The Pixelantes

Gamers are "more social, more active, and more valuable as consumers" than non-gamers

2008-10-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

A new study conducted by Ipsos MediaCT on behalf of IGN Entertainment concludes that gamers are, unlike their stereotype, more active, and social than their non-gaming peers.

The nerdy loner stereotype doesn't seem to have any basis in reality when applied to gamers as a group.

Gamers Bill of Rights

2008-08-29T16:58:00.002-05:00

PC game developer, among other things, Stardock has come up with a Gamer's Bill of Rights. It only applies to PC games, but the ideals are pretty universal to all video games.

Here it is:

Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

It is encouraging that at least one game developer is thinking in such a consumer-centric way.

Register to vote on Xbox Live

2008-08-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

Starting Monday 25th of August, users of Xbox Live in the United States can use the online gaming service to register themselves as registered voters for the US Presidential elections later this year.

Microsoft, the owner of the Xbox Live service, is partnering with Rock the Vote for the initiative. Rock the Vote is hoping the campaign will help them reach their goal of registering 2 million young Americans before the elections.

Let's get out there and register, gamers!

Could violent video games reduce violent crime rates?

2008-05-15T09:53:00.000-05:00

That's an interesting thought, but that's exactly what Patrick Kierkegaard from the University of Essex claims is the only logical conclusion one can make from comparing video game sales and violent crime rates objectively.

He's published a study that says there's no evidence to support the claims that violent video game playing causes violence. He says:

"With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence. Instead, violence has declined."

He further claims research into the topic is inconclusive and many existing studies are biased in one way or another. There's need for more comprehensive research, he concludes.

Video game industry self regulation working better than in any other entertainment industry

2008-05-08T11:49:00.001-05:00

Every year the FTC conducts a secret shopper study on various entertainment products at leading retailers to find out how well the retailers are enforcing the ratings found on the products. 13- to 16-year-old "undercover shoppers" try and buy R rated movie tickets, R rated DVDs, unrated DVDs, PAL music CDs and M rated video games. The FTC has been this since 2000.

Today the FTC released its 2008 secret shopper study results.

And boy, are they an impressive win for the video game industry!

20% of the underaged shoppers were able to buy an M rated game. That compares favorably to ALL other products in FTC's study. 36% were able to R rated movie tickets, 47% were able to buy R rated DVDs, 51% were able to buy unrated DVDs, 54% were able to buy PAL music CDs.

Not only that, but the video game retailers have improved their enforcement year after year, from 86% in 2000 to 20% in 2008. Since 2000 the movie theatres, for example, have not improved their ratings enforcement practically at all while the other retailers have all improved roughly 50% within the 8 years.

Even more impressive was that the only video game specialty chain store included in the study (GameStop / EB Games) refused to sell M rated games to the kids 94% of the time. Not one retailer scored higher in this study on any product group.

The study shows undeniably that the self regulation within the video game industry and the video game retailers is working exactly as intended. There is no need for expensive and restrictive (as well as unconstitutional) legislation.

Harvard Business Review on what massively multiplayer online games can teach business

2008-05-06T13:38:00.000-05:00

Harvard Business Review has a feature article on an 8-month study on leadership in games and work commissioned by IBM and conducted by Seriosity. The full report can be downloaded from Seriosity's website.

IBM is trying to answer a question of what kind of changes do business leaders in an increasingly distributed and virtual business environment need to prepare for and what kind of people would be best suited to lead in that kind of an environment. They went about studying potential impacts of such changing business environment by studying the behavior of large guilds and their leaders in World of Warcraft.

The study has a number of conclusions, well summarized in the HBR article and in the executive summary of the research report:

Conclusions include the following: leadership in the games includes all skills currently identified in the Sloan model, but puts a premium on the dimensions of Relating and Inventing. Leadership in the games happens fast, it encourages risk taking, it promotes temporary rather than permanent leadership roles, and there are numerous opportunities for leadership practice. The most important conclusion, however, was that game environments make leadership easier. Critical leadership features in game environments include virtual economies, transparency of metrics, and connection methods for inter-group communication.

