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College of New Jersey panel discusses pluses, minuses of video games By Chris Payne,… College of New Jersey panel discusses pluses, minuses of video games By Chris Payne, The Signal (College of New Jersey)

(U-WIRE) EWING, N.J. – Do you find your body aching after a long game of tennis – on the Nintendo Wii? On Nov. 29, a panel on video games presented by the students and faculty of the College of New Jersey’s interactive multimedia and computer science departments tackled issues concerning video games’ impact on society.

The panel, organized by Ursula Wolz, associate professor of computer science, and Teresa Nakra, assistant professor of music, featured student presentations on the social and ethical aspects of video games, focusing on violence, privacy and censorship, and health and wellness. Following each presentation, the audience was able to ask the panel questions.

Presenter John DeMerchant, junior interactive multimedia major, described video games’ impact on health. While citing some negative effects of video games, including obesity, carpal tunnel syndrome and eye strain, he also talked about positive effects.

Tanya Jessen from Seattle lost 95 pounds playing the popular arcade game “Dance Dance Revolution.”

“The game features an exercise mode that helps you lose weight and tracks calories,” DeMerchant said. Several audience members reported using the game to keep in shape for sports during the offseason.

DeMerchant said playing video games over the Internet requires more interaction than traditional gameplay. However, DeMerchant said that “it’s great to have friends in a video game, but even better to have friends off

Speakers Bruno Kruse, junior interactive multimedia major, and Michael Micai, senior computer science major, tackled the issues surrounding video game violence. Kruse said game violence could be applied to real life, citing the Columbine tragedy.

“Violence in video games is ethical, since their contents are available in other media and the rating system is present,” Micai said. “There is insufficient evidence linking video game violence to real-life violence.”