The Entertainment Software Association

Military uses virtual therapy to help troops heal wounds
Stars and Stripes — By Geoff Ziezulewicz
6/29/2009

The military is turning to the virtual world to treat traumatized veterans of the Iraq war, giving troops a high-tech way to confront and overcome mental war wounds.

Virtual Iraq uses electronically re-created Iraqi environs that look like a video game, as well as the sounds and smells of deployment, to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder revisit the events that affected them so profoundly.

It is a joint venture of the Air Force, Navy and Army, along with the University of Southern California and Virtually Better Inc. The visual environs created for the therapy are based on the video game "Full Spectrum Warrior."

"We help them confront the memory of the trauma," said Dr. Barbara Rothbaum, psychologist and director of Atlanta’s Emory University’s Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program. Rothbaum is a pioneer of virtual reality therapy who co-founded Virtually Better. "Sometimes it’s hard to get at it. What we think is the virtual reality can help create a more potent exposure. ... It puts the person back there."

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‘Just one more game'
Suffolk News-Herald —
6/26/2009

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the sight of a teenager sitting in front of a television with his concentration welded to the images flashing by on the screen and his hands clutched around a video game controller seemed to be further proof of the decline of Western civilization. For years now, Americans have heard about the evils of video games and the damage that even the most innocuous of them could do to the average teen’s ambition and drive.

That was then. Now, though, and into the foreseeable future, video games are where the action is, and not just the onscreen action. Even during the midst of the recession last Christmas, sales of video games, consoles and accessories grew by 9 percent, according to the market research firm, NPD Group. That monthly gain was somewhat off the incredible 19-percent increase in the video game sector for all of 2008.

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Video games that let you play with your news
Christian Science Monitor — By Amy Farnsworth
6/25/2009

Two weeks after the first swine flu case made headlines, video-game developers Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund unleashed a viral outbreak of their own: an online game poking fun at the much-hyped “epigdemic.”

Their game, “Swinefighter,” lets players send a doctor, armed with a massive syringe, around the world to take on flying green pigs. It’s a silly spin on the news, but the game’s popularity has grown quickly. Since its release in April, “Swinefighter” has been played more than a million times, thanks to fans spreading the word through social-networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“Swinefighter,” is just one of many online or mobile games inspired by current events. This increasingly popular genre, often called news games, has played off topics as diverse as rebuilding the economy, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s successful landing of Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, and the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at President George W. Bush.

“Games like these generate buzz,” says Kate Connally, vice president of AddictingGames, an independent gaming site that has developed numerous news games including “Hero on the Hudson,” which reenacts Mr. Sullenberger’s landing. “While these games are entertaining, they also inform, and in some cases, educate.”

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Health games become serious business
Reuters — By John Gaudiosi
6/25/2009

Videogames were once blamed for rising obesity rates but are now being championed by the medical industry and for use by government departments for their health benefits.

Games like Electronic Arts' "EA Sports Active" and Nintendo's "Wii Fit" have got players of all ages moving -- and game developers and investors looking for hot new titles to cash in on this booming segment of the market.

Big John Games' upcoming "Butt Kicker" Nintendo DSi game will provide an action-based environment in which players fight against cigarettes and "Karate Bears" for Wii teaches players real karate routines using the Wii's motion-sensor controllers.

With interest in health games rising, the fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston expanded to 390 people this year from 100, including developers, investors and medical experts, while numbers at many other conferences are down up to 40 percent.

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Treating Lazy Eyes With A Joystick
ScienceDaily —
6/22/2009

Four percent of all children suffer from amblyopia, better known as "lazy eye syndrome." Traditional treatment for the condition requires the use of an eye patch, often for months at a time, before the eye is corrected. This can lead to social stigma during a formative part of childhood, and worse, it's not 100% effective.

Now Tel Aviv University's eye and brain specialist Dr. Uri Polat of the Goldschleger Eye Research Institute has developed a computer therapy that could spare kids from the ugly eye patch, letting them enjoy themselves during therapy. The treatment, currently available for adults only, corrects the activity of the neurons in the brain, the main operator of eye function.

A leading expert in lazy eye syndrome recently assessed Dr. Polat's invention and found that twenty hours in front of Dr. Polat's computer treatment had the same effect as about 500 hours of wearing an eye patch. The review was published recently in Vision Research. Dr. Polat's research group has also reported the new treatment's efficacy in a number of scientific publications, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

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Video game surgery: Houston hospital builds surgical simulator
KHOU-TV, Houston, TX — By Dave Fehling
6/22/2009

Surgeons at Houston’s Methodist Hospital are using technology from video games to prepare for delicate operations. In a low-light room they liken to a cave, doctors use an Xbox controller to manipulate video images of patients’ livers, colons, even brains, looking for the best ways to do life-and-death procedures.

“This is a patient who has colon cancer that has spread to his liver,” explained Dr. Thomas Aloia as he showed 11 News a full color, 3-dimensional computer video of a patient’s internal organs.

The challenge for Dr. Aloia is to determine exactly what part of the liver to remove so that at least 25 percent of the organ is left intact. If not, Dr. Aloia said, “He is likely to go into liver failure and have complications.”

Previously, Dr. Aloia would have used 2-dimensional images from a CAT scan.

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Top 10: The architecture of computer games
The Architects’ Journal — By Riya Patel
6/19/2009

The Architects’ Journal selects the finest architecture from the worlds of computer and video games

10. Marioland

Clearly influenced by the work of London architectural practice FAT, Marioland takes the layering of patterned facades in bright colours to another level. The visual vibrancy is further conveyed by the use of rounded forms, echoing the ‘blobitecture’ of Zaha Hadid’s Dubai Opera House.

9. Castle Wolfenstein, Return to Castle Wolfenstein

How can one set foot in the gemutlich Castle Wolfenstein without being transported into a medieval fairytale? This Bavarian gem, with its pretty Romanesque keep, is marred only by the hordes of (sometimes zombified) Nazi stormtroopers. Currently home to a high-security prison, the schloss is situated high on a mountain so access is only via a Where Eagles Dare-style cable car. A glance at the floor plan reveals a curiousity: the medieval architect - thought to be Hans Grosse - committed himself to a near-endless iteration of the swastika motif.

8. Tetris

Tetris can teach us all a lesson in dimensional co-ordination and rotational symetry. Featuring just seven standard building components as the basis for construction, it takes a radical approach to reducing waste material. Tetris has an aesthetic charm too: its combinations of solid and void have proved inspirational for a range of architects including Slovenian architecture studio, OFIS.

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Video game makes HIV awareness fun
New Scientist — By Ewen Callaway
6/15/2009

Like many video games aimed at teenagers, Pamoja Mtaani features a thumping hip-hop soundtrack and vivid street imagery. Where it differs from other action games, such as the Grand Theft Auto series, is its goal: HIV prevention.

Developed in a collaboration between media giant Warner Brothers and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Pamoja Mtaani is being deployed in youth centres in Nairobi, Kenya, with the goal of encouraging teens to practice safer sex and know the risk of acquiring HIV.

Already 3000 teens have played Pamoja Mtaani – or "Together in the 'Hood" – since its launch in December 2008, and a team of researchers at Emory University in Atlanta is conducting a study to determine whether the game is actually effective.

Through surveys of players and people in communities where the game is available, researchers will determine whether teens that play Pamoja Mtaani are more aware of risky sexual behaviour and more likely to practice safe sex, than those who don't play.

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Virtual Heroes, HopeLab team up for video game to fight cancer
WRAL-TV (NC) — By Rick Smith
6/12/2009

Being a cancer survivor, The Skinny can certainly identify with the need for a new video game being developed by RTP-based Virtual Heroes.

Jerry Heneghan, a former Apache helicopter gunship pilot, and his crew are teaming up with the appropriately named HopeLab for “Re-Mission 2.” It’s designed to help young cancer patients deal with the challenges they are going to face in combating the disease.

They learn that their mission - to beat the killer in their body - is not impossible.

The new version is backed by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, whose namesake is a testicular cancer survivor and the world’s premier bicyclist. Also lending financial support are the Annenberg Foundation and Vivendi. Pam Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, launched HopeLab.

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Game lets dental students brush up on skills
Augusta Chronicle — By Tom Corwin
6/11/2009

Dental implants and fun are not concepts normally associated together but Roman Cibirka and colleagues at Medical College of Georgia believe they have pulled it off.

Dr. Cibirka helped to develop the Virtual Dental Implant Training program, which is essentially a video game to guide dental students through diagnosing, designing and putting in a dental implant. Dr. Cibirka, associate provost for academic affairs at MCG, will present data from early reviews of the game today at the Games for Health Conference in Boston.

The game, developed with a $6.2 million grant from Nobel Biocare, will be sent to 23 major universities worldwide, from China to South America and Saudi Arabia, and will be used to train thousands of students, Dr. Cibirka said. It could be just the start of what might eventually become a whole new way to train students through virtual reality, available on the Web at any place or time, even on mobile phones, a "classroom without walls," Dr. Cibirka said.

"This is the early development of health care virtual simulation," he said. "And I see it just becoming more and more sophisticated and more and more mainstream in health care delivery education."

The game allows the user to assess a patient in the chair and ask questions, decide on a course of treatment, pick and design the implant and restoration, and shifts to a close-up inside the mouth to do the actual treatment.

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Camp combines computers, fun
Richmond Register — By Tinsley Carter
6/10/2009

Local students discovered learning can be fun as they participated in a technology camp this week at Madison Central High School.

The two-day camp has classes for elementary, middle and high school students.

On Tuesday, students used a tutorial to create a “Catch the Clown” game and a scrolling shooter game.

“The goal of offering Video Game Design Curriculum is to embed the requirements of the computer science curriculum into game design courses which highly engages students as they learn to appreciate gaming as producers rather than consumers,” said Dr. Tina Sartori of Turning Technologies of Youngstown, Ohio.

Students also were given a scenario of working for a software company, in which they are asked to create a new, exciting game for a large company. They were asked to come up with a story line packaging sound effects, graphics, game, manual, help file, promotional video clip, CD label and point of sale material, Sartori said. Students also had to manage resources and cash flow to make the project commercially viable.

Today, the students will create the basics of their video game using Game Maker Pro, an open source video game software. The students also have the option of taking an online class where they can continue their learning by creating multi-player games.

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Software designed to make older drivers sharper
San Francisco Chronicle — By Deborah Gage
6/8/2009

One of the games used by Allstate is Jewel Diver, in whic... One of the games used by Allstate is Jewel Diver, in whic... One of the games used by Allstate is Jewel Diver, in which...

Earlier this year, a car ran a red light at an intersection in Pittsburgh and narrowly missed smashing into the driver's side of W. Larocca's car.

Larocca, 57, was able to stop in time. He believes what saved him was the 40 minutes a day he spent using brain fitness software that supposedly improves reaction time and peripheral vision.

The program was part of an experiment run by Allstate Insurance and Posit Science, a San Francisco software startup.

"I was thinking it was just like the (software) game," he said, remembering his near-miss. "I was looking straight ahead - I didn't expect this car on the left. I can't prove it, but I'm 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't taken the course, I would have been hit."

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Playing along with video games' growth
The News & Observer — By Alexander Macris
6/6/2009

According to a recent business survey by the Milken Institute, the Triangle area isn't even ranked in the top 10 high-tech hubs in the United States and Canada.

While one can argue with the survey's methodology, our region's low ranking should serve as a wake-up call to North Carolina's lawmakers that they cannot simply assume the Triangle will always be a technology leader. Sustained leadership in the coming decades will require that lawmakers continue to support to high-growth tech sectors in the region. The video game industry would be a good place to start.

The Triangle is a prospering hub for video games. The seeds of the game development industry in the area originate from the graphics programs at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill in the 1960s. Those graphics programs spawned companies, such as NDL and Virtus, local pioneers in video games.

In the decades since, the area has grown to become one of the largest centers of game development companies in the country. More than 30 game companies are located in the Triangle. Through the innovations of companies like Epic Games, Emergent Game Technologies and Vicious Cycle, the region has become the game engine capital of the world, and innovators like Virtual Heroes have created a "serious games" industry that deploys immersive technology for defense, education and health care.

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Video Games Are Helping Doctors View The Body - Using The Nintendo Wii To Interpret Radiology Exams
Medical News Today —
6/4/2009

The popular Nintendo Wii videogame system is helping radiology students reach new levels! Faculty from Weill Cornell Medical College have coupled the motion-sensitive Wii remote with the same computers used to analyze scans, and have found that the Wii remote makes examining CT and MRI images more ergonomic, heightens the interactivity during classes, and may potentially improve the ability to interpret scans.

"The remote is very intuitive -- cycling through the scans is a matter of rotating your wrist," explains Dr. George Shih, a radiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and assistant professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, who, along with his colleagues, helped develop the system that links the Wii remote to the diagnostic computer. Their research was presented recently at the 2009 American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass.

Traditionally, radiologists might spend hours at a time, with only short breaks, reading scans using a typical mouse and keyboard. Many of the movements are repetitive and require precise mouse-clicking and scrolling, which can be taxing on the body and may lead to repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

"The easiest way to avoid injury is to change positions," says Dr. Shih, and that is exactly what using the Wii remote allows. By simply holding the remote in their hand and rotating their wrist, radiologists can gradually inspect the scans, while sitting in any position they find most comfortable.

