Most people mistake the first video game console as the Atari 2600. Well, I can tell you that there was a console that came before that called the Magnavox Odyssey. I'll be going through the background on the events that lead to the making of this historic console and the impact it had afterward and how the console met its demise. This will be the first in series as a look back on all the major video game consoles ever made. I will be releasing these at least once a week and I hope you enjoy this look back on video game history as much as I enjoyed researching it.

It all started with the with a man named Ralph Baer working at Sanders Associates along with Bill Harrison and Bill Rush. After two years of working ended with the prototype unit, they named the Brown Box. You may think that name is weird and if a console with a name like this came out today you bet it would be the joke of the gaming world, but it was called this because of its simulated woodgrain self-adhesive covering. The Brown Box was able to play twelve games with the use of mylar overlays you would place on your TVs. Along with the overlays, some games would be played with the very first light gun in gaming and a dynamic ball action chassis for more advanced features.

Once they got the Brown Box finished they started contacting cable TV systems operators and TV manufactures to find their first license for their new prototype. A worker from Sanders Associates RCA team named Bill Enders left and ended up going to Magnavox in their New York sales offices. Being interested in what he saw in from the Brown Box before he left Sanders. Enders went back to the offices to get another demonstration, in July 1968, and was all the more impressed with the Brown Box. He went back to the Magnavox management located, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to take a look at the potential of the Brown Box. Later that month Ralph Baer and Lou Etlinger, a Sanders Associates' Corporate Director of Patients, got an official invitation to demonstrate the game console in Fort Wayne.

Magnavox allowed them use of a boardroom and 19-inch TV sets and an audience started to form. The demonstration didn't start until Gerry Martin, the VP of marketing for the television set division of Magnavox entered the room. At first, nobody in the room showed any enthusiasm for the Brown Box except for one man, Gerry Martin. He saw promise in the Brown Box and one sentence he uttered changed everything for Ralph and the Brown Box. "We're going with this"

While they had Gerry's backing their was still the issue of convincing the Magnavox corporate management to support his decision to go with building games in their TV manufacturing plant. The process took nine months to convince them, but the Brown Box finally got the green light to become a fully fledged console. They signed a preliminary agreement between Sanders Associates and Magnavox which allowed them to turn over the Brown Box and all data involved to the engineers of Magnavox in Fort Wayne. They started working on the prototype for what was to become the first Magnavox Odyssey.

Bill Harrison and Ralph Baer made trips to Fort Wayne over the development of the Odyssey to help with the technical and marketing decisions. Bill Harrison worked closely with George Kent and a team of engineers, while Ralph Baer worked with Bob Fritsche a program operator for the Magnavox Odyssey. Magnavox corporate decided to make a couple of adjustments while making the console for the sake of saving money. They were to get rid of the color circuity and make a large printed circuit board, known as a motherboard, into which several baby boards were plugged into. These small modular boards contained sub-circuits, such as the ball spot and player spot generators like the H&V sync signal generators, and so forth.

The first prototype of the Magnavox Odyssey was finished by the summer of 1971 by George Kent's group. They held two market surveys in July and October of the same year and while most of the reception was positive most people disliked the idea of cartridges believing that kids would end of breaking and losing them. Magnavox decided to ignore them and kept the cartridges anyway. George Kent took the final design of the game unit and antenna switch-box to the FCC labs in Washington passing the test, millions of units would eventually be subjected to the same test in the coming years.

A number of hand-assembled units were sent to Magnavox captive dealers before the Odyssey went into production at their Tennessee plant in, August of 1972. They responded was exceptional and said that the Magnavox was "the best thing to come down the pike in years"! The consumer-electronics press carried articles along with speculation from the trade press on what the upcoming mystery product from Magnavox.

Back in April, Magnavox put on shows for dealers and the press all around New York city showing off their product line and invited Ralph Baer to come see one of the shows. April 22nd, in the Bowling Greene, restaurant in New York's Central Park while sitting among the crowd of dealers and reporters, watched and waited for the crowd's reactions. To his enjoyment, the Odyssey was a hit to everyone in the crowd so much so that Ralph could barely keep shut. To quote Ralph Baer himself "I got pretty excited and was hard pressed to keep my mouth shut and restrain myself from jumping up on stage and yelling that's my baby". Over the next couple of months, Magnavox started shipping dealers with production units. They shipped with pump plastic rifles and also provided separate, large, in-store easel displays. Magnavox also shipped their dealers ten additional games available separately. Fliers were handed out showing what the basic and optimal games along with the shooting gallery games that was playable on the Odyssey. Home TV gaming had finally become a thing with its release.

