Video Games

Every once in a while something happens that overlaps my two careers as attorney and therapist, and here is one of them. The California State Legislature passed a law that stops retailers from selling or renting certain video games to people who are 17 and younger. This law was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1. But the law is on hold, since a Federal Judge in San Jose temporarily blocked its implementation. After this law was passed, the Video Software Dealers' Assn.

In his Friday Counselor's Corner column, "Video games come under the spotlight," Charles J. Unger called for government restrictions on video games that he doesn't like. Not only is such censorship unconstitutional, it is unnecessary. Like Unger, I personally dislike the level of violence in some video games currently on the market. But we have to remember that those types of games are designed for adults, they are rated as being appropriate for adults, they are marketed to adults and retailers are committed to selling them only to adults.

Darleene Barrientos A Los Angeles man pleaded innocent Friday to seven counts of commercial burglary and robbery at three Glendale and Burbank Blockbuster video stores. Edward Dilworth, 45, was arrested Wednesday and is suspected of committing seven burglaries at three Glendale and Burbank video stores, Glendale Police Sgt. Ian Grimes said. Three of those burglaries escalated into robberies, when employees confronted Dilworth and he displayed a gun or a screwdriver to scare them.

Cultural learning extends to college The article “Seeing humans, not ethnicities” featured in your Jan. 21 issue told about motivational speaker David Taylor, who presented a speech about cultural differences to Glendale High School students. The presentation was aimed to help the students understand that there should not be any cultural conflicts between people and to stop interracial fights. Glendale High students might have heard the message about the importance of goodwill; maybe it is time to lecture Glendale Community College students on the same issue.

Madison Davis’ hands moved feverishly as she assembled one stack of three cups, another of six, and another of three. And in three swift motions, the fifth-grader disassembled her stacks and tagged her teammate — all in a few seconds. “I like that it’s very fun, and once you learn and keep doing it, you can race your friends,” she said. “It’s a sport because of speed and the hand-eye coordination.” Madison was one of about 300 Monte Vista Elementary School fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders who were part of a worldwide effort to set the world record for cup stacking.

Imagine a full-length documentary about goofball guys playing the classic arcade game Donkey Kong. Who would want to pay money to see that? I would and so should you, if you love video games or off-beat films about strange people. ?King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters? gets the high score for unintentional comedy and could go down as one of the great documentaries of recent memory. It tells the true story of two grown men, Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. Both claim to have set the high score on the 1981 vintage game Donkey Kong.

LA CRESCENTA ? Second-grader Max Mesmik cut to the chase. ?Has anyone ever shot you?? he asked Los Angles County Sheriff Deputy Jorge Valdivia. The officer replied that he was lucky he?d never been shot. ?They try to run away,? Valdivia said. ?But we catch them.? Max was one of about 20 Monte Vista second-graders who were given a tour of the Briggs Avenue sheriff?s station Tuesday morning. ?They get to see how it all works,? said their teacher, Bryant Stephan.

Janine Marnien LA CRESCENTA -- Instead of promptly situating themselves in front of the television set right after they get home from school, Lincoln Elementary School students are being asked to "turn off TV" all this week. The week is celebrated by the Lincoln Elementary Parent-Teacher Assn. to encourage students and their families to find alternative forms of entertainment, PTA spokeswoman Lisa Yeghiayan said. "Watching TV is fine once in a while," she said.

Despite the present recession and future economic concerns this year, we all still have a lot to be thankful for. The fires have died, hope is on the horizon, and we have nowhere to go but up. And now as Christmas draws nearer, we can be thankful for the awesome gift ideas available this season to make even the trickiest person to buy for on your list a snap. Gadgets. Some pointless, others practical but everyone loves the newest gadget on the market and Wicked Lasers is the first place to look for that special someone who has everything but a laser.

Gretchen Hoffman The 24 computers that line the walls of Net Caffe have been used by people with every level of computer experience. During the day, adults take advantage of the fax machine and printer, and they join in on classes on computer basics such as e-mailing and navigating the World Wide Web. After school and on weekends, however, the crowd is decidedly more tech-savvy. Teenagers surf and talk in chat rooms or hook up with friends to compete head-to-head on Counter-Strike, Medal of Honor and more.