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Video Games Growing As Family Affair
Investor’s Business Daily — By Patrick Seitz
6/3/2009

Video game industry officials say their field is doing better than other consumer businesses in the recession because families see games as low-cost entertainment that they can enjoy together.

"We have seen in recent months that, as families look to limit spending, video games present an attractive option for fun, affordable entertainment," said Michael Gallagher, chief executive of the Entertainment Software Association, producer of the E3 video game conference.

Families see video games as a better value than cinema, sporting events and amusement parks, Gallagher said in a speech at the three-day E3 show in Los Angeles, which ends Thursday.

Video games can entertain families for many hours and have great replay value, Gallagher said.

Game consoles are also providing video and social networking services, he said.

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Can Games Save the News?
New York Observer — By Gillian Reagan
6/2/2009

News junkies are gamers.

Ask your friends a question about the latest news tidbit—say, where President Obama and the First Lady went on their dinner date this weekend. Then watch them whip out their iPhones, flip open their laptops, racing to find the right answer. Within seconds, they’ll emerge from the scrolling sea of Google results, triumphant and shouting: “Blue Hill!”

Our constant (okay, seemingly neverending) search for the right piece of news or information is a daily, even minute-by-minute challenge, providing a small, satisfactory triumph on blogs, Twitter and in comment sections, and even in bars and at dining room tables with our BlackBerrys.

New York Times junkies can even get their own Times IQ as high as 200… on Facebook. Every weekday morning, the users of the New York Times News Quiz application are faced with five multiple choice questions based on the day’s top news stories (as regarded by the editorial staff). Yesterday, for example, users were asked where George Tiller was shot (Wichita) and who was Robin Soderling’s opponent in the big tennis upset at Roland Garros (Rafael Nadal). After they click away the quiz and submit their answers, they receive a Times IQ ranking, based on their answers. They can challenge their Facebook friends and compare their news knowledge to all users across the platform. A cheat sheet of links to the Times’ latest news articles is provided after they take the day’s quiz.

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Interactive video game offers innovative way to garner lessons about history
Orlando Sentinel — By Etan Horowitz
6/2/2009

Students who have trouble staying awake in history class now have a new way to learn about the Civil War and other topics: an interactive video game where they try to stop a band of evildoers from changing the past.

The game, called Conspiracy Code, was jointly developed by The Florida Virtual School and 360Ed, an Orlando company that makes education video games and software. The game officially launched Monday, although the two companies have been testing it with students and teachers since earlier this year.

"They are not memorizing facts, they are experiencing history," said Andy Ross, vice president of Global Services for the Florida Virtual School, which is based in Orlando and provides online courses to more than 60,000 students. "It's a different way of learning, and it's really engaging a lot of elements that kids look at today."

In the past couple of years, schools across the country have been incorporating video games and multimedia tools into lesson plans, using technologies students are familiar with the engage and entertain them.

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Titans of the big screen hope to conquer a smaller screen: video games
Los Angeles Times — By Alex Pham and Ben Fritz
6/1/2009

The Hollywood moguls behind such films as "The Dark Knight," "Watchmen" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" are looking for their next blockbuster in a new realm: video games.

An increasing number of big shots from the movie business are seeing new opportunities in the $50-billion global interactive entertainment industry. Power producers such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Thomas Tull, as well as hot directors such as Gore Verbinski and Zack Snyder, have all recently dived into the still-growing game market.

The hordes descending on Los Angeles this week for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual trade show known as E3, testify to the industry's growing cultural and financial clout. The Hollywood players are diving into games for new creative challenges but also because consumers are continuing to snap them up during the recession even as they cut back on some other media such as movie DVDs.

"We're in the entertainment business," said Bruckheimer, producer of such action films as "Top Gun" and "National Treasure." "We will entertain you in the theaters, on TV and on your game platforms."

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URI will use new driver simulator for research, training
Providence Journal — By Bruce Landis
5/27/2009

Want to feel what it’s like to drive a fire truck? How about a semi-trailer truck? A really big snowplow?

How about trying all three –– without risking anyone’s life or even getting up to change seats?

The University of Rhode Island’s Transportation Center has bought a simulator that can mimic numerous vehicles while confronting its human “driver” with strikingly realistic situations — some routine, but some of them crises such as a car running a stop sign and charging in front of the fire truck you’re driving. You must step on the brakes as fast as in real traffic. The fire truck stops, eventually.

Meanwhile, you’re encouraged to move things along by the column of smoke rising from the fire you’re trying to get to up the road.

The simulator is centered on three large video display screens. Close in front of the screens is a driver’s seat and the normal controls and instruments — accelerator and brake pedals, speedometer, gearshift lever, even an ignition key. A computer-equipped operator sits behind the driver, changing vehicle type and behavior and inserting challenges such as imprudent pedestrians, bad visibility or an icy road.

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From Madoff to Sully, news events inspire video games
CNN.com — By Jessica Ravitz
5/26/2009

When Navy snipers rescued an American cargo-ship captain last month from Somali pirates, it sounded like something from a movie.

But in today's instant-gratification culture, there's no need to wait for Hollywood to re-enact that dramatic high-seas story. Video game developers are already on the case.

Online gaming site Games2Win launched "Saving Captain Phillips," a simple, two-dimensional shooting game, within nine days of the actual rescue. Not to be outdone, Kuma Games followed soon afterwards with "Somali Showdown: Pirates on the High Seas," a PC multiplayer action game that puts players in the middle of a pirate attack on a cargo ship -- and even lets them become one of the pirates.

These are just several of many online and cell-phone games based on recent news events. "Hero on the Hudson," a primitive Flash game, lets people pretend they're pilot Chesley Sullenberger and navigate a plummeting airliner to a safe water landing. A successful attempt brings applause, while a botched landing results in a sinking plane, accompanied by ominous gurgling sounds.

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Video games: Play and learn
Minneapolis Star-Tribune — By Randy A. Salas
5/25/2009

Learning is a game to Brock Dubbels and the students in his class at Seward Montessori in Minneapolis.

They spend their school time together playing off-the-shelf video games for the Nintendo Wii and other popular systems. But the 26 sixth- to eighth-graders aren't learning from the games' content. They're gaining key skills simply by playing and studying the games.

"It connects to their lives," Dubbels explained. "Research shows that kids want to perform where they have competence. Games are part of their lives."

That's where Dubbels' Video Games as Learning Tools class comes in. Over a three-week period, the kids split up into groups and play video games. They also take notes. The goal is to explain how the game is played, how a player might win and how the game is designed. By the end of the session, the students will have created a multimedia presentation, including lots of writing, about their games that is then uploaded to the Web.

It's the modern version of a book report.

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Video game competition puts math to the test
NY1 — By Adam Balkin
5/25/2009

Not for an American Idol, not even for a pro athlete. Would you believe kids are going nuts for fellow elementary and middle school math students? It isn't your traditional pencil to paper math competition, it's MegaBowl, a math video game competition.

"This is sort of like a 21st century spelling bee for mathematics, it is a multiplayer, immersive world called Dimension M where students go in, compete and collaborate with one another, while they're doing math and deploying different strategies to compete against another team of students. The mathematics in Dimension M range from elementary up through Algebra II," Tabula Digita organizer Steven Hoy said.

The game is being tested as part of everyday curriculum at a handful of school districts around the country, including some in New York City, the Dallas area and Ft. Lauderdale.

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Berklee Prepares Students for Careers in Video Game Industry
Voice of America — By Susan Logue
5/20/2009

Video games would be considered a distraction in most classrooms, but for Michael Sweet's students they are mandatory to the coursework. "We have been developing new classes, new curriculum over the past 12 months to get kids involved in creating music and audio for games," says Sweet, an associate professor at Berklee College of Music.

The students use music to help stir emotional currents in the game, just as they would with the soundtrack for a film. But to accommodate the complex, player-driven action sequences of video games, they learn techniques like looping, branching, and cross fading that make their scores more flexible. "In a game the player is actually the director in a way," says Filippo Beckpeccoz. "The music has to adapt always to make it seem like it has been written for that particular moment, but of course it is one in a million."

Beckpeccoz, who graduated from Berklee on May9, is largely responsible for the interactive music classes at Berklee. When he came to the school from Italy four years ago, the closest thing they offered were classes in scoring for film. He founded the Video Game Music Club, which quickly grew to 300 members. "It's safe to say that a lot of us have listened to more interactive music than linear music in our lives," Beckpeccoz says, "just because we played [video games] a lot when were kids."

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Why California's case against violent video games is a long shot
Christian Science Monitor — By Gloria Goodale
5/20/2009

Lawmakers from California to Indiana have had violent video games in their sights for decades, but courts have struck down nearly a dozen laws aimed at restricting sales to minors. The US Supreme Court, though, has never entered the fray. That may change.

On Wednesday, California Attorney General Edmund "Jerry" Brown petitioned America's highest court to hear a video-game case concerning a 2005 state law that has been on hold since it was enacted, struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before it could go into effect. The law would ban sales to minors of mature-themed games and impose fines of up to $1,000 for violations.

"The state has a compelling interest in this issue," says state Sen. Leland Yee, the law's original sponsor. "It begs for a ruling by the high court in order to lay out some ground rules."

But the likelihood is small that the nine justices will take up the California petition, say many legal analysts, citing First Amendment issues about restrictions on free speech, particularly in the field of entertainment.

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Rolling Stone’s Take on Guitar Hero
Wall Street Journal — By Russell Adams
5/19/2009

Rolling Stone magazine’s break with tradition continues.

Seven months after scrapping its iconic oversized format, the biweekly publication will enter the videogame business with the May 26 release of Rolling Stone: Drum King, produced by 505 Games for the Nintendo Wii.

Drum King, a rhythm-action game in the same vein as Guitar Hero, is part of an effort by the biweekly magazine to hitch its brand to a growing medium at a time when print is contracting. In the first quarter magazines tracked by Publishers Information Bureau sold nearly 26% fewer ad pages than the same period last year. Rolling Stone’s pages fell 22.5% for the period.

Lately the Wenner Media title has been pushing its name elsewhere to offset declines in revenue from the magazine. After Barack Obama was elected, the publisher sold some 300,000 “bookazines,” glossy compilations of its coverage of the Presidential race, at $9.95 apiece.

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Disney exhibit teaches kids financial lessons
The Associated Press —
5/19/2009

Not even the happiest place on Earth is spared the lessons of saving and investing in this era of recession.

Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park on Tuesday opened an interactive game-based exhibit aimed at teaching kids ages 8 to 13 basic lessons in personal finance that would make Scrooge McDuck proud.

The Great Piggy Bank Adventure was conceived by Disney imagineers and its sponsor, financial giant T. Rowe Price, during the height of the boom years in 2006. But the timing of its opening has been impeccable — in the middle of the worst recession in a generation.

"It is sort of a timeless topic but now you realize it's even more important," said Meredith Callanan, T. Rowe Price's director of corporate marketing.

This is Disney after all, so there is no mortgage-backed derivative haunted house or credit-default swap high-wire act. That would blow away some of the pixie dust.

Instead, there is a noisy and colorful 3,800-square-foot space with interactive video games that seek to impart four basic lessons: setting goals, saving and spending wisely, staying ahead of inflation and diversifying investments. The video games star pigs who are learning the virtues of saving toward goals. A wolf who can raise inflation and take money away from the pigs is the villain in the games.

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Ubisoft plans push into film special effects
Financial Times — By Maija Palmer and Tim Bradshaw
5/17/2009

Yves Guillemot has his sights set on Hollywood. The chief executive of Ubisoft wants to make the world’s third-largest video games company into a special effects powerhouse that can work closely with the film industry.

The two industries have long been courting each other. Games such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Streetfighter and Mortal Kombat have all made it to the big screen, and hundreds of films have inspired games, such as King Kong, Spider-Man and Lord of The Rings.

Yet licences crossing in either direction between celluloid and consoles have not always been commercial or critical successes.

Lately, however, media companies have been taking a greater interest in games, particularly since Vivendi merged its Blizzard games unit with Activision in 2007. Time Warner has invested in several studios while Viacomowns Harmonix, developer of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games.

Mr Guillemot is approaching the game-movie marriage from the other side. With the value of the games market now outstripping Hollywood, Ubisoft wants to work with studios on a more equal footing. “We can enrich movies and they can enrich games.”

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Spielberg makes videogames to keep his family happy
Reuters — By John Gaudiosi
5/14/2009

Oscar-winning film director Steven Spielberg was so frustrated that no videogames catered for all of his seven children that he did what a entertainment maestro might do -- made his own game.

"Boom Blox" was the first in a multi-franchise deal between Spielberg and videogame publisher Electronic Arts and has sold close to one million copies globally since it was released for Nintendo's Wii last May.

On May 19, EA releases Spielberg's second game, "Boom Blox Bash Party."

Spielberg, who said he plays just about every game that comes out, is a big fan of Nintendo's Wii console and its motion-sensor controls that involved physical interactivity.

