Pixelated by LASA Ezine

December 2013

Controller Vs. Joystick

A look into the minds of LASA gamers’ prefrences.

Teaching

Technology

The TOP FIVE Gaming Comentators on YouTube

What can games do in the classroom?

The Creators behind the curtain W hat goes into an Indie game like “Fez” and “Super Meat Boy”?

Winter 2013

Pixelated

Are Video Games Really Bad for You? The mental and physical benifits of gaming

Teaching Technology How technology is changing the classroom

Controller vs. Joystick A look into the minds of LASA gamers, who prefer the old and who prefers the new

The Creators Behind The Curtain Why independant games have captured the attention of gamers everywhere

Youtubeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top Five Subscribed And what does Math have to do with it

GTA Five, Violence or Video Game

Are video games the cause of violence

Pixelated

Winter 2013

Contributors Kelly Kaufhold

Kelly was born in Miami, Florida and moved to Austin when she was ten. She was met with a weird city full of even weirder people and has fallen in love with everything in it. Kelly loves to travel, take photos, and of course play video games; her favorites include “Pokemon”, “Legend of Zelda” and “Call of Duty: Black Ops”. Kelly is a huge fan of the older games and consoles that she had when she was a kid. When she’s not playing video games she’s busy doing homework, spinning a rifle for Color Guard, or off in a pool somewhere swimming.

Erik Salinas

Erik was born in Austin Texas, but was raised in Hidalgo, Mexico. When he was around eight, he played his first ever handheld video game console-a Gameboy Advance. When he was ten, he was introduced to PC games when he played Poptropica in class. He now plays games like Minecraft on his computer. He also plays console games like Grand Theft Auto on his Playstation 3 with his friends.

Emma Gleason

Emma is a PC gamer with a few old consoles that she plays every so often. She enjoys puzzle and role playing games; some games that she enjoys playing are “Minecraft”, “The Binding of Isaac” and “Thomas was Alone”. Emma was brought into the gaming world by her sister, a senior at the same school and an avid gamer. They both grew up with Nintendo’s games and consoles, and still play “Pokemon” and “The Legend of Zelda”. On the side of her gaming life she goes to school, plays piano and drums, writes, draws and participates in debates. Winter 2013

Pixelated

From: Pixelated

Hey Gamers:

Thank you for picking up this magazine! Pixelated

covers a variety of different game related topics, from YouTube to the use of technology in the classroom. All of our stories reflect what we think of this newly discovered medium that people everywhere use, video games. Personally, we have grown up with games, and continue to play them to this day. They’ve always been a part of our lives, and we don’t plan on giving them up anytime soon. No matter what age, occupation, gender, or race, video games are something we can all play, they bring us together as a community. Our staff will never outgrow games, and we hope you won’t either. Sincerely, Pixelated

Pixelated

Winter 2013

Are Video Games Really Bad For You? By: Erik Salinas

re you tired of your parents yelling at you to turn of the video games and you can’t even argue with them? Do they keep saying that shooting zombies in a game will take you nowhere in life? Pixelated brings the facts so next time your parents try to argue with you, you can backup your side. -Video Games May Help With Vision Parents might say that staring at a bright screen in a dark room will hurt your vision which might be true but according to The Joint the greatest advantage is that you improve head eye coordination when you play shooting games because you have to aim at the right person or thing. -Help With Depression Video games can also help with depression. If you’re tired of school or had a social problem just go play a game. You will surely get into it and lower your stress and depression. -Help Individuals With Pain © NINTENDOMAINE 2000 ~ 2013 A way video games can really help you can be when you hurt yourself and you feel a lot of pain you can get easily distracted by just playing a game. You will feel more pain not playing then while you are playing because you are not thinking about how much pain you are in. -Can Be Good For your body You can play fun video games like the Wii Fit and Kinect to have fun and exercise at the same time. With games like this you will keep moving and moving until you pass a level or maybe even the whole game. According to an online article from The Joint “active games have even been able to help senior citizens to monitor health and predict illnesses and risk of falling.” -Can give you challenges Have you been in a challenge in real life where you just give up? A good way to prevent that and to keep trying is to train yourself. If you play an addictive and challenging video game, you will want to keep trying to pass it to get to the next level and not give up because you want to see what happens next. -Increasing your memory Have you ever played a free roaming game that lets you go where ever you want and that does not have a short limit of how far you can go? In these games you might have a map but you still have to remember where some stuff is. If you get lost you have to remember where you have to be is. -Help keep family and friends together A simple way to have family time or to hang out with friends is to just pick a multiplayer game or a challenging single player game and challenge each other and see who gets the high score. With the technology we gave today you could keep in touch with most of your friends if they’re away for a while you could just play with them online and still have fun with them.

