CAGcast #72: A Doctor in the House

Dr. Patrick Markey, Professor of Psychology at Villanova University, joins us to speak about his studies on violence and video games. We also discuss console expectations, the Guitar Hero II uproar, answer your CAGbag questions and so much more!

Note: Parts I and II of the interview take place at 28:45 & 86:23
You can find Professor Markey's research here.

Download - 110 minutes, 51MB

Past CAGcasts


[media]http://media.libsyn.com/media/cheapyd/cagcast72.mp3[/media]

Show Linkage/Notes (click the button below to expand):

Bonus Pictures:

Wow, quite an appropriate interview given the recent events that have transpired. Your Nostradamic (is that even a word?) tendencies are getting quite spooky, CheapyD. I'm assuming the interview was planned and done prior to Monday (I've yet to listen to it).

You are correct...the interview was recorded Sunday night (US time).

EDIT: BTW, my GHII just came and I downloaded the patch with no problems.

Great timing on the video game violence issue. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from everyone's buddy Jack in the coming weeks.

Anyway, downloading the cast right now. I'm sure it'll be great, as always!

It seems like Wombat is still having trouble getting into the videogame industry. Is he sending resumes? Does he write reviews and articles on his own website? He needs to be more active if he truly wants to be liberated, because in the end, one has to liberate oneself, like Cheapy did.

Why not be active and start a magazine, say, the CAGMAG. Cheapy and Wombat can write whatever they want and review whatever they want, thus instantly becoming employed "in the industry." Don't wait for those losers at the big sites or mags to let you in... 1up, IGN, EGM... do you really want to work for those "journalists" anyway? Make your own magazine instead. Looking at this site and all the info, listening to all the podcasts, I'm sure Cheapy and Wombat could do it. The first issue's cover should be the avatars both of them. I'll buy a copy when I'm at Borders sipping my Chai tea.

[quote name='CheapyD']You are correct...the interview was recorded Sunday night (US time).[/quote]

That's just creepy. And last week's episode did mention you being a Cagstrodamus, did it not?

Wow, downloading this now, still amazed at the uncanny timing of this week's guest.

Great interview. Unfortunately, it's meaningless to people like Thompson, Dr. Phil, and basically anyone wanting to promote their political agenda with the latest national tragedy.

is it just me or is this episode up a day early? the new arcade game isnt even out yet. btw is that into to the interview from Borat? whats the song called, I couldnt find it in the notes.

Wow, Wombat feels bad about killing civilians. I'd think the majority of people laugh when they kill a good person (I do). Also, when they're talking about Mike Tyson's rape trial, CheapyD's laughs sound really, really menacing.

I wish I knew Markey would be on beforehand. Looking at his research, he's replicating and extending a lot of Craig Anderson's work on psychological measures of aggression.

Giumetti and Markey's paper show some interesting and very clear findings with regard to the effect of "violent video games." However, I had questions about Anderson's methodology and I have questions about Giumetti and Markey's (so, if any are CAGs, I'd love to hear about this).

First, the sample: why are psychologists randomly sampling male and female college students? It's a convenience sample, sure, but also one that (1) ignores a large portion of the same-age non-college population who do play videogames. It may be my sociologist shining through, but since class effects can be found for damn near everything, it would be interesting to extend it to non-college males and females. It also (2) ignores adults and children. Now, of course, this one is part critique and part "here's an opportunity to take the same literature and methods, put different subjects in the lab, and report on the findings." How do college-attending males and females differ from full grown adults (the first cohort of adults who grew up as video game playing children are now approaching 40), and how might children differ from them? (n.b.: I fully appreciate the IRB nightmare it is to get children subjects, but nevertheless consider it important). Finally about the subjects, (3) randomly-sampled college-attending males and females does not get at people who are "gamers." Of course, solid research is lacking on (1) who self-identifies as a gamer or hardcore gamer and, of course, (2) what that precisely means. Nevertheless, a sample like this and research findings like this invite the media to misconstrue and generalize them to say "video games kill!!!," when, in fact, you are using a pretty ungeneralizable sample. That's not your fault, of course, but, nevertheless, until we know about who plays games and how they play them, I don't think the effects research should try to keep advancing. I refuse to believe that anyone playing a game is akin to, say, me playing a videogame. EDIT: It also overstates female participation in video games. It's a hard thing to do (control for gender versus have a weighted sample that resembles what gamer demographics are), but important and possible. Actually, looking back at your results, your OLS tables and discussion make no mention of controlling for gender. Am I missing something?