"It's been very, very good for a parent like me who wants our kids not to be couch potatoes, but to get up and move their bodies around more," said Spielberg, who worked closely with the team at EA's Los Angeles studio on both the games.

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Students Run Their Own Companies in Educational Video Game
KNDU-TV (WA) —
5/13/2009

Future CEOs at Columbia Basin College were beamed forward to 2030 and had to run their own companies Tuesday afternoon. It was part of the Washington River Protection Solutions Junior Achievement high-tech business challenge.

Students talked through video chats, manufactured and sold products, and competed for market shares. Leaders say this hands-on activity is a great way to get students interested and prepare them for the challenges of the business world. Brad Hasty, a business systems analyst for WRPS, explains that the big draw is how the kids learn through a video game. He says, "When you walk in the classroom the first time, they're typical high school kids, just sitting back, not paying too much attention. Once they see it's a video game they can play, be competitive against their classmates, they have a lot of fun with it."

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For Whom the Video Game Tolls
New York Times —
5/13/2009

Today’s idea: With book sales falling, it may not be long before top novelists jump ship for a medium that offers some of the most exciting narrative possibilities of the new century: video games.

The forthcoming “Dante’s Inferno” action video game “may not herald a new era in literary gaming,” writes Tim Martin in the Telegraph of London, “but connoisseurs of story could do worse than watch the area for developments.”

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Students create educational video game
Atlanta Journal-Constitution — By Shane Blatt
5/13/2009

Creatures of the deep can’t escape 12-year-old Daniel Leon.

One by one, sharks, marlin and bass are scooped up by Daniel’s net as he navigates his submarine through the crystal-blue water.

But this is no ordinary ocean expedition. A fifth-grader at the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics, Daniel is testing a demo of an educational video game —- one he helped design.

Daniel is among 11 city of Marietta gifted fourth- and fifth-graders working with students from Southern Polytechnic State University to develop an oceanography computer simulation. It’s the first time students from both schools have worked together.

The pilot project is being created through SPSU’s game design and development program, which obtained degree status Tuesday. The game —- funded by a $5,000 state Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) grant —- has been in the works since October with an expected finish date this summer.

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A hand in recovery
Augusta Chronicle — By Tom Corwin
5/13/2009

Linda Johnson punched her patient in the face and laughed as 16-year-old Shanteria Coffee lay stunned before her.

"Ahhh, you cheat," Shanteria groused as she shook her Wii controllers and tried to get her boxer back up in the animated ring on the television.

"We're both on a learning curve," said Mrs. Johnson, an occupational therapist at Walton Rehabilitation Health System, who denied cheating. "She's learning how to use her hands again, and I'm learning how to play the game."

The video game boxing match is more than just fun -- it is helping strengthen Shanteria's hands and regain fine motor skills, Mrs. Johnson said. It is part of a growing trend nationwide to use the popular Wii system, and others like it, in health care.

"There's a whole universe of people out there that are using gaming for health, but it has been a little slower to come into rehabilitation," said Judith Deutsch, the director of the Research in Virtual Environments and Rehabilitation Sciences Lab at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey.

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Bruckheimer to launch video game studio
Los Angeles Times — By Alex Pham
5/12/2009

Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of action films and television shows such as "Top Gun," "Black Hawk Down" and "C.S.I," now thinks video games are where the action is.

Bruckheimer is the latest Hollywood kingpin to dive into the $50-billion-and-growing global game industry. Lured by software sales that have eclipsed those of the music industry and long ago surpassed box-office revenue, many film and TV executives have gone down the same path -- only to find success elusive in the risky, hits-driven game business.

Bruckheimer plans to announce today the creation of Jerry Bruckheimer Games Inc., a studio based in Santa Monica. He said in an interview Monday that his interest in the burgeoning entertainment genre was driven by the narrative opportunities.

"Games are evolving just like movies," he said. "There's storytelling and there's character development in games. . . . We're in the entertainment business. We entertain you in theaters, on TV and on your game platforms."

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The 2009 Time 100: Sam and Dan Houser
Time Magazine — By Matt Selman
5/11/2009

Oh, Grand Theft Auto, what carnage have you wrought upon society? We can't measure it in the copycat rampages its critics predicted, since few players ended up running wild in the streets, flamethrower-ing policemen and Lord-knows-what-ing prostitutes. No, the real damage is measured in the careers bazooka-ed, marriages Molotov-cocktailed and grade-point averages sent to sleep with the fishes. Because unlike theories about video games and violence, there is a proven connection between regular lives obliterated and the immersive addictiveness of Sam and Dan Houser's universe. You just don't want to leave their world.

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Case Western Reserve University and Second Life building a private virtual world for university
Cleveland Plain Dealer — By Shaheen Samavati
5/8/2009

Students in Carolina Perera's Spanish language class don't need an airplane to visit Mexico, Spain or Colombia.

They go virtually.

Perera, a lecturer at Case Western Reserve University, assigns her students to use Second Life, an online 3-D virtual world, to visit other countries and interact with native Spanish speakers.

It is one of many ways CWRU and other universities are incorporating virtual reality into education.

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Video game makers like what they see in Boston
Boston Globe — By Hiawatha Bray
5/8/2009

Despite the lousy economy, local entrepreneurs say it's a pretty good time to be in the video game business.

"I think it couldn't be better," said Chris Parsons, product manager at Muzzy Lane Software Inc., a Newburyport company best known for its educational games. "Independent game development is really hitting its stride right now."

Parsons was among several dozen game creators gathered at Northeastern University this week for the Independent Game Conference East. The event has been held in Austin, Texas, for the past three years, with a fourth planned this summer in Los Angeles. But Steve Farrar, director of conference organizer Game Path Events LLC, said his company launched an East Coast event this year because of Boston's growing importance to the video game industry.

"Boston is a focus," said Farrar. "There's a real cluster of video game developing studios and digital media companies. Plus, the state of Massachusetts is actually engaged in a number of initiatives to market Massachusetts and Boston as a place where game companies should set up."

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Video games leading kids to, not away from, real instruments
The Tribune-Democrat (PA) — By Chip Minemyer
5/8/2009

In June, Bo Moore will hold a recital for his music students. And as many as 80 percent of them will be performing on guitars.

Thanks to video games such as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” Moore says, guitars are the hot thing right now.

Contrary to the notion that kids playing video games would mean they aren’t playing instruments, Moore says he’s never been busier. The private music teacher says he’s seen a jump of perhaps 35 percent in the number of young people coming to him for lessons in the past two years. And most of them dream of becoming the next Eric Clapton or Carlos Santana.

“A lot of kids have been getting into it because of games, especially ‘Guitar Hero,’ ” said Moore, who owns Bo Moore’s Downtown Music in a second-floor shop on Main Street in Johnstown. “Kids who might never have become interested in learning to play the guitar are now coming to us.”

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Fiscal Responsibility Starts Early
National Journal — By John Maggs
5/8/2009

America has a problem with debt, and so do I.

America's debt problem is evident in the foreclosure rate, the credit shortage, and the surging federal budget deficit. To confront these problems, Wall Street titan Pete Peterson pledged $1 billion to the Peterson Foundation to promote balanced budgets, in Washington and at home.

My debt problem can be found most evenings on the living room rug, folding paper airplanes or reading a book. My son, Luca, who is 11, is a wonderful kid in almost all ways, but he's also my largest financial liability. Sometime after house prices peaked in 2006, he surpassed my mortgage to earn that distinction.

Fortunately, Peterson has a plan to help me, too, and it starts with Luca. The foundation has created Debt Ski, an online video game to teach young people about managing their finances. It is found on Indebted.com, a partnership with mtvU, an MTV Networks website aimed at college students.

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Student Designs New Software For Stroke Patients
Medical News Today —
5/7/2009

People recovering from a stroke could benefit from a new computer system developed by a University of Wolverhampton student.

Graham Ranson decided to develop a software program for his dissertation project after watching his dad's rehabilitation following a stroke.

The system has a number of tasks which are designed to help re-build skills that can be lost following a stroke, such as hand and eye co-ordination, balance, range of motion and cognitive abilities.

The software is designed for use on computers and potentially for use on games consoles that people have at home, to enable rehabilitation to continue between visits to the hospital or doctor.

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Gaming industry's latest generation learns the ropes
McClatchy Newspapers — By Luciana Chavez
5/7/2009

Two boys raced up the stairs on North Carolina State's Centennial Campus during the Computer Game Development Showcase last month. Snagging chairs in front of two computers, the 11-year olds were the first to play the latest video games.

"Yes!" they replied when one of the anxious N.C. State University students who developed "Blackbeard's Escape" and "Spectral Assault" asked if they liked the pirate-themed games.

The thumbs-up came 11 hours after programming and design students submitted educational games to computer science professor Michael Young and industrial design instructor Timothy Buie.

"Parents are here with their kids who want to be game programmers," computer science student Davy Sulock said. "I never could have done that at that age."

The students had a lot at stake: Grades. Practical experience in an industry many want to join. A shot at seeing middle and high school students use their games in class -- but only if the games work like they're supposed to.

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Xbox Makes Primetime Play
Hollywood Reporter — By David Ward
5/6/2009

Microsoft is moving closer to its goal of bringing the worlds of TV and video games closer together.

The long-awaited first offering for its Xbox Live Primetime initiative is an interactive version of the popular Endemol TV game-show format "1 vs. 100" that will air Friday and Saturday nights in North America throughout the summer and fall.

Manuel Bronstein, director of Primetime's "100," said execs expect as many as 200,000 Xbox Live Gold members to play either the live versions of the game on Fridays and Saturdays or quick-play versions on other days of the week.

Microsoft also said Tuesday that it has lined up the support of such major advertisers as Honda and Sprint for the show. What the company didn't specify is an exact launch date, though execs estimate "100" will begin sometime in the next six weeks.

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Ahead of the game
The News-Enterprise (KY) — By Marty Finley
5/5/2009

Ireland Army Community Hospital is responding to the needs of traumatic brain injury cases resulting from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by returning some semblance of normalcy back to an injured soldier’s life, officials said. To do that, the hospital is taking advantage of the best programs and tools available, officials said.

The hospital recently unveiled its new TBI clinic, an approximately $1.2 million project featuring state-of-the-art technological advancements that focus on repairing the cognitive impairments resulting from traumatic brain injuries.

Maureen O’Brien, an occupational therapist at the hospital, said the clinic gives physicians a gamut of programs, video games and exercises needed to rehabilitate areas such as memory, sequencing of events, coordination, repetition and even moods.

“Your brain is an organ,” she said. “It needs to be exercised.”

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We kid you not, get ready for Volvo - The Game
AutoBlog — By Dan Roth
5/5/2009

Volvo and racetrack: While the words aren't mutually exclusive, we're sure that the Swedish marque with the safety chops isn't on the tip of your tongue when talk turns to motorsport. Volvo has made its name known through various racing efforts through the years, and in an effort to bring the S60 Concept to a wider audience has commissioned fellow Swedes SimBin Studios to whip up a video game that will help introduce the car.

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To Score High, Don’t Cover Your Mouth
New York Times — By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
5/5/2009

You have only one sneeze. Use it wisely.

Yes, it’s Stop Swine Flu, the video game.

The action starts with a schplouuush of green mucus hitting your screen, then switches to a street somewhere. Your avatar stands among pedestrians. The background noises are coughs, sneezes, noses being blown. Choose your moment, then tap the space bar to sneeze. Everyone hit by your spray turns green, then sneezes in turn, infecting others. How many are infected determines whether you go to the next level, which could be a train station, a factory floor or a nursery school.

Infecting a child is 5 points, an elderly person is 15.

“I sort of like it, but I think it’s really warped,” said an 8-year-old who noticed the game on Sunday when it reached the Top 10 on his favorite free children’s game site, www.miniclip.com.

Stop Swine Flu — which probably ought to be called Spread Swine Flu — is actually a new name for a game released this year as Sneeze, before the possibility of pandemic flu dominated the news. And Sneeze was created with the best of intentions: to subversively teach young people healthy habits. It was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, the world’s second largest charity after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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A gamer’s paradise found in Oklahoma’s classrooms
The Journal Record (OK) — By Brian Brus
5/5/2009

About 2,000 Oklahoma eighth-graders are exploring a previously unmapped desert island, surviving on their wits and thumb-typing skills.

Their successful completion of tasks such as finding drinkable water and mapping the 240.5-square-kilometer island has already led to the birth of a new company through the University of Oklahoma’s Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth, said Scott Wilson, associate director of the STAR Schools Project at the university’s K20 Center.

Education materials publishing giant Scholastic Corp. has expressed interest in marketing the finished product, “McLarin’s Adventures,” after testing data is analyzed later this year, K20 Center spokeswoman Lori Johnson said.

“McLarin’s Adventures” is the K20 Center’s digital game-based learning program, funded by a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education that allowed the center to give ultra-mobile personal computers, or UMPCs, to several schools across the state. While students play on portable computers in the massive multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, they’re actually learning how to apply a wide range of school lessons in interactive projects under their teachers’ oversight. Mapping McLarin’s island, for example, requires geometry and math; testing water sources relies on physical sciences. The UMPCs were also preloaded with Microsoft Office so students could use the devices for other homework.