Winter 2013

Pixelated

Beat the Background Noise

Beats by Dr.

Dre

Teaching Technology By Kelly Kaufhold Winter 2013

Pixelated

he hypnotized player sat motionless, eyes quickly taking in the ever changing scene, processing the shifting information in seconds. The gamer leaned forward, shoulders tensing, fingers wrapped around the sleek controller. A gunshot rang out through the surround sound speakers and the screen flickers. The player throws his head back and groans, tossing his controller on the ground as red splotches and gore slide down the television. Two words scroll over the animated blood, “Game Over.” Video games, everyone has played them, they’re one of our favorite pastimes, everyday gamers sit, eyes glazed over, fingers moving rhythmically. Whether its a smartphone, a video game console, a computer we all depend and rely on technology for the smallest as well as the largest of things, its even being brought into the classroom. Many teachers today have begun rewriting their curriculum to revolve around technology and games. Some instructors find video games effective

Modern technology, always changing, always advancing. Technology stretches over the entire world, but now it’s even creeping into the classrtoom, changing the way students learn and the way teachers teach. at grabbing students’ attention, others have created courses around reporting using only a mobile phone. In New York, students are being taught in front of a computer instead of behind a desk. A school called Quest to Learn is taking

“You can just see the energy… it’s this amazing time in a classroom where you know learning is going on.” Eliza Spang explains. interactive learning to the next level. Game designers, teachers, and curriculum designers team up to brainstorm, and create games that teachers bring into the classroom. “We work with teachers at Quest to Learn to help them develop the curriculum and to design games that are played Photo by Kelly Kaufhold

in the classroom.” game designer Shula Ponet, explains, in a video on the Quest to Learn website. Ponet’s job is to create and design games for concepts that students find difficult. “We work as a team to brainstorm ways that we can design a game

that will help kids to better understand.” These games, played by students from 6th to 9 grade, take the state mandated curriculum and relay it within the classroom in a way much easier to comprehend. The games created by the teams of teachers and game designers help motivate and capture the attention of the teenagers. In another video on Quest to Learn’s website Eliza Spang, a learning design specialist, explains “you can just see the energy… it’s this amazing time in a classroom where you know learning is going on, at the

same time the students are having fun.” Quest to Learn’s curriculum actually interacts with the children in the classroom directly, normally involving hands on games. “One of the things that give games so much power in teaching kids is that games really encourage you to keep trying...it encourages them to try without fearing failure,” Ponet said. Quest to Learn, the first product of an orginization called The Institue of Play, brought about a new perpective on educating kids in the classroom. The Institute of Play jumped headfirst into their second project after witnessing the success behind Quest to Learn. Their next big thing, recently revealed in November 2013, takes the classroom experience to another level. Sim City EDU uses the acclaimed game, The Sims, to teach students about the effects of global warming in our cities and allows the player to take action to stop it. Sim City EDU, Quest to Learn and now Minecraft. Yes, even Minecraft joined the revolution to change classroom teaching. Minecraft EDU, unlike Sim City EDU, allows the

Minecraft EDU is being used by teachers to engage students in the classroom. Schools are using Minecraft for all sorts of things, like bringing ancient civilizations to life and creating visuals for math, science, and even english.

