Go look up the 'adventure' section on Steam for tons of examples! If you're looking for major titles, then you might only find passing nods to it here and there (aside from something like Portal 2).. but there are countless independent games that focus on rich atmospherics combined with puzzles. On iOS The Room is a short but fantastic example of this that anyone who loves Myst should really check out. Kairo (multiplatform) is kinda interesting too, how about Braid, shall we go on and on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain_development_timeline#Current_Research

In line with what you are saying, most teenagers do not have fully developed frontal lobes until around the time of legal adulthood. More contemporary research I've seen suggests the brain continues to develop until around age 25.

I do indeed remember what it was like to be a youngster. I had a lot of fun. I was also a bit of a dick. I knew Star Wars was fake. I got way more into simple pixelated video games than I'm capable of doing now. When I played Venture on ColecoVision, my heart burst out of my chest when the pixelated monster came into the room to eat me.

I might not have known that cops weren't supposed to needlessly abuse people they arrested though, since the media portrayed that as the way things are done. Of course there's adults who still don't get that, either.

The RIAA was silent on the standard industry practice of directly ripping off the hard work and experimentation of underground alternative rock and electronic artists without so much an iota of credit.

(one of countless examples: http://flavorwire.com/newswire/is-kehas-stage-show-ripping-off-the-residents)

What I have discovered is that when you are anxious, your body is wired to self-destruct.
I find as one grows older, the physical side effects get worse. When you are young and anxious/depressed, you might be catatonic, you might not sleep well, but you bounce back. When you get older, now you've got things like constant IBS, nevermind the lack of sleep catches up with you. In short, a vicious circle. As we know now too, such illnesses can fuck up everything from how the body processes fat, releases insulin, to even changes in brain structure (increased amygdala, shrunken hippocampus.. fortunately what I was taught is that this can heal with time).

I too try to approach it from the technical standpoint. The science is pretty clear these days, it takes away the ability of people to point fingers and blame once you really know what's going on. I think both that and the subjective are needed though, not everyone thinks the same.

Despite volumes of information on how things like depression and anxiety are both physical and mental, sometimes inheritable, linked to genes that regulate serotonin, linked to biological (hormonal eg glucocorticoid) markers, and have drastic physical consequences on the body in terms of elevated stress responses that affect a manifold of parasympathetic CNS responses, and with that increased risk of major illnesses, despite all the information in the world detailing how it is real, you'll still find lots of people who claim it isn't, or that people are just making it up to be victims. They don't get that the brain is a physical thing, and what happens to it affects YOU, everything you do, your decisions, emotions, etc. It's almost like they are naive dualists who don't know they are espousing dualism.
I mean the top rated posts in this thread are great, but you know the types, the ones who give out terrible and useless advice. It's ironic how mental health issues turn ordinary people who claim to like science into much the same as creationists: utilizing straw men, attacking caricatures of real science, doing anything but addressing the real issues the science brings up.
And yes, as others have hinted, one can be incredibly intelligent, productive, one can be anything really, and still fall victim to it. /end rant

You can be moral, and distinguish between fantasy violence and the real world. Some prefer to keep it that way from start to end.

The arms manufacturers are actually anything but shady in the article, as they've been transparent about the entire process (the games industry would have looked a lot better in this article if they had acted the same way, rather than acting defensively, although we've no way of knowing exactly what questions they were asked).

This article does a great job pointing out the 'shadiness' of the NRA's about-face in participating in the video games industry, then turning around and declaring it the root of all evil. I think really, what this article demonstrates though if anything, is that the average consumer doesn't stop to think about how every realistic item that appears in media is probably either licensed or promotional.

That's not the People's Front of Judea, that's the Judean People's Front.

I suppose the proceeding post might be funny in different ways, depending on whether or not one perceives the difference between clearly defined procedures, -tools- (like hammers, saws, and the scientific method), and -beliefs- (religion, solipsism, logical positivism). Of course, when it comes to belief systems, I am not an atheist, so I'm not entirely sure how the schisms in their alliances work. I have read very interesting criticisms of scientific methodology and empiricism (eg Alfred North Whitehead), however they typically are rooted in understanding its mechanisms and history.

That is a paper I'd like to read!

I often notice that amongst the so-called educated they quote science that leans in their favor, and then outright dismiss science that challenges their beliefs. I'm not talking about creationists or global warming deniers. I mean something less obvious and more insidious that can be found across political spectrums. A friend of mine who teaches history is oft to mention his belief that we are leaving an era of reason behind in favor of an era where 'gut' feelings and authenticity rules supreme. These people espouse a brand of empiricism that would set us back pre-Descartes, actually make that the medieval period. And their numbers are growing.

This isn't merely scientific ignorance. These people have been raised around science, but just like creationists, they've built up a straw-man caricature of science in their heads and that's what they go by, based on their feelings. They don't actually test out their assertions in a structured way beyond surfing websites that agree with them. You'll find examples of that brand of opportunism, even occasionally while browsing up through this thread. You'll find it on biased environmentalist activist websites that espouse long-term damaging solutions to complex problems, or on alternative medicine websites that attack 'science' for 'being fundamentalist' while engaging in fundamentalist behavior, people who think Autism is not an illness, or a technology that has the potential to feed billions (GM) is evil, etc etc. You'll find such bias anywhere there is an identity to protect, an ego to feed or a website to promote. Since it cherry picks, and goes by what 'feels' good, it is ultimately self-serving, hence it's 'epistemological opportunism'.

What do you think can be done to counteract these populist attitudes on science that seem to be taking over? When people collapse complex problems (like medicine, cancer, mental health, GM crops etc) into black and white issues without stopping to look at all the issues, what do you do? Is there ways of raising awareness re critical thinking and proper scientific methodology? It's so easy to demonize scientists with coy phrases or genetic fallacies. Do some approaches work better than others in explaining basic scientific concepts to the public?