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Welcome to the online home of the Into Gaming radio broadcastInto Gaming, hosted by Mark Lautenschlager, is a weekly two hour show covering the world of video games. Not just computer and console games, but games for your handheld devices and even cell phones. We're glad you've come to our site. If you'd like to listen to past shows or find out when we covered a particular topic, click on the archives button in our menu. Show on hiatus for a whileThe Into Gaming show is on hiatus, as host Mark Lautenschlager has taken an extended leave of absence from the network. However, Mark is producing a weekly "Into Gaming Minute" that airs during the Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline show. We encourage you to tune in and hear that each weekend. We look forward to being able to bring you some fresh Into Gaming episodes in the future. You can check back on this site for any updates on this.
Into Gaming Blog It's time for E3 ... well, sortaThis month, the E3 Media and Business Summit will be held in Santa Monica, CA. I know, some of you thought E3 was dead. Well, it's only MOSTLY dead. The new show is an invitation-only event, with ESA member companies mailing their golden tickets back in April. E3 used to be the center of the gaming universe, where tens of thousands of gamers and media types would gather to explore the latest hardware and software. It was never technically open to the public, only the media, but if you were over 18 and could supply a web link to a blog that mentioned games, you were in. The rules were too loose, and we all knew it. But the old adage is true, once you give something away, it's hard to take it back. To get control of who can attend – AND do away with those huge, expensive booths – the ESA tore the whole thing down and built it back up again. So now, three to four thousand hand-picked attendees will be gathering in a hangar in Santa Monica to attend a series of press conferences. The question is whether, except for commentaries like this one, the video game world will even notice. -- Mark Lautenschlager Addicted to video games? Um, what's your point?The American Medical Association is preparing for its annual policy meeting to be held in Chicago, IL. The AMA was planning on including video game addiction in its diagnostic manual of psychiatric illnesses. Detox and rehab for World of Warcraft junkies like me, maybe interventions and lockdown for Halo 2 fanatics. I understand they meant well, but the fact is that video games are no more addictive than any other activity that can cause the release of endorphins in the brain. Sky diving, watching sporting events, or running wind sprints might, under the same criteria, be considered an addiction. I'm not saying that people can't spend too much time playing video games. But let's stop picking on video games because they're the easy target. It almost makes me think that too many doctors and lawmakers have been repeatedly owned playing Call of Duty on their Xbox 360s. And the AMA? They've watered down the report, calling it a “problem” but saying it stops short of an actual addiction. I suppose that's a victory of sorts. -- Mark Lautenschlager Did you miss anything? Click here for our blog archive page.
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