Second is how "violent" is defined. Now, I've never played Project Gotham Racing (blasphemy!), but I have played Top Spin 2 on the 360. Until I got the hang of the game, I hated it, almost broke a controller, and routinely cursed out the CPU players. I can say the same of Tetris at higher levels. Of course, my evidence is purely anecdotal (but isn't anecdote the singular of "data"? ), but despite your findings, there still remains (1) large ambiguity about what construes a "violent" game, and (2) whether or not there are artifacts of aggression that result from a game that's as frustrating as hell to play (Top Spin) versus something very "intuitive." An artifact of a game's "responsiveness," of course. I don't know that it's something you could control for, unless you have respondents fill out a likert scale after the fact which addresses responsiveness/intuition. I rule the day with Top Spin now, but it only happened after I figured out how to play. RTFM indeed.

Nevertheless, it's good research, and I applaud your extension. I don't offer these questions or criticisms as any sort of "your research is garbage" approach (after all, you aren't an economist ). Rather, it's partially having an interest in researching video games and urging others to do the same. Somewhere, buried deep in my box of projects to begin post-doc, I have a rudimentary survey put together that uses a "scale" of gamer, based upon various measures (time spent playing per week, magazine subs, website reading/website participation, ownership, and general gaming industry knowledge) to try and identify and typify various "hardcore gamers." I know far too much about video games to be left outside that classification because I play less than 10 hours per week.

Cheapy, you're going to insist on getting a US Wii, which you should do since the Wii is region-coded and you can't understand the stuff on there, keep in mind you'd probably have to trade-in your Wii. You'd probably get a premium for it (maybe retail value).

If you do, I think you should at least think about reinvesting in Zelda. You'd get to understand it and play it at your own pace, like every good single player experience. If you don't like the Wii's controls, consider getting a Cube version of it.

All great questions! Let me try to clarify a couple of your questions (I'm Patrick Markey -- see I am a CAG member).
1)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Video game research has been done on non-college students. In fact, you can get a list of such studies in Anderson’s meta-analysis. Of course, most of these non-college students are young children. You are correct – very little (if any) research that I know of has examined adults that are not college students. Although I agree that various demographic variables might attribute to the main effect of violent video games – I’m not sure what type of demographic variable could be responsible for the interaction we found in our data.
2)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Although we did not examine it, past research has examined children and the main effect of violent video games (these past studies tend to find similar results as in adult samples).
3)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]In all of our research we do ask people if they consider themselves gamers, how many hours they play games, etc. So far, we have not found this to alter the results of our studies.
4)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]In a footnote on page 6 it is noted that when we controlled for gender it did not alter the results – for simplicity we only presented the results without gender in the regression analysis.
5)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Defining what is violent is a little difficult. As I indicated on the podcast the definition of violence is changing across time (e.g., Night trap was once considered a very violent game). We attempt to select games with M ratings and that are usually thought of as violent by most people – I’m not sure if anyone would really object to calling Doom3 or Mortal Kombat violent games. We also examine several different violent and nonviolent games – this allows our results to be more generalizable across games and lessons the possibility that a specific quality of a single game (e.g., extremely frustrating) is driving the results. Other research by Anderson has explicitly measured the frustration and excitement of games in order to control for these variables (as I recall, it didn’t make much of a difference in the findings).

Good luck in your post-doc!

Cheers,
Patrick

I'm still looking for luck in my pre-doc (I'm a freshly minted ABD), but thanks!

I'll take a look over your answers later, but I do appreciate them in the meantime.

Thanks for answering my question guys, great show.

