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A set of resources, articles and information on how computer games could assist with game-based learning.
Updated on 2009-07-09
Created on 2009-01-14
Category: Entertainment & Arts
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There is no doubt that for many, online games such as World of Warcraft (WoW) are an escape from family and friends.
But for others, time-pressed, divided families, those divorced, living away from their loved ones, or simply with grown-up children, these games are increasingly being used to stay in touch.
They are becoming a natural way to maintain family ties because so many people play them. Many now boast player bases that number in the millions. Also they are no longer are the preserve of teenage boys. Grown-ups play them too. The average age of the regular gamer is 25 and it has been estimated that up to 30% of the 11 million WoW players are women. -
New media allows previously passive consumers to tell and shape stories together. Yet most information is still disseminated in a top-down fashion, without taking advantage of the features enabled by new media. This paper presents five Alternate Reality Game (ARG) case studies which reveal common features and mechanisms used to attract and retain diverse players, to create task-focused communities and to solve problems collectively. Voluntary, collective problem solving is an intriguing phenomenon wherein disparate individuals work together asynchronously to solve problems together. ARGs also take advantage of the unique features of new media to craft stories that could not be told using other media.
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Playing action video games can boost an aspect of adult vision previously thought to be fixed, a US study shows.
Researchers found playing the games improved the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background.
"Contrast sensitivity" is important in situations such as driving at night, or in conditions of poor visibility.
The Nature Neuroscience study raises the possibility of using a video game training regime to improve vision. -
Sci-fi has a nobler literary tradition than you might think. Doris Lessing, Iain Banks trading as Iain M Banks and Toby Litt have all turned their hand to it, so you can see why Edinburgh Napier University has chosen to run a creative writing MA in science fiction. But a module in creative writing for computer games seems a step too far.
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A new online video game distribution network hopes to revolutionise the way people play games and re-write the economics of the industry.
OnLive, to be launched at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, aims to let players stream on-demand games at the highest quality level.
The service could signal the end for Playstation, Xbox, and the Wii. -
Because video games were born out of communication mediums (TV’s, computers), they have been mainly examined as media artifacts rather than construed as extensions of games and past-times. The lens that has been focused on video games is mainly derived from the “media effects” tradition – an attempt to examine the consequences of exposure to different kinds of media. The carryover from that perspective is quite palpable – the incessant suggestion that video games can’t be good, and that the more of it you’re exposed to, the worse off you must be (essentially a parallel of critiques of watching TV). While this framework has mainly been used to vilify violent video games, its basic conclusions seem to have spilled into video games in general and helped ferment general paranoia about video gaming – that they are pointless at best and might actually be highly addictive and dangerous. After all, media has to have an “effect” on you, right?
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It has been common for some time to see the formal learning in school compared unfavorably to informal learning out of school (Cross, 2006).
Humans seem to learn more deeply, and more equitably, without gaps between rich and poor, when they learn outside of school in areas they choose and for which they are motivated (Gee, 2003; 2004). Even three-year-olds can become experts on dinosaurs or trains, as Kevin Crowley has shown in his work on “islands of expertise” (Crowley & Jacobs, 2002).
Today, however, informal learning has become more and more complex, demanding, and sophisticated at a time when much learning in school has become skill-and-drill test preparation. Steve Johnson, in his popular book Everything Bad is Good for You (2006), has argued that modern media—television shows, anime, and video games, for example—are more complex and demanding these days than they have ever been before. -
About 2.5 million British youngsters have been inspired to progress into 'real' music-making after playing musical console games like Guitar Hero, Singstar and Rock Band.
The new report by the UK's largest music charity Youth Music states that these games are having a dramatic effect on children taking up a instrument for the first time. -
Video games have led many anxious parents to fear that their children could turn into addicted, uncultured sloths.
But research by one of Britain's largest music charities suggests that the popularity of active music titles such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band have prompted up to 2.5 million children to learn the instruments for real.
The report conducted by Youth Music found that of the 12 million young people aged from 3 to 18, more than half played music games. A fifth of those gamers said that they now played an instrument after catching the musical bug from the games. -
This is the YouTube presentation of the 1st Annual
Global Game Jam Keynote featuring Kyle Gabler -
How do you write a soundtrack for something which doesn't follow a conventional linear narrative? That's the challenge faced by composers when writing the music for computer games.
With games of films now standard - and movies centring on characters from computer games, it is easy to see similarities between the two. -
The game has been called "the most dangerous game on the market" by addiction therapists, after a 15-year-old Swedish boy collapsed and went into convulsions earlier this month. \n\nHis family rushed him into hospital where doctors diagnosed an epileptic-type seizure brought on by sleep deprivation, lack of food, and too long a stretch of concentrated game playing. \n\nSven Rollenhagen, the author of the report from Sweden's Youth Care Foundation, said: "There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.
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Classic game Quake III will be re-released for the web browser on Tuesday, highlighting the rapid development in web games.
It runs inside browsers after the installation of a software plug-in.
"It is a significant step which proves browser games can be sophisticated," said Michael French, editor of games industry magazine Develop. -
A new skin disorder caused by use of games consoles has been identified by skin specialists.
The condition, dubbed PlayStation palmar hidradenitis, is described in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Researchers outline the case of a 12-year-old girl who attended a Swiss hospital with intensely painful sores on the palms of her hands. -
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. -
Researchers at Durham University have modified a video game and turned it into a fire drill simulator.
The team used The Source Engine, the 3D game engine used to drive Half-Life 2, and created a virtual model of one of the university's departments.
Developers plan to use it to examine people's behaviour in a fire and to train people in good fire practice.
The simulator can be adapted to mimic the interior of most buildings, although modification will be needed. -
When Grand Theft Auto IV was released last year, fans and critics alike were bowled over by the sheer gargantuan size of it. The flagship franchise of Rockstar Games had always offered players a staggering amount of choice through its sandbox style of play, but GTA IV was immense in practically every other aspect too. From the eye-popping graphics, to the massive cast of characters to the impressive and immersive city environment, players couldn’t help but become completely caught up in the near-cinematic experience.
“There was a sense that in some way movies were a higher art form and video games could aspire to be like them,” says Dan Houser, vice president of creative at Rockstar and lead writer on GTA IV. “I think now, because we and a few other companies are making products, that this isn't the case. They're just different and video games are capable of things that movies aren't.” -
While many games easily fall within the confines of one specific genre, it is important to remember that the lines and boundaries for many of these genres are tenuous at best. Many new releases contain aspects of the gaming experience that tend to blur or erase these lines, often falling into two or more different genres at the same time. This tendency to obscure traditional lines of delineation often results in heightened gaming experiences, where the narrative strengths of more than one genre are combined to produce even more immersive and enjoyable gaming environments. Just as in other realms of the literary universe, these genres attempt to meet the basic tenets of narrative: to suspend disbelief on the part of the audience (in this case, gamers) long enough to tell a story. Also as in other realms of literature, games cover a huge spectrum of genres, and not all of them are narrative, or at least obviously narrative. We've focused here on the most narrative and popular genres, consciously excluding many genres "hardcore" gamers will wish we hadn't.
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