With the release of the Odyssey, problems began to hurt the sales due to the marketing team advertising in a way that confused possible buyers. Due to being associated with the Magnavox TV ad fliers people thought that the only TV sets that would work with the console are Magnavox TV sets. A steep price point of $100 for the console with six program cards including twelve games and a $25 price point for the light gun attachment made the Odyssey a hard sell to most consumers. Sales were also restricted to Magnavox dealer stores and in the 1960s and 1970s, they didn't sell to independent stores or mass merchandisers like Sears narrowing the sales base.

In spite of the sales and marketing problems, there was still some successful ads for the Magnavox Odyssey that helped jolt sales in the fall. One of these included old blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. Over 130,000 units of the Odyssey were sold along with 20,000 shooting gallery rifle packs were manufactured by Christmas 1972, but who can fathom how much more they could have sold if they didn't make the marketing mistake of restricting sales only authorized Magnavox dealerships. Magnavox ended being sued by the government for restricted trade due to that same policy they had and ended up getting rid of the marketing and sales ploy. By early 1973 Magnavox games were already being discounted and the mismanagement of sales of additional plug-in games caused them to lose some money, but foreign sales ended up covering for some of the losses.

Back in 1972 during one of the Odyssey demonstrations in Burlingame, California one man named Nolan Bushnell, later to become the president of Atari, signed the guest book and played the Odyssey unit hands on, including, of course, it's ping-pong game. Shortly after that Nolan hired a young engineer Alan Ampex. He put Alan in charge of a coin-operated arcade ping-pong game we today know as PONG. Alan did a great job of improving the basic ping-pong features of the Odyssey. This included providing a segmented vertical ball in place of the English control of the Odyssey by adding wall bouncing and a scoring system. Along with adding the now iconic PONG sound, giving the game character. Once PONG was finished the game it was put on a test run in a local bar in Sunnyvale and quickly became a hit afterward leading to the start of the coin based arcade gaming industry. The release of PONG helped sales of the Magnavox Odyssey in late 1972, due to not having any way to play pong at home.

Later in 1974, the arcade video game business had boomed, Magnavox filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Seeburg, Bally-Midway, and Atari. Nolan decided to opt out of the lawsuit and became the first sub-licensee. They ended up paying royalties to Magnavox in order to legally manufacture and sell the PONG systems. The suit still ended up going through and became the first lawsuit in video game history. The Sanders/Magnavox team won the lawsuit as well as later lawsuits in the court of appeals. Magnavox sent additional patent infringement lawsuit against vs Mattel, Activision, Nintendo and several other arcade manufacturing companies. They ended up winning all the lawsuits and along with the patent licenses, brought in a total of close to a hundred million dollars over that period of time. Sadly the lawyers did everything they can to avoid telling Ralph Baer the true amounts they made. It wasn't until 2002 with David Winter while visiting the former lawyer company in charge of the multiple litigations. He took this information in stride saying "I had a great run and invented many other things" and didn't really care.

The Magnavox Odyssey was the start of the home console and home gaming and Ralph Baer and his team should be credited for the hobby that I and many gamers love today. He started an industry and was the reason why the Atari was created and the reason why PONG was a huge hit in the first place. This man should be looked at as the forefather of gaming as we know it today and will always be in the books of gaming history. Thank you for your time and for letting share some history with you. Next, we will be looking at the Atari 2600 a byproduct of the Odyssey and continued the rise of home gaming as we know it. See you till then and have a nice day.