We conclude with predictions about the future of games and leadership in the enterprise, including comments about how games will highlight qualities of digital interactions increasingly important for online leadership, and qualities of leadership unique to games.

Grand Theft Childhood

2008-04-15T13:16:00.002-05:00

Adam Thierer has posted a thorough review of a new book about violent video games and children called Grand Theft Childhood - The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do.

Written by Lawrence Kutner, PhD and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD from Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media the book is, according to Adam Thierer, "...the most thoroughly balanced and refreshingly open-minded book about video games ever penned."

The book points out many of the points heard before:

Research on the affects of violent video games is simplistic and makes conclusions without proper proof
Violent video games are played by pretty much an entire generation or two of the entire population, yet violent crime rates are down significantly
Violence in kid's play and literature is as old as humanity, yet video games get singled out

It's good to see established scientists come out and say what us gamers have been saying for quite some time already.

Update: G4 TV had the authors of the book on their show. The interview is a great summary of their work.

Selected quote from the interview:

The big concern that you hear the politicians and the pundits argue that playing violent video games will somehow turn your child into a criminal or a violent person. There's absolutely no evidence for that.

GamesForHeroes.com - two teenagers sending handheld video games to US Marines serving in Afghanistan and Iraq

2008-04-10T14:22:00.001-05:00

GamesForHeroes.com is a non-profit organization started by two 15-year-old kids from upstate NY. Peter Gallagher and Jack Wilson started the organization earlier this year after finding out portable video game systems and video games for the systems are the most requested items from US soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The organization accepts monetary donations and donated video games and portable video game systems on their website.

The cultural impact of video gaming

2008-03-20T10:57:00.001-05:00

Back in August 2005 The Economist magazine wrote a long feature article on the cultural impact of video gaming. The article is no longer available on The Economist website, but you can read it over here instead. It's a great, multi-faceted article written about video games. It's rare even for the gaming journalists to write such a well written article and it's as relevant today as it was in 2005.

The article discusses the generational gap between video game critics, who by and large have never played video games, at all, and the "digital natives", people who have grown up surrounded by technology and video games. The article also accuses politicians criticizing video games of political opportunism made blatantly obvious by the lack of similar criticism towards other types of entertainment, such as music.

The studies on video games are mentioned to be woefully inadequate in addressing the complexity of video games and difference between different genres of video games. The studies done on video games usually concentrate on a single genre (typically first person shooters), and so they fail to make any reasonable conclusions on video games in general, nor should they even though many critics do.

The article talks a great deal about the diversity of video games and how games can be used in many different ways from pure entertainment to teaching kids to learning business skills through simulations. Also mentioned is that even when the video game isn't an educational one, learning does happen. For example gamers are more skill in multi-tasking (apparently quite valuable for employers), and games such as Sim City teach gamers basic economic and budgeting skills.

The conclusion reached in the article is that video games are destined to become a mainstream medium even if they currently are not.

Gamer hero saves nephew's life by donating his liver

2008-02-22T11:17:00.002-05:00

Aiden Diederich suffered an acute liver failure last fall just days after his first birthday. He was rushed to the hospital, but the doctor's couldn't do anything to help him. He needed a liver transplant.

His uncle, a long time gamer and a member of Seasoned Gamers, an online community of adult gamers, stepped in after the risks involved with a liver transplant surgery ruled out Aiden's immediate family. Jeff Shoemaker donated 20% of his liver to Aiden.

Now 6 months after the surgery both Aiden and Jeff are doing well, though Jeff will need annual visits to the doctor for the rest of his life and Aiden's immune system is still weakened.

Heroes don't just exist in video games like City of Heroes. Sometimes they play video games, too.

Custom Xbox 360 gives patients better information about their hospital stay

2008-02-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

Spectrum Health, Microsoft and Cerner Corp have collaborated on developing a custom Xbox 360 video game console called Cerner Care Console.

The care console allows patients to access a whole wealth of information about their condition and care during their hospital stays thus becoming more involved in the care experience.

Video game trains a good samaritan to administer first aid

2008-02-19T14:52:00.001-05:00

Paxton Galvanek, a 28-year-old gamer from North Carolina, witnesses a serious car accident last November. An SUV driving on a highway in the other direction flipped over several times and started smoking as if burning.