The storage units look like arcade graveyards. The machines are unplugged, lined up against the wall and the marquees that once flashed, inviting people to play Ms. Pacman or Galaga, now look more like gravestone inscriptions, dusty and scratched. The city of Glendale has owned the roughly 50 arcade machines for nearly three years and officials want to get rid of them. The problem is, they can't because of a state law. When Glendale bought the building that housed Video West Arcade across from the Americana at Brand three years ago for the proposed Museum of Neon Art, the former owner sold them everything for about $1 million - the building, the arcade machines, cashier equipment, even a gumball machine and a microwave oven.

Austin Wintory doesn't care to participate in debates about whether video games count as art. But if anyone corners him about it Wednesday when he joins the Pacific Symphony as a guest conductor, he'll have a couple of powerful friends to back him up. One is the voting bloc of the Recording Academy, which a few months ago made Wintory the first composer to snare a Grammy nomination for a game score. Another is the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which around the same time added 14 games to its collection - including "flOw," a project Wintory co-created while a student at USC. In recent years, the medium's increasing sophistication has caused many to question whether it can stand alongside novels, movies and other venerable forms.

It's no surprise that  Warner Bros.  has video games with "Batman" and "Middle Earth" in the titles coming out this year, since  "The Dark Knight Rises"  and  "The Hobbit"  are the studio's two biggest remaining movie releases of 2012. What is surprising is that the games have virtually nothing to do with the films beyond their titles. Stung by poor sales across the industry for video games closely tied to movies -- including Warner's own  "Green Lantern"  and  "Happy Feet Two"  last year -- Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is this year taking an entirely different approach.

With the new Batman video game Arkham City , a Hollywood studio may finally have a true interactive blockbuster and also the respect of notoriously skeptical gamers. On sale today, Arkham City from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has garnered unanimously rave notices, ranking as the best reviewed video game of the year on the compilation site Metacritic. Sales expectations are well above the 4.3 million units that the game's predescessor, Arkham Asylum, sold in 2009.

"The Dark Knight Rises" doesn't hit movie theaters for nine months, but Batman is at the heart of what may just be Warner Bros. ' most important release of the fall. With the launch Tuesday of video game Arkham City, a sequel to 2009 hit Arkham Asylum that lets players control the Caped Crusader, the studio's Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unit has one of the best-reviewed and most anticipated titles of the year. It's expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.

A 2008 Crescenta Valley High graduate has been nationally recognized for her work in developing an interactive game that encourages senior citizens to exercise by dancing. Sarah Ferraro, now a junior at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, has been awarded an honorable mention in the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards 2011 competition for her work, which was backed by a $40,000 grant from Google. The recognition comes from the Computing Research Assn., which hosts the annual competition as a means to further promote its mission of strengthening research and education in the field of computer science.

Local entertainment giants DreamWorks Animation and the Walt Disney Co. stoked growing buzz about the future of video entertainment Thursday after each announced it would begin preparing films for in-home 3-D viewing on Blu-ray discs. The announcements came as 3-D video technology took center stage during morning sessions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where several firms announced new products geared toward in-home three-dimensional entertainment. Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation announced late Wednesday that it planned to capitalize on the popularity of 3-D movies at theaters worldwide by forming a “3-D Alliance” with Samsung Electronics America and Technicolor to deliver a “complete 3-D home entertainment solution in 2010.

LA CRESCENTA ? Second-grader Max Mesmik cut to the chase. ?Has anyone ever shot you?? he asked Los Angles County Sheriff Deputy Jorge Valdivia. The officer replied that he was lucky he?d never been shot. ?They try to run away,? Valdivia said. ?But we catch them.? Max was one of about 20 Monte Vista second-graders who were given a tour of the Briggs Avenue sheriff?s station Tuesday morning. ?They get to see how it all works,? said their teacher, Bryant Stephan.

Madison Davis’ hands moved feverishly as she assembled one stack of three cups, another of six, and another of three. And in three swift motions, the fifth-grader disassembled her stacks and tagged her teammate — all in a few seconds. “I like that it’s very fun, and once you learn and keep doing it, you can race your friends,” she said. “It’s a sport because of speed and the hand-eye coordination.” Madison was one of about 300 Monte Vista Elementary School fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders who were part of a worldwide effort to set the world record for cup stacking.

Glendale native Kamran Jahadi is like any other seventh-grader: He likes to play video games. He picked up his favorite hobby when he was in second grade, Kamran, 11, said. Among his favorite games are Mario, Naruto and Sly Cooper, most of which are role-playing games. But Kamran is no ordinary video gamer; he will compete in this year’s 2009 Pokémon Video Game World Championships from Aug. 14 to 16. He qualified for this competition after placing in the top 32 at the National Video Game Championships in St. Louis during the last weekend of June.