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Animation in the court: Lawyers present cases to jurors using video game wizardry
St. Petersburg Times — By Curtis Krueger
5/3/2009

Look at the computer screen and peer inside a man's skull. You see a rotating, animated image of a brain that's missing a piece.

No, it's not the latest gory video game. It's computer-generated animation that helped an Orlando man win a lawsuit against Ford and Mazda for $32.5 million.

The animation "took all the guesswork out of the injury," which involved a defective seat belt, said Ben Hogan, one of the man's attorneys.

Computer animation has transformed the entertainment industry, fueling the rise of video games and movies such as Toy Story and Monsters vs. Aliens.

Now, animation is beginning to redraw the rules of how to present a case to a jury. Instead of telling jurors how Car A struck Car B — or trying to demonstrate it with miniature cars — a legal team can re-create the accident in a way that's almost as realistic as video.

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Kids are focus of video game company Elf Island
Atlanta Journal-Constitution — By Caroline Wilbert
5/3/2009

Liz Kronenberger and her husband Craig came up with the term “gaming for good” to describe the mission of their new company.

The entrepreneurial Atlanta couple set out to create a video game company where kids could make a difference in the real world. They wanted to combine competitive game playing, social interaction and storytelling with social responsibility.

They formed the company, called Elf Island, about two years ago. The site, ElfIsland.com, launched in April. Through one non-profit partnership, when kids help save a polar bear in the online world, they also help real polar bears.

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In Room 100, It’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again
New York Times — By Saki Knafo
5/1/2009

By consensus, the Hotel Chelsea is not the hub of bohemian life it used to be. Two summers ago, Stanley Bard, the beloved longtime manager, was replaced by a corporate management team. Rents rose, artists left.

Those who managed to stay were confronted by a battery of disturbing changes: The pigeonhole mailboxes behind the front desk were removed, and Bob Dylan’s old room underwent renovations.

But now, thanks to Second Life, a 3-D virtual world on the Internet, the hotel’s spirit lives on.

Second Life is a multiuser virtual environment, a computer program that lets online users construct settings and hang out in them, using video-game-like characters called avatars. One of the settings on Second Life is a replica of the Chelsea that was created three weeks ago by Michael Brown, an Internet technology support manager and singer-songwriter living in rural southwestern Pennsylvania.

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Gamers
Spirit Magazine (Southwest Airlines) —
5/1/2009

70 percent of companies train employees through games. But don’t start scheduling an NBA Live 09 tournament just yet. Organizations primarily use video game–based programs to teach things like information technology, management, and customer service training, not how to throw an alley-oop to Dwight Howard, according to a study by the Entertainment Software Association.

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Texas State establishes virtual campus in Second Life
San Marcos (TX) Mercury — By Brad Rollins
4/29/2009

Students the world over can now visit Texas State University without ever setting foot on campus. All they need is a computer and a little help from the virtual reality known as Second Life.

Second Life is a free 3-D virtual reality created and maintained entirely by real-life users with online personas. Linden Labs, the company that owns Second Life, reports that the online community is home to more than 200 educational groups and virtual campuses, including Texas State.

Some universities like Texas State use the tools provided in Second Life to build exact replicas of their campuses. The Texas State campus, called Bobcat Village, has been under the direction of the Instructional Technologies Support staff which has been building and improving the campus since 2006.

Emin Saglamer, a member of the Texas State Instructional Systems Design team said the decision to create a campus and allow faculty and staff to use Second Life as a learning tool was a group effort.

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Wake recruits video-game developers
News & Observer — David Ranii
4/27/2009

When it comes to video games, the Triangle already has some bragging rights.

Epic Games in Cary is the force behind the ultra successful "Gears of War" franchise.

Virtual Heroes, also in Cary, was tapped to develop a training game for the U.S. military, "America's Army."

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Debt Ski video game challenges students to manage debt
San Francisco Chronicle — By Ryan Kim
4/23/2009

Two things college students seem to know pretty well: video games and debt.

With that in mind, mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation have rolled out a new game called Debt Ski aimed at teaching primarily college students how to identify and manage their debt.

The game is a simple side-scrolling online Flash game, nothing to look at really. You're basically a pig on a jet ski, picking up money, buying necessities and purchasing personal items that add to your happiness but weigh down your debt if it exceeds your income.

The game ends when you fail to pick up enough necessities or fall too far behind on your debt, which is spelled out for you after each round.

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Texas Gov. Signs Entertainment Industry Incentive Bill
Gamasutra — By Kris Graft
4/23/2009

Governor Rick Perry of Texas signed today HB873, a bill that will give game developers more incentive to conduct business within the state.

The Entertainment Software Association lauded Perry's decision, as the bill, in part, intends to encourage growth of the games industry in Texas, which is home to about 90 game development companies.

Perry's signing of the bill will come just a few weeks after ESA head Michael Gallagher published an op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman that singled out Texas as falling behind the interactive entertainment curve.

But Gallagher today called Perry's actions, which allows game developers making projects of $100,000 or greater to receive a payment 5% of the total Texas-based expenditure -- up to 7.5% if 'under-utilized areas' are used -- "quick and decisive."

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Virtual training
The Cullman Times (AL) — By Patrick McCreless
4/22/2009

Hanceville Police Officer Matt Hollingsworth slowly approached another officer speaking to a recent victim of domestic violence. Suddenly, a man brandishing a loaded shotgun burst from the door of a nearby house.

With firearm in hand, Hollingsworth ordered the suspect to drop his weapon and get on the ground. After a short but tense standoff, the man complied with the commands.

Capt. Jimmy Rodgers paused his computer.

“Now, what would you have done if he hadn’t followed your orders,” Rodgers asked Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth was one of the Hanceville Police Department’s 10 officers who received a type of virtual simulation training Tuesday.

“If he wouldn’t have obeyed my commands, I would have walked to him cautiously,” Hollingsworth said.

Rodgers said the Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation provided the unique training equipment to the department for several days — at a cost of $25 per officer.

“This is the first time we’ve had it,” Rodgers said. “We’ve been waiting on it for three months.”

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Game scoring liberating for Williams
Variety — By Justin Shady
4/22/2009

When the videogame world came knocking on composer Harry Gregson-Williams' door in early 2000, he was admittedly hesitant about getting involved in the business. "I hadn't considered videogames before," says the composer. "It hadn't been on my to-do list at all, mostly because I had only recently really focused on being a film composer."

But when the then-vice president of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Hideo Kojima, personally requested his work for the score to the sequel of his hugely popular "Metal Gear Solid" series, Gregson-Williams couldn't turn it down.

"It presented an opportunity to slightly liberate some of the rigid disciplines of film composing I'd become accustomed to," he says. "The music is driven by the story in a videogame -- just as in film -- but it wasn't by anything visual that I was seeing."

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Bored with training videos? Try a video game
Reuters — By John Gaudiosi
4/16/2009

Forget boring company training films. A leading hotel chain has teamed with a video game developer to create a new game to improve their employees' job performance.

Many businesses use serious video games designed for the PC but Hilton Garden Inn has taken the virtual training concept portable for the first time with "Ultimate Team Play".

Working with North Carolina-based game developer Virtual Heroes, HGI has created a video game for Sony's PlayStation Portable that allows employees to practice their jobs before they have to interact with customers.

"Ultimate Team Play" offers timed scenarios focusing on departments like housekeeping, food and beverage, engineering, maintenance and front desk. The hotel chain has sent out 500 PSPs loaded with the game to all of its locations.

"By playing the game and not watching a video or reading a book we have the opportunity to repeat the same message a few times without 'losing' the participants," said David Kervella, senior manager of brand education at Hilton Hotels Corporation.

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New online game hopes to teach students about ecology
The Gazette (MD) — By Contessa Crisostomo
4/15/2009

A new online video game created and developed by Montgomery College students for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration allows viewers to help a girl named Valerie save an otter's home from pollution.

"WaterLife: Where Rivers Meet the Sea," a children's educational game, aims to teach fourth- through seventh-grade students about the importance of protecting estuaries, where fresh water from rivers meets the salt water from the ocean.

The game is the result of a year-long work-study project by students in the college's Computer Gaming and Simulation degree program on the Rockville campus.

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M.D. Anderson researcher to make anti-smoking video game for Army
Houston Business Journal —
4/15/2009

A University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center professor will be part of a team designing a video game aimed at helping members of the United States military quit smoking.

Alexander Prokhorov, a professor of behavioral science and a smoking prevention and cessation expert, will be part of a study funded by the Department of Defense to promote health and stress management among the men and women in the armed forces.

A $3.7 million grant was awarded to M.D. Anderson by the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program and the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. The center will work with the U.S. Army in Fort Hood to develop and implement the program.

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Games a 'healthy escape,' say disabled readers
MSNBC.com — By Kristin Kalning
4/15/2009

Should game developers do more to make their products more accessible? For readers, that’s a no-brainer.

Last week, I asked you to tell me if games had helped you — or someone you know — contend with a disability. My column profiled one particular gamer, Nissa Ludwig, who asserted that games helped her stay connected to the outside world.

What I heard from you, overwhelmingly, was that games keep you feeling vital, connected, intellectually engaged and occupied.

Mike, who was nearly killed in a car accident in 1974, bought a computer in 1989 because he was “going crazy with boredom and lack of people outside of work. That’s when I started gaming.”

Michael Hicks, of Quinlan, Texas, had a stroke four years ago, when he was 38. He’s now in a wheelchair most of the time, but has “refused the state’s offer for domestic assistance, doing my own cooking, housework, grocery shopping, etc.” But many of his old hobbies, he wrote, were out of reach — except the massively multiplayer online game “EverQuest,” which he’d played before his stroke.

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Motivating Employees in Tough Times
Business Week blog — By Aili McConnon
4/13/2009

As salaries and bonuses are getting slashed, not to mention widespread lay-offs, I am fascinated by creative ways managers are motivating their remaining troops without breaking the bank.

One strategy that caught my attention is a workplace video game offered by Wyoming-based Snowfly. If a manager wants to reward an employee for an accomplishment such as delivering a project early or landing a new client, the manager gives them Snowfly tokens than can be used to play various online games like roulette or a scratch-and-win game. Employees accumulate points by playing these games that can be exchanged for rewards ranging from a $100 pre-paid Visa card to a week working from home to use of the boss’s parking spot when he or she is on vacation.

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UM researcher gets grant to develop anti-drug education video game
St. Louis Post-Dispatch — By Tim Barker
4/13/2009

It's tough to find a child who doesn't enjoy video games.

A University of Missouri researcher is hoping to tap into that love to find a new way to teach kids about the dangers of drug addiction.

Joel Epstein, an associate professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, has been given a $1 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop an educational video game that focuses on what happens to the brain and body when a person uses drugs.

Taking it a step further, Epstein is attempting a two-pronged approach, with the goal of making a game that targets boys and girls differently. The plan is to develop a game that offers two separate tracts — a competitive arc that targets boys and a more socially engaging arc that targets girls.

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Summer movie video games seek to terminate stigma
Associated Press — By Derrik J. Lang
4/10/2009

Video games based on blockbuster movies typically get panned, yet shamelessly benefit from the buzz of their film inspirations. But the developers of this summer's movie games are more intent than ever on transforming gamers' groans into grins.

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Computer-savvy students got game
Plainfield Sun (IL) — By Janet Lundquist
4/10/2009

On one computer screen, zombies, humans and ambulances zipped around, bouncing off walls at a frenetic pace while a player drove a tank through the scene.

On another, a spotlight highlighted targets in a dark room while the player took aim and shot bad guys.

Both were computer games developed by students at Plainfield South High School, working after school and on weekends.

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Returning troops getting tested for brain injuries
Associated Press — By Kristin M. Hall
4/9/2009

Every soldier who's gone to war in the past year paused before leaving to take a brain test — basic math, matching numbers and symbols and identifying patterns to measure response time and accuracy. Now that some of these troops have returned, they're taking a fresh round of tests, all part of a broad effort by the military to better treat head injuries.

The Department of Defense is also deploying some unusual weapons for treating the injuries, including paint guns and motion-sensitive video games integrated into therapy at new trauma centers around the country.

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Aspiring video game designers should check out Middleton High
St. Petersburg Times — By Alessandra Da Pra
4/3/2009

Let's play a game.

I'm a multibillion-dollar industry where 40 percent of users are women, the average buyer is 40 years old and 65 percent of American households interact with me.

What am I?

If you guessed the video game industry, you're right.

The statistics come from the Entertainment Software Association, which serves companies that publish computer and video games. In 2007, the industry earned $9.5 billion in revenue, according to ESA's Web site.

Figures aside, few would argue the popularity and potential profitability of video games — even educators are attesting to that. Now, Tampa has at least one school catching on to the trend and preparing students for a career in what could be an increasingly lucrative field.

"I want to be a video game designer," Middleton High School student Stacey Brundydge said while staring at a computer screen, his fingers moving across the keyboard, then onto the mouse.

Click. Click.

But he's not just playing games — he and others are creating them.

The 10th-grader is among a dozen students enrolled at the school's new Academy of Computer Game Design.

