The event, first announced at the beginning of this month, asked people to bring in their copies of “violent” video games, movies, and CDs, to be broken, tossed in a giant dumpster, and eventually incinerated.

They claimed that the event was not to be taken as a statement on the cause of recent violent massacres such as the recent Sandy Hook elementary school shooting – but that evidence suggests that violent media is responsible. So video games didn’t lead to Sandy Hook, but they totally did. Something like that.

SouthingtonSOS planned to hand out $25 gift cards to anyone brave enough to snap a copy of Call of Duty in order to tackle the real problem behind the gun violence plaguing the nation. If that sounds like it’s dripping with sarcasm, that’s because it is.

The two goals that they met, they say, were to raise awareness and get parents talking to their kids.

“We are pleased to announcethat awareness here has been raised significantly, thanks to the support of the media and widely disseminated e-mail communications within our community through our local Southington SOS member organizations. The result has been a swift, positiveand supportive response of parents, young people and the general population of our community,” said SouthingtonSOS in a statement.

“An equally important goal was to encourage parents in Southington to have a courageous discussion with their childrenabout thistopic. Day by day the response has increased and continues to increase, making it clear that parents are having these conversations. So, this second mission of inspiring conversations at home has also been accomplished.”

For those reasons, the group has “reevaluated” and decided to cancel the “return” part of the “Violent Video Game Return” program.

Now they won’t have to hand out any $25 gift cards, I guess.

No word on whether SouthingtonSOS has any plans for a future book burning, to tackle the disturbing problem of teenagers making out behind the library.

On Saturday, January 12th, the town is sponsoring a “Violent Video Games Return Program” that asks people to bring their discs to a local theatre, break them, and toss them in a dumpster. Polygon says that the disposed-of games, cds, and dvds will later be incinerated.

The game burning drive is being put on by SouthingtonSOS, an “adhoc group of representatives of organizations across the spectrum of the Southington community responding to the recent violence and murderous massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. This includes the local Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, board of education, United Way, and clergy.

Although the group states that they are responding to the tragic school massacre in Sandy Hook, they also state that this project shouldn’t be thought of as a statement on video game violence playing a role in the tragedy. Except the evidence suggests that. But they’re not saying it. But it totally does.

Here, check out their statement for yourself:

The announcement of the Violent Games Return program was also disseminated electronically last Friday by the Board of Education in behalf of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Erardi to the homes of all. The publication of the first press story today has attracted a significant response which was no surprise to SouthingtonSOS. The group’s action is not intended to be construed as statement declaring that violent video games were the cause of the shocking violence in Newtown on December 14th.

Rather, SouthingtonSOS is saying is that there is ample evidence that violent video games, along with violent media of all kinds, including TV and Movies portraying story after story showing a continuous stream of violence and killing, has contributed to increasing aggressiveness, fear, anxiety and is desensitizing our children to acts of violence including bullying. Social and political commentators, as well as elected officials including the president, are attributing violent crime to many factors including inadequate gun control laws, a culture of violence and a recreational culture of violence.

Participants won’t leave empty handed, as the group says they’ll hand out $25 gift cards on site.

“As people arrive in their cars to turn in their games of violence, they will be offered a gift certificate donated by a member of the Greater Southington Chamber of Commerce as a token of appreciation for their action of responsible citizenship,” says SouthingtonSOS.

So, if you’re in the area and feel like destroying your kids’ copy of Halo 4, make sure to read your Bradbury and head on down to the drive-in for a rockin’ good time.

Far Cry 3 looks as if it might be the most violent of them all, but it also doesn’t seem gratuitous in the way other games do. For the latest Far Cry game, the violence serves the (admittedly, unrealistic) story about a regular man forced to take action to save his friends from the worst people imaginable – pirates, slavers, warlords, and other psychos.

Today Ubisoft released the latest in a long line of Far Cry 3 trailers. This one focuses on the story aspect of the game and what the player’s motivation will be to cause destruction on a massive scale. Also, there are explosions. No Far Cry 3 trailer would be complete without at least two explosions.

According to a study from Keele University, playing just ten minutes of a violent video game can significantly increase your pain tolerance. The U.K. school tested volunteers’ ability to tolerate pain using an ice water pain challenge, both after playing violent video games and not playing violent video games.

According to Keele, participants’ pain tolerance increased by a whopping 65% (meaning they could keep their hands submerged in the ice water for 65% longer) after playing the violent games.

From the study:

The study of 40 volunteers found that playing violent ‘first person shooter’ games, in which a player kills enemies in a virtual environment, enabled participants to tolerate an ice water pain challenge for longer than if they had played a non-violent golf game.

Participants played both the violent and non-violent game on separate occasions for 10 minutes and then placed one of their hands in ice-cold water to test their reaction to pain. On average, participants kept their hands in the icy water for 65 per cent longer after playing the violent game, indicating that playing the game increased the participants’ pain tolerance. Heart rate was also shown to increase.

