Round Up: Twilight Princess, Play N Trade, VG Violence

Today's Gamasutra round-up includes news of Twilight Princess being recognized by MTV2, impressive growth by used gaming chain Play N Trade, and a report of video games desensitizing players to real world violence, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - MTV2 has announced the results of "All That Rocks," a user-generated television special designed to recognize viewers who are obsessed with technology and pop culture. Hosted by Bam Margera, "All That Rocks" is set to air on MTV2 on Sunday, July 30th at 9 PM ET/PT. The show will feature up and coming musical artists, and will give viewers and attendees to showcase their picks from a number of entertainment and technology categories, including “Insane New Game”, which was awarded to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. The upcoming title beat out fellow, also unreleased nominees Resistance: Fall of Man for the PlayStation 3 and Gears of War for the Xbox 360. Apple's Video iPod was awarded the winner of the “Most Critical Hardware” category, beating out Sony's PSP. - Used video game retail chain Play N Trade announced that it has experienced significant growth in recent months. Within the last 60 days over 27 franchises have been purchased, an equivalent of 208 percent growth. Currently, the company has sold 41 franchises and has 16 stores open nationwide. In addition, Play N Trade confirmed that it plans to grow to 120 locations by this time next year. “We couldn’t be more excited,” commented Yuvi Shmul, Play N Trade's CEO. Used game selling continues to be a significant source of revenue to both used-only chains such as Play N Trade and the largest game store firm, GameStop, in North America. - A report from medical website WebMD is alleging the ability of video games to desensitize players to real world violence. "It appears that individuals who play violent video games habituate, or 'get used to,' all the violence and eventually become physiologically numb to it," wrote Nicholas Carnagey, MS, and colleagues. The study examined 257 college students -- 124 men and 133 women – of which one group played violent video games such as Mortal Kombat or Carmageddon while the other played nonviolent games such as 3D Pinball and Tetra Madness. After a 20 minute period of play, the students then watched footage of real life violence. The study found that those who played the more violent games were less responsive to the real violence they were showed as compared to those who played those of the nonviolent sort. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include news of World of Warcraft and Coca-Cola tie-ins at the ChinaJoy game show in Shanghai, a careful look at Capcom Classics Collection Remixed for the PSP, and a compilation from a Japanese hentai game musician. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news, including news of VR being used in the military to treat PTSD, plus Gamasutra product news including PipelineFX showing off Qubic, Qube! at Siggraph 2006 and modo 3D used in making 'The Ant Bully', plus the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Electronic Arts Tiburon, EA Mobile Games, Gas Powered Games, LucasArts, NaturalMotion, and Sony Online Entertainment.