how Polybius was serviced more often than other games. Men in black suits opened the machine every week, recorded its data, and left, with no interest in its coins. Soon after it appeared, the mysterious arcade game vanished without warning—taken by the men in black suits, leaving no record of its existence.

That’s the story, at least. This legend is one of the big unsolved mysteries of the gaming world, though most concede that the game never existed. It’s since become an urban legend on gaming and conspiracy websites and the internet horror wiki Creepypasta, and like all good stories, it is kept alive by its fans.  

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THE PENTAGON USES VIDEO GAMES TO TEACH “SECURITY EXCELLENCE.” YOU CAN PLAY THEM TOO.

IN THE 1983 movie “WarGames,” a young hacker played by Matthew Broderick inadvertently accesses a fictional supercomputer belonging to the U.S. military. Before realizing he has found a system the North American Aerospace Defense Command uses for war simulations, he searches for computer games. The list he gets back starts with classic games like checkers and bridge, but to his surprise, it also includes games called “Guerrilla Engagement” and “Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare.”

Turns out the Department of Defense likes to play computer games in real life too.

More than 40 “security awareness” games are available for anyone to play on the website of the Center for Development of Security Excellence, or CDSE, a directorate within the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, the largest security agency within the U.S. government. The DCSA, which refers to itself as “America’s Gatekeeper,” specializes in security of government personnel and infrastructure as well as counterintelligence and insider threat detection. (The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The games range from crossword puzzles and word searches about how to identify an insider threat, to games with more peculiar titles like “Targeted Violence” and “The Adventures of Earl Lee Indicator.” The trove of games looks like an artifact from the late ’90s: game titles announced in WordArt, award badges that look designed with Microsoft Word, “Matrix”-esque backgrounds of falling numbers, and stock photos (some still watermarked).

Some of the games themselves are presented in formats prone to security vulnerabilities. For example, some look like they were made using freely available PowerPoint magic eight ball templates, despite the file format’s potential for containing malware. Playing the magic eight ball games also requires downloading and opening files, exposing players to potentially malicious attachments. Heightening this risk, it appears not all the games have a carefully guarded provenance: The metadata in a magic eight ball game called “Unauthorized Disclosure,” for instance, indicates that the file was originally stored in a personal Dropbox folder.

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“We Want To Be On The Right Side Of History”: Ubisoft Partners With Police to Jail Gamers For Their In-Game Speech

Ubisoft, the company behind the Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six franchises, has not only partnered with the Anti-Defamation League to fight “hate” in gaming but is also now working with British police to jail gamers for their speech.

British state media is reporting on the news as a great new innovation.

From BBC, “Toxic gaming tackled by Ubisoft’s unique police alert system”:

Rape jokes, racism, bullying – if you’ve picked up a controller, or scrolled a mouse, to dabble in some online gaming then you’ve likely come across plenty.

The gaming industry, like others where people interact online, has been trying to figure out how to get to grips with behaviour like this for years.

Ubisoft, makers of major franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six, has now signed a first-of-its-kind deal with police to try and tackle the issue for its players.

The hope is for this agreement to start a conversation within the industry and see others follow suit.

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Do These Documents Prove That Call Of Duty Is A Government PsyOp?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has been available for less than three weeks, but it is already making waves. Breaking records, within ten days, the first-person military shooter video game earned more than $1 billion in revenue. Yet it has also been shrouded in controversy, not least because missions include assassinating an Iranian general clearly based on Qassem Soleimani, a statesman and military leader slain by the Trump administration in 2020, and a level where players must shoot “drug traffickers” attempting to cross the U.S./Mexico border.

The Call of Duty franchise is an entertainment juggernaut, having sold close to half a billion games since it was launched in 2003. Its publisher, Activision Blizzard, is a giant in the industry, behind titles games as the Guitar Hero, Warcraft, Starcraft, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot and Candy Crush Saga series.

Yet a closer inspection of Activision Blizzard’s key staff and their connections to state power, as well as details gleaned from documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Call of Duty is not a neutral first-person shooter, but a carefully constructed piece of military propaganda, designed to advance the interests of the U.S. national security state.

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