Pixelated

Winter 2013

teachers to shape the game to fit their curriculum. Using modifications, easily installed files that change the gameplay, or just using lessons created by other teachers, Minecraft EDU offers a customized experience, perfect for any classroom. “I first pitched this class in 2010 at UT Austin but didn’t get to teach it until 2013.” Dr. William Kaufhold, journalism and communications professor, explained. Quest to Learn isn’t the only school where students are using technology to learn. Dr. K, as his students at Texas Tech University call him, proposed the idea of creating a journalism and reporting class this year. However instead of simply reporting through traditional news sources like a newspaper or a magazine, the class would be challenged to create stories using only a cell phone.

“We called the class MoJo (for mobile journalism) and it was taught much like any other multimedia journalism class in which students had to shoot photos, video and tell stories with audio and in print. But they had to do a whole lot of that with their phones or tablets.” Kaufhold’s idea of a reporting by smartphone class was met with curiosity from students eager to take a class where they would be required to use their cellphones for almost every assignment. After some minor tweaking to his original curriculum Dr. K’s class involves picking a story, collecting information, posting live updates on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and gathering quotes and pictures via smartphone for later use. One ex-MoJo student named Rickey Hewell explained “reporting things

Photo by Kelly Kaufhold

“MoJo” takes advantage of not only modern smartphones and iPads, but also their accessories. Ad-ons like Tele-Photo lenses made for the iPhone (center), and ajustable tripod that secures iPhones and Androids (left), are helpful tools when reporting, storytelling, or just capturing a moment.

“Games really encourage you to keep trying...it encourages them to try without fearing failure,” Ponet said. through smartphone is faster than newspaper and traditional outlet because it is right at your fingertips.” Using a smartphone to spread news allows a journalist to send out news in real time as it’s happening, “you don’t have to go back to a lab or operation room to get the message out.” Not only did the students find reporting faster via cellphone but also more engaging, “I did find myself engaged” Hewell said, “I can be at a basketball game and make a story through a bunch of pictures some natural audio, and a box score right at the stadium.” Watching the class progress and grow Kaufhold knows the class is different than most. “Students are a lot more engaged in the class” he

says, “Since students were already spending a ton of time every day with both their smart phones and social media - and usually both at the same time... A lot of them were interested in the class” Classrooms don’t always have to be paper, pencils and books, schools everywhere have begun experimenting with video games, smartphones, and other technology. These advancements, slowly taking the place of textbooks, aid students, young and old in understanding new concepts. Games offer students a safe haven, free from the fear of failing, allowing students to grow and learn in a safe environment.

“Since students were already spending a ton of time every day with their smart phones... A lot of them were interested in the class” William Kaufhold Winter 2013

Pixelated

Controller vs Joystick

By Kelly Kaufhold

A look into the minds of LASA gamers, who prefers the old and who prefers the new when it comes to gaming systems.

years ago, the first game console, known as the Brown Box, made its first appearance. According to an exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, this wooden box, programmed for a small selection of multiplayer games like PingPong, began the craze for new games and consoles alike. Gaming companies sprung up across the world, developing new systems, features, and games, feeding the demand for the newest games. To this day companies everywhere compete head to head, constantly tweaking and adding new technology to previous systems. Our favorite consoles today put the Brown Box to shame when it comes to technological advancements. Most modern-day gamers, LASA students included, prefer the sleek new consoles over the clunky old ones. So which consoles stole the hearts of LASA gamers five years ago, and what are students saying about the consoles we play today?

“[New consoles] have games with better technology better graphics and improved mechanics.” said freshman Jack LaWare.

Pixelated

Winter 2013

Old Consoles vs. New Consoles

“Like most things companies build new ideas over old, constantly improving and advancing,” said freshman Henry Arjet. Old Consoles New Consoles

Game Cube Creator: Nintendo Release Date: Nov. 18, 2001 The GameCube, a small colored box, played a large variety of Nintendo games. This consoleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popularity partially owes itself to the sleek and compact design of the system, and game disks.