For more information from Ralph Baer himself he wrote a book on the Odyssey

https://www.amazon.com/Videogames-Beginning-Ralph-H-Baer/dp/0964384817

Here is where I got my information from

http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1302004

Alos check out my twitter for gaming information, trailers and such.

https://twitter.com/Domwill123

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos is a standalone movie set in the universe of the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood series. Not to be confused with Fullmetal Alchemist series that released years prior back in 2003. With that being said you don't have the show to be able to appreciate the movie with most of the characters of the show being absent or having tiny roles in the film. A blend of beautiful visuals, tight action scenes, and a fun yet by the numbers story then this anime is for you.

FMA: The Sacred Star of Milos brings Ed and Al to Amestrian occupied Table City in the nation of Creta after run in with a skilled alchemist using a different type of alchemy. Naturally, Ed and Al go there to learn more about this type of alchemy that the prisoner was using. Once there Ed and Al learn that at the bottom of the giant chasm that surrounds Table City is the Valley where the former residents of Table City the Miloians live. The Miloians are restlessly trying to retake back their holy land, for which they call the Hill of Milos, that was annexed from by the Creta and then by Amestris and a bloody conflict.

Ed and Al end up getting caught in the middle of the conflict and along the way meet some new characters. Julia Criton a resident of the Valley working with the Black Bats to make use of the Sanguine Star, known to Ed and Al as the Philosopher Stone, to control the magma underneath the Valley to take back the city. Colonel Herschel the leader of the Cretan military, Miranda leader of the Black Bats trying to take back the holy land and the escaped prisoner Melvin Voyager. The story was fun, but felt kinda by the numbers until the big twist, that I won't spoil here, half-way through makes the rest of the movie a blast.

The animation style is different from what you will see in the FMA Brotherhood series looking like a Studio Ghibli product. It doesn't look bad at all, but I'm not the biggest fan of how the people look preferring how they look in the anime. Another nitpick is the way their looks while it is blowing in the wind looks off to me. Yes, that is a minor gripe, but it still bothered me. The action scenes and background look splendid in this and sometimes it even outshines the show in this regard.

FMA The Sacred Star of Milos is a great movie for fans of FMA and newbies to the automail alchemist and armor suited brother alike. While the plot can feel by the numbers in some ways the pretty visuals and amazing looking actions will keep you engaged enough to where you will enjoy it nonetheless.

We all have them and we all know what games spring to mind whenever somebody asks you. You play a game and sink sweet, precious, valuable time into it until you conquer it. Watching the credits roll you ponder at the thought of a sequel to the game so you can return to the world you sank many hours in. Maybe the game even sets up a sequel at the end of the game giving you, even more, reason to be excited. You wait until the dreaded day comes when you realize there is no sequel coming. This can be for many reasons like bad sales, studio shutting down, it was in development then ended up getting canned. Well, today ladies and gents I wanted to give you the games I know won't be getting a sequel that breaks my gamer heart.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: One of my favorite games coming out of the ps2 era as a kid Psi-Ops blew my mind. You play as Nick Scryer and you wake up with no memory trying to take down the evil organization known as The Movement. It was your standard third person shooter with one exception you possessed access to awesome psychic powers. With its tight controls and cool ragdoll physics creating some hilarious gameplay when you would telepathically slam people into walls, explosive barrels, or drop them off a ledge hearing them scream until they inevitably die. You could burn people with pyrokinesis, mind control enemies to solve puzzles or turn them onto their fellow squadmates, mind drain opponents to cause their head to explode, remote viewing to see through walls and scout out rooms, and aura viewing to see invisible mines and fight aura beast. Using these powers you fight your way through The Movement's head honchos and defeat the general effectively saving the world. You are treated with an endgame cutscene that ends with this message.

The kid in me still wonders what happens after that screen to this day. With Midway closing and nobody taking the rights for the game and I will always have to live with the fact that I won't be getting any closure for this game especially for something with so much potential.

Heavenly Sword: A title which many may have missed out on due to a struggling Ps3 in it's beginning years. Heavenly Sword is a third person action game where you play as Nariko battling the tyrannical Bohan and his army from wiping you out and creating a golden era. You take hold of powerful sword aptly named after the title of the game to combat him and trying to save your village. Being this was Ninja Theory's second game and first, as Ninja Theory, formerly known as Just Add Monsters, it came as a surprise to me that it was actually really good. The world was interesting and the setting was different being more of a traditional eastern vibe to it. The soundtrack added to that feeling sounding like something you would hear in an old kung-fu movie. The combat was so smooth and fun to play with switching from the three combat styles of fast ranged attacks, medium dual bladed, and one large heavy blade. There were plans to have a sequel, but it was announced in 2010 the game was canceled due to poor sales from the first game and the developer later stating that a sequel was "extremely unlikely". Due to the Ps3 not having the greatest launch year most folks didn't get a chance to play this gem and its a shame. Maybe if Sony did a better job with the Ps3 launch we could have a sequel to an underrated game and return to this interesting world Ninja Theory built.