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Can Video Games be the New MTV?
MIT Technology Review — By Erica Naone
4/3/2009

Music's always been about more than just listening. People dance, sing along, and, lately, play along too, through video games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. As CD sales decline and the music industry struggles to find new ways to make money, some companies are betting that games could be a key to getting consumers to open their wallets for music.

Music-oriented computer games now enjoy huge popularity--the Rock Band franchise made more money in 2008 than any other game, according to NPD Group, a games industry analyst firm. Sales of Rock Band have also turned into music sales. As of this March, users paid for and downloaded more than 40 million songs to use with Rock Band. Bands featured in the game have enjoyed increased sales, for example, Weezer, whose 1994 debut album features songs packaged with the game.

A number of companies are creating games that incorporate music into play, betting that Rock Band and Guitar Hero aren't isolated phenomena. They believe that all sorts of games--including titles created for use on cell phones and the Web--can offer listeners a new way to discover music, become more involved as fans, and, ultimately, encourage them to pay for tracks. "It's a much broader market than people are currently giving it credit for," says Nabeel Hyatt, CEO and founder of Conduit Labs, which maintains a social network built around playing music-related games online, called Loudcrowd.

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New game encourages exercise & learning geography
Ode Magazine —
4/3/2009

Video games have long been the bane of parents who wish their kids would study more or go out and exercise. The attraction to video or computer games is the lure of two things that children frequently lack in their own lives: instant, predictable rewards and control. Teachers, with finite attention to give to their students, frequently focus on trouble makers, and many good deeds go unrewarded. But in video games, objectives and rewards are clear. Get X amount of points and you get Y reward. Also, whereas many of kids' choices are at least guided - frequently controlled - by adults, games offer them tremendous freedom to customize a character, sans adult intervention.

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UD on cutting edge for computer games
Dubuque Telegraph-Herald — By Erik Hogstrom
4/2/2009

Brad Kaldahl tapes the movement sensor to the frame of a student's glasses. The student tilts his head from side-to-side, causing a red dot to wind its way through an on-screen maze.

"This is one of the exciting things," said Kaldahl, the University of Dubuque computer graphics and interactive media professor known as "The Game Guy."

"With this, we can get someone who is disabled and someone who is non-disabled on the same playing field."

Kaldahl and the University of Dubuque host a free Individualized Education Plans and Fun and Games Workshop on Saturday.

Regional and national speakers will discuss the use of video games in education, IEPs and as assistive technology tools for students.

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Videogamers take on new battle - the recession
Reuters — By John Gaudiosi
4/2/2009

As people cut back on travel and going out, they are turning more to home entertainment, providing a boost to the videogame industry that is under pressure to keep gamers amused and beat the recession.

Analyst Toon van Beeck from industry market research firm IbisWorld said videogame industry revenue is set to reach $41.9 billion this year, having risen from $27.2 billion in 2004, with over 37 million consoles sold in the United States alone in 2008.

A new report from IbisWorld said the introduction of Nintendo's Wii had helped bolster the industry by changing the face of videogamers, bringing in more female players who now make up 38 percent of the gaming demographic.

"Videogame sales have been impacted the least from the global recession and there are no real signs of it slowing," said Michael Cai, vice president of videogame research at Interpret.

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Sober Game for First Responders
Washington Post — By Kathleen Hom
3/31/2009

Imagine being a first responder heading toward a major explosion or chemical spill with memories of Sept. 11 flooding your brain. Now think again, with the benefit of having played out those scenarios and your response to them.

That's what the leaders of the National Emergency Medical Services Preparedness Initiative hopes paramedics and EMTs will be able to do. The institute, part of George Washington University, last week unveiled a video game that will allow emergency workers to hone their skills on the virtual scene of large-scale crises.

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NYC show explores Japanese comic books, animation
The Associated Press — By Ann Levin
3/30/2009

The gallery of the normally serene Japan Society has been overtaken by scenes of ruined cities, rocket travel, giant fighting robots, prostitution and teenagers in the throes of eating disorders.

The carnage and dysfunction are central to the elaborate fictional worlds of Japanese comics (manga), animated films (anime) and video games now on display in midtown Manhattan.

On a recent weekend, two mothers and their kids huddled over a model of the 1980s video game Pac-Man, trying to get the yellow circle to devour all the dots in a maze without being killed by ghosts.

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Scientists: Violent Video Games Will Improve Your Eyesight
Reuters —
3/30/2009

Adults who play a lot of action video games may be improving their eyesight, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

They said people who used a video-game training program saw significant improvements in their ability to notice subtle differences in shades of gray, a finding that may help people who have trouble with night driving.

"Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery — somehow changing the optics of the eye," said Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York, whose study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"But we've found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped."

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'Virtual reality' learning to debut in Baltimore Co.
Baltimore Sun — By Arin Gencer
3/27/2009

"Virtual instruction" is set to become a regular part of learning this fall in a Baltimore County school.

The school district has teamed up with universities, defense contractors and a video game developer for help with a high-tech program designed to breathe life into textbook lessons and challenge students with the kind of problem-solving that employers might expect.

"We wanted students to have an experience that would be more typical of what they'd have, hands-on, in the real world," said Maria Lowry, principal of Chesapeake High School, which is to pilot a new virtual classroom. "We're trying to bring the outside in."

The initiative, for which nearly $1 million is requested in the next fiscal year, is part of the school system's effort to equip students with 21st-century skills. Teachers can use simulations of real-life situations and problems to help students apply what they learn. The planned classroom of computer work stations and a wall of large screens for group lessons is believed to be a first in the area.

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Nielsen: Video Games Approach 5th Network Status
AdWeek — By Mike Shields
3/25/2009

Americans as a whole spend more time playing video games than they do watching the CW television network. And video games -- the real “5th Network” -- may even be closing in on NBC.

Those are a few of the conclusions that can be drawn from a new report issued by Nielsen PreView called "The Video Game Handbook," which provides marketers with a sense of the scope and scale of the growing video game audience. According to the data derived from Nielsen’s National People Meter in Q4 2008, usage of console video games (defined as systems connected to users' TVs) accounted for 64 billion minutes in December.

Only four other networks accounted for more viewing time during that period. And though Nielsen does not identify those networks, based on ratings patterns they are presumed to be CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC.

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Video Games, Cell Phones And Academic Performance: Some Good News
ScienceDaily —
3/24/2009

Using cell phones and playing video games may not be as harmful to children’s academic performance as previously believed, according to new research by a team of Michigan State University scholars.

In fact, cell phones had no effect on academic performance among a group of 12-year-olds, the researchers found in a three-year study published by the Conference Proceedings of the International Association for Development of the Information Society, or IADIS, in Barcelona, Spain.

And while the researchers found a strong relationship between video games and lower grade point averages, playing video games did not appear to affect math skills and had a positive relationship with visual-spatial skills. These skills – in which a child learns visually, by thinking in pictures and images – are considered the “training wheels” for performance in science, technology, engineering and math.

“And these are the areas where we want to see improvements in our children’s academic performance,” said lead investigator Linda Jackson, MSU professor of psychology.

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Video game developers graduate to kid titles
Los Angeles Times — By Alex Pham
3/23/2009 Read full article »

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At-home entertainment and family bonding booms
CNN.com — By Jessica Ravitz
3/20/2009

When Christopher Moore isn't jumping rope, shooting baskets or playing the board game Chutes and Ladders, the 8-year-old can often be found at home using his ninja fighting skills, protecting the world from would-be enemies.

"I'm trying to save the other people from being hurt," he said of his Avatar video game adventures. "And I be beating him bad," he added with a coy smile and a nod toward his 15-year-old brother.

The Moore household, in Birmingham, Alabama, enjoys a good blend of at-home entertainment, something the foursome is doing more and more during these precarious financial times, explains the boys' mother, Lisa Moore.

They grill, play outdoors or whip out traditional games that may be decades old, and although she doesn't plop down at the video console with them, the boys and her husband often duke it out virtually.

"They're always in competition," she said with a laugh. "It keeps them busy. It keeps them occupied."

Numbers show that at-home entertainment is doing better than ever, flying in the financial face of so many industries that are struggling in this recession.

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For kids, a golden age of video games
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat (CA) — By Eric Wittmershaus
3/20/2009

What a glorious time it must be to be a little kid who loves video games.

There’s no way to say this without sounding like an old man, but when I was a kid (the ’80s), finding an adult to play “Lady Bug” or “Zaxxon” on my ColecoVision was impossible. My dad and mom, who came of age in the ’50s and ’60s, were about as successful wielding Coleco’s 12-button controller as they would have been had they picked up a scalpel and tried to remove my appendix.

And they displayed a corresponding amount of zeal. Rather than game with mom or dad, I played with my friends or, if they weren’t around, ritually humiliated my sister, four years my junior. After all, there was little point in enduring the same kinds of pastings at the hands of my older cousins.

Recently, I had the opportunity to prove to my sister that I got our family’s “good at video games” genes by mercilessly schooling my 7-year-old nephew, Keondre, at “New Super Mario Bros.” While the lopsided beatdowns I administered via the DS’ tiny plastic stylus were of little educational value to Keondre or me, I did dash off a quick note to Nintendo to let them know they might consider making the upcoming DSi’s touchscreen resistant to children’s tears.

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Seniors find Wii game right up their alley
Columbus Dispatch — By Joe Blundo
3/19/2009

The players at the Jaycee Arms retirement complex still need some instruction in how to operate a video-game controller.

But they come fully armed with competitiveness. Don't let the walkers and hearing aids fool you.

Mary Cordesco, an 87-year-old wearing Ohio State slippers and a housecoat, rolled a video-game strike, broke into a wide grin and pounded the table at the Downtown high-rise. If she learns to control her hook and remembers to release the "B" button, she could make some noise in a senior bowling tournament this weekend in Worthington.

For the past few weeks, Jerry Smith, a sales consultant for Aetna, the insurance company, has been instructing senior citizens on how to bowl on the Wii game system in preparation for the event.

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Video games find home at Strong National Museum of Play
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle — By Stuart Low
3/18/2009

The latest news from Strong National Museum of Play deserves a rousing fanfare of electronic bleeps, worthy of Super Mario Galaxy or even Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Today the museum launches its National Center for the History of Electronic Games. It features one of America's largest collections devoted to this hugely popular pastime: 15,000 items, including advertising and business records. Strong also will start a Web site today, www.ncheg.org, introducing its collection and the games' 48-year history.

"These games are changing how people communicate, learn and play," said G. Rollie Adams, Strong's president. "We felt that we needed a major new interpretive center, along the lines of our National Toy Hall of Fame."

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Video Game Developers Take A Turn At Educating Players
The Hartford Courant — By William Weir
3/17/2009

Whatever your feelings are for financial adviser and loud television personality Jim Cramer, it's hard not to get a kick out of "Crasteroids."

The online video game appeared on the financial news website The Big Money (tbm.thebigmoney.com/articles/news/2009/03/13/play-jim-cramers-crashteroids-game) one day after Cramer took his lumps on Jon Stewart's show for some questionable pre-market-crash advice. Floating in space, Cramer's head blasts away, asteroids-style, at the head of Stewart, as well as that of another vocal critic, Henry Blodget of the Business Insider, and a bear (as in bear market).

A few weeks ago, "Hero on the Hudson" ( www.addictinggames.com/heroonthehudson.html) appeared as an online flash game just days after a plane landed in the Hudson River. While some accused the game's makers of insensitivity, others simply wondered how they were able to develop a game so quickly after the event.

For the last few years, though, video-game developers have increasingly turned to the news for ideas and are doing so in a timely fashion. Many of these off-the-news games are free and available to play off the Internet. Many are kind of goofy — for instance, "Sock and Awe" ("Win by hitting Bush with a shoe!")

But some games, known as "serious games," make education their main goal. One of the more popular is "Food Force" ( www.food-force.com), a game developed by the United Nations' World Food Program. The player locates starving residents of a fictional island from a helicopter and tries to get food to them.

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Diplomacy 2.0 With Cellphone Games
Wall Street Journal — By Marisa Taylor
3/13/2009

For diplomacy’s sake, the State Department is banking on the fact that it’s not just Americans who are obsessed with gaming and cellphones.

The Bureau of International Information Programs at the DOS teamed up with MetroStar Systems, a Reston, Va.-based software developer, to create X-Life, a mobile game for Middle Easterners aimed at teaching them about English language and American history and culture.

The State Department invested $415,000 in X-Life as a pilot project to see whether the concept of “e-diplomacy” might spread cross-cultural understanding between the U.S. and countries in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. The game has two different role-playing modules, one in which a user’s avatar is a student studying abroad in the United States, and the other is a musician in a Guitar Hero-like scenario (Grammy-winning band Ozomatli contributed a song for the game).

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Video Games A $40 Billion Market By 2012
InformationWeek — By W. David Gardner
3/13/2009

The country may be descending into an unknown economic abyss, but many consumers will fiddle away their cares and woes by playing video games, particularly on mobile devices.

A market research survey released this week found that more advanced mobile devices in particular will help fuel robust growth in video games.

Communications market researcher TMNG expects the global gaming industry to reach $40 billion in annual revenues by 2012. Earlier reports have noted that Apple's iPhone with its user-friendly touch screen has been a leading driver of the mobile gaming segment of the gaming business.

