Eugene, OR- I’m packing my bags, yes I am. For the Summer Games are on!*

As competitive sports video gaming continues to grow, video games are spilling back over into sport, creating interesting mutations. Combining e-sports, brain games, and athletic events under the moniker of “Team Sports,” law students from the University of Oregon are having one last summer bash before classes begin. Friday marks the beginning of the Summer Olympics 2K9, a curious two-day social event that fuses gaming and physical competition.

Do gamers risk poor health?

G4 reports that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has taken a look at the health hazards associated with playing video games and found that addicts are fat and sad. Emerging Health Threats suggest that the hazards of playing video games are not limited to children. The CDC has found a correlation between gaming and health risks in a sample of 500 adults living in the Seattle-Tacoma area. However, correlation does not mean causation as Dr. Primack points out in the study, “people’s lifestyles are getting more sedentary, but maybe games are an effect rather than a cause.”  But why then have people become so much more inactive?  If TV and video game entertainment is not to blame, what role do video games play as coping mechanism? How do we explain the positive and negative affects of video games and their exploding popularity?