Posts in the "Games & Sims" Category

  • UC Berkely Study: Gameplay Shown to Raise Kids IQ

    Dr. Silvia Bunge, director of the Bunge Cognitive Control and Development Laboratory at UC Berkley, uses behavioral and brain imaging techniques to examine how we control our thoughts and actions to make them consistent with our internal goals. In a recent study reported by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in their Newsweek blog NurtureShock, [...]

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  • Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

    First clue: it’s not a summer movie.
    As the annual techno-temple of E3 winds down, reports are starting to filter in about what’s going to be hot in the next year. Personally I’m going to wait for our friend Warren Buckleitner to weigh in.  If you’re not so patient and have to be the first on [...]

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  • The Sims Takes iPhone Games to New Level, 12-14 Hrs. of Play

    Levi Buchanan writes in The Sims 3 Review, “This is not some port, this is the real deal Sims for the iPhone. Sims 3 for the iPhone starts with a Sim creator where you choose the gender and general appearance of your Sim. However, the true customization of your Sims takes place when you craft [...]

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  • Metaplace Finally in Open Beta

    I’ve been following the development of Metaplace and been an early beta tester since meeting Raph Koster at the Game Developer’s Conference several years ago. His vision was audacious, yet simplicity itself: allow anyone to create and share their own massively multiplayer virtual world or game using drag-and-drop tools. As Raph wrote in his blog [...]

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  • Virtual Play Patterns

    My colleague Scott Traylor of 360 Kid regularly writes thoughtful and timely pieces about kids, toys and digital media, and his latest article for the May 2009 issue of Playthings Magazine is no exception. What Works For Virtual Play? – Questions to Ask About Web-enabled Toys takes a deep dive into play patterns of toys [...]

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  • Serious Games Showcase

    Serious games and simulations embrace subjects as diverse as health care, emergency preparedness, world history, algebra, ethics, emotional intelligence, team building. Thanks to Eliane Alhadeff for showcasing some of this diversity in these slides.

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  • Many video games take place in a fantastically violent, post-apocalyptic landscape, but are these games adequately preparing kids for the future? Listen in as Clifford Baynes and his colleagues tackle the issue head on.

    Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

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  • Brand You According to Google

    Let’s face it, the ability to manage and control our personal and professional identities has taken a big hit thanks to web services like Google, MySpace, Facebook, social bookmarking and now challenges like “25 Random Things About Me” that’s been making the rounds.
    Depending on how you play it out it’s either the underside or simply [...]

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  • Should video games be used in the classroom? Can they support a standards-based curriculum and do they improve learning outcomes?
    My colleague and collaborator Lee Wilson has written a white paper for the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) that tackles these and other practical challenges teachers face when they use video games in the classroom. Lee [...]

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  • Live from the Global Game Jam

    It’s day three, two hours and counting to the end of Game Jam 2009 and I’m reporting this morning from the world wide headquarters of Team High Concept. For the first time since Friday the room is quiet, designers designing, writers writing, programmers coding, creative directors — yours truly — biding their time writing about [...]

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  • Join the Global Game Jam, an intense 48-hour journey of creativity, innovation, collaboration, and experimentation. Maximize your creativity by designing games within specified constraints, in a limited period of time, and build your game dev network in the process.
    The event takes place simultaneously at 44 different locations in 15 countries around the world. In New [...]

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  • In his keynote at CES this week Activision’s Mike Griffith predicted that video games would overtake all other media in popularity within a decade.
    Social gaming, more interactivity and better technology will help gaming dominate the entertainment landscape in future. Movies, recorded music and TV – these are all stagnating or contracting entertainment sectors.
    Griffith quoted US [...]

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