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Gallagher: Incentives for the video game industry are an investment in Texas' future
The Austin American-Statesman — By Michael D. Gallagher
3/12/2009

From Flaco Jimenez and his spirited Tejano sounds to Buddy Holly's pioneering rock, Texans have long demonstrated an eagerness to embrace a wide range of innovative musical talents. The state's annual musical rite, the South by Southwest Music and Conference Festival (SXSW), has reflected the Lone Star State's commitment to the arts throughout its 23-year existence.

SXSW began as a way to connect Austin musicians, relatively isolated in the heart of Texas, with their counterparts from around the world. But, as the entertainment world changed, SXSW did not skip a beat and continued to provide the artistic community and the state of Texas with a "tool for creative people to develop their careers, meet and share ideas."

As SXSW 2009 approaches, the Texas state legislature has a similar opportunity to uphold its residents' imaginative entertainment tradition. The Texas State Senate and Texas House of Representatives are currently considering bills that propose to expand the economic incentive programs available to the entertainment industry.

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Disability no barrier to gaming
BBC News — By Flora Graham
3/12/2009

Jon Kuniholm sits in front of the telly and plays Guitar Hero, the music video game. He's sailing through Pat Benetar's classic, Hit Me with Your Best Shot.

But unlike most players, he doesn't strum a little plastic guitar with his hands; Kuniholm's right arm is amputated just below the elbow.

Kuniholm is a biomechanics researcher at Duke University who lost his arm in an explosion while serving in Iraq. His efforts at Guitar Hero are more than just fun and games.

He is trying out a system developed by Jacob Vogelstein and Robert Armiger of the Applied Physics lab at Johns Hopkins University who hope to use games like Guitar Hero to train people to use prosthetic limbs.

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DC Elementary School Puts Wii Music On the Curriculum
The Washington Post — By Mike Musgrove
3/12/2009

Used to be parents rewarded kids for good academic performance with a little bit of after-school videogame time. These days, sometimes, videogames are in the classroom.

H.D. Cooke Elementary School, near Howard University, is getting a Wii today as part of a collaboration between Nintendo and the National Association for Music Education. The game company is donating hardware and software to schools in 51 cities across the country as part of the project.

Wii Music, the title that Nintendo is donating, isn't exactly a game. Players swing the game's controllers in time with music to mimic the motions they'd make to strum a guitar, say, or strike a set of drums. Spend some time with this title, the thinking goes, and young users may pick up some of the basics, such as rhythm, tempo and song structure.

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Lawyers and Wannabes Sharpen Skills with Objection! Video Game
American Bar Association Journal — By Debra Cassens Weiss
3/12/2009

A guest blogger for PC World raves about the Objection! video game testing players’ ability to identify objectionable courtroom questions.

The reviewer played the role of a lawyer defending an accused murderer. She noted that players have to raise their objection before the witness answers a prosecutor’s question, with less than a second, usually, to interject.

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Jindal seeks extension of movie, sound, video game credits
Shreveport Times — By Mike Hasten and Alexandyr Kent
3/10/2009

Tax credits for filming movies, recording music, manufacturing video games and promoting research and development cost Louisiana about $8 million a year but bring more money and attention than that to the state, Gov. Bobby Jindal says.

The governor announced during a news conference Monday he will propose legislation to extend the entertainment tax credits in a package of six extensions of credits that are scheduled to expire or be phased out.

However, a Shreveport movie industry official says the governor’s proposal doesn’t go far enough.

“We want to make sure Louisiana keeps a competitive edge,” Jindal said. “Extending these existing tax incentives is vital to keeping our economy growing.”

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US online videogame play on the rise: NPD Group
Agence France-Presse —
3/10/2009

US online videogame play is on the rise as growing numbers of teenagers turn to the Internet for opponents and game software, according to an NPD Group report released on Tuesday.

Online gaming for consoles and portable devices "enjoyed a statistically significant" increase from 19 percent of the overall videogame market early last year to 25 percent in early 2009, NPD concluded.

"Online gaming is enjoyed by a diverse group of players," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

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In China, Video Games for Homework
Wall Street Journal — By Juliet Ye
3/4/2009

As part of their homework, kids from the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou city have been assigned to kill monsters.

Sword of Justice is an online role-playing game jointly launched by the city’s prosecutors and education officers. The game is intended to instill proper ethics and respect for the law, using a medium familiar to China’s videogame-crazed youth.

Players can adopt the role of a kid– or that of one of his classmates or friends– who has been determined to become a prosecutor since early age. Designers have embedded legal knowledge, ethics training and self-protection skills into the game. To make it more appealing to kids, scenes in the game are all based on the real map of the city. Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, is a tourist attraction renowned for its beautiful stone bridges, pagodas, and meticulously designed gardens.

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Video Game Helps Kenyan Youth Avoid AIDS
Voice of America News — By Cathy Majtenyi
3/3/2009

Kenya has an HIV prevalence rate of about five percent, with young women among the most vulnerable to new infection. Now, the U.S. government and a private entertainment company have teamed up to produce and distribute a video game that teaches Kenyan youth how to avoid contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Sean the techie and others are sitting in a mini-bus, when along comes a hijacker.

This is a typical scenario in the video game Pamoja Mtaani, Swahili for Together in the Hood.

Young people who play the game assume the identity of one of five characters. They find themselves in many situations in which they have to make the best problem-solving choices to advance to the next level. The characters collaborate to solve puzzles and carry out specific missions.

While doing this, players are given information on HIV prevention.

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Math problems + video games = learning
The Daily Record (NJ) — By Michael Daigle
3/2/2009

The cries of "Oh, ho!" echoed around the buzzing room as more than 40 Jefferson middle schoolers tackled their pre-algebra and Algebra I assignments by tracking armed figures across a computer landscape in a video game.

The math lessons were real -- students, for example, had to determine how far away their target was by computing the answer to the algebra problem that popped up on their screen -- but so was the fun: It is not often that students get to shoot blue, laser-like stuff at their math teacher.

For Marius Petric, the K-12 district's math supervisor, the combination of real math and video games as a learning model was inevitable.

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Banking on the love of the game
Los Angeles Times — By John Horn
2/27/2009

Hollywood loves salable series, and as vital as Harry Potter, Shrek, and Transformers might be to the bottom line, the studios are increasingly embracing an even more established and often better-selling franchise: the video game.

"Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" opens today - though its review won't appear in papers until tomorrow, since it wasn't screened for critics - and it isn't apt to break any box-office records, largely because the film is premiering in limited national release on about 1,500 screens.

Yet the martial arts "Street Fighter" does represent part of an aggressive return to video-game adaptations, a genre that has gyrated in and out of popularity and suddenly is attracting several show-business superstars. Gore Verbinski, the director of the blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, is developing an ambitious adaptation of the first-person shooter game "BioShock," while "Pirates of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer and filmmaker Mike Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire") are deep into production on 2010's action-adventure release "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time."

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Wii virtual bowling is great therapy for veterans
Orlando Sentinel — By Darryl E. Owens
2/27/2009

Perfection foiled, Lyle Shaffer glowered at the wayward bowling pin.

"I got a sleeper!" he groaned. After the reset, Shaffer cocked his arm and delivered his second ball.

Satisfied he'd sufficiently crushed the spare, Shaffer plopped his Wii video-game controller into his lap, leaned back in his wheelchair and watched as the bowler in the wheelchair beside him gave it a try. You might call it gaming. The recreational therapists at the Community Living Center at the Orlando VA Medical Center call it "Wii-hab." But the pin-busting vets simply call it Tuesday night league bowling.

Whatever the moniker, the virtual-bowling battles are another way veterans' health-care centers are using the Wii gaming system as a therapeutic tool. Experts at the Orlando VA, for instance, say bowling, golf and many of the other sports in the Wii Sports pack promote movement, sociability and distraction.

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Professor: Video Games Can Teach People
Wabash College (IN) News — By Ian Bonhotal
2/27/2009

Video games have often been looked on as mere distraction for this day and age. Dr. James Gee, Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University and author of What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy as well as Why Video Games are Good For your Soul, however, disagreed in Thursday night's intriguing lecture,"Video Games and 21st Century Learning."

Gee expounded on the virtues of video games, what they mean to today's culture, and what they can teach people about real-life applications.

Gee began the lecture in a seemingly counter-intuitive manner by focusing on the Greek philosopher Plato. "Plato was one of the West's first truly great writers," Gee said. "He had two major criticisms, though, of writing in general. First, he believed that people learn through dialog, and through interaction, which is something writing is inherently unable to provide. Second, writing can get away from you, it can be interpreted in ways you didn't mean. You can't protect it. I feel that way about my writing at times."

Gee then went on to speak about the function video games serve which writing is unable to provide: interaction. That, Gee said, is an aspect of today's world which Plato would have loved. "Video games should be like a good conversation; they should talk back and interact with you, and that's how you learn from them."

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High-tech bonding
Des Moines Register — By Patt Johnson
2/27/2009

Today's technology-savvy children are enlisting a growing cadre of parents who enjoy untangling feet after a rousing round of "Dance, Dance Revolution," the video game that challenges the feet and mind. They call it spending quality time together.

About 65 percent of American households play computer and video games, according to a 2008 report from the Entertainment Software Association.

"Face-to-face is the best way to interact with your children," says Cathy Hockaday, adjunct assistant professor in human development and family studies at Iowa State University. "Parents have to stay current with technology. They have to meet the kids where (the children) are spending the most time."

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States do a delicate dance with gamers
Christian Science Monitor — By Chris Gaylord and Kathryn Perry
2/27/2009

For some politicians, video games have been a wonderful target. More than a few lawmakers have burnished their family-values credential by speaking out against the medium as a peddler of smut and gore.

In the past few years, state legislators in California, Louisiana, and Massachusetts submitted or passed bills outlawing the sale or rental of mature games to children. Judges have consistently thrown out such measures as unconstitutional. Just last Friday, a California appeals court struck down such a law. It ruled that targeting violent or sexual video games, while not expanding the law to cover R-rated movies or suggestive books, unfairly singled out the free speech rights of a particular industry. California lawmakers vow to continue the appeals process.

Yet some signs indicate that the relationship between politicians and the industry is getting a bit cozier. About a dozen states are now wooing video-game companies to their cities. Enchanted by gamemakers’ big budgets, high-skilled jobs, and purported resistance to recessions, state lawmakers are backing legislation that aims to attract a bigger slice of the $22 billion industry.

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IBM Innov8 v.2: serious gaming helps tomorrow’s business leaders
Gizmag.com —
2/26/2009

Pilots, the military and emergency services have been using simulations for years to teach skills in a risk-free environment where otherwise lives might be lost. Video gaming isn’t new either - the CEOs of many of today’s big names such as Yahoo and Google grew up on a diet of avatars and role-playing. But it’s only recently that business simulators and advanced video gaming have merged to form ‘serious games’ like IBM's Innov8.

IBM is more commonly associated with button down suits than World of Warcraft, but says that skills honed playing such games can be useful when managing modern multinationals. Innov8, a business process simulator with video game-like qualities is designed to teach students the fundamentals of business process management (BPM) and bridge the gap in understanding between business leaders and IT teams in an organization.

The v.2 release is a complete redesign of the game and incorporates a new global collaboration feature where players work with virtual teammates to progress to the next level. There are also three new game scenarios that reflect a new level of intelligence required for future, high-value job opportunities.

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Should Florida rethink how it lures TV, film productions?
Orlando Sentinel — By Beth Kassab
2/25/2009

It was another lonely Oscar night for Florida. Louisiana had The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. New Jersey had The Wrestler. New York had Frozen River.

For years, Florida has wanted to be a top contender in the world of film and television locales, but it is still stuck as a destination mostly known as a backdrop for straight-to-video movies and infomercials.

So here comes the latest effort by film- and television-industry promoters to catapult Florida into relevancy among the Hollywood set: tax credits.

As the legislative session gets started next week, expect to hear more about why Florida needs to overhaul the way it lures film and television productions here.

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An Industry Is Booming, but Not Just for Gamers
New York Times — By Seth Schiesel
2/24/2009

If the state of a media business can be measured by its capacity for self-satire, then perhaps video games are the healthiest precinct in all of entertainment.

By that measure, it was a sign of supreme confidence that roughly 600 top game executives and designers could not stop laughing here on Thursday when the comedian and actor Jay Mohr laid into them as host of the 12th annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Oscars of gaming.

In a performance that would certainly be rated M for Mature, Mr. Mohr spent far more time roasting the game industry than celebrating it. In one segment he skewered the paucity of women at the ceremony (pointing out that it would be a great place to find a lonely millionaire), then joked about how few blacks were in the room. At that point the cameras zoomed in on perhaps the only black woman in the audience, Denise Kaigler, a top executive at Nintendo of America.

The real joke, which was probably not lost on Mr. Mohr, an avid gamer, is that Nintendo is dominating sales charts and making more money than anyone in the business these days. Likewise, it was easy for the room to laugh at itself, given that total sales of games and related hardware in the United States grew by almost 20 percent last year, to more than $21 billion.