All that baby talk reminded me of the baby bloggers, perhaps a Cheap Ass Parent site would work... maybe not.

What microphones do you guys use?

Wombat.... You're wrong on your Guitar Hero 2 research.. The Wonder Years analogy doesn't fly.

When a song is used, as is done in Guitar Hero, in a cover mode, the only group receiving a licensing fee is the songwriter. This is generally sold by a grouping house, and their average cost per song usage is 9 to 10 cents. (Typical songwriter cut)

In Wonder Year's case, they'd be licensing the actual song which includes payments to many other individuals including the performing, distributors, managers, etc. etc.

That's why 95% of the songs in Guitar Hero are covers. And the ones that aren't are generally by groups that are milking their 1 hit wonder (Toadies / My Chemical Romance) or have always had a liberal attitude towards their fans (Primus).

So, the only additional fee for reissuing the songs on 360 would be the additional song writing fee, any additional royalty that the cover artists got (doubt any), the process of adding the rhythm/bass playable mode, testing, and Microsoft's fee.

Note: None of the Guitar Hero 1 songs were original performances.

is anyone else having a problem getting this episode through itunes, i dont know what the deal but itunes wont download it for me it tries to start it then the download just disapears

Im overreacting for sure, I haven't listened to the show yet but obviously you cant turn on the radio or news channels without hearing about the shooting, its just unfortunante that the CAG Cast this week has to serve as a reminder, obviously this wasn't intended because everyones saying that the interview was done before the events took place, but even so... it would still seem appropriate in my opinon to pull the interview for a few weeks.

I'm gonna listen to the episode soon, but the whole premise doesnt fill me with much hope, I dont mind the CagCast tackling tough issues but my favorite part about the show is that it gives me the oppurtunity to take a break from the trials of the world and just listen to an enjoyable show about games.

AS usual Great CAGcast. More so than usual though. Alot of good variety. Fun. INteresting. I liked the interview, the SPM comments, the 360 discussion, reading emails/posts, console expectations, etc.

Still the best vidgame podcast. I've listened to a few others. While they have their moments they generally feel like high school cliques rather than radio shows.

Good show. Too long, but good. I think when you have interviews you should cut some segments like the Cag shopping news. I can get that info on Cag itself.
The Dr. sounded like Kermit the frog to me...

Also I think Super Paper Mario is text heavy since it is a semi-sequel to the Mario RPGs, much like the adventure aspects.

As for the Guitar Hero song pack price, I think it's Activision's way of recooping their Red Octane purchase

Wombat: "And that is what is destroying America." Regarding journalism, etc.

I cannot agree more Wombat, cannot...agree...more! I think another part of the problem is the "need" to be the first to report something. Last night there was a Dateline special on the VT tragedy. I just find it hard to believe that a news magazine show could have all the facts or their ducks in a row already...have all the elements needed to put on a full hour show giving "in depth analysis" blah, blah, blah. All the news is now is a blog with a corporate logo on it and information that is typically less accurate and more slanted.

[quote name='wdwpsu']Wombat.... You're wrong on your Guitar Hero 2 research.. .[/QUOTE]

I agree. Also you seem to miss the point CheapyD was making. The price of songs in GH2 was relatively unaffected by the success of GH1. (in fact you could argue that the price of songs went down because there were more of them for the same price in GH2)

Both are"newly" licensed and I would guess, many of the companies own songs across both games. Yet the only place you are feeling it is with downloadable songs that are $2 a pop.

ne compute pas.

The bigger issue (and what wombat played a part in) is the game of passing the buck. It's always someone else's fault. Maj. Nelson blames Activision, Activision blames publishing companies, Publishing companies blame artists, lawyers and gamers. And no one owns up.

[quote name='Wolfgame']Im overreacting for sure, I haven't listened to the show yet but obviously you cant turn on the radio or news channels without hearing about the shooting, its just unfortunante that the CAG Cast this week has to serve as a reminder, obviously this wasn't intended because everyones saying that the interview was done before the events took place, but even so... it would still seem appropriate in my opinon to pull the interview for a few weeks.