What are some of your games that you know will never get a sequel? Do you think it will happen eventually? Also, what did you think of the games above and do you think they should get a sequel as well. Let me know and as always have a nice day.

We all have them and we all know what games spring to mind whenever somebody asks you. You play a game and sink sweet, precious, valuable time into it until you conquer it. Watching the credits roll you ponder at the thought of a sequel to the game so you can return to the world you sank many hours in. Maybe the game even sets up a sequel at the end of the game giving you, even more, reason to be excited. You wait until the dreaded day comes when you realize there is no sequel coming. This can be for many reasons like bad sales, studio shutting down, it was in development then ended up getting canned. Well, today ladies and gents I wanted to give you the games I know won't be getting a sequel that breaks my gamer heart.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: One of my favorite games coming out of the ps2 era as a kid Psi-Ops blew my mind. You play as Nick Scryer and you wake up with no memory trying to take down the evil organization known as The Movement. It was your standard third person shooter with one exception you possessed access to awesome psychic powers. With its tight controls and cool ragdoll physics creating some hilarious gameplay when you would telepathically slam people into walls, explosive barrels, or drop them off a ledge hearing them scream until they inevitably die. You could burn people with pyrokinesis, mind control enemies to solve puzzles or turn them onto their fellow squadmates, mind drain opponents to cause their head to explode, remote viewing to see through walls and scout out rooms, and aura viewing to see invisible mines and fight aura beast. Using these powers you fight your way through The Movement's head honchos and defeat the general effectively saving the world. You are treated with an endgame cutscene that ends with this message.

The kid in me still wonders what happens after that screen to this day. With Midway closing and nobody taking the rights for the game and I will always have to live with the fact that I won't be getting any closure for this game especially for something with so much potential.

Heavenly Sword: A title which many may have missed out on due to a struggling Ps3 in it's beginning years. Heavenly Sword is a third person action game where you play as Nariko battling the tyrannical Bohan and his army from wiping you out and creating a golden era. You take hold of powerful sword aptly named after the title of the game to combat him and trying to save your village. Being this was Ninja Theory's second game and first, as Ninja Theory, formerly known as Just Add Monsters, it came as a surprise to me that it was actually really good. The world was interesting and the setting was different being more of a traditional eastern vibe to it. The soundtrack added to that feeling sounding like something you would hear in an old kung-fu movie. The combat was so smooth and fun to play with switching from the three combat styles of fast ranged attacks, medium dual bladed, and one large heavy blade. There were plans to have a sequel, but it was announced in 2010 the game was canceled due to poor sales from the first game and the developer later stating that a sequel was "extremely unlikely". Due to the Ps3 not having the greatest launch year most folks didn't get a chance to play this gem and its a shame. Maybe if Sony did a better job with the Ps3 launch we could have a sequel to an underrated game and return to this interesting world Ninja Theory built.

What are some of your games that you know will never get a sequel? Do you think it will happen eventually? Also, what did you think of the games above and do you think they should get a sequel as well. Let me know and as always have a nice day.

