Video Games

I had been with him through a wardrobe door to Narnia, and down a rabbit hole to Wonderland. So when my 12-year-old son disappeared into a television screen beyond my calls for dinner, curiosity led me to explore the world that lay on the other side. I come back transformed by both wonder and horror, as I believe our children do. I had vastly underestimated the significance of that journey, as I believe most parents do. The PacMan wave came and went. A second wave has hit like a tsunami.

Cody Wygant was an avid player of video games like "Aliens Extermination" and "Call of Duty. " The role-playing games were so important that the persistent screams of his 16-month-old son was too much of an annoyance, according to the Citrus County sheriff's office in Florida. So Wygant, an unemployed resident of Homosassa, Fla., about 90 miles west of Orlando, suffocated the boy and left him in a playpen, officials allege. "It is inconceivable that a father could kill his infant son -- it just baffles the mind," Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said in a statement.

After putting in a full day at his computer technician job, a 30-year-old Internet game player known as Ebaid went home, logged on to a game called "EverQuest" and started his night job. His game character donned armor, slapped on his sword and began slaying beasts so he could make some real money. Hail the rise of yet another strange creature of the Internet revolution--the professional online game hunter. Ebaid played for hours, slaying every computer-generated monster on his screen.

The rapper Future is known for his liberal use of Auto-Tune, but now he's got another charmingly low-rent bit of technology to share. The Atlanta rapper-singer has a great new single in "Move That Dope," which features guest turns from Pharrell Williams, Pusha T and Cameo. To accompany it, he posted an addictive new video game that's a slightly more menacing version of vintage Nintendo titles. " Move That Doh " (a more family-friendly version of the title) sports 8-bit graphics straight out of the '80s heyday of cocaine trafficking.

Less than a week after the Supreme Court refused to carve out an exception from the 1st Amendment for videos depicting real violence against animals, it has agreed to consider California's argument that it should withhold constitutional protection from virtual violence against people. The justices will review a sensible decision by a federal appeals court striking down a state law punishing the sale of "violent video games" to minors. We hope a majority of the court recognizes that the principle in the two cases is the same — that even offensive speech is protected by the 1st Amendment.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard) 2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks) 3. Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts) 4. Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft) 5. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft) 6. Madden NFL 12 (Electronic Arts) 7. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Sony) 8. Saints Row: The Third (THQ) 9. The Legend of Zelda: SkywardSword (Nintendo) 10. Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive) *Rankings are based on North American sales of games sold as discs.

Re: "Sex and Risk Among People in Their 20s May 3, California has a little advertised but fabulous program called FPACT (Family Planning, Access, Care, Treatment) that was established in 1996. California residents qualify if they are uninsured and are at 200% poverty level, which is determined by family size and income. The program goal is to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. FPACT has far-reaching effects for individuals, families and California.

Video games that get players moving, at least in some small fashion, can not only have positive health effects -- they might even have a place in stroke rehabilitation centers, helping some patients regain upper body strength and coordination after suffering a stroke. That seems to be the consensus from an analysis by Canadian researchers of 12 studies involving 195 stroke patients who tried their hands at virtual-reality games as part of rehabilitation. And the games might even offer an edge.

Here's your fight-the-power Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web: --Christmas wasn't kind to the video game industry. U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories fell 21% in December from a year ago, to $3.99 billion, as players bought fewer games for their aging consoles, according to market researcher NPD Group. The month's poor performance was unexpected given the quality of new games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was the top-seller, and Just Dance 3, which placed second.

Video game sales plunged again in June, dropping 10% from a year ago, as consumers greeted some new releases with a yawn and as sales continue to erode for Nintendo Co.'s once-popular Wii console. Sales of games and the consoles required to play them were $1.03 billion last month, compared with $1.15 billion in June 2010, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. The decline followed a 14% slide in May to a four-year low for the video game industry. The lower numbers do not necessarily spell doom for the entire sector.

As a child, Shannon Studstill sold gum to her classmates to finance her weekly trips to the video game arcade. That early investment in "Pac-Man" and "Defender" would pay huge dividends. Studstill, one of the most powerful women in the male-dominated world of video games, now runs Sony Santa Monica Studio, the development group responsible for the company's hit franchise "God of War" and the publisher of such critically acclaimed independent titles as "Journey. " The 43-year-old executive is an anomaly in an industry known for its underrepresentation of women.

Electronic Arts Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Co. wanted to use the names and likenesses of college athletes in video games, according to an NCAA document unsealed in federal court Wednesday. The report was among hundreds of pages of documents that U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered to be made fully or partially public in the long-running antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA fronted by former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon. The case is scheduled for trial in June and, in the interim, the document dump provides another window into the often contentious issues of amateurism and compensation raised by the case.

The book "Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation" by Blake Harris will be published in May. And it's already headed to the big screen, thanks to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Variety reports that Rogen and Goldberg are planning to co-direct and adapt " Console Wars ," which tells the real-life story behind the video game industry in the 1990s. It Books will publish the 576-page look at video games on May 13. It's Harris' debut -- and comes with a prologue by, coincidentally, Goldberg and Rogen.

Eugene is thinking about buying an Xbox One game console. but he's worried about extra charges if the device turns out to be all buggy. Buggy tech is a worry shared by most users. You think everything should be running smoothly because a gadget is new, and it turns out the software still needs patching. ASK LAZ: Smart answers to consumer questions A game console is basically a personal computer in new clothes, so it's a very real concern that something can go kerblooey on the coding level.

Humble Bundle is one of those websites trying to make optimal use of our digital world. It combines downloads with a pay-what-you-like system that funnels money to charity. And for the first time, it's trying its hand at audiobooks. This is how it works. Every week or two, Humble Bundle makes a set -- bundle -- of digital downloads freely available. Downloaders are asked to pay what they like: what they think the downloads are worth, what they can afford, an amount that represents their appreciation of the creator.

The new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 fueled a 50% spike in video game console sales in December, compared with a year earlier, as enthusiasts rushed to buy the latest systems. Micrososoft's Xbox One was the top-selling console in December, but Sony's rival PS4 sold more units since the November launch of the new systems, according to newly released figures from the NPD Group. "The newest consoles from Microsoft and Sony are off to a tremendous start," said NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan.

The U.S. Supreme Court waded into murky and, perhaps, treacherous waters Monday when it agreed to decide whether the Constitution permits California to prohibit the sale of violent video games to people younger than 18. Lower courts, including a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, already have struck down the 5-year-old statute as an impermissible infringement on free speech because it attempts to extend existing...

Art is in the eye of the beholder, or in the case of the Smithsonian's new exhibit, the gamer. “The Art of Video Games” takes game-boys and -girls through four decades of video game history showcasing interviews of early game creators and footage of close-ups of people's responses to game play. Like placing Picasso's collages amid Cubist counterparts, the exhibit puts early games into industrial context, as well as it represents a variety of different consoles including Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation.

How does a game designer ask his gamer girlfriend to marry him? How about with a video game that ends with a wedding proposal? Robert Fink, a video game artist, teamed up with a few of his friends to develop "Knight Man: A Quest For Love," a video game that proposes to his girlfriend Angel White after she completes an obstacle course. The game is online and available for all to play . "The first thought in my head when I saw her was, 'She's beautiful...and she plays video games...

Warner Bros.'s video gaming division has partnered with Wikia, an online social network for pop culture and entertainment enthusiasts, to connect with Middle-earth aficionados. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has teamed with Wikia to create the official interactive community site and a companion iPad application for its upcoming action game "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor," which takes place between the narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings.