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Video game addiction has been blamed for the rising cases of depression and other stress related health conditions in kids. This is an addiction just like addiction to drugs and gambling and should be treated with equal importance. Video game addiction develops over time with over indulgence and children risks loosing their social lives which is what results in the depression and anxiety.

Research conducted over the years has shown that kids who have introvert traits tend to fall into this problem more compared to their extrovert counterparts. This is because they find comfort when they are alone and so the introduction of video games gave them an opportunity to have fun in the comfort of their homes.

It is still not very clear what comes first, but psychologists believe that the relationship between video game addiction and depression can be both way, such that each can cause the other. Normal kids who have been allowed to over indulge in video games end up getting addicted and within no time start exhibiting anxiety behaviors.

It has also been proven that kids with depression brought about by other causes such as family conflicts, bullying or generally low self esteem usually resort to video games and with time it becomes an addiction which causes more depression and the cycle continues. For more info on curing anxiety, see some panic away reviews here.

Research conducted in schools indicates that it is possible to point out kids who spend their time playing video games from those who engage in interactive activities. Kids who play video games have low levels of concentration in class and they rarely participate. It is believed that video games have a way of occupying kids’ minds and since their brains are still not mature, they might not be able to strike a balance, hence causing the addiction. It is therefore important for parents and caregivers to train kids to balance their activities as this will save them from having to deal with depression at such early stages of life.

The art of photography in the real world is a practice with decades of history and it is concerned with capturing meaningful and beautiful images from our physical surroundings. However, what about documenting the beauty within the myriad virtual worlds that exist within video games?

This imagined world of pixels is being captured by a number of talented photographers who travel the in-game environment searching for striking images – and some of the results of these photographic virtual explorations are simply gorgeous.

One of the biggest names in in-game photography is Duncan Harris, an English games journalist who operates the website DeadEndThrills. He captures truly stunning images of popular games, including Skyrim and Dishonored. He likens his art practice to that of still photography in movie production and his images are often used by the game companies in their promotional materials.

Another notable in-game photographer is James Pollock, a graphic design student in Bath, England who showcases his photography on his blog, Virtual Geographic. His style is very different than Harris’s photography, as he takes photos of his TV set with an iPod and uses apps such as Hipstamatic and Instagram to add filters and effects.

Other video game photographers include John Paul Bichard, Kent Sheely and Robert Overweg, each one experimenting with their artistic vision and finding their own unique way of capturing the virtual reality. For more info on this, please see the trick photography tutorials here.

The virtual worlds within video games have been lovingly constructed by game developers but most gamers are so immersed in their missions that they don’t often take the time to soak in the details. These photographers are seeing the videogame landscape in a new way and are finding beauty within these fictional places.

The art of in-game photography is only newly emerging, but as technology develops and virtual game worlds become even more realistic, detailed and artistic, there is certain to be more photographers who strive to capture striking scenes within their favorite games.

Lips for Xbox 360, is a music franchise exclusively for Xbox 360, is the only singing game that provides wireless motion-sensitive microphones. Taking a complete new stage with Lips, give you the opportunity to sing your favorite music collection for free. Kick off channeling you favored pop star because it is you, your pals and most essential your music that transforms Lips into the eventual party experience and the capability to sing from your own music collection. Providing interactive motion-sensitive microphones to ensure your party remains lively throughout the night, while Lips inspires you to toss trepidations out the window and join the party.

Features

Two wireless interactive microphones

Featuring interactive motion lights and sensors, the microphones retort to singers’ actions. It can also be used as tapping accompaniments. With the encouragement and freedom offered by the wireless microphones, everybody can realize their singing visions in style.

The best music

Lips embrace a diverse selection of songs, comprising your favored blasts from the past as well as new songs from breakout stars. This enables you to link your past with your present; a wonderful feeling indeed.

Sing your music collection

Lips permits individuals to sing along with pals to music from their own collections.

Play along

Having an ordinary Xbox 360 controller, it enables even two people to join the fun and select from a variety of percussion accompaniment to enjoy playing their game along with the music from Lips. By engaging controls of numerous claps, tambourines, and the ubiquitous cowbell at your fingertips with a controller, create a social entertainment experience for co-workers, kids and friends alike.

Constant flow of new music

The Lips fo Xbox 360 comes along with music. In addition, you can add your own music collection and download current tracks from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. This guarantees you a continuous flow of music to bring people together and keep the party lively.

WARNING: You ought to have at least the basic singing experience to avoid public embarrassment! But not to worry… Simply checkout this superior singing method reviews here as a perfect combination to Lips.

In this post I would like to discuss with you an all time favorite title of my own. As many of my readers know I have been a Final Fantasy nerd for a long time. Ever since I first saw Setzer spin his slot machine in 1994 I was enthralled by this storyline. And from the beginning of the series a great plot and story line were key to these titles. Even when graphics were something to be taken with a grain of salt, Final Fantasy had some of the most amazing story lines you could think of. And then by the time of Super Nintendo when graphics could at least be a little bit better, square soft created an absolute master piece. Moving story line, moving characters, exciting plot twists and even an excellent music score to top it off. I still love listening to the piano introduction of Final Fantasy Six.

And then Final Fantasy Seven came along 3 years later to the then fresh new console of the Play Station (click here to see history of consoles) and many new fans were hooked as well. People debate which game was better six or seven. The graphics were of course undoubtedly better, and I would say the storyline is just as dynamic as its predecessor. There aren’t supposed to be any repeats in the Final Fantasy world. That was one of the things that were so intriguing about the whole series. They would always start fresh, with new characters, a whole new world really, to build up a completely different plot line. The only continuation would be slightly similar themes and the same familiar attack and item styles.

This freshness was usually a trademark of the series and any real sequel to a Final Fantasy title was seriously frowned upon. That is until we had Final Fantasy X-2 for the Play Station 2. This game title brought out all of the worst fears in what it would mean to make a sequel in the Final Fantasy world. Final Fantasy Ten (X) was of course a blockbuster success, one of the best ever made, in the same kind of ranking as 6 and 7. So this was probably one of the worst titles to make a sequel to in my opinion. Because Final Fantasy ten was so good that anything that came afterwards as a direct sequel would seem lacking and just not quite as dynamic. And in this area, Final Fantasy X-2 did not disappoint. Final Fantasy X-2 at this point is almost guaranteed to go down as one of the worst games ever made. I don’t know what they were thinking or trying to do when they came up with this one, but basically they took all the beloved main characters of Final Fantasy Ten and either completely cut them out or made them goofy side characters that you could not actually play. I realize that Final Fantasy X-2 was most likely an attempt to gain a younger audience to the franchise with it’s more lighthearted plot, but it just fell completely flat.

After this unpopular sequel, it was like the Final Fantasy spell had been broken for a bit and even after they tried to regroup back to the classic formula with Final Fantasy Eleven it was almost too late. Final Fantasy Eleven was a good game but it was not great. It was missing several key components of the Final Fantasy series. The same can be said for Twelve and beyond. Ever since unlucky Thirteen hit the store shelves Final Fantasy really just seems to be losing its way. I suppose that everything gets old after a while, even the great strategy of starting every game fresh has gotten old for the makers of Final Fantasy. So is the dream, the fantasy really over?

No. I don’t think so. They developers of this title need to just take a break and revaluate what they can do with this series. Most importantly I think that for future titles they need to readjust what they can do with newer consoles and systems. Because one thing I really feel is that after play station 2, the makers of the Final Fantasy series really started to hit a brick wall. That’s why Final Fantasy for Play Station Four is almost unmentionable now.

So they need to go back to the drawing board and revamp this series, taking all of these new factors into account. Then maybe after hiding under the rocks of the gaming industry we can see once again Setzer spinning his slot machine and this time for the luck of the whole Final Fantasy series and the future of great RPG’s in general.