We all have them and we all know what games spring to mind whenever somebody asks you. You play a game and sink sweet, precious, valuable time into it until you conquer it. Watching the credits roll you ponder at the thought of a sequel to the game so you can return to the world you sank many hours in. Maybe the game even sets up a sequel at the end of the game giving you, even more, reason to be excited. You wait until the dreaded day comes when you realize there is no sequel coming. This can be for many reasons like bad sales, studio shutting down, it was in development then ended up getting canned. Well, today ladies and gents I wanted to give you the games I know won't be getting a sequel that breaks my gamer heart.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: One of favorites games coming out of the ps2 era as a kid Psi-Ops blew my mind. You play as Nick Scryer and you wake up with no memory trying to take down the evil organization known as The Movement. It was your standard third person shooter with one exception you had access to awesome psychic powers. What made it different was the tight controls and cool ragdoll physics creating some hilarious gameplay when you would telepathically slam people into walls, explosive barrels, or drop them off a ledge hearing them scream until they inevitably die. You could burn people with pyrokinesis, mind control enemies to solve puzzles or turn them onto their fellow squadmates, mind drain them to cause their head to explode, remote viewing to see through walls and scout out rooms, and aura viewing to see invisible mines and fight aura beast. Using these powers you fight your way through The Movement's head honchos and defeat the general effectively saving the world. Your treated with a endgame cutscene that ends with this message.

The kid in me still wonders what happens after that screen to this day. Due to Midway closing and nobody taking the rights for the game and I will always have to live with the fact that I won't be getting any closure for this game especially for something with so much potential.

Heavenly Sword: A title which many may have missed out on due to a struggling Ps3 in it's beginning years. Heavenly Sword is a third person action game where you play as Nariko battling the tyrannical Bohan and his army from wiping you out and creating a golden era. You take hold of powerful sword aptly named after the title of the game to combat him and trying to save your village. Being this was Ninja Theory's second game and first as Ninja Theory, formerly known as Just Add Monsters, it came as a surprise to me that it was actually really good. The world was interesting and the setting was different being more of a traditional eastern vibe to it. The soundtrack added to that feeling sounding like something you would hear in a old kung-fu movie. The combat was so smooth and fun to play with switching from the three combat styles of fast ranged attacks, medium dual bladed, and one large heavy blade. There were plans to have a sequel, but it was announced in 2010 the game was cancelled due to poor sales from the first game and the developer later stating that a sequel was "extremely unlikely". Due to the Ps3 not having the greatest launch year most folks didn't get a chance to play this gem and its a shame. Maybe if Sony did a better job with the Ps3 launch we could have a sequel to an underrated game and return to this interesting world Ninja Theory built.

What are some of your games that you know will never get a sequel? Do you think it will happen eventually? Also, what did you think of the games above and do you think they should get a sequel as well. Let me know and as always have a nice day.

Most people who have a deep passion for games have that moment in their lives where they know this is something they will be doing all my life. Some people have that moment when they are young, while some have it when they are older. In my case mine happens to be the latter, actually, it happened not too long ago in my life. It started six months back around July I had moved in with five friends in a cramped two bedroom trailer. After living there for a few months not being able to find a job, sleeping on a deflated air mattress, not having my own space, and starving almost every day seeded the thoughts of depression in my mind. To combat that I started to go smoke more, marijuana to be exact, while also with more heavier drugs to combat that those feelings. I was so angry with myself and I started to turn those negative feelings onto video games.

I couldn't even play a video game without feeling terrible because I saw them as a waste of time indulging people in being lazy do nothings who they waste their lives pressing buttons on a controller and the reason why I was in a shitty situation. Now, in hindsight, I realize how wrong I was about this, but at the time I thought these feelings were real. I hated myself, my life, and everything and everybody around me. I was too busy being stuck in my head of hatred and self-doubt see anything else. Fast forward to a few months later I was temporarily staying at a friends house my brother invites me to come to his place for New Years. After thinking about it I decide to go and have some fun. Well, me being there leads to me moving in with him and getting into a stable living situation.

As I was on youtube one night I come across a gaming podcast, I can't really recall which one it was, and as I was listening to it I started to feel a happy and content for the first time in a while. It was in that very moment I came to the revelation being that I didn't hate video games, but rather had loved them maybe stronger than before all this started. It took a lot for me to come to a decision regarding this, but I'm happy it happened because it made me realize what I wanted I to do and that was take something I have a very deep passion for and try to make something out of it. It's the reason I will try so hard to become a game journalist critic or whatever you want to call it.

Well, there you go, folks, my story is over with. When were you sure you had a passion for video games that runs hotter than the deepest pits of Tartarus? Tell me in a comment. Also were there times you doubted if you wanted to keep playing games? Have a nice day.