The Top Consoles From 2005

GameBoy Color Creator: Nintendo Release Date: Nov. 19, 1998 The Game Boy Color (Pictured right) introduced color to the already popular gameboy, according to GameFAQ.com, one of the first handheld game systems on the market.

GameBoy Color

PlayStation 2

PlayStation 1

GameCube

Wii

Wii Creator: Nintendo Release Date: Nov. 6, 2006 The Nintendo Wii uses motion sensors in its controller to navigate and play different games, according to an article on cnet written in 2006. The entirely wireless controllers give the player a sense of reality while playing the game, inspiring an entirely new trend in the game console industry.

PlayStation 2 Creator: Sony Release Date: Oct. 26, 2000 The PlayStation 2 took the original PlayStation and redesigned it entirely. According to a story on thegiantbomb.com, it including backwards compatibility with old games the Playstation 2, created with original Playstation owners in mind, was a popular system in the gaming community, during the early 2000s. Winter 2013

Pixelated

Play,

Less Pay

THE CREATORS behind the curtain

Written By: Emma Gleason Photos by: Emma Gleason

“I feel like it’s a personal thing ...They want to leave their mark on the gaming community and entertain people.”

Producing an Indie game is a feat of human strength in both

mind and body, but why?

ndependent games contain something really special, and they don’t need to appeal to a large audience. They’re small compared to the large budget productions you find in stores, but still something there pulls consumers in, a sort of personal and original charm. The developers create a connection between them and the audience, where they reflect themselves in their creation and make something that their childhood selves would love. In an interview about Indie games, Elena Shropshire talked about her gaming experience as a child. “I started gaming when I was really little, before I understood the concepts of most of the games I played.”said Shropshire Indie developers have played games since childhood. They were the first to play the original titles, such as “The Legend of Zelda” and “Super Mario”. Their products reflect their childhood, resembling the original 8-bit artstyle that they grew up around. The developers hide little details that you don’t notice until it’s explained, like the philosophy behind “Super Meat Boy” or the tetris shapes in the pixel art of “Fez”. All the personal touches that developers integrate into the game really set them apart in many people’s minds. But making Indie games isn’t all

friendship and happiness. Some game developers give up everything to make their ideas into something real. They live on nothing, devote themselves to the project, produce in less time than many blockbuster games with extremely smaller numbers, differing from around one thousand to one or two people. That’s not it either, if the developer doesn’t deliver to the anticipating following, then they subject themselves to a flurry of personal attacks day and night until they release the game or fade into obscurity. In “Indie Game: The Movie”, a documentary about the development of the games “Fez” and “Super Meat Boy” and what happened after the release of “Braid”, makes up almost entirely of interviews with the indie developers such as Phil Fish, the developer of “Fez”. “I’m working on it as hard as I can all the time, and it’s

A picture of the popular game MineCraft, which in its Alpha and Beta phases was considered an Indie game, but the original developer,

know as Notch or Markus Pearson, now considers the game, and the company that it belongs to, not Indie.

Pixelated

Winter 2013

like ‘what’s taking so long? what the **** are you doing Phil?’ it’s like, I’m doing the best I can here,” Fish said. “ It really gets to me, I guess, you know, thats the price you pay for being Indie, is that you open yourself to these kinds of personal attacks.” If Fish had not released “Fez”, he would have quit his game developing career entirely, and the theme of

“Thats the price you pay for being Indie, is that you open yourself to these kinds of personal attacks.” utter defeat by such a difficult project shows up again for someone else. On the first sale day for “Super Meat Boy”, when Microsoft had not advertised SMB Tommy Refenes fell into a state of despair. Without placement in the front of the Xbox store they would lose the majority of their sales and “Super Meat Boy” would have not been the success it is today. “Fez” and “Super Meat Boy” contrast vastly, but both influenced the success of the career for the designers who made them. “Me and Ed are handling a lot of stuff for two people, but we’re right there at the end so we just sort of do it. We’re both very very tired but at the same time we’re tired not so much from work, but from not being able to sleep,

because to thinking about work.” Said Refenes, in “Indie Game: The Movie”. Which bring the question, if thousands of people took five years to produce “Red Dead Redemption”, shouldn’t Indie games take much more? Even with the work level immensely larger than any large

physically. “So Meat Boy is a boy made of meat. But when designing him, it wasn’t a thought of he’s made of steak or whatever else. It was: ‘Hey, he doesn’t have skin.’ He’s a boy without skin. Thats why they call him Meat Boy. So he’s exposed to the elements. Maybe he’s always in pain,