Why does this help people cope with pain? According to Dr. Richard Stephens, it’s all about flipping to switch on our fight-or-flight response which can inhibit our sensitivity to pain.

“We assumed that swearing eases pain by sparking an emotional reaction in participants – most likely to be aggression – in turn setting off the body’s fight or flight response. This latest study was a test of that assumption in which we set out to try and raise participants’ aggression levels by having them play a violent video game. We then tested the effect on pain tolerance. The results confirm our predictions that playing the video game increased both feelings of aggression and pain tolerance,” said Stephens.

In that swearing study that he mentions, subjects were subjected to an ice water pain test as well. It found that swearing did increase the amount of time people could keep their hands submerged, but it only really worked if the subject was not a frequent swearer.

I guess blowing off some heads may help you keep yours in a painful situation.

[via Geekosystem]

Today Ubisoft released yet another trailer for Far Cry 3, this time highlighting just how much freedom players will have to wander around the island they find themselves on. In-between the regularly-scheduled evisceration sessions with the local warlord’s henchmen, players will be able to participate in a variety of tasks and mini-games to help improve their characters. Some of the side-quests shown in the trailer include hunting, crafting, gambling, and being a delivery boy. Bears, leopards, and crocodiles are shown as hunt-able local wildlife.

Once again, Facebook has magically transformed a common spat into a full-blown high school brawl, complete with fistfuls of locks and cowardly sucker punches. After a bit of the old back-and-forth on the popular social networking site, Jenise Williams, a sophomore at Chicago Academy for Advanced Technology High School, was ambushed by a group of girls looking to deal a considerable amount of damage. I honestly don’t care what anyone says — when you hit someone with a sock containing a heavy lock, you’re in the market to break some bones.

Although principal Matt Hancock wouldn’t spill any juicy details regarding this violent high school showdown, he did say that the girls had been properly dealt with. “We issued suspensions and one referral for expulsion,” he explained. “We take issues of violence and bullying extremely seriously.”

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened the school. Williams was recently suspended for fighting earlier in the year, though she claims that she didn’t instigate any of the confrontations. In fact, she had just returned to school from the earlier suspension when the troublemakers jumped Williams and her best friend.

Considering Facebook and Twitter aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, how do parents and school officials deal with the ongoing problems these sites are causing?

“If you can resolve it with the students, that is the best option. When the cyber bullying is a specific threat, police action can be taken. But rarely is there a clear cut case of one student bullying another. It is back and forth, low level squabbling, and a group of students speaking in code words; that becomes an issue of conflict resolution, not an issue of cyber bullying,” Hancock explained. “Unfortunately, we didn’t see any warning signs and didn’t have a heads-up that tensions were high. It was a surprise to us.”

My advice: If you don’t want trouble to follow you around, perhaps it’s time to take a break from posting garbage that might irritate other people online. Honestly, this sort of behavior is really no different than the playground fisticuffs I remember seeing when I was kid. Except, of course, the trash-talking is more technologically advanced. Nowadays, you spout off online and wait for the right hook to find your face at a later date.

What are your thoughts about Facebook and Twitter usage resulting in this sort of violent behavior in teenagers? Is this just typical teenage behavior updated for the modern age, or is social networking actually contributing to the number of problems schools are experiencing? Let us know in the comments section.

One camp in the debate believes that gamers not only learn to cooperate but also to understand complex contexts, how skills can be improved, and cause and effect relationships. The opposing camp, on the other hand, is convinced that the games may foster violent and aggressive behaviour outside the gaming environment.

The study, authored by Ulrika Bennerstedt, Jonas Ivarsson and Jonas Linderoth and titled How Gamers Manage Aggression: Situating Skills in Collaborative Computer Games, is presented in International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning.

The research group spent hundreds of hours playing online games and observing other gamers, including on video recordings. They focused on complex games with portrayals of violence and aggressive action where the participants have to fight with and against each other. “The situations gamers encounter in these games call for sophisticated and well-coordinated collaboration. We analyzed what characteristics and knowledge the gamers need to have in order to be successful,” says Jonas Ivarsson, Docent (Reader) at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning.

It turns out that a successful gamer is strategic and technically knowledgeable, and has good timing. Inconsiderate gamers, as well as those who act aggressively or emotionally, generally do not do well.

“The suggested link between games and aggression is based on the notion of transfer, which means that knowledge gained in a certain situation can be used in an entirely different context. The whole idea of transfer has been central in education research for a very long time. The question of how a learning situation should be designed in order for learners to be able to use the learned material in real life is very difficult, and has no clear answers,” says Ivarsson.

“In a nutshell, we’re questioning the whole gaming and violence debate, since it’s not based on a real problem but rather on some hypothetical reasoning,” he says.

