| If you think people who play video games just sit around, safe and secure in their basement rooms, think again. Playing video games is a dangerous hobby.
Dangerous enough that game publishers and console manufacturers have disclaimers in every instruction manual. "Important safety information: Read the following warnings before you or your child play video games," reads the Precautions Booklet that comes with everything Nintendo puts its name on.
The disclaimers mention that there is a risk of seizures for some people who play games, and that anyone playing a video game who feels dizzy or disoriented, or who has altered vision or muscle twitches, should stop playing immediately and consult a doctor.
Lest you think this advice is extreme, consider that in 1997, seizures were triggered in more than 600 Japanese children who had been watching an episode of Pokemon. The inclusion of warnings in video games, however, was actually started by Nintendo in the early 1990s, in the wake of evidence that the flashing lights could result in seizures. In one extreme case in England in 1993, a young boy, whose seizure was reportedly activated by playing video games, choked and died.
While it is true that people who are photosensitive epileptics can have seizures triggered by flashing lights or flickering images, research published in the Medical Sciences Bulletin concluded that unless a person is predisposed to seizures, there is little to no chance of this happening. Furthermore, the non-profit Epilepsy Project reports that fewer than three per cent of people with epilepsy can be categorized as photosensitive.
The disclaimers go so far as to include such common-sense suggestions as not sitting too close to the screen, playing in a well-lit room and taking regular breaks from play. Nintendo mentions possible risks for repetitive motion injuries and motion sickness. They might have to begin including something about lightning.
In early July, a 14-year-old from New Hampshire was zapped when an electrical storm passing overhead sent a lightning bolt into the ground near his house. The current travelled through the television, through his PS2, through his controller, through him, and out his big toe. Apparently the urban myth about getting fried by lightning over a telephone line is no myth – firefighters later told the family they should avoid using electrical appliances during electrical storms.
The kid was none the worse for wear. The only thing he’s got to show for his experience is a smoking sock and a melted joystick. Which should make a nice trophy. The joystick, not the sock.
REVIEWS
Psychonauts (publisher: Majesco; platform: Xbox; rated: teen).
Like the best cartoons, Psychonauts has the look and feel of children’s entertainment while actually providing a weird experience that feels somehow seditious and definitely adult. You play as Razputin (Raz), and you’re at Whispering Rock Summer Camp, which doubles as a training ground for psychic agents. The game involves you entering the minds of other characters where you – literally – sort their emotional baggage, collect figments of their imagination, clear out mental cobwebs and even break open memory vaults to expose secret truths. Along the way you pick up "positive mental health" in order to stay on track, and use your "thought bubble" to levitate and as a shield, breaking down the fourth wall in ways never before considered. It’s a bizarre, fun and subversive world where the human brain is "the ultimate battlefield and the ultimate weapon."
Still Life (publisher: Adventure Company; platform: PC, Xbox; rated: mature).
Murder most foul is the basis for the storyline in this adventure game. You alternate between playing as a young FBI agent chasing a serial murderer in present day Chicago, and playing as the grandfather of the agent, who was a private investigator searching out a serial killer in 1920s Prague. The action is slow, but this game is about story, character and atmosphere, and Still Life drips with atmosphere. There are some decidedly creepy moments, too, so this one is best played late at night with the lights off and the sound up. |
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