BBC Explore if Video Games are Actually Bad in New Documentary

This year the PlayStation marks its 20th anniversary meaning that those of us, like myself, born in Generation X (1990's-2000- the children born from the adult baby boomers) have been exposed to video games in someway for all of their lives. Because of this interest has snowballed into the effects of video gaming on gamers, now becoming one of the most controversial topics in psychology.

Many researchers in psychology and communication studies believe that video gaming and playing specific games makes a person aggressive, whereas other researchers have found that game playing can sharpen the mind and have a positive impact on cognition.

As it is now a social norm to have at least one gaming console in a household it is understandable why the area is so heavily researched- as it effects almost every household in the UK and USA. Because of this the BBC have created a documentary showcasing the debate and the research on both sides of the fence, research suggesting gaming causes aggression and research suggesting gaming causes prosocial behaviours and is cognitively beneficial to humans.

Check it out on BBC Iplayer (link below) and let me know what you guys think. Which side of the fence do you sit on? Are there particular games you deem 'better' or 'worse' for people? For yourselves or for your children?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06cjypk/horizon-20142015-19-are-video-games-really-that-bad

Parasocial Relationships

First of all what is a Parasocial Relationship and where do we find them?

Basically, a parasocial relationship is a one-way or non-reciprocal relationship with a character or persona. This is therefore the psychological term given to the attachment of 'fans' to characters or celebrities. These relationships can be formed with television characters, video game characters, literary characters or even real people.

Just about everyone with access to different forms of media have established parasocial relationships; from your favourite children book characters, like Harry Potter to your favourite characters on Netflix originals, obviously Piper Kerman, they all fall under the umbrella term of a parasocial relationship.

The most famous case of parasocial relationships in pop culture is the forming of the fan base the brown coats. These are the avid fans of Firefly, the Joss Whedon television programme cancelled after only one season. These fans petitioned and met regularly at conventions and shin digs in order to raise awareness of the loss of their favourite television show. Ultimately this led to a successful blockbuster film Serenity being made, picking up where the last show left off. This captures just how extreme parasocial relationships can actually become- which is amazing considering they are only enforced by one person. It also showcases the implications of these relationships, as actors jobs were apparent again along with an entire work force used to create a large blockbuster movie.

So now if you're watching TV, reading a novel or comic and think wow! They're my favourite character, well now you know why. You have a strong parasocial relationship with the character in question.

Newcastle Comic-Con: The first Great Geek event in the North-East

This weekend saw Comic Con arrive in Newcastle at The Metro Arena with tickets from as little as £8 per day, per adult. The North-East of England is slowly growing it's dominance in terms of Geek Culture, however up until now, event wise, it was pretty poor. Although the city holds two impressive comic/popular culture stores, Forbidden Planet and Travelling Man, this comic-con was the first to really offer something to the popular culture table: And take it from me it was epic!

Fiends, Jedi's, Hero's and villains all made their way to the stadium. I, however, chose to go for a more subtle look, a power ranger, pre-morphed... I thought that was a nice enough little quirk for losing my Comic-Con virginity...

X-Men: Days of Future Past: A review

X-Men the famous franchise of Marvel's superhero world where evolution has allowed certain individuals with an X- gene to wield incredible gifts. Their mutations. Having based the original trilogy on comic book arcs the fans of the franchise were disappointed in how it ended. Due to this Brian Singer (X-Men and X2 director) took over as director for the Days of Future Past (DOFP) film in order to correct the issues and wrong doings made (especially with X-Men: The Last Stand), within the 'timeline' and to the X-Men franchise.

Days of Future past combines cast from the prequel movie X-Men: First Class along with the future/present time cast in order to restore the fractured lineage of The X-Men. This film managed to do this.

*If you do not wish to read spoilers I advise you to read no further and/or do not click read more.

Support LEGO and 'ideas' of The X-Mansion

This morning a LEGO representative came upto me on campus to fill in a short questionnaire on the new Adult Range of LEGO Watches. Who knew LEGO were branching out in that direction? I defiantly didn't. So it got me thinking: What else do LEGO do? And that's when I found LEGO 'ideas'.