10% of All Video Gamers Are Addicted - What is the Percentage in Gaming Communities?

A recent study in a major neurology scientific journal noted that 10% of all video gamers are indeed addicted to playing these games. This obviously didn't surprise many parents or teachers, and it hardly sent even a ripple of a shock wave into the video gaming software industry, as they are well aware of who their ideal consumers and clients are and have been aware of this for decades now. Still, one has to ask; If the average video gamer is addicted to playing, then what is the number associated with those who are actually part of online video gaming communities?

After all, those who are fully into playing are also discussing tactics, strategies, and even cheats with their friends online. And if you go and check out some of the forums of the gaming communities you will see players posts 100s if not 1000s of posts in discussing various games. It's absolutely amazing.

Many of these folks are teens and young adults, but you'd be blown away by how many 40+ video gamers there are in these online groups. Many of the discussions are quite detailed and complex, and the strategies are nothing short of military scholars in discussing battle tactics of the civil war, WWII or modern day net-centric warfare exploits.

In viewing all this and thinking about it at length and dropping into random various online gamer communities, I'd say the addiction rates of these participants is probably nearly 75%. Of course, we will have to wait for empirical and research to back that up. Please consider all this.

Should We Still Be Gaming Past Our 30th Birthdays?

I am 34 years old. Still a young man you would say. So why is it that when I speak to my nephew about video games he always looks at me in a funny way and suggests I should have better things to do at my age?

Video games have, over the years, always been aimed at a younger audience. However as product sophistication has grown, and revenue potentials been realized, so has the target audience at which games are targeted. A good example of this would be the Grand Theft Auto series. Given an 18 rating certificate by the board of classification surely this game is targeted towards a more mature audience?

In some respects this is true. However, much like the 'alcopop' drinks are clearly targeted at an under age audience, so are many video games. Now, I like Grand Theft Auto - a bit. Its a good game and I can see how it has done so well. But I believe the reason is has done so well isn't so much in spite of its 18 certificate but because of it. As a teenager is is seen a highly cool to be seen with anything which has an 18 certificate attached to it. Lots of violence, swearing, nudity and prostitution - these are all super cool things to a teenager!

However, for a man in his early thirties, running around shooting people and having sex with virtual prostitutes isn't really my cup of tea. I prefer to indulge my gaming urges with something which requires rather more thought and strategy.

Some of my favorite all time titles include the Football Manager and Total War series of games. Both require serious time and thought to really gain their full potential. That's not to say they are a hard slog, if that were so then obviously they wouldn't get played - but rather they are enormous fun, just not in the urgent 'shoot em up kind of way.

Ventrilo Servers Gives You Best Gaming Experience

Internet has revolutionized the way we play games on the computer. You can enjoy computer games even more when you play multiplayer games on the internet. Gone are the days when you used to call over your friends to your home to play multiplayer games. Now you can connect to thousands of players online through the internet by indulging in online games. By means of servers like Ventrilo servers, you can host multiplayer games and battle it out with the people all over the world.

Games like Counter Strike and World of Warcraft can be best enjoyed through multiplayer games online. In order to enjoy games online, you need to create game server to which different client gamers from all over the world can connect. Game server can be created by means of application such as Ventrilo. You can create any number of Ventrilo servers and invite other gamers to join your server.

One of the most important aspects of Ventrilo servers is that it lets you do voice chat with players. This feature can come very handy when you are playing tactical team games. Voice communication during the game will surely help you in winning the game by strategizing and planning well. Moreover, it will save you from the hassles of typing messages while playing fast-paced multiplayer games.

The clarity of the voice through game servers created through Ventrilo is crystal clear because of its surround sound capabilities. Your voice will reach the recipient and vice-versa instantly. This will make you feel that your teammate is sitting right next to you while playing the game. The reason why Ventrilo servers are able to transmit voice instantly is because of the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology. If you love playing multiplayer games online, you definitely make use of such an application to get the best gaming experience.

