With young people spending as much time online playing games as they do on homework, Brunel University academics Dr Simon Bradford and Nic Crowe explain how the findings of a three-year study show this is no bad thing.
Computer games are central to the lives of many young people. Online gaming, the ability to play against other gamers across the internet, has only added to the form's potency.
A recent UK survey highlighted that 82% of nine to 19-year-olds have at least one games console and 70% play computer games online. Full Article
Bob and Harvey Weinstein returned to the box-office lead as "Scary Movie 4" debuted with $41 million, the first No. 1 opening for the new company founded by the former Miramax bosses.
It was the best Easter weekend debut ever, beating the $30.1 million opening of "Panic Room" in 2002, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
With the success of "Scary Movie 4," Bob Weinstein said he hopes to have a fifth film in the horror-spoof franchise in theaters over Easter weekend next year.Full Article
Film fans in the UK will soon be able to legally download and keep blockbuster movies for the first time, according to film studio Universal.
King Kong and Pride and Prejudice will be among the first films available from the new service on the AOL website.
Fans will pay £19.99 for a DVD of their chosen film plus two digital copies to keep indefinitely - one for their home computer and one for a portable device.
Universal said it could "completely revolutionise" how people watch movies.
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Tim Burton's Corpse Bride has beaten Wallace and Gromit to be named best feature film at this year's British Animation Awards.
Last Sunday the roles were reversed with Wallace and Gromit winning the Oscar for best animated feature.
Corpse Bride is set in 19th Century Europe, and tells of a man who is transported to the underworld to marry a mysterious stranger.
The eight-minute film Rabbit took best short and most cutting edge production.
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If you have played games online in the last year or so, then World of Warcraft is a name that has been hard to avoid.
Blizzard's stunning MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) has swept all before it, breaking various genre records and notching up more than 5.5 million regular players in the process.
It has been a meteoric rise for a game that was expected to do well, but arguably not this well.
"It's pretty surprising to us," said the game's lead producer, Shane Dabiri.
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Hollywood film Memoirs of a Geisha has been banned in China after coming in for criticism in the country's media.
The decision to cast Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li in leading roles as Japanese women has caused controversy in China.Critics say it is insensitive because of Japan's atrocities during their occupation of China in the 1930s.
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The Johnny Cash movie "Walk the Line" failed to secure an Oscar nomination for best picture on Tuesday, despite Golden Globe victories and widespread acclaim for a project that took a decade to get made.
Its omission was perhaps the biggest snub handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, although high-profile films such as "Match Point," "Cinderella Man" and "King Kong" were also left out of the big categories.
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Walt Disney has agreed a $7.4bn (£4.1bn) deal to buy Pixar, the animation firm behind films including Toy Story and The Incredibles.
The all-share deal will see Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs join Disney's board of directors.
Under the agreement, 2.3 Disney shares will be issued for each Pixar share.
Disney's distribution deal with Pixar was due to end this year, and it seemed the two would split after failing to agree on how to divide future profits.
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