On March 11, a gay man was shot in a Columbia Heights IHOP after an altercation with a group of people seated near him. According to a police report, says the Washington Blade, the victim was berated by the group–composed of two males and one female–who repeatedly called him and his companions “faggies”. When the victim got up to pay his bill, the three suspects blocked his path and a fistfight ensued, during which a shot was fired. The victim, who did not want to release his name to the press, is currently being treated for a gunshot wound to his liver and is expected to be released from the hospital next week. Police have released descriptions of the three suspects and have listed the assault as a “hate crime with intent to kill”.

The second incident occurred just one day later when a 29 year-old gay man was assaulted while walking home on the evening of March 12th. Witnesses say he was attacked by two or three males, who hurled anti-gay insults at the victim while the beating took place. They left him with head injuries and a brutally broken jaw, which was so seriously injured that the victim had to be given a breathing tube to keep his airways from closing. Incredibly, after the first set of attackers left him on the street, a second group came along and robbed him, taking his cell phone, wallet, and iPad. Luckily he had already managed to call for help before lapsing into a semi-conscious state.

The third assault happened just a couple of hours later when a transgender woman was attacked from behind by two males. She reported being hit and knocked unconscious. Because her police report indicated that she couldn’t remember whether anything had been said by her attackers, the police didn’t immediately file it as a hate crime. The victim says she believes that her transgender status was the reason she was targeted, however, and the assault has since been classified as such.

Hate crimes such as these are not an uncommon occurrence, unfortunately, and while groups such as GLOV (Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence) appreciate the efforts of local police to work as quickly as possible to find those responsible, they also want to make it known that preventative efforts must be in place as well.

“We appreciate [D.C.] Metropolitan Police Department’s prompt action regarding the recent attacks and we offer the victims our strongest support while recovering,” said A.J. Singletary, chair of GLOV. “We expect MPD to respond by increasing patrols in the affected areas and tenaciously investigating the crimes committed.”

GLOV also released this statement on the DC Center blog, on behalf of the Metro Police Department:

“On Sunday, March 11, 2012, at approximately 6:30 am, officers from the Third District responded to the IHOP located in the 3100 block of 14th Street, NW, for a report of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they located a victim suffering from a gunshot wound. Personnel from the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and transported the victim to an area hospital for treatment.

An investigation revealed that the victim and an adult black male subject were engaged in an altercation inside the IHOP restaurant.

It is believed that the adult male subject who was initially in the altercation with the victim was accompanied by at least two other black male subjects and one other black female subject. Detectives are requesting that anyone with information regarding this incident or the identity of these subjects is asked to contact MPD at the below listed number.

Anyone who has information regarding this case should call police at 202-727-9099. Additionally information may be submitted to the TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411. DC Crime Solvers currently offers a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any assault with the intent to kill committed in the District of Columbia.”

Twitter was flooded by public response to these hate crimes, which have as yet been unsolved.

A proposed bill by Fourkiller, if voted in, would levy a 1% tax on games rated “teen”, “mature” or “adult only”. The funds raised would go towards making kids less fat and less violent. How this would be achieved exactly is not mentioned, but the “Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund” and “Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund” are where the dolllars would be diverted.

Fourkiller explains the urgency of the problem:

“it being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety…[the law] shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval.”

In any event, the representative seems very happy in his picture and I hope he has good luck fighting laziness and obesity. The bill would take effect July 1st of this year if it were passed. One question I would ask Fourkiller is, “why are these lazy children playing games which are rated to be only for teens and adults?”. It will be interesting to see what happens with this one.

According to TMZ, a user posted “inappropriate” comments on the FoxSports.com team page and was consequently banned. As this course of action probably makes sense among the high-brow denizens who frequent the WPN page, this particular commenter on FoxSports.com didn’t take kindly to being banned and so the troll proceeded to threaten to assault the Fox Sports folks. TMZ recounted the story so eloquently that I can’t possibly improve upon it so I’m just going to share their words here:

The LAPD is on the hunt for a cyber-douchebag who threatened to attack the people at FoxSports.com … all because they blocked the idiot from posting on their message board.

According to official police documents, Fox Sports later received a threatening message which the user sent to the “report abuse” tab … which read, “All you moderators are c**ksuckers and one day you are going to get your faces caved in to your brain.”

The message continued, “You think just because you do this over the Internet you cannot be located. You are wrong …. Watch your ass you f**king b*tches. I am coming for you …”

FoxSports.com security officials told police they were “extremely concerned for the safety” of the staff … and insisted they are “not taking this threat lightly.”

No word on what the “inappropriate comment” was that the troll posted that got them banned in the first place. As much as I want to dimiss these threatening comments as the hollow product of a trifling troll with too much time on their hands, I suppose FoxSports did the right thing in notifying the LAPD because the last thing any of us need is some disgruntled commenter spraying bullets inside the office of people who write things for the Internet – and all because their comment(s) got flagged.

Luckily, I and the rest of my fellow writers at WPN never have to worry about being on the receiving end of this kind of malice and violence.

…Right?