Previous studies have not directly linked children's exposure to media violence with increases in aggression. Black's research on children and bullying includes a case study, currently in review, about a 12-yearold old boy whose behavior changed after he began playing a MMORPG. REUTERS

Video gamers try to break the image of a slacker
Matt Ringel knows there's a certain image that comes to mind when you start talking about hardcore video gamers: think teenage boys with messy hair and dark circles under their eyes from staying up all night, their eyes glued to a screen and their fingers frantically flitting about a keyboard or a controller.

It's an image Ringel knows well. A passionate gamer even as he closes in on 40, Ringel has spent his fair share of long nights playing with his friends. But now as the commissioner of the World Series of Video Games, Ringel is eager to dispel the notion of gamers as soda-swilling, junk food-eating slackers with an aversion to showers and social activity.

The majority of the players who will compete in one of the handful of World Series events this year have a life, Ringel said. Even better, they have personality.

"These guys, it's totally antithetical to `the lazy gamer'," Ringel said. "They're highly regimented, highly disciplined. They're into physical conditioning. They're normal people." Now in its second year, the World Series offers gamers the chance to compete in a handful of popular titles with the winners taking home thousands of dollars in prize money.