I'm gonna listen to the episode soon, but the whole premise doesnt fill me with much hope, I dont mind the CagCast tackling tough issues but my favorite part about the show is that it gives me the oppurtunity to take a break from the trials of the world and just listen to an enjoyable show about games.[/QUOTE]

Other than a couple cursory comments about how journalists/politicians/lawyers often try to take video game research out of context to relate to school shootings, the discussion of video game violence in this episode really doesn't relate to the shootings at Virginia Tech.

I actually thought it was a somewhat refreshing approach to the subject and pointed out what the research was intended for and how it is often misquoted. It also was a good reminder of how little research has actually been done in this area. Wombat brought up some very good potential areas for future study (I can't think of any of them right now because I'm busy shotgunning people in half in F.E.A.R.).

This is for Dr. Markey and anyone else interested; it isn't research, but more an exploratory piece from the American Sociological Association's monthly magazine on whether or not video games kill.

http://www.contextsmagazine.org/content_sample_v6-1.php

Major Nelson's title is not "Director of Xbox Live", it's ‘Xbox Live Director of Programming’. That seems significantly less important. I don't know how broad his power is, but he sure comes across as the Ronald McDonald of Xbox to me.

I want to go back to something Wobat said last week. I'm a big Wombat fan, but he was way off base questioning the motives of Epic Games in stating they wanted to release the extra Gears of War content for free. Epic has a long history of releasing free content since the original Unreal. Tim Sweeney made the point in the 1up podcast that they believe releasing free content keeps interest up in the game, reducing trade-ins, thus generating more new sales (the only ones Epic sees money from). Cheapy tried several times to make this point, but Wombat interrupted him several times and I don't think this point was ever discussed.

I don't own a 360 or Gears, but I really respect Epic and I feel their argument is pretty convincing. It's a win-win for gamers and developers, and the only people who lose out are the grifters at EBGamestop.

Skipped past the gaming violence parts. It has been done to death. The rest of the show?

Simply meh.

everyone knows that mike tysons punchtout game is the BESt boxing ever

Is anyone elses's iTunes podcast subscription to the CAGcast say that the link is broken?? I've tried deleting, then re-subscribing a couple times, no go.

[quote name='SteveMcQ']Wow, quite an appropriate interview given the recent events that have transpired. Your Nostradamic (is that even a word?) tendencies are getting quite spooky, CheapyD. I'm assuming the interview was planned and done prior to Monday (I've yet to listen to it).[/quote]

Which had nothing to do with violent video games...

Anyway, ill be listening to this in a bit, while doing some homework, ill post back later.

Yeah – this is an often made argument against the possibility that video games cause aggression. However (from my perspective) it’s not applicable to research – as researchers we are not examining killing as an outcome (we are only examining increases in aggression). This is why it is misleading for some (I won’t name names but the initials JT come to mind) to automatically related video game research to school shootings. I personally found it repulsive that some in the media have already attempted to link the VT killings to violent video games (I hope people understand that I was interviewed before the shootings).

As a side note – general trends in decreases in crime are not evidence that violent video games do not cause aggression. This is a straw man argument – no researcher ever said that video games are the only thing that causes aggression. In fact, as I discussed, in general research finds the effect size is extremely small and it is important to consider the dispositional characteristics of the person playing the game (it’s not our fault that the media blows this finding out of proportion).
Cheers,
Patrick


[quote name='mykevermin']This is for Dr. Markey and anyone else interested; it isn't research, but more an exploratory piece from the American Sociological Association's monthly magazine on whether or not video games kill.

http://www.contextsmagazine.org/content_sample_v6-1.php[/quote]

[quote name='ma']Epic has a long history of releasing free content since the original Unreal. Tim Sweeney made the point in the 1up podcast that they believe releasing free content keeps interest up in the game, reducing trade-ins, thus generating more new sales (the only ones Epic sees money from). Cheapy tried several times to make this point, but Wombat interrupted him several times and I don't think this point was ever discussed.[/quote]

I agree, I don't believe there's any conspiracy or posturing at play on Epic's part. It's unfortunate that Wombat got so caught up in what he was saying that he wasn't willing to consider this point.

