THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 7A
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013
CULTURE
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Students gather for a picture at last years Purim party hosted by KU Chabad.
According to Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, executive director of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, "the holiday of Purim highlights the significance of joy and togetherness in ludaism."
To honor and celebrate this positive energy, Chabad will be hosting a 'Mediterranean Purim' at the Hookah House. According to a press release, Chabad is looking to put a "creative twist" on this year's student celebration.
KU Chabad hosts Purim celebration
LYNDSEY HAVENS
Ihavens@kansan.com
The Jewish holiday of Purim falls on Feb. 23. Purim is considered to be the most joyous holiday of the Jewish calendar. The literal meaning of the word Purim is 'lots', in reference to a lottery that would determine the day of the annihilation of the Jews.
Fortunately, the Jewish community survived and prospered as a result of unity and commitment to Jewish identity.
The event will include a reading
The press release invites participants to dress in costume in the spirit of Purim.
of a special scroll, known as the 'Megillah,' as well as great food, music, treats, and free hookah.
The event will be held at the Hookah Houseat 730 Massachusetts Street in Downtown Lawrence. It will be on Saturday, February 24 from 7:30 to p.m.
Brianna Brown, a freshman from Leawood, will be attending the event. "I'm excited because Purim is like the Jewish Halloween," Brown said. "It will be fun to be around other students who are happy to be celebrating together. I especially looking forward to the location, I think that alone will draw students in."
The event will not only be a night of fun but a learning experience as well. According to the press release, the event is campus-wide and open to all students regardless of affiliation or background.
SUDOKU
Edited by Ashleigh Tidwell
Difficulty Level ★★★
2/21
MEDIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Video game violence raises questions
DANE VEDDER
dvedder@kansan.com
The struggle to find meaning in the wake of tragedy is a natural response to heartbreaking news, and reactions to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School are no exception. Millions in awe of the event have left no stone unturned in search of a solution to America's fundamental problem with aggression and violence, primarily related to guns. Advocates of stricter gun control are calling on politicians to target government policies and organizations that might allow someone like Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, to slip through the cracks.
"The Last of Us" is a video game set in a post-apocalyptic world where players must kill to survive, and is scheduled for release in June. Photo provided by Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America.
One such target is the video game industry, which has been placed in the national spotlight many times before in response to violent crimes. Some consider the ease of access to high-powered firearms to be the fundamental issue, while others are looking closer to home and assessing what creates this culture of violence in the first place.
In an average day of media consumption, it is near impossible to avoid violent images, whether it be in movies, music or video games. At a certain point, separating violence from mainstream media seems about as probable as removing wetness from water; even earlier generations grew up with classic "shoot em' up" movies like John Wayne's "True Grit." However, violence in the video gaming world has evolved much more gradually than in film. The question many are asking is: Does exposure to violent material in a virtual world elicit violent behavior in the real world?
Grassroots efforts to combat violent video gaming have already begun, like the "Violent Video Games Return Program," an event hosted early in which residents were encouraged to bring their violent video games to be smashed and incinerated in exchange for a $25 gift card from the Chamber of Commerce.
- Other evidence-free attacks on the video game industry have shown the highly reactive nature of politicians and the press. Activists are calling for game developers to completely overhaul their business strategies and to reevaluate games that send implicit messages leading to violence. Among the suggested solutions include: tighter regulation on games with mature (18+ years old) ratings and a more regulated system of banning overlyviolent titles.
In order to determine how and why changes to this industry can be made, it is important to understand video gaming at an elementary level. Universal goals shared by most video games are typically gathering resources, acquiring a high number of points and ultimately avoiding death. Decades ago, these principles brought tremendous success to even the simplest games like Galaga, an 8-bit arcade game where the player must fend off an encroaching wall of pixelated aliens at increasingly difficult levels. However, newer technology coupled with the demand for "more realistic" gaming experiences has forced the hand of game developers to push the envelope on both reality and violence.
Ian Tait, a senior from Overland Park, Kan., has played video games throughout his whole life and says
The most commonly attacked games, including the "Grand Theft Auto" series and "Mortal Kombat" have been in the national spotlight many times before due to their graphic content that, at times, encourages violent in-game behavior. In fact, the gruesome blood and gore in "Mortal Kombat" led to politicians giving the gaming industry one year to form its own rating system, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) which is still used today.
In titles like "Grand Theft Auto", players are given endless possibilities to do what they want to whoever they want in this virtual world, also known as a "sandbox environment." This open-ended freedom has led many to ask if games allowing players to act violently with no consequences directly translate to real-world behavior, where the
he spends around 10-15 hours each week on gaming. "Violence in video games don't contribute to someone's decision to bring a gun to school. It might show them how weapons are handled, but these people in question are predisposed to violence anyway." Tait considers his most violent gaming experience to be from playing "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", a first-person shooter in which the main objective is to seek out and kill other players in competitive matches.
"The U.S. government did irreparable damage to the comic book industry in the 1950s by using faulty research to falsely blame juvenile delinquency and illiteracy on comic books," Greenberg said. "It decimated the production of one of the few kinds of literature that at-risk youths read for pleasure. Censoring video games could have similar unintended consequences"
consequences are very real.
In a conference last month, Vice President Joe Biden sat down with representatives from the video game industry to hear concerns and address the issue head-on. President Obama entrusted Biden with leading a series of reform meetings with executives from major game development companies. Daniel Greenberg, the Anti-Censorship chairman of the International Game Developers Association urged Biden to "not be seeking ways to constrain this emerging medium so early in its development by scapegoating video games for societal ills."
As violent video games continue to keep politicians and worried parents up at night, there will undoubtedly be more studies conducted to determine the effects of gaming on the human psyche.
Edited by Madison Schultz