Bejeweled Blitz is the Facebook version of PopCap's popular jewel-twisting puzzle game, which gives players a minute to rack up the highest score humanly possible in order to brag to their friends. Now PopCap brings that functionality to the iPhone version of the game, allowing players to try and beat their Facebook friends anywhere in the bathroom world.

"Ultimately, social gaming is about being able to play games with and against your friends, and the new Blitz update for Bejeweled 2 on iPhone lets you play against your friends anywhere," explained John Vechey, co-founder and director of PopCap's social gaming initiative. "This is a natural next stage in our multi-platform and social strategies. Blending the Facebook and iPhone Bejeweled communities should prove very compelling for players."

For those of you who've never played Bejeweled, it's basically Puzzle Quest without the RPG elements. Captain Backwards Description strikes again!

Paul Delfabbro of the University of Adelaide led a team studying more than 2,500 Australian teens, more than half of whom admitted to gambling in the past year. OK, fine. Delfabbro then brings out his broad brush.

If you look at those young people who are classified as pathological gamblers you will find that they do have a higher frequency of involvement with many different types of videogame. They're much more likely to play games on Xboxes and similar consoles. They are also more likely to play arcade games ... Those sort of young people who've had this need for more sort of unstructured activities probably also drift into gambling a bit more because it's another activity which you can do if you're out on the street.

This is, honestly, a serious question - are arcades in Australia as dead as they are in the U.S.? (It's 6:30 a.m. there, I'm not waking Luke up to ask that.) Because if so, it's an incredible - as in, not believable - assumption that arcades, practically made obsolete by consoles, play a role in conditioning or desensitizing young people to gambling in a casino.

If it seems like too easy a connection, don't worry, a guy with a diploma bigger than yours or mine thinks so too. Alex Blaszczynski, a psychology professor at the University of Sydney, more or less states what folks learn in Psych 101, or any form of science, really - correlation is not causation.

Does an interest in gambling lead to people becoming involved in video games or do video games lead to people becoming involved in gambling? Or is there a third factor which accounts for both gambling and videogames? There's also the possibility that some people with certain characteristics would then tend to engage in both video and technology type gaming activity and gambling as well. And that may well be linked to things like risk taking or impulsivity or other factors.

Does Video Game Play Lead to Gambling Addiction? [Game Politics]

Most of it seems like scare mongering — students who start playing Maple Story and suddenly became poor students. There's even worse with one mother saying this about her game addicted child, "Sometimes, he'll throw the remote control at the TV, overturn the dining table, bite my hand, or try to strangle me. It's enough to get me wondering if he'll kill me."

Sounds like there are deeper issues here than online gaming...

Game Addicts: What's a parent to do? [Mainichi]

The reality show is seeking gamers with an unhealthy attitude toward the hobby, giving you a national basic cable venue through which to vent your spleen and have your psychological addictions empathized with and/or roundly mocked by MTV viewers. MTV producers are looking for people with personal relationship problems or anyone considering going to rehab to kick their gaming habits.

The full description should give you a better idea of what the producers are looking for—a complete and total wreck of a person.

Have video games totally taken over your life? Is your game play increasingly getting out of control? Have your friends or family confronted you about your gaming habit? How about your marriage or personal relationships – are they being affected? Is it difficult to balance work and gaming time? Do you sometimes skip doing homework or household responsibilities to play? Have you played video games as a way of escaping your problems? Has your game playing habit become so encompassing that you may need to go to rehab to kick it? If you can identify with any of the above, MTV wants to hear from you.

True Life's show topics cover everything from "I'm Obese" to "I Hate My Tattoos" to "I'm a Mixed Martial Arts Fighter." The show has previously covered gaming with the episode "I'm A Professional Gamer."

MTV True Life Wants to Know - Are you Addicted to Gaming? Casting Call [via Siliconera]

Crisp, 15, ran away from his home on Oct. 14, 2008 after his parents took away his Xbox 360. He had been playing too much Call of Duty 4 and his grades were slipping.

After being told he would lose his gaming privileges, the teen told his father he was running away. His body was discovered in November. An autopsy later determined that he died of chest injuries sustained in a fall, likely from a tree.

In Top Gun, The Fifth Estate looks at the "dark side of what many thought was harmless entertainment." You hear that librarians? Gaming has a dark side!

From the show's site:

When Brandon Crisp's parents took away his Xbox, they had no idea that their attempt to restrict their son's video gaming would lead to tragedy. In retaliation, Brandon ran away. His body was found three weeks later. His disappearance, and death, became a national news story as it revealed a dark side to what many thought was a harmless entertainment. Gillian Findlay investigates how a video gaming obsession can turn to addiction and a pro gaming circuit with thousands of dollars in potential winnings, experts say, can fuel the need to play.