Wombat's passionate opinions are an ongoing plus and minus for the show, and I think he did go a little overboard on that one. I do like how Cheapy plays the straight man whenever Wombat goes off on one of his rants, and vice versa, though.

Deja-vu, same interviewee was on the game theory podcast, good interview and all just that I was surprised.

[quote name='gunm']I agree, I don't believe there's any conspiracy or posturing at play on Epic's part. It's unfortunate that Wombat got so caught up in what he was saying that he wasn't willing to consider this point.

Wombat's passionate opinions are an ongoing plus and minus for the show, and I think he did go a little overboard on that one. I do like how Cheapy plays the straight man whenever Wombat goes off on one of his rants, and vice versa, though.[/QUOTE]

Well for the record I don't seriously believe that there is a conspiracy theory going on. I just think its a convenient stance to able to take. The "if it were up to us we wouldn't charge but it isn't so sorry guys" is the kind of thing my boss used to say when I would ask for a raise. The fact the you guys are so quick to dismiss it just shows how easy it would be for them to get away with it.

As for GH2, I feel like my point got lost somewhere, I wanted to make sure that we all knew that all the songs from GH1 that are now avail for GH2 on the 360 all needed to be re-licensed for use in the new game. Its is also common for the owners of said songs regardless of who is performing to grossly overcharge when they feel they have the upper hand. This goes even for the use of cover versions, at least thats what I was told by members of the legal dept at Warner Music Group.

To expound on the GHII downloadable content:
Wombat, I'm gonna reinforce that you're not quite on with your Guitar Hero math skills. *EDIT* Althought you go posting while I'm writing this and make me look illiterate. :]
There is, indeed, a difference between using the original recording and a cover of the song. The biggest difference is that using a cover is a simple, flat, predefined (and much smaller) fee per song per platform (I think I heard something as low as US$0.15, but that was on Digg, so I'm not taking it as fact).
Also, I don't think the REAL issue is the pricing. The packs work out to about $6.25, or ~$2/song. The arguement that the price per song is too high and that it should be closer to $1/song is absolutely illogical. For your $2 you get an interactive song (in 5.1, I believe) that you can play on four difficulties and two different parts. That's not the same as a low-quality DRM'd track from iTunes that you can't play. The real issue is the bundling, and that doesn't seem to be tackled by anyone.
Major Nelson, Activision, Red Octane... I don't think I've heard anything from any of them on the bundling, whether it's fact or opinion. That's what bothers me and makes me angry. Paying $2 for a Guitar Hero song that will give you $2 worth of enjoyment out of it, I just want some more flexibility in this. Give us individual songs, give us our choice of three songs for 600 points, give us anything more than these options that we have now.

I find it ironic that people are upset at the media for desensitizing children to violence. When I was in high school, I was taught officiant ways to inflict physical pain on innocent people to achieve my goals. By that, I mean I was on the wrestling team.

I don't understand how it's dangerous to expose angry kids to a violent video game, but it's fine to teach them how to pick up and slam other students for points.

Having a basic knowledge of wrestling, judo, jujitsu, or boxing makes you much more capable of harming others than pressing X to shoot.

[quote name='sleepwalkers']To expound on the GHII downloadable content:
Wombat, I'm gonna reinforce that you're not quite on with your Guitar Hero math skills. *EDIT* Althought you go posting while I'm writing this and make me look illiterate. :]
There is, indeed, a difference between using the original recording and a cover of the song. The biggest difference is that using a cover is a simple, flat, predefined (and much smaller) fee per song per platform (I think I heard something as low as US$0.15, but that was on Digg, so I'm not taking it as fact).
Also, I don't think the REAL issue is the pricing. The packs work out to about $6.25, or ~$2/song. The arguement that the price per song is too high and that it should be closer to $1/song is absolutely illogical. For your $2 you get an interactive song (in 5.1, I believe) that you can play on four difficulties and two different parts. That's not the same as a low-quality DRM'd track from iTunes that you can't play. The real issue is the bundling, and that doesn't seem to be tackled by anyone.
Major Nelson, Activision, Red Octane... I don't think I've heard anything from any of them on the bundling, whether it's fact or opinion. That's what bothers me and makes me angry. Paying $2 for a Guitar Hero song that will give you $2 worth of enjoyment out of it, I just want some more flexibility in this. Give us individual songs, give us our choice of three songs for 600 points, give us anything more than these options that we have now.[/quote]