Mr. Galvanek stopped his car and ran to the overturned SUV, quickly pulled one of the passengers out and escorted him to a safe location. He then went back to the SUV and pulled the driver out of the car. He quickly assessed the extent of the driver's injuries and treated them appropriately. He waited with the injured passengers until a medically trained army soldier stopped at the accident, left the injured men in his care and carried on with his journey.

It turns out Mr. Galvanek had had no formal medical training prior to stopping at the accident site. Instead he had learned his first aid skills from playing America's Army, a first-person shooter video game produced by The United States Army.

In the game the players can play the past of a combat medic, but only after they go through a virtual medical training class. It is this virtual training that Mr. Galvanek thanks for his first aid skills.

After the accident he wrote to the America's Army team to thank them:

I have received no prior medical training and can honestly say that because of the training and presentations within America's Army, I was able to help and possibly save the injured men. As I look back on the events of that day, the training that I received in the America's Army video game keeps coming to mind.

I remember vividly in section four of the game’s medic training, during the field medic scenarios, I had to evaluate the situation and place priority on the more critically wounded. In the case of this accident, I evaluated the situation and placed priority on the driver of the car who had missing fingers. I then recalled that in section two of the medic training, I learned about controlled bleeding. I noticed that the wounded man had severe bleeding that he could not control. I used a towel as a dressing and asked the man to hold the towel on his wound and to raise his hand above his head to lessen the blood flow which allowed me to evaluate his other injuries which included a cut on his head.

Well done Paxton!

Sony Computer Entertainment America donates to Children Hospital of New Orleans

2008-02-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has donated 8 new video game systems, two HD TVs and two TV stands to Children Hospital of New Orleans.

The video games and TVs are placed in the hospital's teen room, which is a safe place taking the kids out of the usual hospital environment to socialize and have fun with other kids being treated in the hospital

Child's Play Charity raises over $1M for children's hospitals across the world

2007-12-31T11:47:00.000-05:00

Child's Play Charity raised over a $1M USD for children's hospitals across the world this year.

The charity started by gamers and taking in cash and goods donations overwhelmingly from gamers has been a phenomenal success. This year more so than ever before.

Well done gamers everywhere!

US Marine rehabilitating from Iraq war wounds with an XBox 360

2007-12-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

Lance Cpl. John McClellan was shot by a sniper in Haditha, Iraq. The bullet damaged the part of his brain that controls movement in his left hand and leg.

John used to play a lot of video games before and during his tour of duty in Iraq and he figured he could use video games to get movement back in his hand better than by following the Veteran's Hospital doctors' advice. So he bought an XBox 360 and got some games for it.

John says his hand is now much better thanks to the video games.

The town of Guelph, ON, Canada uses GuelphQuest Online to educate residents about city planning

2007-12-24T11:50:00.000-05:00

The town of Guelph, ON, Canada is growing fast and is facing some city planning challenges in the future in dealing with the population growth.

The town has turned towards games to educate its residents of policy choices dealing with city planning and the consequences of those choices. They've commissioned a Flash-based game called GuelphQuest Online.

The game asks players to plan the next 35 years of the town's growth. The game asks the players to prioritize the choices the town has to grow with a series of questions and then presents the player with how the future would turn out given their choices in a time-lapse animation of the city map as well as how things like commute time and air quality would be effected.

In my practise game I managed to reduce the eco-footprint of the city by 30%, but also increased commute time by 20%.

Earthquake in Zipland helps children deal with divorce

2007-12-24T11:35:00.000-05:00

Zipland Interactive has produced a game called Earthquake in Zipland to help children deal with divorce or separation of their parents.

The game has been produced with the help of a professional family therapist Chaya Harash (M.S.W.) and is aimed at kids between the age of 9 and 12.

The game is designed to help children deal with issues like guilt about the divorce, blame and responsibility for the loss of the old family structure, being torn between two households, exploring the fantasy of bringing the parents back together again among other psyhological effects of divorce of children.

A study claims ESRB ratings system better than most

2007-12-11T13:29:00.000-05:00

Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government, has released a study on entertainment ratings systems in the United States.

