Gamers make better citizens. Or at least, good citizen-type people tend to also be gamers. The causality isn’t clear yet, but thanks to some recent research, we now know there’s a correlation. People who play video games tend to be more engaged citizens. That’s the headline from the Pew Internet Project report I mentioned a […]
Read more "Gamers = Better Citizens, part II"It’s been 20 years since Space Invaders taught us that the alien hordes will approach zig-zag fashion through the sky in even, serried ranks. Happy Birthday, Space Invaders! In honour of this momentous occasion, here is a totally whacked out Sunday-evening anime head trip . . . I wonder what the single character they form […]
Read more "Happy Birthday, Space Invaders"For years, I’ve been hearing that video games are bigger business than movies and music combined. But no one seems to know where this statistic comes from. It could be true. One thing that is clear is that video game sales (hardware and software combined) are going through a period of explosive growth right now. […]
Read more "Recession = More Gaming"This is amusing. GameCity has launched a campaign to Save the Video Game. OK, so the video game isn’t exactly under threat, even if there’s plenty of talk in that direction from people like Susan Greenfield. But it’s a good thought experiment. If I were contributing to the archive, my top three would be Civilization, […]
Read more "Save the Video Game"So Users Add Value. You’ve got a great news network with millions of people contributing rich, insightful material every day. Lots of people comment on your news articles; there’s a thriving debate online. Thousands of people are submitting content that could enhance the power of your journalism and help them get the information they need […]
Read more "How to Turn Millions of User Videos Into Good Content"Microsoft wants to put games in your classroom. They believe video games are powerful teaching tools. So much so, that they’re willing to create something known as the Games For Learning Institute (G4LI) at New York University in Manhattan. With guaranteed funding for at least three years. OK, so three years’ funding for an institute like this is […]
Read more "All Together Now: “Good Morning, Mr. Microsoft!”"This one deserves to be shouted from the rooftops: Far from turning teenagers into anti-social loners, video games help them engage with friends and community, says a report. The Pew Internet study of US teenagers found that few play alone and most join up with friends when gaming. It found that many used educational games […]
Read more "Video Games Help Make Friends, Engaged Citizens"Here’s something interesting. The UK Prison Service is banning 18-rated video games for inmates. Other video games are allowed, but only to those who have earned perks through good behaviour. “We should not forget the usefulness of these games to prison officers and governors keeping order in overcrowded prisons,” Geoff Dobson, deputy director of the […]
Read more "Drop that Shiv, Here’s a Gamepad"“Gamers,” as a demographic group, exist in a different way than “readers” or “TV viewers.” Mostly that’s because everybody reads or watches TV to some extent, and it’s not terribly useful to talk about a section of the population if that section is the population. Increasingly, though, the same thing is happening with gaming. BBC […]
Read more "Gamers? There’s no such thing."This is too cool for words. An apartment designed to be a real-life adventure game, full of secret compartments and hidden messages. The Post family in New York got a posh apartment. They hired an architect as an interior designer. The father commented in an off-hand way that he’d like a message hidden for his […]
Read more "Not Just an Apartment – It’s an Adventure Game"
Philip Trippenbach 