I love classic nostalgia, especially when it comes to gaming. Recently when I was surfing through YouTube I came across a really classic. Does anyone remember Captain Nintendo? The whole premise is so hilarious. The dude was playing his Nintendo when he gets sucked into the TV screen and arrives in what they call, “Game Land”. Once there he is greeted by characters from classic games like Mega Man, Kid Icarus and Castlevania. One thing I always wondered about that show is why they never had Super Mario, maybe he was too goofy even for that goofy show? Anyway the video brought back some memories. I found the goons led by the evil mother brain from metroid to be fairly disturbing though. The boxer villain guy seems like he needs to where a bra!

This episode was cool though the Mother Brain goons were trying to steal Zelda’s Tri Force and had hatched a plot to trick the denizens of the game kingdom into going to a party. A party that of course invites Link and Zelda so that the High Rule thrown room would be unoccupied and safe for their grand theft tri-force. So the villains want to beat Ganon to the punch and start their evil agenda.

The plots in this piece are pretty hair-brained and goofy but what really cracks me up the most are the voices, especially those of mother brain and her henchmen. What the heck happened to mother brain anyway? Whenever I played Metroid the mother brain was a scary alien bio organism that spread its larvae. It was an insect like organism that did not speak, it especially wouldn’t have a voice like is displayed in this cartoon! So this show gave up some pretty goofy personas and characterization of classic Nintendo characters. I found this pretty interesting to see.

Have you ever wondered why one console or video game title succeeds and then another one is destined for failure? Why is it when Atari created its ET title it was destined for a literal resting place in the garbage bins of history? In this Post I explore these questions and try to discern the variables required in making a classic and a tragic piece of gaming history.

(Click on image for the history of Video Game consoles)

Well like I mentioned in the above paragraph. What the heck happened to ET? That is a great example of a flop. ET was a blockbuster movie in the 1980’s so everyone thought that anything the little alien guy would be involved in would be a smash success as well. But alas, this was just not destined to be the case. The games graphics itself were very ugly, even for the days of Atari they were just extremely bad.

The plot was awful too, it consisted of ET going through various pits in search of pieces of a telephone so he could phone home. And apparently as he dropped down and then attempted to levitate out of the pit he would get weaker, and what did ET need to get stronger again to beat the game? Well, Reeces Pieces of course! This blatant commercialism was bad even for the 1980’s

Another big problem that Atari had for this title was that when they released it over the Christmas season of 1982 they had way over estimated how many would be sold. As a result they manufactured way to many copies of the title and even though the game did well initially that Christmas, it soon became clear they simply had way too many copies and nobody was going to buy them! So this led to one of the most embarrassing instances in gaming history. The biggest game console of the day, found themselves with no choice but to throw the copies away. Apparently they thought the game was so bad they couldn’t even give them to needy children, they just had to bury it!

So the death of ET was a combination of horrible graphics, bad plot, and even worse marketing. So many bad factors went against the poor extra terrestrial that even his blockbuster movie could not save his video game debut.

So that was a great flop of a video game, but what open entire consoles that flopped? Here’s a good example. Does anyone remember the Virtual Boy? Yes, don’t you remember how virtual reality had arrived in 1997? Nintendo’s commercials for the product seemed amazing. I remember seeing them at 13 years old and thinking it really was some breakthrough in Virtual Reality. Needless to say that Christmas when I received the product I was very confused. First of all it was very cumbersome to put up, a heavy apparatus you wrap around your eyes placed on a flimsy tripod. Then when I loaded the game I wanted to cry. I was expecting virtual reality, the first thing I wondered is why everything was red, no other color, and then why do the graphics look worse than my Super Nintendo?

After about ten minutes I started to have a headache. Then in my sickened and disappointed state I discovered various warnings and disclaimers that prolonged play could really hurt your eyes or worse.

So these are the ways that games and their consoles become quickly extinct. Games that have no plot, horrible graphics and no marketing capability quickly flop as do gaming consoles that false advertise their capability and are detrimental to your health!

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Hey! I'm Jeri Wright. I have been a gamer since I fell in love with two plumbers called the Super Mario Brothers. Don't hesitate to browse around my site and leave your comments on any of the pages. May the force be with you!