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Videogame Technology Helps With Disaster Planning
Wired — By Kristen Philipkoski
2/23/2009

Thanks to disaster-simulation software inspired by videogames, David Friedman has a new family member: Jordan, a yellow Labrador retriever puppy. The software helped emergency workers in Louisiana rescue Jordan -- and 15,000 other stranded pets -- during Hurricane Gustav.

"Going by boat across a flooded field and parking lot, I saw this little yellow thing in a tree floating in the river," Friedman said, a disaster-response coordinator with animal-rescue organization Muttshack. "It was this little yellow puppy."

Volunteers like Friedman patched together an escape route for the animals using a disaster-preparedness simulator called Depiction. Friedman combined his amateur radio skills with simulations he had already created of the Baton Rouge area to map open roads, even without an internet connection. Volunteers picked up animals at 19 locations and coordinated 133 tractor trailers.

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New video game bails out players with a chance to spend trillion dollar stimulus funds
New York Daily News — By Christina Boyle
2/22/2009

Here's your chance to sock it to the fat cats and give some cheer to down-and-out homeowners.

A new online video game, posted Friday on addictinggames.com, lets players take charge of doling out a trillion dollar bailout package.

Players can choose to deliver a pot of cash - or a slap in the face - to characters who pop out of the New York skyscrapers and street-level homes with signs asking for some of your cash.

"With this game we're giving game players the chance to experience what it's like to make a decision about who to bailout and who not to," said Kate Connally, vice president of Addicting Games, who said a team of producers came up with the idea to reflect "Main Street frustration".

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Court Strikes Down Calif. Video Game Law
Associated Press — By Samantha Young
2/20/2009

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a California law that sought to ban the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2005 law violates minors' rights under the Constitution's First and 14th amendments. The three-judge panel's unanimous ruling upholds an earlier ruling in U.S. District Court.

The law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18. It also would have created strict labeling requirements for video game manufacturers.

In a written opinion, Judge Consuelo Callahan said there were less restrictive ways to protect children from ''unquestionably violent'' video games. For example, the justices said the industry has a voluntary rating system and that parents can block certain games on video consoles.

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Supporting games through Facebook
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — By Stanley A. Miller II
2/19/2009

Gamers often find themselves besieged by people who summarily dismiss their hobby as childish, or antisocial or even sociopathic. Despite the inroads that casual, mainstream games like the Nintendo Wii are making to open minds, there are still powerful and persistent forces against games who see them as little more than a medium for delivering sex, violence and other adult content to young people.

Yes, there are adult games with such content. And yes, there are effective industry-implemented mechanisms in place to help keep that content out of the hands of youngsters. Politicians -- many of whom are woefully under informed about games -- look to earn points by taking shots at the electronic entertainment industry and limiting its freedom of speech through legislation.

Game makers have enough money to fight off these efforts in the courts. But as far as money can go, organizing grassroots support is also important, and the Electronic Software Association -- the group representing the game industry -- has leveled Video Game Voters Network to help organize players' voices against anti-video game legislation.

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NASA Creating Online Multiplayer Video Game
LiveScience.com — By Jeremy Hsu
2/19/2009

Space explorers, ready your virtual engines — three game developers have signed on to create NASA's massively multiplayer online video game (MMO), called "Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond."

NASA plans to let Virtual Heroes, Project Whitecard and Information in Place take the lead in creating a game that emphasizes fun first and foremost. The game community sent in 800 pages worth of responses to NASA's initial outreach on developing an MMO.

"The single biggest point that was pushed forward by the game community was that you have to let game design lead the development," said Daniel Laughlin, project manager for NASA Learning Technologies at the agency's Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center in Maryland. "It's easy to build a game that's no fun. It's hard to build a game that's successful and fun."

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Brain fitness seen as hot industry of the future
Reuters — By Toni Clarke
2/18/2009

When her son Alex was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the age of 10, Karen George was reluctant to put him on medication.

Instead, she enrolled him in a clinical trial designed to test the efficacy of a brain stimulation program made by Cogmed, a private company that uses computer programs to exercise parts of the brain responsible for short-term memory.

The five-week program required Alex to spend up to an hour a day on a computer, pitting his wits against a robot. Among other exercises, the robot blinked out sequences of flashing lights that Alex was required to replicate.

The program made a dramatic difference in Alex's ability to concentrate, remember and act on daily chores, his mother says.

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NBA All-Star brings users onto the court
Reuters — By John Gaudiosi
2/12/2009

Imagine playing around with an NBA videogame and creating a custom jersey for your virtual NBA players to wear on the court.

Now imagine having that virtual jersey worn by some of the biggest names in the NBA on the real hardwoods of the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona during the 57th NBA All-Star weekend.

For 18-year-old gamer Tim Ahmed from East Meadow, Long Island, this will become reality when the NBA All-Star Rookie and Sophomore teams take the court February 13 during the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam.

The purple All-Star jerseys donned by the likes of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant and Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose were created by Ahmed using a videogame and he won the inaugural EA Sports' NBA Live 09 Jersey Creator Contest.

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U.S. video game sales show continued strength
Reuters — By Gabriel Madway
2/12/2009

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 13 percent in January from a year earlier, led by Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii console and DS hand-held systems, market researcher NPD said on Thursday.

The results presented more evidence that even in the middle of a brutal economic downturn, U.S. consumers are willing to spend on video games.

Total industry sales in the month climbed to $1.33 billion, NPD said.

Video game software sales rose 10 percent to $676.6 million while hardware sales surged 17 percent to $445.4 million. Sales of accessories grew 11 percent to $209.8 million.

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Video games are good for children - EU report
The Guardian (UK) — By Robert Booth
2/12/2009

Children who spend hours every day on their Playstation or Xbox video consoles may not be rotting their brains, as many parents fear. A report from the European parliament concluded yesterday that computer games are good for children and teach them essential life skills.

Contrary to fears about the violent reputation of some games, there is no firm proof that playing them has an automatic negative impact on children's behaviour, for example by causing aggression, said the report from the committee on the internal market and consumer protection.

Instead, "video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society."

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NY video game makers still playing to win
Crain's New York Business — By Karen J. Bannan
2/11/2009

Until she was laid off this past November, 24-year-old Ariele Mason’s fortunes were firmly tied to Wall Street’s. During the two-and-a-half years she worked as technology consultant with Computer Sciences Corp., her clients included financial firms such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan.

With the city’s financial pillars crumbling, Ms. Mason wasn’t optimistic about her job prospects. So Ms. Mason decided to make a career change and leave the financial world. Her goal: find a job where she could work on video games. “The downturn was the perfect opportunity to reassess myself and what I wanted to do,” she said. “When I was younger, I always wanted to work in the video game industry, but when I graduated, consulting was what paid well and what was hiring.”

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Wii-habilitation 'could prevent elderly from falls'
CNN — By Anouk Lorie
2/11/2009

Playing the Nintendo Wii Fit could improve balance and help avoid falls in seniors, researchers taking part in a new study suggest.

The University of Aberdeen, Scotland and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) have embarked on a four month study on people over 70 to observe any changes in balance after regular use of the Wii Fit.

The video game, which offers such sports as virtual golf, tennis and tenpin bowling, relies on players mimicking the games' physical actions, which are then played out on screen.

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Videogames seen good for children
Reuters — By Sarah Luehrs
2/11/2009

Videogames can be good for children, encouraging creativity and cooperation, a European Union report concluded Wednesday which ran counter to the violent reputation of some titles.

In conclusions that may either surprise or reassure parents of game addicts, the study by the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection found a number of benefits and no definitive link to violent behavior.

"Videogames are in most cases not dangerous and can even contribute to the development of important skills," said Toine Manders, the Dutch liberal lawmaker who drafted the report.

"(They stimulate) learning of facts and skills such as strategic reflection, creativity, cooperation and a sense of innovation," a news release on the report said.

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Video game technology could fuel Mass. recovery
Associated Press — By Steve LeBlanc
2/9/2009

Like other struggling states, Massachusetts is looking anywhere it can for jobs and cash_ including the virtual world of video game technology with its mix of fantasy and rabid fans.

While Boston is home to top gaming companies like the developers of the hugely popular "Rock Band," "BioShock" and "The Lord of the Rings Online" it's just fourth or fifth on the list of top video gaming clusters behind locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Austin.

Political leaders like Gov. Deval Patrick are hoping to move the state up in the ranks, by coaxing more companies to Massachusetts.

The lure is understandable. While other sectors of the economy are slashing jobs, video gaming companies are thriving as eager investors pump in millions to help develop the next generation of games.

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When Air Time Is Playtime
New York Times — By Scott Jones
2/9/2009

I write about video games and technology for a living. I love my job, but I think I got into it because when I was a child my parents never allowed me to have an Atari. Now, as an adult, I actually get paid to play and review games.

I never truly realized how much I have traveled doing this type of work until an American Airlines agent recently asked me for my AAdvantage number and I rattled it off as naturally as I rattle off my birth date.

In the past year alone, I’ve been to Moscow, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Vancouver. Since most of my industry is based in California, I also make routine trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego from my home in New York.

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Fitness Revolution in Motion
The Washington Post — By Lori Aratani
2/8/2009

As they try to get children off their couches and onto their feet, schools and gyms in the Washington region and across the country are harnessing some of the same technology often blamed for making them fat: video games.

The Alexandria YMCA is one of the first in this area to pilot an "I-gym" -- a workout room filled with about a dozen pieces of equipment that marry video games and fitness. Think of it as Nintendo's Wii on steroids. Across the river in Silver Spring, Woodlin Elementary School has tried out a NEOS, a giant orange play structure with flashing lights, colors and "whoop whoop" sounds.

"Kids are going to exercise if they want to and have fun doing it," said Janice Williams, senior vice president for special projects at the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington. "So many kids are tech savvy, and video games are a draw to them, so why not have them use a video game that requires them to use movement?"

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Turning Whimsy Into a Video Classic. Maybe.
New York Times — By Harry Hurt III
2/6/2009

I nodded, chagrined at how seriously the Eidos-Montreal creative team had taken a whimsical idea I’d proposed just a few hours earlier and at how quickly they had begun to turn it into a concept for a potentially marketable video game.

Then again, video gaming is a serious and extremely fast-paced industry that is capturing an ever larger share of the entertainment market. In 2008, global sales of video games grew 20 percent, to $32 billion, surpassing sales of DVD and Blu-ray movies ($29 billion) for the first time, according to the research firm Media Control GfK International. A report by the NPD Group’s market data gatherers put video game sales in the United States last year at over $21 billion, more than double the $9.5 billion in domestic box-office revenue earned by Hollywood movies.

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Video games help special ed students stay fit
Sioux City Journal (IA) — By Nick Hytrek
2/5/2009

Huffing and puffing, Mitch Hangman put his hands on his hips.

His face is red from the effort he's just put in jogging and twirling a hoop around his waist.

Just your ordinary physical education class, right?

Nope. Mitch, a seventh-grader, got the workout on a Wii Fit video game system in a small room off a corridor at Laurel-Concord High School.

He mimicked jogging motions by running in place. He gyrated his hips while watching an animated figure on a projection screen. The video game controller in his hand tracked his motions so the animated characters would respond to his movements.

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'Financial football' kicks off in Hawaii
Honolulu Star-Bulletin — By Kristen Consillio
2/5/2009

Farrington High School students played "financial football" yesterday with members of the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers as part of a statewide launch of a national money management program for Hawaii students.

New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis spoke about their personal finance experiences and played the interactive video game with about 30 students at the Farrington library to encourage them to save their money and live within their means.

Hawaii is the 21st state to roll out the free interactive computer program that teaches students the dangers of debt and importance of managing money - a skill particularly critical in the severe economic downturn.

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Virtual reality system uses exposure therapy to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder
Chicago Tribune — By Kristen Kridel
2/5/2009

The helicopter is visible for only a moment from the front seat of a military Humvee, swooping out of the bright sky as barren desert gives way to a palm grove. The dark shape of an armed figure appears suddenly to the right of the road. Then more figures pop out of nowhere.

Gunfire erupts, followed by explosions. One, two, three bullets shatter the windshield, leaving a web of cracks. Bright red blood soaks the uniform of the soldier slumped in the passenger's seat.

The jarring scene plays out on a high-tech, virtual reality system that uses exposure therapy to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The program allows veterans to relive combat scenarios hundreds of times, if necessary.

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Why Women Should Play Video Games
Fast Company — By Morgan Romine
2/5/2009

It wasn't that long ago that I was in a video game store talking to one of the clerks when it suddenly dawned on him that this socially adjusted female actually intended to buy a game for herself. It wasn't for my boyfriend or brother or son, I was there to splurge my own money on a game that I would later spend hours of my life playing. His surprise, though more pronounced than most of the reactions I encounter, was not remotely new to me, and in fact made me feel slightly vexed. I realize that gaming is still a decidedly male-dominated pastime and industry, and I understand that mainstream culture is still deeply influenced by the notion that games are only for the stereotypical antisocial, tech-nerdy, teenage male. But I've been advocating games for years now, and playing them for longer, so I'm impatient for the change in popular perception that I'm sure is waiting right around the corner. I've been delighted to watch the gaming population grow explosively alongside the booming games industry, and I'm always proud to repeat to people the statistic that 40% of gamers are women. But changing perceptions isn't easy, and there are still many people who simply can't imagine what a video game might have to offer them.