I think wombats argument is just flaud. If the popularity of guitar hero = price to licence the music, GH3 will cost the consumer about $500.

[quote name='Wombat']Well for the record I don't seriously believe that there is a conspiracy theory going on. I just think its a convenient stance to able to take. The "if it were up to us we wouldn't charge but it isn't so sorry guys" is the kind of thing my boss used to say when I would ask for a raise.[/QUOTE]

They gave me a substantial amount of free content for Unreal, Unreal Tournament, UT2003, and UT2004. There was probably free stuff for Unreal 2, but I haven't played that one. They have put their money where their mouth is.

The analogy to your boss is bogus, unless your boss has given you 4-5 raises in the past just to set up plausible deniability for turning you down this time. Likewise, I don't think Epic has released all those massive free map packs and new gametypes in the past as a setup to make Microsoft look greedy in the Marketplace.

The fact the you guys are so quick to dismiss it just shows how easy it would be for them to get away with it.

Click to expand...

The fact that you stubborly stick to your ill-informed opinion just underscores how wrong you are.

Those of you who are having problems getting the show in iTunes...are you using an old version?

[quote name='zakk']Deja-vu, same interviewee was on the game theory podcast, good interview and all just that I was surprised.[/quote]
You weren't the only one...

[quote name='Wolfgame']Im overreacting for sure, I haven't listened to the show yet but obviously you cant turn on the radio or news channels without hearing about the shooting, its just unfortunante that the CAG Cast this week has to serve as a reminder, obviously this wasn't intended because everyones saying that the interview was done before the events took place, but even so... it would still seem appropriate in my opinon to pull the interview for a few weeks.

I'm gonna listen to the episode soon, but the whole premise doesnt fill me with much hope, I dont mind the CagCast tackling tough issues but my favorite part about the show is that it gives me the oppurtunity to take a break from the trials of the world and just listen to an enjoyable show about games.[/QUOTE]

That's why I don't watch much tv or the news. I have Directv and the only channels I ever watch are the HD Channels and Boomerang. I've even thought of getting rid of every channel. Between being on the net, playing games, watching dvds, who has time for tv? It seems like a financial drain to me. Anyway, I hate the news. Fox News. CNN. Local News. It's all the same crap. I'm sure it's constant coverage of the school shootings, commentary, "insights" from "experts" like Jack Thompson... who was wrong by the way because the shooter didn't play any video games, just watched a lot of wrestling and listened to Nirvana, so I read.

All the commentary and questions about why, why, why did this happen is really short-sighted. It's not videogames. It's not music. It's not guns. It's about the haves and the have nots. We live in such a diverse society, cultures clashing. Some people have money, some people don't. Some people look good, some people look bad. Some people have friends, some don't. Every one of these shootings is because someone who doesn't have these things is upset and jealous... and they take it out on those who do. That's it. How do you change that? We can't really. The world is a melting pot. Violent games are no more "training" for shooting people than sports games are "training for the professionals." Shit just happens. We don't need any studies to tell us that.

Thanks for answering my question, didn't know that about PA, pretty neat.

Also thanks A LOT for linking the psych article and the interview with the Doctor from Villanova. I have final paper about this specific subject due next week and I'll be citing both the article AND this CAGcast in my paper. Thanks again!

[quote name='CheapyD']Those of you who are having problems getting the show in iTunes...are you using an old version?[/QUOTE]

I just updated to 7.1.1 and still no go.