Hello Giantbombers, today I'm going to steer the conversation away from videogames and talk about a show that gets way to much hate for no good reason. The show I'm referring to is the Cartoon Network show called wait for it...........Teen Titans Go!

Now, before you set the torches a blaze and get the pitchforks I need you to listen. Back when Cartoon Network announced that there was going to be new about the teen titan show I was just as ecstatic as everybody else I can assure you. Also with the sudden cancellation of Young Justice and the proclamation that Young Justice Go! would be taking it's time slot I wanted to give my hope to Cartoon Network that they knew what they were doing. With my heart still recovering from the betrayal done to me by Cartoon Network, I would give the benefit of the doubt when it came to the new show.

I sat down and checked out the show and I won't even lie to you I hated it. I thought it spit on the grave of Teen Titans legacy that was left by the former show and I wanted nothing to do with at all. It would take a few years and fresher perspective and before I was able to truely appreciate the show for what it was. A quirky, goofy, and slightly meta comedy show that knows what it is and knows how to role with it. The writers know their strength and they can deliver a hilarious show with jokes that can get surprisingly dark at times. Not to mention that there are loads of references and easter eggs to other moments in the DC mythos. Like the time you see Jason Todd's urn with the crowbar that killed him in a case in Robin's room or the episode that features Carie Kelly as Robin in it.

Look, I understand I'm coming off as a fanboy pretty hard for this show right now and part of the reason is because I was one of those haters. For years I bashed the show and thought it to be a disgrace, but with a clearer mind, I saw what was actually a decent show in its own right. Is it the old Teen Titans no, but it's not supposed to or going to be that. I believe some fans need to let go of that anger they have and give Teen Titans Go! a chance because it deserves at least that. You may still not like which is completely fair, but If you haven't watched the show I implore you to go try it.

Well, I'm off my soapbox now and I want to leave you with this for today. Do you feel there are any tv shows that get unwarranted or unjustified hate? Also if you do end up checking out Teen Titans Go! or have already watched it then, tell me how you feel about it. Did you like it or do you dislike it and tell me why. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

So today I wanted to talk about a topic about that always is a hot issue in gaming. I'm referring to violence in videogames and how it affects our youth. First off, I will say that I will always come to bat for gaming no matter what, but I've always wanted to understand why some people feel like gaming hurts the mind of the youth. Are they just ignorant of how games are or do they legitimately have a claim when they say this?

My first stop in my research led me to an article on CNN.com discussing if videogames lead to violence in children and teens. The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics would seem to think so and they take a hard stance that children and teens shouldn't play videogames at all. There is also a thought that videogames shouldn't reward points for killing real people as it causes kids to associate gain pleasure and success to causing pain and displeasure to people, which may have a negative impact on a growing mind. The article also says that there is a link between children who grow up to playing videogames and are around violent media with an increase in violent behaviors, aggressive thoughts, and angry feelings. The APA also observed a correlation between violent videogame use and a decrease in prosocial, empathy, and moral engagement. Now, this may sound just as crazy to you as it does to me, but there has been violence associated with videogames in the past. Daniel Petric from Wellington, Ohio shot both his parents, killing his mother and severely injuring his father because they took Halo 3 and his Xbox 360 away. There was the murder of a taxi driver in Bangkok by 19-year old Polwat Chino who has explained the reason he did it was because GTA made it look so easy to do. Then on July 22 in Norway, Anders Brevik, who murdered 77 people actually admitted to using Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 his training in his treacherous act.

So naturally I wanted to give my argument as to why I think videogames aren't a reason for violence. Lots of kids play videogames, but how many of them actually go out and murder people. I play videogames and I've never been in a fight nonetheless wielded a gun against anybody. Even a article on http://videogames.procon.org/ said "a peer review study in the physiology of violence determined that the competitive nature of games, regardless of whether the game contained violence content or not was related to aggressive behaviour" It also goes on to state that violent videogames can be a cathartic way to release all your anger and stress in a safe way. I don't about you, but whenever I a stressful day or if someone made me mad at school I would pop in Saints Row or GTA and just spend time killing a whole of people. Once I got done with that I'd feel a lot better and be able to move on with my day.