“Seeing people play the game is crazy...” corporation’s work load that doesn’t necessarily make the designing process terrible. With no large corporation demands to follow, they can express themselves, in a way thousands of people synonymously working to create one game can’t do. Such as how Dr. Fetus from “Super Meat Boy” can flip ‘the bird’ to the audience because he only has three fingers so technically, he has no middle finger. “Fez” separates itself when it comes to the norm of a short experience, elongated by the extreme difficulty, which is best understood from the words of someone who had just played some of these games. “I felt like [the games] were way difficult, but in a fun way. In “Super Meat Boy” sometimes I was just like; AAAAAAAAAAHHH! and then I kept playing. People must like the difficulty because it presents a challenging thing that you have to practice to get better at.” Said Laurie MacQueen, an avid gamer. “Fez” takes a different route. A scenic and calm contrast to the fast thinking and chaotic nature that games like “Super Meat Boy” or “Battleblock Theatre” display. These little pieces of character flow from the small group, slaving over their project until they collapse emotionally or

but he just deals with it” said Edmund McMillen, one developer of “Super Meat Boy” from Indie Game: The Movie, “I wanted to have his girlfriend be more than a love interest, and I wanted to play with the idea that he needs her, that she’s what completes him. Not just emotionally, but physically as well. And that’s why she’s ‘Bandage Girl.’ She’s kind of the outer shell over Meat Boy that protects him, and thats why he needs her back. Not only because he loves her, but because that’s what completes him.” These hidden pieces of the developer’s personal experience may not be apparent at first glance. The truth of Meat Boy or why Bandage Girl is so imperative to him, but these pieces from the mind of the developers gives Indie games their character. Indie developers express themselves in their games, so they created them, no matter what obstacle comes into the developer’s way. “I feel like it’s a personal thing. Some people just want to do this. They want to leave their mark on the gaming community and entertain people,” MacQueen said. Why Indie developers do what they do, why they put themselves through physical and mental stress, personal

attacks and the chance of failing to produce, couldn’t be explained in any logical manner. The reward for making these games is a satisfaction with themselves, not what other people think of the game, reflected in

A Picture of the rising Indie game “Don’t

Starve”, where the Idea is to ,not starve. “Don’t Starve” was created by Klei Entertainment.

“Sometimes the smallest concepts can be some of the most fun.” reviews and sales. What other people think about Indie games varies, some love the games. “One of the things I like about Indie games is that they are made by individuals and are usually something they worked on really hard and put their heart and soul into it ... Sometimes the smallest concepts can be some of the most fun,” Shropshire said.

Shropshire comprises one of many in the category of those who know about Indie games but don’t consider themselves a part of the Indie community. Indie games are personal, they are made with no lack of trials, and reflect how our lives have never been easy. That makes a connection that 1,000 people working together can’t convey. “I think the reason that people keep going with these things, is that you envision something that you want to make and this thing, this creation, is really fragile. It could be destroyed by not making it or you could work on it to try and make your idea come to life, and I think when you have this idea and you can work and scream and yell and then it becomes real, that it’s really special, almost magical,” Shropshire said.

