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Show The Signpost Page 8 Tuesday, August 3, 2004 continued from front City, New York, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland; Rome, Helsinki, Finland; and Sofia, Bulgaria. T:. Team 2 spent four days in each city. The first three days were full of rigorous decaling, while the fourth day proved equally intense as the team waited for the arrival of Zeus and Hera — two chartered 747s that held all of the equipment that Ridges and Ross were to set up, VIPs, media personnel, drivers, and all those who "made the relay function," as Ross put it. The WSU students weren't able to do much sightseeing, but were able to tour a little in Rome, visit an amusement park in Finland, ride elephants in New Dehli, eat "great food — really great food" (according to Ross) in Mexico City, and see their wives, who made a special trip out to New York City to visit, as well as the celebrity-packed celebration at Times Square. Ridges' wife, Kori, said, "Even though it was kind of a small sacrifice to have him gone six weeks, there was no way we were going to let this opportunity pass us by." Ross' wife, Breanna, was equally supportive, despite a brand-new addition to their family (a baby boy), born shortly before Ross' departure. "The great thing was to see the torch theme, 'Pass the Flame, Unite the World/ do just that - all these different people getting together for this one event and doing amazing things. It was incredible/' — Kedrick Ridges WSU engineering student "(The experience) helped me to expand my view outside of the Utah bubble I've lived in my whole life," Ridges remarked in retrospect. "The great thing was to see the torch theme, 'Pass the Flame, Unite the World,' do just that — all these different people getting together for this one event and doing amazing things. It was incredible." You can reach reporter Kimberly Thacker by calling 626-7655. Alan Ross sits in front of an elephant on his trip working for the 2004 Olympic Games. contributing factors are lack of parenting skills, stress, lack of economic means, and little community support. "These are well-known causal theories that we've always talked about," Conroy said, "and I would agree that we all believe that all four of them have to work together when you're looking at why abuse has developed in certain.situations." One of the biggest obstacles to prevention, Conroy noted, is that atrisk parents disregard family resource centers and home visitation programs that attempt to teach parenting skills and provide support. "Problem families are usually socially isolated," Conroy said. "They don't tend to come forward and say they need help." Many successful preventative programs have had to infiltrate communities and make their presence known. Conroy said they often rely on recognized members of the community, which helps build credibility. "There's a lot of relationship building," she said. "People have to develop trust-of them to confide and call for help." August's meeting will feature Vincent Felitti discussing the long-term effects of child abuse. He will also present the topic at the 17th Annual Child Abuse and Family Violence Conference held at WSU. Students can receive one credit in one of seven different departments for attending the two-day conference. The conference features general presentations, as well as field-specific sessions for law enforcement, medical, Abuse continued from front in Florida. "She obviously is passionate about child abuse prevention, and obviously she cared enough to serve on a task force in Florida," Freimuth said. The task force will present a report to the governor at the end of the year. The report will include a study of the child abuse in Utah, societal outcomes stemming from abuse, and other states' effective prevention approaches. The members will also suggest how to best coordinate services in Utah and how they may be funded. July's meeting brought in child abuse prevention researcher Deborah Daro, who discussed some of the theoretical causes of parental abuse. In the 7,408 cases of child abuse in Utah, parents perpetrated 4,831. Four recognized Nintendo continued from page 5 to the appeal. "The games in the middle that were released on Playstation and Sega are mediocre, only the older and the newer stuff have any appeal because the stuff in the middle was trying to look too 3D and futuristic while the Nintendo is simple and watered down," Meszaros said. WSU student Brigette Beyer started playing old Nintendo games with a friend a few years ago and liked the old system so much she purchased one of her own. "I play some Playstation 2 but nothing beats the old Nintendo," Beyer said. "My favorite game of all time is Contra. My other favorites are the Mario Brothers games and Tetris. I just passed Mario Brothers 2 for the first time the other day." Nintendo has taken interest in the recent popularity of their old games and has released a collection of eight classic games on the much smaller hand held Game Boy Advance system, along with a special edition Game Boy that resembles the original NES control paddle. The classic Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1985, is still a popular form of entertainment for some video game enthusiasts. The increase in demand for the original NES, after gaming has progressed with realistic graphics and games, has shown that the classic low-fi games that started it all will never go out of style. You can reach reporter Matt Handy by calling 626-7621. Solutions continued from page 2 1 c=> ^ • ^ ^ I— XX t ~l~ XX 1 r--j 1 1 c C 3 1 ~I~ •—I c=> | ^ XX 1 1=1 * t_ i\xi 1 1 # nr [ E I r*/i 1 L_ 1 XX I F=" | d > • v XX F=« xx rsj C3 ^ i i 1 rvj 1 o 1 ^ 1 1=1 child and family studies, and more. "How we chose speakers is the needs of our local community partners working in the field," Freimuth said. "It's great training that people can receive without having to leave Utah," said Angie Erickson, Prevent Child Abuse Utah Publicity Coordinator. The conference begins Aug. 5, and credit is offered through the WSU child and family studies, criminal justice, education, nursing, psychology, sociology and social work departments. Scholarships are available to qualifying students, and more information is available at 393-3366 or preventchildabuse.info. You can leave a message for reporter Maria Villasenor by calling 626-7614. Video continued from page 5 heated one. One key debate is the amount of access younger gamers have to violent games. The Entertainment Software Rating Board rates all video games for content. All major retailers have a policy of not selling a game with a "mature" rating to minors. If a young teen wishes to purchase a mature game, they are required to call their parents and have them give permission to the vendor; Taylor encounters this frequently at Game Crazy. "Parents don't seem to care and don't even know what the kid is buying," Taylor said. Many attempts by legislature to pass bills prohibiting sales of violent games to minors can be found across the country. All have failed, however, and the responsibility still rests principally with parents to monitor what their child plays. As gamers get older, companies look to provide new experiences to stand out in an increasingly crowded market. One of the most noticeable of these trends is an increased connection between game development and movies. Until recently, most gamers will say they don't have fond memories of games based on movies. "They put out a bad game for name recognition alone," said Sean Peterson, 24, of Ogden. "It's just a way for them to make a quick buck and it's always been that way for movie games." After many years, the movie based game stigma may finally be changing. "There is a great divide that has rarely been crossed," said Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix trilogy. He recently crossed that divide with the Matrix video game. The Wachowski brothers wrote the game specifically to complement the trilogy, with additional content found only in the game. Other big Hollywood names are following suit. Laura M. Holson of the New York Times writes Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, "has joined the rarified Hollywood movie directors who are expected to earn as much money, or even more, from helping create video games as from making movies." Jackson has worked out a deal with Ubisoft that will give him complete creative control over a game based on his King Kong remake. This trend has its own pitfalls though. Most critics agree that the Matrix game should have been much better. The end result felt rushed and somewhat thrown together. The reason being that the game had to be done in time to be released the same day as the second Matrix movie. Fortunately, die video game industry shows no signs of slowing down, and its consumers tend to be very faithful. Joseph Taylor said he is a gamer first and a vendor second. He says games play an important role in his life and can't imagine ever not playing. "It's a way to escape," he said, "to relax, get rid of stress and have fun alone or with other people." You can leave a message for reporter Aaron Taylor by calling 626-7621. |