I hope the Fifth Estate doesn't stumble upon this thing called professional sports, they could really blow the lid off that scandal.

Coming up on the fifth estate: Friday, March 6, 2009 at 9 p.m.

[via NeoGAF]

Local politician Antonio Buccoliero was quick to comment, "They eventually managed to take care of him once they understood that this was a strange kind of mental detachment connected to his Playstation." It is unknown if this condition could be contracted through rival consoles or if it is a Sony-only disorder. Or indeed if it is an actual medical condition and not something they just made up to make a point about gaming.

The boy had been unable to speak and appeared 'confused' following a marathon gaming session. He reportedly told his father to throw out his console saying, "If I even think about it I want to throw up."

Boy rushed to hospital with Playstation addiction [Ananova]

"I think people need to see how much damage can be done to a relationship by any addiction, even this one," said Dorrance.

Hold up, though. As we have mentioned before video game 'addiction' isn't an accepted condition and there is some considerable doubt among medical professionals as to its existence. That's not to say that already vulnerable people might immerse themselves in a game for a little too long, but labelling something an 'addiction' may not be the most helpful way of looking at it.

Comments?

Help now available for gaming addicts [London Free Press]

"He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he'd play until three a.m. Weekends were worse — it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night," she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. "It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life."

The sad thing is, Jocelyn herself had an unwitting hand in her marriage's downfall. A former Blizzard employee (she didn't work on Warcraft), she gave her husband the game as a Christmas gift when it first came out in 2004. Nine months later and their relationship was already beginning to crumble. According to Jocelyn, her husband's obsession caused him to not only ignore her, but he stopped taking on any household responsibilities in his quest for the next big raid.

So, word of warning Warcrafters: be sure to make time for your loved ones. No game, raid or copious amount of in-game currency is worth the loss of your relationship.

Wedding Woes: The Dark Side of Warcraft [Yahoo Games]

Several folks in the Chinese games industry stressed the ways that online gaming reflected the loneliness and isolation of single children who were forced to reach out beyond their own families or even local communities in search of playmates. Whether understood literally or metaphorically, this link between the one child family and the debates about games addiction helps to explain the intensity of this concern.

There are lots of interesting thoughts contained within if you keep an eye on the Chinese gaming scene - and several other entries relating to this Shanghai forum are worth taking a look see at.

Games and Social Responsibility — Perspectives from Shanghai [via CNET]

Video game obsession is what lead to the beating death of 17-month-old Alayiah Turman, an Assistant District Attorney said yesterday in the closing arguments of Tyrone Spellman's murder trial.

"(Spellman's) entire life and daily routine is about playing (Ghost Recon).

"What do you think someone with that kind of obsession is going to do when it gets knocked over? What do you think is going to happen?

"The skull fractures on that baby are what happened."

Prosecutors say that Spellman was obsessed with video games, that he played them up to six hours a day. They say that in September 2006 Spellman beat his daughter, Alayiah Turman, to death after she knocked over his Xbox 360 while he was playing Ghost Recon.

Spellman's defense attorney cast blame on the child's mother and said that the confession was coerced. The case was handed to the jury yesterday afternoon, but they had still not reached a verdict last night and were set to return today to continue deliberation.

Jury talking in infant-death case [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

... it did feel like my world was a bit smaller; there were emotions, impulses and dreams that had nowhere to travel to, that languished amid the everyday. It's true that I learned perhaps gaming has cultivated in me a lack of long-term patience, a need for more regular stimulation, a poorer attention span. It's also very possible that I zone out with games to avoid dealing directly with things that cause me frustration or sadness. But I'm now certain there is a singular fashion in which games engage both mind and emotion - not only for the purpose of play, but for personal reasons both creative and therapeutic - that no other form of media approaches. It's a quality unique to gaming, it speaks to the power and responsibility game developers have assumed, and it makes sense out of the intense, often perplexing personalization we feel toward the games they make.

I frequently go weeks without picking up a game - my PS2 has languished since August or September, I think I last turned on the 360 sometime before the new year, and the last time my poor DS got my undivided attention for more than half an hour or so was back in June, on a long haul trans-Pacific flight. Still, I know my games are always there for the taking (if only I had time!). I suspect if I locked them up or told myself I couldn't play, I'd be pretty anxious in no time flat.

Abstinence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder [GameSetWatch]

... the "ban" has not achieved satisfactory results. Research indicates that most who surf the Internet or play games in the university computer rooms or net bars around the universities are freshmen. According to a poll of 15 university students, after they finished the first year most bought computers and began to spend a long time playing games. Twelve of the fifteen have failed exams at least once and nine of them claimed that they bought computers specifically to play games. They also said that a large number of boys are obsessed with the Internet.