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Bills aim to lure movie makers
The Associated Press — By Kelley Shannon
2/3/2009

Lawmakers who pressed for state film incentives two years ago said Tuesday they have filed new legislation intended to further entice movie, television and video game producers to bring their cast and crews to Texas.

Their proposal would give Texas more flexibility to compete with other states than the current incentive program allows, said Rep. Dawnna Dukes, an Austin Democrat pushing the measure with Republican Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville.

"Bring it back home, bring it back to Texas," Dukes said, summing up the legislation after telling her House colleagues about it. She also introduced video game industry executives who were visiting the House chamber and offered a resolution declaring Tuesday "Entertainment Software Day."

Video game production is already a large industry for Texas and could grow much further, Dukes said.

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Music helps fuel sales increase for video games
Reuters — By Steve Traiman
2/3/2009

Four major video-game franchise titles with music tie-ins sparked a record year for U.S. video-game and computer game software, representing more than 5 percent of the total 297.6 million units sold in 2008, according to the NPD Group.

Unit sales were up 11 percent from the prior year's record and represented $11.7 billion at retail, a 23 percent year-over-year increase.

Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL 09" sold more than 5.25 million units, followed by Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV" with 5.22 million, Activision/Red Octane's "Guitar Hero World Tour" with 3.4 million and Harmonix/MTV/EA's "Rock Band 2" at 1.7 million.

In a rare success story on the economic front, U.S. retailers raked in $21.33 billion in sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories during the year (not including the PC market), up 19 percent from 2007.

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Have you been playing 'Call of Duty' with Robin Williams?
The Associated Press — By Doug Elfman
1/29/2009

Zac Efron of "High School Musical" and other young stars have told me about their video game habits. But the average age group of gamers is thirtysomething. So it's not surprising that most stars who chat with me about games are older and more established.

Robin Williams is such a hardcore gamer, he named a daughter Zelda. He's accustomed to playing "Call of Duty" online anonymously and hearing kids curse him, not knowing who he is.

"When you play it multiplayer, it is insane, given that it is a 12-year-old doing the sniping, and capping you're a**, and slowly but surely ascending the ranks," he says. "Or, you're up against a 10-year-old who's a five-star general going, 'Shut up, [expletive]. I own you!'"

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Baylor students contribute to rising video game industry
The Lariat — By Buddy Steele
1/27/2009

First place. Head shot. Checkpoint. To some, these terms don't seem related, but gamers know them all too well.

Many young people can remember a time when their parents told them to turn off the video games and do their homework, but for some Baylor students, video games and school work are one and the same.

The Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering offers a fairly unheard-of and specialized degree program which focuses on game development.

Dr. Jeff Donahoo, a professor of computer science, said he believes that this program allows students to gain the knowledge to make a mark on the video game industry.

"We certainly want to have a presence and an impact," Donahoo said. "The video game industry will exist with or without Baylor's participation, so we think it's much better for Baylor to have a voice in something that will exist, than not have a voice."

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Gaming is the future of classroom instruction
eSchoolNews — By Maya T. Prabhu
1/24/2009

Gaming is moving out of the entertainment domain and into other areas, said Jim Brazell, president of ventureRAMP.com.

"We now have serious games. There are applications of video games to domains other than entertainment," he said Jan. 22 at an "eye opening" keynote -- so named for its start time 28 minutes after sunrise -- during the Florida Education Technology Conference. "Video games do not belong pigeon holed in entertainment."

Games have crossed into serious domains such as health care and military training and have begun to give birth to new models of playing, learning, and socializing, he said.

"You can get more data in a video game than in any other education area," Brazell said, adding that gaming allows for the convergence of physical, virtual, and imaginary realities.

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For Video Games, Mainstream Success Comes With a Price
New York Times — Seth Schiesel
1/23/2009

So there I was Friday morning, listening to the customary locker-room banter on WFAN, the sports-talk pioneer, as conversation turned to the betting odds on the best picture Oscar. As a few of the numbers were listed, Craig Carton, the bawdy provocateur who is one of the morning show’s hosts, dismissively cut off the segment and started talking about how he had an appointment that evening to play NBA 2K9 online against a friend in upstate New York.

In a fascinating generational twist, Boomer Esiason, the 47-year-old former N.F.L. quarterback who plays the straight man on the program, made a halfhearted attempt to mock Mr. Carton for his Friday night plans. Mr. Carton, a married father of three who turns 40 next week, shut him up with a line very much like: “What am I supposed to do? Dance the night away?”

It was a pitch-perfect moment that summed up why in 2009 video games are poised to become an even more established and central component of mainstream culture. Like Mr. Carton, the first generation to actually grow up playing video games is turning 40. As a group, they aren’t in the basement and they’re not maladjusted. They are responsible middle-aged parents, and many are coming into the full flower of their professional lives. People who play video games (most of whom probably do not consider themselves “gamers”) are moving into positions of power all over our society, even in the White House.

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Governor Perry advocates gaming industry in Texas business
KEYE-TV (TX) — By Jason Wheeler
1/22/2009

Austin's video game industry has grown substantially over the years, and experts say this region could become an undisputed leader in the growing field if the state adopts a more aggressive incentive approach that has been advocated by Governor Rick Perry.

As Austin's game development industry matures, a number of grown up kids here are realizing their childhood dreams of mixing work and play.

"It's an amazing time to get into the industry," a professor recently told a group of students attending their first days of the spring semester at Austin Community College. Just last semester, ACC became one of the few schools to start offering an Associates Degree in video game development.

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Recession? Not for These Businesses
BusinessWeek — By Greg T. Spielberg
1/19/2009

When times turn rough, people tend to stay home more. That means plenty of home movie nights, less eating out, and more video games. With interactive games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and just about anything on the Nintendo Wii platform, the industry currently reflects few of America's financial problems. Total revenue jumped 40% in 2007, and another 20% through the first 11 months of last year. [December figures are not yet available.] The Entertainment Software Association expects to tally sales of $22 billion for 2008, when all the counting is finished, says president and CEO Mike Gallagher.

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Latest video games promote exercise, healthy eating
USA Today — By Mark Saltzman
1/15/2009

Cut up your gym membership card, fire your personal trainer and cancel that Jenny Craig food order. If you want to get lean in 2009, perhaps you should start with a video game console.
If your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, fitness-themed games could get you more excited than Richard Simmons at a short-shorts sale.

OK, this isn't exactly a new phenomenon. We've seen dancing diversions such as Konami's Dance Dance Revolution games for many years now, but the "exer-gaming" trend really took off with Nintendo's Wii Fit ($89.99) when it debuted last spring, thanks to its collection of aerobic exercises, stretches, yoga lessons and minigames for the Nintendo Wii console. Included with the disc is the Wii Balance Board, which resembles a white bathroom scale that measures your weight and senses your movement when you stand on it.

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Future of NYC: Emerging industries becoming vital
Crain's Business New York — By Clark Merrefield
1/14/2009

Eric Zimmerman wishes New York had game.

The co-founder and chief designer of video game company Gamelab recalls being wined and dined while attending the 2005 Montreal International Game Summit. What he got during dinner at a restaurant was a sales pitch for Montreal: City officials and conference representatives gave a run-down of the tax breaks available to game companies and talked up the city’s quality of life.

“It struck me as so interesting that New York City has never done anything like that in my decade and a half making games in the city,’’ he said.

It turns out that a stack of empty wine bottles or even a couple hundred Bunsen burners could go a long way toward reviving New York’s moribund economy.

In the wake of the financial sector wreckage, the state can no longer rely on Wall Street for 20% of revenues. Instead, emerging industries like biotechnology, clean technology and video gaming could lead the way toward diversification. But that may depend on whether the city and state administrations are willing to provide the incentives and tender loving care needed to keep these incubating industries here.

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Game designers' goal: pay for play
Seattle Times — By Casey Parks
1/12/2009

At age 7, Christopher Hernandez created a video game out of paper. He drew characters, painstakingly cut them out, then arranged them on his bedroom floor for his younger brother to pretend to play.

He didn't have a computer. He had never heard of someone making a living as a video-game designer.

A little more than a decade later, he is in a college classroom, showing off a game he spent two years making. It's "Yoshi's Isle, Sonic Style" — a combination of two popular games from the 1990s.

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Test spin on WSU driving simulator shows how scientists now study safety
Detroit Free Press — By Matt Helms
1/8/2009

I didn't do so bad in a high-tech driving simulator unveiled Wednesday at Wayne State University.

I didn't hit the pedestrians who crossed in front of me. I avoided the bicyclists who suddenly swerved into the street. I stayed within speed limits and kept it on the cautious side -- probably more so than I would have in the real world.

The university showed off its driving simulator at a lab in its Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

It's an actual 2001 Chevy Impala with no engine. Electronics under the hood measure how you interact with a computer-generated world projected onto screens that make it feel like you're driving through a computerized landscape with hazards taken from real life.

The simulator provides a way to research the impact of aging, physical impairment, fatigue and distraction on driving skills -- testing that's not easy to do safely on real roadways.

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K-State Physical Fitness Expert Says Wii Fit is a Promising Tool for All Ages, Though Game’s Health Measurements are Flawed
Kansas State University — By Kristin Hodges
1/6/2009

While some emerging technologies can create environments that require very little physical effort, one Kansas State University researcher thinks games like Nintendo's Wii Fit can help promote physical rather than sedentary activities for people of all ages.

"I think there is a great potential to develop ways to promote physical activity through technology," said David Dzewaltowski, professor and head of the department of kinesiology at K-State and director of the university's Community Health Institute. "Kids innately like to move, so I believe that there is a big future in games that use emerging technologies and require movement because the games will be enjoyed by children and also be more healthy than existing games."

In a commentary published in the October 2008 Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, Dzewaltowski discussed how technology is changing our everyday life and affecting our health.

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See Me, Hear Me: A Video Game for the Blind
New York Times — By Abby Ellin
1/4/2009

The Singapore-M.I.T. Gambit Game Lab (“gambit” for gamers, aesthetics, mechanics, business, innovation and technology) brings together computer geeks of Cambridge and computer geeks of the Asian city-state. The point: to develop video games for the global market from the outset, not translate them from one continent to another.

Eitan Glinert, there as a master’s candidate in computer science, got to thinking about one market lost in translation. “People with disabilities were being left out of progress in the gaming market,” says Mr. Glinert, 26. For his master’s thesis, Mr. Glinert wanted to make a game that would work equally for the visually impaired and for the seeing, so they could play together.

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More and More, Schools Got Game
The Washington Post — By Michael Alison Chandler
1/4/2009

Lifelong gamer Russell Alford, 15, usually has to wait until his homework and chores are finished before he can play Call of Duty 4, but this semester he got to play another video game at school. His finance class at Marshall High School in Fairfax County designed avatars and saved a virtual city from an oil spill -- earning points for teamwork, research on the world's water supply, business ethics and negotiating skills.

As Net-generation teachers reach out to gamers, classrooms across the country are becoming portals to elaborate virtual worlds. Business and science classes from Woodbridge to Frederick are sampling sophisticated software that allows students to try out potential careers, practice skills or explore history through simulated missions in national parks, ancient cities or outer space.

Teachers have long yearned for the rapt attention students lavish on mutants and aliens, but stereotypes of video games as violent or brain-numbing have slowed their entry into schools. While the military and even medical schools are turning to "serious games" or simulations for training, the Software and Information Industry Association estimates that instructional games make up only a tiny portion of the $2 billion-a-year educational software industry.

But lately, researchers and educators say sentiment toward gaming is changing. Advocates argue that games teach vital skills overlooked in the age of high-stakes tests, such as teamwork, decision-making and digital literacy. And they admire the way good games challenge players just enough to keep them engaged and pushing to reach the next level.

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Pixel power
St. Joseph News-Press (MO) — By Blake Hannon
1/2/2009

In many ways, the music industry is struggling to survive. CD sales are decreasing every year. Artists who used to sell more than a million copies in their first week are only managing to sell a few hundred thousand. And major labels and radio are losing their influence in music’s digital revolution.

Now, major artists and up-and-comers are having to explore other options to get music out to a wider audience, and thanks to the popularity of video games, licensing music for those games is becoming a viable option for success.

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Using virtual worlds and video games to teach the lessons of reality
Scientific American — By Larry Greenemeier
1/1/2009

Researchers are beginning to wonder whether video games, long seen as a top time waster for kids and a roadblock to their educational development, might actually be a solution to what ails today's schools rather than a problem.

Several educators suggest in the newest issue of Science that schools use video games to simulate the real-world situations in the classroom to help students develop critical-thinking skills and enhance their understanding of science and math and, perhaps, even encourage them to pursue careers in those and related fields such as technology and engineering.

Clearly, video games will only grow more popular with time, as graphics and user interfaces (such as wireless controllers) become more sophisticated. The video game industry is expected to rake in more than $68 billion in sales in 2012 (up from $42 billion in 2007), according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study released in June.

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