So when it comes to videogames I think it's up to the parents to know and understand their kid and to talk to them and monitor them when playing violent videogames. Also, educate yourself when it comes to videogames and doesn't just let your kid play anything. Parents and guardians need to take a better stand in teaching your kids that what you play in games isn't okay to replicate in real life. It's up to us to teach younger kids these things and not look for a scapegoat whenever something goes wrong in life.

Tell me what you think about this? Have a nice day and see you tomorrow.

Here are the two articles if anybody is interested in reading them.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/

http://videogames.procon.org/

So today I wanted to talk about a topic about that always is a hot issue in gaming. I'm referring to violence in videogames and how it affects our youth. First off, I will say that I will always come to bat for gaming no matter what, but I've always wanted to understand why some people feel like gaming hurts the mind of the youth. Are they just ignorant of how games are or do they legitimately have a claim when they say this?

My first stop in my research led me to an article on CNN.com discussing if videogames lead to violence in children and teens. The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics would seem to think so and they take a hard stance that children and teens shouldn't play videogames at all. There is also a thought that videogames shouldn't reward points for killing real people as it causes kids to associate gain pleasure and success to causing pain and displeasure to people, which may have a negative impact on a growing mind. The article also says that there is a link between children who grow up to playing videogames and are around violent media with an increase in violent behaviors, aggressive thoughts, and angry feelings. The APA also observed a correlation between violent videogame use and a decrease in prosocial, empathy, and moral engagement. Now, this may sound just as crazy to you as it does to me, but there has been violence associated with videogames in the past. Daniel Petric from Wellington, Ohio shot both his parents, killing his mother and severely injuring his father because they took Halo 3 and his Xbox 360 away. There was the murder of a taxi driver in Bangkok by 19-year old Polwat Chino who has explained the reason he did it was because GTA made it look so easy to do. Then on July 22 in Norway, Anders Brevik, who murdered 77 people actually admitted to using Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 his training in his treacherous act.

So naturally I wanted to give my argument as to why I think videogames aren't a reason for violence. Lots of kids play videogames, but how many of them actually go out and murder people. I play videogames and I've never been in a fight nonetheless wielded a gun against anybody. Even a article on http://videogames.procon.org/ said "a peer review study in the physiology of violence determined that the competitive nature of games, regardless of whether the game contained violence content or not was related to aggressive behaviour" It also goes on to state that violent videogames can be a cathartic way to release all your anger and stress in a safe way. I don't about you, but whenever I a stressful day or if someone made me mad at school I would pop in Saints Row or GTA and just spend time killing a whole of people. Once I got done with that I'd feel a lot better and be able to move on with my day.

So when it comes to videogames I think it's up to the parents to know and understand their kid and to talk to them and monitor them when playing violent videogames. Also, educate yourself when it comes to videogames and doesn't just let your kid play anything. Parents and guardians need to take a better stand in teaching your kids that what you play in games isn't okay to replicate in real life. It's up to us to teach younger kids these things and not look for a scapegoat whenever something goes wrong in life.

Tell me what you think about this? Have a nice day and see you tomorrow.

Here are te two articles if anybody is interested in reading them.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/

http://videogames.procon.org/

While there have been plenty of male characters in videogames I love like, Drake from Uncharted, Cole from Infamous, and Snake from MGS I've always been more attached to female characters from videogames. I always liked the idea of badass females breaking the stereotype of always being the damsel in distress (I'm looking at you Princess Peach) and kick ass themselves. Today I'm going to talk about five females who are awesome and deserve some praise. My only rule for this list is to keep it to one female per franchise and it's not really in a specific order it's my five favorites and also there will be spoilers for the select games I mention, but first I'll start with the honorable mentions for this list. They are people I didn't fully feel comfortable adding to the list for one reason or another.

Clementine (Walking Dead Telltale Series)- I've heard from everybody that has played the Walking Dead game how much they love Clementine and she would probably be on this list if it wasn't for the fact that I only played half of season one of Walking Dead. Crazy I know and I plan on going back to it eventually because I love the comic and tv show so I know it's up my alley. I just hate having to play the first two episodes over since I played them so many times.

Every DOA female- I couldn't put all these females on this list, but as a fan of the franchise and having played every game since DOA 3 I had to mention them just for the fact that I love them. The bikinis and beach volleyball sexiness are nice as well.