CEI being a pro free markets and against big government type of an organization obviously has an agenda to promote market driven approaches against those provided by the Government, but the study is still an interesting look into the ratings systems used to rate entertainment products in the United States. Of particular interest to The Pixelantes is the study's conclusions about the effectiveness of ESRB, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which rates video games.

The study documents the evolution of the ratings systems for movies, comic books, music, television, radio and video games. It studies their effectiveness and usefullness and finally tries to draw conclusions on how a good ratings system should operate.

The study's conclusion is that the ESRB system works better than others. The study states:

The ESRB system is by far the most descriptive and comprehensive ratings system for any medium today. Indeed, it is one of the few that contains all relevant information on the products themselves.

The study also lists what they think are best practises for ratings systems:

...the best rating systems have three attributes: They attempt to describe, rather than prescribe, what entertainment media should contain; they are particularly suited to their particular media forms; and they were created with little or no direct input from government.

The study finishes by underlying that ratings systems are mere tools and should never replace good parenting:

Well thought-out ratings systems, particularly those shaped through market forces rather than government mandates, can prove a valuable tool for parents, but they are just that—tools. No ratings system can replace good parenting.

We couldn't agree more.

The study is available as an PDF download.

Video game industry growing faster than the overall US economy

2007-11-27T18:57:00.000-05:00

A new study by The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found out that the video game industry growth far exceeds the average growth of the US economy. The video game industry growth grew more than 17% from 2003 to 2006 while the overall economy grew only 4%.

It seems as if the video game industry is thriving even during generally tough economic environment. Maybe it'd be time for our legislators treat the industry with some amount of respect.

No research to show causation between playing violent video games and violent behavior

2007-11-19T19:31:00.000-05:00

A Texas A&M Professor Christopher Ferguson has conducted a study of all existing research on the affects of playing violent video games.

His study concludes there is no evidence whatsoever to support the video game critics' assertion that playing violent video games causes young children to become more violent. The Professor says publication bias has a lot to do with the public perception of video games causing violent behavior.

He also opines that it would be nearly impossible to prove one way or another whether violent video games cause violent behavior due to the fact that nearly every child in the country plays them:

Put another way, can an almost universal behavior truly predict a rare behavior?

Indeed.

Iraq war veteran shoots down gaming stereotypes

2007-10-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey D. Barnett, an officer in the US Marine Corps, has written a most excellent article about video games on a blog called Home Fires hosted by the New York Times.

It turns out this Iraq war veteran is a long time gamer. He started playing video games in the early 80s with his dad on the Atari 2600.

His article talks about social gaming, gaming by adults and how the stereotypes of gamers are just flat out wrong.

The killer quote from the article is:

I think steak knives and swimming pools pose a greater threat to children [than video games], but nobody is trying to restrict adult access to those tools…

Well said, sir!

2006 Gamer Demographics

2007-10-09T17:56:00.000-05:00

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has again published their annual Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry paper.

The basic demographic numbers are pretty much unchanged from the 2005 numbers. The average age of a gamer is still 33, according to ESA.

Video games aren't just for kids, folks

2007-10-09T17:44:00.000-05:00

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal says:

"The assumption that all videogames are toys for children rather than entertainment for a variety of different audiences is one of our pet peeves."

You and me, you and me.

Mr. Croal was recently invited to talk about Manhunt 2 with CNN's American Morning. It appears that the reporter doing the interview had the typical, but mistaken, idea that all video games, including Manhunt 2, are for kids. Mr. Croal did his best to correct the stereotype, as he writes in his blog post about "Infantilization of Videogames", as he puts it. I have my doubts as to how successful he ended up being.

I do wonder what will it take for people to understand some video games are designed for adults and how long will it take for video games to be treated the same way as movies in this regard. The latest available gamer demographics information says the average age of a gamer in the United States is 33, after all.

Halo 3 is the biggest entertainment product launch in history

2007-09-24T16:19:00.000-05:00

Halo 3, the latest installment of one of the most popular video game franchises of all times, is launching today at midnight.

It is expected to bring Microsoft $150M in revenue on its first day. That will put it up there with the biggest opening weekend ticket sales for a movie (Spiderman 3: $151M).

