For the first time a soundtrack for a video game has been nominated for a Grammy. And concerts of music from "Final Fantasy" and "Halo" are staples of pops concerts. Is it serious music?

Listen to the full interview with researcher Cheryl Olson on the latest research on whether violent video games causes violent behavior and hear what studies she thinks need to be conducted in the future. 

Pinball, once banned for nearly 40 years in cities across the country, is experiencing a small renaissance despite the demise of its video game brethren. Jon Ehrlich is a pinball machine collector and owner of Reciprocal Skateboards in Manhattan’s East Village.

On Wednesday, President Obama outlined his proposals for gun control. Among them was a request to Congress for $10 million to study the impact of media on violence, with a nod specifically to video games. Brooke talks to Jason Schreier, a reporter for Kotaku, about 25 years' worth of studies on the effect of violent games, and what researchers have found.

EEG — electroencephalography — is almost a century old, and it’s creeping out of the research lab and the neurologist’s office. Headsets embedded with electrodes to read electrical activity in the brain are commercially available, and designers are using that information for all sorts of purposes ...

Slideshow: The Ascent

Pac-Man and Tetris will soon be among the collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

Yes, New York, Big Buck Hunter - the venerable bar video game - has a world championship. Meet two women determined to win it.

What if all of the time and energy spent playing video games could be energy spent for good? At the ninth annual Games for Change Festival in New York City, game developers, designers, publishers, and players gathered together to explore the greater potential for games.

In 1989 Gameboy revolutionized video games as the world’s first handheld gaming system. Now, developers are looking to continue the portable trend by transitioning video games into our increasingly phone-centered world.

Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website where people ask others to contribute money to their creative projects. Recently, game developer Tim Schafer took in $3.3 million from fans for an untitled, undesigned video game he estimated it would cost $400k to make. Schafer talks to OTM producers and fanboys PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman about removing publishers from the process of making games.

You can listen to more of this interview by following this link!

Video game designer Ian Bogost creates 'serious' video games designed to make you think. One of those games, however, has become an unlikely success. It's called 'Cow Clicker' and though it started as a parody of Farmville-style social networking games - it came to be taken very seriously by a group of gamers who found it endlessly fun. OTM producer PJ Vogt reports on what happens when your creations take on a life of their own.

Anyone who’s played videogames like Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption knows what kind of narratives they tell. Their protagonists are snipers or outlaws ready to fight missions that step outside all legal bounds. Game designers Anna Anthropy, Sebastian Janisz and Michael Molinari choose to tell very different stories. No ambushes, no clandestine ops or full throttle attacks. Brooke talks to the designers about their very personal games.

The video game series Mass Effect has earned millions in sales and near-universal critical acclaim, but the series' conclusion, released this month, was met with howls of rage by gamers. Their gripe? They hated the ending. In response, the game's developers have promised to add additional content that would give fans "more closure." Brooke talks to Grantland's Tom Bissell about whether or not dissatisfied gamers are entitled to a new ending.

As part of our End of War series, we're having a conversation about the portrayal of war in popular culture. Here are some clips of the movies, theater and video games we discussed.

Got a war scene you want to add to the screening room? Post it in the comments page below, or Tweet #EndOfWar

Oklahoma lawmaker William Fourkiller introduced a bill this week that would introduce a 1% tax on violent video games. But as Wall Street Journal reporter Conor Dougherty recently reported, a growing number of gamers who play these violent video games do so non-violently. Dougherty calls it virtual pacifism, essentially finding ways to play games that incorporate killing and maiming without engaging in either. Brooke talks to Dougherty about the trend, and also speaks to Brock Soicher, a 16-year-old virtual pacifist.

Boyz II Men - War

File this under things that will make you say, Duuuuude. The American Museum of Natural History will transform the 70 foot-wide domed ceiling of the Hayden Planetarium into a multi-player video game called Space Cruiser this Thursday evening as part of its after-hours party series.

Unable to tear herself away from the "immensely listenable" London Philharmonic album of video game music, blogger Olivia Giovetti explores the links between the opera stage and the Nintendo console.

If you see a superhero walking around Midtown Manhattan this weekend, chances are he or she is here for Comic Con. The convention kicked off Thursday, and it is about more than just comics. Movies, television shows, books and video games — not all of them based on comics — are represented, and so are the fans.