Elizebeth ( Bioshock Infinite)- She was very close to making the list, but ultimately had to cut her after some in favor for of the other people on the list. She is amazing and fun in her own way that actually helps you in combat by giving you ammo and health mid-battle. Elizebeth is a great character that deserves a mention.

EVA (Metal Gear Solid)- One of the first women stole my heart as a child and I know I wasn't the only one to feel this way. It helps that Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of my favorite ps2 games and by far my favorite MGS out of the series. EVA was just cool from the way you first meet her to her huge role in bringing the Les Enfants Terribles project to life. The bond between her and Snake was great and they possibly could have been something more had they not had the lives they had. Her overt sexual appeal with her jumpsuit and bikini underneath and with the L1 prompts to stare at her bossum and butt during certain cutscenes was absolutely amazing in true Kojima fashion. Watching her die in Metal Gear Solid 4 was an emotional moment for me and I cried manly tears on the inside after seeing basically Snakes mother die in front of him to the foxdie virus.

Cortana (Halo)- Cortana I can't say enough about you. She is a cornerstone along with Master Chief of a franchise. You can't imagine Halo without her and it wouldn't be the same her in Chief's and pretty much your head throughout the series. Every battle you fight in Halo against all of the Covenant and Flood armada she is the only constant throughout all of it. The relationship that she and Chief shares go well beyond a simple friendship and one could argue that they loved and learned to depend on each other. Currently, in the last game, we saw that she was assembling a bunch of A.I. so she could claim the mantle and bring about world peace, which put her at odds with the big green spartan himself. While she is set to be the big bad of Halo 6 I can't help but still have a place for her in my heart for all for my favorite digitized woman.

Brigitte "Rosie" Stark (Valkyria Chronicles)- Valkyria Chronicles is a game with an ensemble of lovable and goofy characters, but Rosie stands out as a favorite for a more personal reason than the other entries on this list. Growing up being African American in a mostly predominantly caucasian city, I, unfortunately, had to deal with some racism from ignorant people. Rosie starting out is prejudice against one of your Darscen squadmate named Isara and while her prejudice is justified in her eyes, as you can guess it made me instantly not like her. As you play through the game she starts to have a relationship with Isara a person she wanted to hate so much warmed my heart. The fact that she was able to get past her racism made me love her so much and helps cemented her place as one of my top characters for me. She also is a hell of a singer which doesn't hurt in the slightest.

Elena (Uncharted)- I had a tough time choosing between her Chloe, but I ended up choosing the scrappy journalist from my favorite Naughty Dog series. Having spent hours upon hours with her I feel I actually know her personally. Seeing her and Drakes relationship over the games is one of the highlights of the franchise for me with chapter 4 of Uncharted being one of my favorite chapters in the game just because of how they interact as a couple. She can hold her own in a fight as well and her being a journalist as mentioned earlier means that she has a strong value for the truth which is a great quality to have. The one big moment I have is at the end of Uncharted 2 seeing her almost die had me on the edge of my seat and the on verge of tears. That moment when she was alive and the shower of relief I felt is when I knew Elena had significantly grown on me.

Ellie ( The Last of Us)- The most recently created character on this list and another one of Naughty Dogs creations Ellie is one of many bright spots of The Last of Us. Many would say The Last of Us is more her story than Joel's. A 14-year-old girl living in a run post-apocalyptic world while still being able to hold her own against men twice her size is enough to make me like her, but once again Naughty Dog has a way of making such likable characters that you can't help but fall in love with. The relationship dynamic between her and Joel gradually change as you play the game from package and courier to one of surrogate father and daughter. She even saves herself from being kidnapped and keeps Joel alive while you play through the winter chapter of the game. Ellie's wonder and curiosity about the world she will never know are also one of the strong points for me. Having Joel explain what they used a camera backdrop and she was reading the girls diary asking of that is all they had to worry about makes me see her as someone wiser than her age persist.

Well, there is my favorite female characters in videogames and I hope you guys enjoy the list. Who are your favorite female characters in videogames? Do you agree with the people on my list? Do you disagree? Tell me and have a wonderful day and see you tomorrow.