PSP Games - Enjoy the Ultimate Gaming

The Play Station Portable which is formally known as PSP is a hand-held gaming console which is manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. The sophisticated gaming console is exploding popularity since it's launch.

Several Play Station games have been released so far. The games can also be downloaded and played on the PSP via emulation. Currently, two official ways to access this feature is through the PC or through the Play Station Network service. The demos for commercial PSP games can be downloaded and booted directly from a Memory Stick. These demo contents are also sometimes issued in UMD format and mailed out to customers at various retail outlets as promotional content.

The most popular and best selling contemporary PSP games are Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories , Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII , Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Patapon, Daxter, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops etc.

Among these games two most popular games are the 'Grand Theft Auto' and the 'Crisis Core'. The 'Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories' game is set in Liberty City. The game first comes in the year 1998, three years before the events of GTA III. Toni Cipriani is fresh back in the city after lying low for several years, having offered a made man as a favour for Don Salvatore Leone. On the other side, the 'Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII' has action- and menu-based elements. The new battle system which is used in this game is known as Digital Mind Wave.

Internet is the best way to download free games for PSP. There are thousands of websites out there which allows downloading free games. Apart from games one will also able to download other PSP stuff like music, themes, movies and wallpapers.

So. what are you waiting for? Are a really conscious about gaming and wants a highly sophisticated and high-end gaming console games, which will affordable too then the PSP Games are just for you.

How to Manage Your Gaming Tactics Online

Register - The first step to improving your gaming tactics is to register with an online gaming community. Once your team have joined up, you can then create your own space within the site. Each team can choose to create their own tactics board or join forces with another team. A tactics board is your own place in which to manage your gaming strategies.

Create a Team Profile - Once your team has a tactic board it is time to register all of your details and create a profile. This information is needed in order to set up an account. The team profile section will detail information on all team members.

Create a Strategy Folder - This is the place where all of your gaming tactics will be stored. You and your team can refer back to these notes at any time and update them as you wish.

Use the Gaming Forums - The online forum is the perfect way to confer with your team on new ideas for gaming tactics. This means that no matter where the members of your team are they can still interact online together.

Up your Game - An online gaming community is the ideal platform for gamers to work together and improve their techniques.

Stay in the Loop - Benefit from all the latest gaming news and discuss it with other teams on the online forum. Post a message on the forum regarding anything related to the world of gaming and converse with others who share the same interests.

What Makes a Good Gaming Fan Site?

One of the first things you are likely to think about when setting up your fan-site is how you want it to look. A lot of gaming sites go for a dark background with white text, in the majority of cases this is actually a bad idea. Our eyes have grown accustomed to reading dark text on a white background and it actually takes more effort to read light text on a dark background. You want it to be as easy as possible for the users of your site to be able to read the content that they are looking for, or they might just leave.

Adverts are another big issue. If your site is completely plastered in irrelevant adverts that is going to annoy your visitors which is not a good thing. There are also additional factors regarding advertising to take into consideration, particularly when dealing with fan-sites surrounding MMOs, and that is that there are companies advertising that are detrimental to the game that your viewers are playing. An example would be Blizzards game World of Warcraft, there are companies that sell gold to players which is against the terms of use agreement. Not only can buying gold lead to the players being banned from the game, but the companies that sell the gold also frequently engage in bad activities to get hold of the gold that they are selling, such as hacking users accounts.

Unique content is the big factor to determine any websites success. If you are providing information that people want and they can't get anywhere else, your sure to be an internet success.

A community is also a common element added to successful MMO fan-sites. The obvious way to start a community is to use a forum, this allows people to talk about the game and share information between each other.

Pretty pictures and movies can also play a big part, in particular if the game has not released yet such as Blizzards Next-Gen MMO. People will be very interested to look at any screenshots or game-play footage.

Finally, embracing social media is also a useful practice. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow people to share sites that they like with all their friends, who in turn may also share. The better your content is, the more you will benefit from social media. If your content is really good your site could even "go viral" which can create mass amounts of traffic in a very short space of time.