Being a gamer is all about picking up a Dualshock, 360 controller, GamePad, etc., and sinking a few hours into the latest big release, right? It’s all about trying to keep your bleary, bloodshot eyes open at 2.30am whilst trying one last time to beat that damn final boss, right? It’s all about trading trash-talk with your friends online on [...]

Much has been made of the news that Nintendo will not participate in a major Electronic Entertainment Expo conference this year. Many people (myself included) see this as Nintendo conceding defeat to Microsoft and Sony, both of whom are expected to show off more of their next generation consoles. Along with the Wii U’s sales falling flat, is this really [...]

The evolution of multiplayer gaming This post has been written on behalf of LG. Playing on the Super Nintendo with my little brother is one of my fondest childhood memories. From speeding all over tablecloths in Micro Machines to blowing each other up in Worms there was nothing that couldn’t have us in fits of laughter – or start an [...]

On February 20th, Sony officially confirmed to the public the first details of the Playstation 4, the next installment to the home console gaming scene, and a full reaction piece from NGN’s Jason Rose can be found here. Microsoft has yet to publicly respond to Sony’s reveal, and E3, the massive gaming event in LA normally reserved for such large-scale [...]

I’m sure that quite a lot of you are reading this on your phone right now. Phones have come so far in such a relatively short amount of time that it’s hard to keep up with everything the tiny machines are capable of doing. Many people just don’t realize how powerful the device you may be holding in your hands [...]

How about another approach? The psychology looks at the behavior of individuals. Let’s get big-picture. If a poisonous media environment to which games contribute is really the driving force behind gun violence, then it would be reasonable to assume populations that play more games would be more violent. Sure would be nice to have some numbers about that. Oh, there [...]

A good villain goes a long way in the realm of video games, and let’s face it, sometimes they can make or break a game. The revenge and gore filled plight of Kratos in God of War is made much more forgivable when we see the cruelty and paranoia of Zeus, and the entirety of Bioshock’s plot hinges on the [...]

We’re a quarter of the way into the wonderful year of 2013 AD, and just like all of NGN hoped when the clocks struck midnight on December 31st, the games have come fast and been incredible. Seriously, has there been a better start to a year in gaming history? We sure can’t remember one. Regardless, the personalities and faces of [...]

But here’s where I extend the most possible benefit of the doubt to Anderson and Bushman. I think it would go too far to say that violent games or media have zero short-term psychological effect. In fact, a form of Anderson and Bushman’s hypothesis makes some sense to me, anecdotally. I’ve totally watched Starship Troopers on TV and been put in the [...]

Getting back to Ferguson’s results, he concludes that players of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault were not significantly more aggressive in the CRT than players of Myst III, but there were other factors that did seem to matter. Interestingly, this experiment included a group that was given the open to choose they game they would play, offering insight into how [...]