|
|
|
Table of Contents
Why Become a MemberPricing for members is between 10% and 20% cheaper. In addition, members have the ability to reserve gaming stations in advance to guarantee their play times. 3 Month Membership Fees include reservation rights and Membership in LFG sponsored Guilds/Clans 1 Year Membership Fees include reservation rights, Membership in LFG sponsored Guilds/Clans and 1 hour free playing time. Back to TopWhat's Special about LFG?'s PC'sBased on AMD's Dual-Core Athalon 64x2 3800 CPU running Windows XP Professional 64 bit, LFG's computers provide state of the art power and performance for any game imaginable today. We utilize NVIDIA's NF4 SLI Single Chipset and NVIDIA's 7800 GT 256MB video adaptor for outstanding graphics performance. Equipped with Logitech MX518 Gaming mice, 2GB of DDR3200 400mhz RAM, 160GB of Serial ATA Hard disk space and 100MB/second switched wired LAN, prepare for 0 latency, full-bore all out gaming excitement. Back to TopWhat is LFG's After School Program?Coming this fall, the LFG After School Program is a service for parents to provide a supervised environment from 3pm to 6pm on week nights where kids can come and do their homework, after which they can play with their friends in LFG's Gaming Centre until their parents' busy work day is done. The After School Program provides a distraction-free room supervised by specially trained staff who can assist your kids with their homework before being rewarded with time to play their favorite computer games. The After School program is available for a daily rate of $30, or take advantage of our weekly discount rate of $120 or the monthly program at only $450 Call us for more details today. Back to TopWhy Should I Recommend LFG to a Friend?If you have enjoyed your experience at LFG, share it with a friend! Bring a friend to LFG and both you and your friend will receive your first 1/2 hour of gaming free! Back to TopWhy Do I Need a Personal Account for Some Games?Massively multi-player games such as City of Heroes or World of Warcraft require each on-line account to be registered and paid for by an individual rather than a company like LFG. We provide the software on our systems to allow you and your friends, clan or guild mates to experience the added enjoyment of playing face-to-face, but cannot provide you with an on-line account for these types of games except during special events or tournaments. Back to TopCan I Load My Own Games on LFG's Computers?Except for special events, Game Parties or Tournaments, LFG does not allow you to load your own games or download games from the internet without express permission on a case-by-case basis. Please check with the counter staff if you have a special game you wish to play. Back to TopCan I Copy Games from LFG?No. All games at LFG are the property of LFG. LFG adheres to all laws regarding copyright and End User License Agreements (EULA). Unlawful software duplication is a crime, not a game. Back to TopCan I Download Stuff from the Internet?Some stuff is ok to download to CD or flash media, others are not. Please check with the counter staff before downloading. Back to TopCan I Play Games I'm Not Old Enough to Play?
The ESRB rating system helps parents and other consumers choose the games that are right for their families. ESRB ratings have two parts: rating symbols that suggest what age group the game is best for, and content descriptors that indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern. While LFG is not responsible for deciding what is best for you or your children, we will be happy to help you enforce your own choices for your children. Contact LFG and inform us of what ratings are acceptable for your children and we'll be glad to restrict their access to games conforming to those choices Back to TopReality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games DebunkedHenry Jenkins MIT ProfessorA large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction. 1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester. 2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, "media effects." This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds. In these studies, media images are removed from any narrative context. Subjects are asked to engage with content that they would not normally consume and may not understand. Finally, the laboratory context is radically different from the environments where games would normally be played. Most studies found a correlation, not a causal relationship, which means the research could simply show that aggressive people like aggressive entertainment. That's why the vague term "links" is used here. If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences — which can contribute to anti-social behavior. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer. 3. Children are the primary market for video games.While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together. 4. Almost no girls play computer games.Historically, the video game market has been predominantly male. However, the percentage of women playing games has steadily increased over the past decade. Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games. Spurred by the belief that games were an important gateway into other kinds of digital literacy, efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls. More recent games such as The Sims were huge crossover successes that attracted many women who had never played games before. Given the historic imbalance in the game market (and among people working inside the game industry), the presence of sexist stereotyping in games is hardly surprising. Yet it's also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent. In his book Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones argues that young girls often build upon these representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives. 5. Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.Former military psychologist and moral reformer David Grossman argues that because the military uses games in training (including, he claims, training soldiers to shoot and kill), the generation of young people who play such games are similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions. Grossman's model only works if:
The military uses games as part of a specific curriculum, with clearly defined goals, in a context where students actively want to learn and have a need for the information being transmitted. There are consequences for not mastering those skills. That being said, a growing body of research does suggest that games can enhance learning. In his recent book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Gee describes game players as active problem solvers who do not see mistakes as errors, but as opportunities for improvement. Players search for newer, better solutions to problems and challenges, he says. And they are encouraged to constantly form and test hypotheses. This research points to a fundamentally different model of how and what players learn from games. 6. Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.On April 19, 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that video games do not convey ideas and thus enjoy no constitutional protection. As evidence, Saint Louis County presented the judge with videotaped excerpts from four games, all within a narrow range of genres, and all the subject of previous controversy. Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware." Posner adds, "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it." Many early games were little more than shooting galleries where players were encouraged to blast everything that moved. Many current games are designed to be ethical testing grounds. They allow players to navigate an expansive and open-ended world, make their own choices and witness their consequences. The Sims designer Will Wright argues that games are perhaps the only medium that allows us to experience guilt over the actions of fictional characters. In a movie, one can always pull back and condemn the character or the artist when they cross certain social boundaries. But in playing a game, we choose what happens to the characters. In the right circumstances, we can be encouraged to examine our own values by seeing how we behave within virtual space. 7. Video game play is socially isolating.Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players — for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players. Sociologist Talmadge Wright has logged many hours observing online communities interact with and react to violent video games, concluding that meta-gaming (conversation about game content) provides a context for thinking about rules and rule-breaking. In this way there are really two games taking place simultaneously: one, the explicit conflict and combat on the screen; the other, the implicit cooperation and comradeship between the players. Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen. 8. Video game play is desensitizing.Classic studies of play behavior among primates suggest that apes make basic distinctions between play fighting and actual combat. In some circumstances, they seem to take pleasure wrestling and tousling with each other. In others, they might rip each other apart in mortal combat. Game designer and play theorist Eric Zimmerman describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions. Media reformers argue that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims. Yet, a child who responds to a video game the same way he or she responds to a real-world tragedy could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed. Here's where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the "magic circle" of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play. Henry Jenkins is the director of comparative studies at MIT. Sources
Revised: June 24, 2008 .
|
School Season Hours of Operation
| Day | Hours |
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 2 PM-12 AM |
| Wednesday | 2 PM-12 AM |
| Thursday | 2 PM-12 AM |
| Friday | 2 PM-12 AM |
| Saturday | 12 PM-12 AM |
| Sunday | 12 PM-10 PM |
| If We Have Customers, We Stay Open! | |