Winter 2013

Pixelated

Who areYou Tube’s Top Five Subscribed? By: Emma Gleason

Top picture by draskyla on Deviant Art. Bottom picture by darkneko--oFTo also on DA. SkyDoesMinecraft’s youtube icon.

the world of gaming platforms, YouTube doesn’t place on the list. But, if you play #1 games more than SkyDoesMinecraft PewDiePie the advertised thirty PewDiePie, at 14.4 million subscribers, SkyDoesMinecraft is number two on is not only the most subscribed game our list, at less than half of PewDiePie’s on YouTube, but the minutes a day, you’ll commentator subscribers and the 25th most subscribed most subscribed to overall. Even if you in the world. Sky’s channel is entirely watch his videos, you’ve heard of most likely find don’t Minecraft; animations, collaborations, him once. Modifications to the game, and even videos range from his Amnesia: yourself watching ThePewds’ sometimes vlogs. Dark Descent and Happy Wheels, to vlogs and collaborations with other Almost all of his videos are energetic, some type of game YouTubers. In every video, PewDiePie and jokes are never lacking. Like is laughing and creating a positive PewDiePie, Sky makes interminable The amount of energy commentary. With experience. tasks like collecting resources that he puts into his videos keeps the watching, even during the most interesting and even funny. One of his all those different audience mundane of experiences. All of this plays most noticeable features is his prevalent imaturity that presents itself in the role in the enormous amount of people videos, it can aenamored with PewDiePie. majority of Sky’s videos. But in the end, the numbers decide all. SkyDoesMinecraft has 1.3 billion total prove difficult to Using an algorithm tells YouTube who to views, around 13 videos per week, there advertise, and how much. All you need is an average video time of 15 minutes so number of views his channel gets, find one you like. isthethenumber there are two videos in a regular session. of videos he uploads a week, Plugging everything in the equation we average length of his videos and how We’ve found the top the get two videos a session. 30 minutes a many videos will fit into a thirty-minute time length. PewDiePie has around 2.6 and 13 videos per week is 390 gaming YouTubers billion views, with 14 videos per week, session minutes for one person in one week. around 15 minutes per video making for 390 minutes by 1.3 billion total views videos in a regular session. So, 30 and how they got two which equals around .5 billion minutes minutes a session and14 videos per week of watch time per week, thats .9 Million out to 420 min for one person their spot on the comes years of watch time per week. With such in one week. 420 minutes of watchtime close numbers, it’s amazing that these by 2.6 billion individual subscriber list. multiplied people watching adds up to 1 trillion two YouTubers are 24 ranks apart in the minutes of watch time per week. To put it in a smaller number that’s 2.1 million years of watch time per week. Even though this is not the entire algorithm, it’s a good vantage point on how PewDiePie got to the top of YouTube.

Pixelated

Winter 2013

world ranking.

And what does Math have to do with it? CaptainSparklez’s youtube icon.

Tobygames’ youtube icon.

CaptainSparkelz TobyGames At number three is CaptainSparklez, his subscriber count is right next to Sky at five million individuals. He’s no PewDiePie certainly, but five million is no easy feat. CaptainSparklez’s videos consist of mainly Minecraft and some parody music videos. Jordan is the most serious of the commentators we’ve covered so far, but that doesn’t mean his videos are devoid of comedy. The joking is there but the professionalism that he carries makes its way into all of his videos. An integral part of most of his Lets Plays is his immense connection with the audience. CaptainSparklez has 1 billion views and an average of 15 videos a week. Videos last for fourteen minutes making two videos per session. With 28 minutes a session multiplied by 15 videos is 420 minutes per week per person. 420 by 1 billion comes out to 449 billion minutes of watch time per week, coming to .9 Million years of watch time.

Comming in at number four is TobyGames. If you’ve seen Tobuscus you should be able to infer on the level of professionalism coming from his channel. At 5 million Subscribers, and ranked 30th overall, he’s definitely up there. Toby Turner’s videos never slow, Tobuscus can always find a way to keep his audience interested. Tobuscus plays games that his audience asks him to play, resulting an a wide range of videos for anyone’s taste. So far, TobyGames has accumulated 1.4 Trillion views over the course of an almost three-year life. With around 17 videos a week each lasting around 13 minutes and still only fitting two into a normal 30 minute session. That’s 26 minutes in a session, 442 minutes a week per person. So Toby gets 629 Trillion minutes of watchtime per week, or 1.2 Million years of watch time per week.