Overall revenue over the lifetime of the video game is expected to hit $600M or more. Spiderman 3's total revenue (merchandising, DVD sales, ticket sales) is expected to hit $1.3B.

Where Halo 3 reigns supreme over Spiderman 3, however, is profit margin. Business analysts are expecting Halo 3 to have profit margins close to 90%, while Spiderman 3 will "only" have a 46% profit margin due to much higher production costs. The overall profit in dollars is about even between the two blockbuster products.

Update: Microsoft has now counted their money from Halo 3 launch day. The results come in as an impressive $170M as first day sales.

GamePolitics.com celebrates Constitution Day

2007-09-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

Apparently September 17th is Constitution Day in the United States.

GamePolitics.com is celebrating the day by publishing a series of articles about the constitutional issues regarding video games. The articles would be a great read for our elected officials who seem hellbent on wasting our money on pointless, and unconstitutional, laws regulating video games.

The first article is about an article by Julie Hilden, a First Amendment expert. It's a primer on why laws regulating violence in video games have all failed. She makes a great argument about the difference of perpetrating violence and depicting violence.

The second article is regarding a speech by Professor Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard University Law School. He recently gave a speech at Progress and Freedom Foundation's 13th annual Aspen Summit about First Amendment issues relating to technology. His speech goes into considerable detail to explain why video games enjoy First Amendment protection in the first place.

Video games not involved in the Virginia Tech shooting

2007-08-30T09:55:00.000-05:00

GamePolitics.com reports the final report of Virginia State Governor Tim Kaine's Virginia Tech Review Panel has been released to the public today.

The report states in no uncertain terms that video games were not involved. Not that there really was any doubt about it in the first place.

The report's findings should, once and for all, now prove that people with self-serving agendas quick to rush to blame video games for the tragedy were completely wrong about it. I don't expect these people to ever admit they were wrong, however. It's just not like them to do so. In fact, I expect most of them to issue statements disputing the findings of the report.

I applaud the efforts of Governor Tim Kaine and his Review Panel. In this day and age, it seems media concentrates their reporting on the most scandalous and controversial topics no matter how inaccurate they might be. The Virginia Tech Review Panel, on the other hand, rigorously studied all aspects of the incident and produced a thorough report on their findings based on the facts they uncovered. I would encourage the critics of video games to do the same.

The Constitutional issues with anti-video game laws

2007-08-21T17:01:00.000-05:00

The New York Times writes about the Constitutional issues surrounding the anti-video game laws introduced by several US States in recent years.

The article takes a very skeptical view on New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer's anti-video game bill's chances to hold against a Constitutional challenge by the courts.

It also quotes Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Posner ruled on a case to regulate public game arcades in Indianapolis.

In his ruling to block the law in question he said:

“Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.”

Pro gaming hitting mainstream

2007-07-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

CBS is broadcasting the 2007 World Series of Video Games on national network TV on Sunday July 27th at noon EST.

This is the first time a network TV channel is broadcasting a pro video gaming event to the national TV audience. Cable networks have done the same before, but obviously not at this scale.

It'll be interesting to see how the ratings turn out and what the TV coverage will be like.

The broadcast is sure to raise the profile of pro gaming in the national media. Let's see if it has any other positive effects as well.

The New York Times on Manhunt 2: less violent than R rated movies

2007-06-26T11:43:00.000-05:00

The "controversy" over Rockstar Games' and Take Two Interactive's Manhunt 2, a violent action game, set to be released later this year has gone through the roof in the last week or so.

The British and the Irish banned it outright, and ESRB, the US organization which rates video games, issued it an Adult Only (AO) rating, which effectively kills the game in the United States. The AO rating means Microsoft, Nintendo nor Sony will allow its release on their video game platforms since all of them have licensing agreements with developers that prohibit releasing AO rated games. All major retailers in the United States also do not carry AO rated video games.

The video gaming industry has been silently sitting idle watching the fireworks and trying to remain quiet as if not to attract too much attention afraid of something else "bad" might come out of speaking out.

A New York Times journalist, Seth Schiesel, however did not remain quiet. He has written an article comparing Manhunt 2 to modern horror movies, all of which are rated R, a much less restrictive rating than the AO rating for Manhunt 2.