CheapyD, Wombat, that was the best interview you guys have had yet. Dr. Markey was very informative and interesting. It's always great to hear scientific research that refutes the bullshit that spews forth from the mouths of "pundits" like Thompson and "Dr." Phil.

Now, for a bit of constructive criticism. While this was a great interview, it sounded a bit like a conversation. If there's anything I've learned from great interviews aired on sources like NPR, the interviewer asks the questions and remains relatively quiet, allowing the interviewee to say everything and anything they desire. I'm not asking you to shut the hell up, but I am.

Super Paper Mario has minimal motion controls because it was originally planned for the Gamecube.

thats weird its not working through itunes for some, i got it easily right after it came out on itunes. my only suggestion would be unsubscribing and resubscribing.

Another good show guys.....when I'm done with this reply I'll Dig for the 1st time.
It's the least I can do, this sight has a TON of great content, and the CAGcast is always entertaining.

Now for my contest/challenge to CreepyD (I'm still trying to think of a clever alias for Wombat).
For the entire next CAGcast, don't refer to your sexual habits, preferences, genitalia, etc.
The CAGcast is the only thing that makes my time at work go quickly, and I look forward to it every Wed. I really enjoy hearing gaming news and your opinions on the industry and new releases. And then CreepyD mentions his ballsack? Thankfully, we haven't heard much about Wombats insatiable need for sex and his masturbation habits lately.

What will you win, you ask? The knowledge that for one week, you did not make this particular CAG feel "dirty" and "awkward" while innocently listening to the CAGcast in my humble cubicle.

Seriously....Love the site, Love the CAGcast...keep up the good work.
As a lifelong gamer, I wish there more I could contribute to the site.
I chime in with news and deals when I can.

Another quality show, guys. Thanks for a great podcast.

I found the interview to be the best part(s) of this show, the Doctor was very insightful, and it was very refreshing to actually get some commentary about the videogame violence issue from a perspective of someone who has a good deal of experience in the field.

Oh, I also liked Wombat's opinion about how the record companies are really to blame for what people are paying for on XBLM for the Guitar Hero II songs - I'm sure it's hell on earth to get these songs licensed from these vampirical companies for use, and while it's easy to get angry with the publishers and the Marketplace itself, it does make sense when you sit down to think about it.

As usual, thanks for the insightful commentary and the momentary glimpse into your personal lives (although I do wonder what Mrs. Wombat thinks of the flashing incident - I'm in before the obligatory 'pics or it didn't happen' in the 'Hi from Mrs. Wombat' thread). It really does make the show unique in that you get both North American and Japanese cultural glances.

I also reviewed the show on the iTunes store and dugg it, it does definetely deserve more listeners.

Best of luck, and can't wait to hear what the interview(s) are for the next show.

If anyone is feeling like helping to grow our audience, perhaps you could send our lastest episode to the major blogs, in the hopes that they will do a little write up on it.

I think our interview with Professor Markey makes this episode especially topical.

Here is the link to this episode:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/archives/cagcast-72-a-doctor-in-the-house.php


Links to submit items to blogs:
Destructoid
Joystiq
Kotaku

Thanks!



Also, @ Happy Panda
Try this, perhaps...
[quote name='soccerstud652']

I did uncheck the old episode that I had on my iPod and then the download started working. Maybe that is the fix to this solution?[/quote]

It actually fixed itself somehow...I didn't even touch it. It even downloaded the new episode. Weird. Thanks for the suggestion though guys. Also Cheapy, the site is still giving me some weird frames and characters on occasion.

I think the podcast gdog (probably spelled his name wrong) was complaining about was a 1up podcast. While they do investigate stuff from time to time, I feel that they are the fraternity house of video game publications, and I prefer the straight forward style Gamespot delivers their content.

great episode..timing was great and informative. Makes you wonder if they should do more studies or parents should do their job a little better. The whole event is really sad.

ps. BTW I am waiting for EB/GS to get some new GHII's in so that I can take my broke as guitar back and get a new one...my wahmmy is dead and the tilt feature is gone...sucks...oh well.