TheSyndicateProject’s youtube icon.

TheSyndicateProject TheSyndicateProject is our fifth top commentator on YouTube. In his videos he plays the popular new games and some small group favorites with friends such as, SeaNanners and PewDiePie. His videos are energetic and he always makes it interesting and fun. Syndicate takes his live streams, a live commentary, and puts them on YouTube for all the subscribers that couldn’t watch. The videos consist of him goofing around with his friends and conversing with his subscribers. TheSyndicateProject has 1 billion views, posts arund eight videos a week lasting around 16 minutes so only on video will fit into a 30 minute session. Eight 16 minute videos equal out to 128 minutes a week per person, so he has 128 billion minutes of watch time per week. Syndicate has 134 thousand years of watch time.

Numbers from: http://vidstatsx.com/youtube-top-100-most-subscribed-games-gaming-channels As of October 21, 2013 Equation from: http://www.youtube.com/user/MatthewPatrick13 Winter 2013 Pixelated

Grand Theft Auto V Violence or Video Game?

By: Erik Salinas

PIcture By: Erik Salinas Jesus is playig a video game that some parents might call a “violent game:” with Ernesto and Odalis.

“It’s kind conne of ha ction rd no sayin w hen y t to g he o make u hea would scree a r h n i w s fri atch these hours e o n n a l viole and h ife s d nt vi ours hours i d ze eo ga and h ,” MS mes f ours NBC’s or and h Mika ours Brzez and inski said.

Pixelated

Winter 2013

irst there was a shooting in washington DC where a mentally-ill man killed dozens of other citizens. Aaron Alexis, the gunman who killed 12 people at the DC Navy Yard, had been stewing over a perceived slight for about a year, would stay up all night playing military-style video games. Then the release of Grand Theft Auto V© brought a new kind of adventure for gamers, but also sparked the call for censorship of video games.

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski is an American television host and journalist. Brzezinski co-hosts MSNBC’s weekday morning broadcast Morning Joe with former Republican representative Joe Scarborough There are people that say they violence in video games are the reason for all the violence like a mom of a Grand Theft Auto gamer and there also people that dont think that.

“My answer is because it’s easy. It’s a quick answer to a complicated situation. Someone goes nuts and shoots up a place. So, the experts run in and pick apart his life to try and figure out what went wrong. And they discover that he plays video games… It’s seems kind of nuts… Comics, movies, television, etc. You name it, it’s been blamed for some person who did some crazy thing”- Tim Harrison If you don’t know about the game Grand Theft Auto its a series of games that started in Britain and came to the United States to be published by Rockstar North. In GTA 5 you play from a third-person point of view as three different main characters Michael Franklin, and Trevor that meet each other through their crimes. You can pick a character and free roam across the wholea character and free roam across the whole map by walking, running, taking a cab, riding your or taking a car or bike, and even jump into a train to take you to your desired destination. There are also missions where you are trying to get as much money as you can at first by robbing banks to trying to get away from all that violence. Every mission is different where you can sometimes change from the characters so that they can help each other or they might want to go solo.Tim Harrison a GTA game that started playing the day it came out on September 17. He started playing thes when Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories© came out. He expects to soon jump into GTA Online real soon, but he wants to wait until he finishes story mode wso that he can fully enjoy the game. “I absolutely, unequivocally

believe that violence in video games is not cause for alarm.”- TIm Harrison said There are some people that dont let their kids play any type of violent video game eaven games like SuperSmashBros where you pick a character and you have to fight untill one of the players dies. On the other hand their are parents that just let their kids play any tipe of game because they arent informed about what the kids do on it. Eaven most scientest are saying that video games are the cause for violece just because there have been a few shootings of mentely ill teenagers that played video games. Just think about how meany people play video games and how meany insedent have happend.

Photo By: Erik Salinas

Map of the Game from the main city Los Santos to the Blaine Country

Winter 2013

Pixelated

Unleash the