I do remember from my short time at Shanghai's Fudan University that curfews were adhered to and there wasn't much opportunity to spend 20 hours in a fit of WoW fever. However, college freshmen across the globe manage to flunk out in a variety of creative ways, and I'm in the camp that has doubts that banning personal PCs for freshmen is going to make a dent in the proportion of students too careless to get it together.

Freshmen banned from owning computers [china.org.cn via Ars Technica]

China is experimenting with a new summer camp aimed at getting kids off the internet and into therapy. The ten day camp would play host to forty teens and young adults who would receive counseling, focusing on attendees' psychological and developmental problems.

The country is also clamping down on internet cafes and, according to Reuters, "mulling restrictions over violent video games." Let's just hope they don't crack down on Dead or Alive Online. We're really looking forward to that.

China hopes to cure Internet addicts at summer camp [Reuters]

Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of the Audio & Video and Online Publication Management Division of GAPP, has told local media that fully implementing the anti-addiction system is an important measure taken to carry out the State Council's rule on molding Chinese teenagers' morals and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of China's online game industry. He has called on the companies to strengthen their social responsibility and consult with the concerned departments to ensure the anti-addiction tasks can be carried out smoothly.

No word on whether or not the government has figured out who's actually cheating the system or what they'll do when they find out.

Game Operators Receive Anti-Addiction System Warnings [China CSR]

They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games.

The American Medical Association's look at video game violence has been muddled and confused since the onset. So it's no wonder that after much ado, the association decided to essentially table the idea of classifying video game addiction in the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and order more studies.

The group said more research needs to be donw on the "long-term beneficial and detrimental effects" of video games and the Internet. Oddly, they also called for a review of the video game ratings system, saying that they'd like to see a rating system in place that "better alerts parents to the content of the video game and recommended age of the player, so they can decide whether or not their child should be playing it."

Yeah, I agree. We need some sort of committee or organization, perhaps a board, that could look at games when they come out and put some sort of rating on them. Maybe something like a movie rating, but instead of just a rating, they also really need to explain the rating. Yeah, something like that would be great.

Hit the jump to escape my sarcasm and delve straight into the press release, which comes straight from Dean's blog. Brian Crecente

AMA NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 27, 2007

AMA TAKES ACTION ON VIDEO GAMES

Nation's physicians call for more research on the appropriate use of video games and increased monitoring by parents.

CHICAGO - Given that approximately 70 to 90 percent of U.S. youths play video games, the American Medical Association (AMA) today called for more research on the long-term beneficial and detrimental effects of video game and Internet use, as well as a review of the current video game ratings system.

To spur additional study, the AMA will submit the full report and recommendations to the American Psychiatric Association and other appropriate medical specialty societies for review and consideration in conjunction with the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

"While more study is needed on the addictive potential of video games, the AMA remains concerned about the behavioral, health and societal effects of video game and Internet overuse," said Ronald M. Davis, M.D., AMA President. "We urge parents to closely monitor their children's use of video games and the Internet."

The AMA also called for a review of the current video game ratings systems. The current ratings system for video games has been in place since 1994. Research from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Surgeon General, links children's exposure to media violence with increases in aggressive and violent behavior. Concern about this system's effectiveness in alerting parents to violence and age appropriate content has led to attempts at both the federal and state levels to enact regulation of video game content and to better control the sale of inappropriate video games to minors.

"We would like to see a ratings system that better alerts parents to the content of the video game and recommended age of the player, so they can decide whether or not their child should be playing it," said Dr. Davis. "Parents need to more closely monitor and restrict the types of video games their children are playing and buying, and a clear rating system would help them do that."

Doctors backed away on Sunday from a controversial proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder akin to alcoholism, saying psychiatrists should study the issue more.

Addiction experts also strongly opposed the idea at a debate at the American Medical Association's annual meeting. They said more study is needed before excessive use of video and online games — a problem that affects about 10 percent of players — could be considered a mental illness.

Instead of trying to get the manual updated with video game addiction in it this year, the committee suggested the American Psychiatric Associated consider adding it to the manual in five years when the manual will be up for revision. Which is fine by me. In five years, I'll be so consumed with my alcohol-induced depression, I won't really have time to play video games. Kim Phu.

Addiction Experts Say Video Games Not an Addiction [Reuters]

Ender's Game writer Orson Scott Card used have it bad for gaming. How bad? Card explains:

Yeah, I know, I sound like an ex-drinker talking about all the good times I used to have on my alcoholic binges...

My cold-turkey stop was because, and I'm serious here, it was costing me a shocking amount of money and depriving me of a home life with my family. Here I am, a self-employed writer, and I never had time for my family because I had this GAME that was waiting to seduce me whenever I pretended I was going to the office to work. I estimate there are about twenty novels that were never written because of computer games. Now, there are those who think that's a blessing to literature, but at the very least it was costing me money because I wasn't getting paid as often as when I actually complete the books that are under contract.

Card Interview [Gaming Today via QJ.Net]