He found out the R rated horror movies are far more violent than the video game that's currently been labeled as a "murder simulator" and the most violent video game to date. But such is the power of objective research, rather than letting yourself be influenced by alarmists with self-serving agendas and by fear of "not doing something".

Whyville - making learning science cool with games

2007-06-07T17:37:00.000-05:00

The Escapist Magazine has an interesting article about Whyville, a sort of virtual world for young kids to learn about science through playing mini-games and communicating with other kids of their age.

Whyville is a web based virtual community launched in 1998. It's being sponsored by organizations such as NASA.

Positive news from West Virginia's Dance Dance Revolution expirement continue to pile up

2007-06-07T17:11:00.000-05:00

The Escapist Magazine writes about West Virginia's expirement to provide all public schools in the state with Dance Dance Revolution games to combat childhood obesity.

The article describes the positive results as experienced by Ryan Walker, a sixth grade student from Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Vicarious Visions - a video game developer based in Albany, NY speaks out against the New York State anti-video game bills

2007-06-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

Karthik Bala, the CEO of Vicarious Visions, a video game developer based in Albany, NY, has written an editorial in Times Union, a newspaper serving the New York State's capital region.

He's speaking out against the two different anti-video game bills recently introduced in New York State Senate and Assembly. He's pointing out how similar bills in other states have been struck down on constitutional grounds, and warns the legislators not to go down the same route wasting tax payers' money.

He rather recommends politicians spend our money on educating parents about the video game rating system already in use and about parental controls available in every video game console platform currently on the market.

I couldn't agree more.

Video Games Turn 40

2007-05-17T12:09:00.000-05:00

It's been 40 years this month since Ralph Baer invented Pong.

Within those 40 years the video game industry has surpassed both the music and film industry in terms of annual revenue generated. No small feat for "kids stuff".

The 1Up.com article recaps the history of inventing Pong.

Mr. Baer, thank you for all the wonderful gaming moments.

Wisconsin gamers raise $14K to help their fellow schoolmate

2007-05-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

For the second time this year Kaukauna High School students stepped up to raise money for a schoolmate in trouble. In March they raised $13K for Michael Ederer, who was diagnosed with cancer, and this Monday they raised $14K to help Tiffany Pohl, who was seriously injured in a car crash.

The students were selling raffle tickets to win a Nintendo Wii, and tickets to play video games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution.

Nicely done!

Games are Good for You

2007-05-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

Ben Silverman's article on Yahoo! Games discusses five different positive aspects of video games.

They are:

They can improve your eyesight.
They can help you focus.
They can help you lose weight.
They can help you understand classic literature.
They can literally save your life.

Ben is a kindred spirit.

Progress report on West Virginia and Dance Dance Revolution

2007-04-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

About a year ago the State of West Virginia decided it's going to add Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) into the physical education curriculum on all of its 765 public schools.

They've since added DDR on all 185 of their middle schools. The New York Times is writing about the results of the expirement.

Virginia Tech and video games

2007-04-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

MSNBC has published an excellent article about how video games get blamed for every violent act by a young male in the US. It goes on to discuss how certain people went on to blame video games for the Virginia Tech tragedy even before anyone knew anything about the shooter.

It quotes Dr. Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at USC, who says it's disingenuous to blame video games, because pretty much all young males have, at some point in their lives played video games and despite every young adult male being a gamer youth violence rates are at an all time low.

It's a good read to get past the blame game.

My anti violence declaration

2007-04-18T15:09:00.000-05:00

Gaming blog Joystiq.com has written a declaration about violence in video games from the gamers' perspective.

It lists a few statements that should be obvious to anyone with common sense. It's too bad most people these days do not have common sense, so people have to spell these things out.

The list includes, among others:

I know the difference between right and wrong.
I know that people have played Cops and Robbers for generations without becoming real robbers.
I know that video games are a safe way to let out my aggression without hurting anyone.
I know, in the end, that these are only games.

British Board of Film Classification studies video gaming

2007-04-17T19:51:00.000-05:00

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), an independent organization that rates film and video releases in the United Kingdom, has published their research on playing video games.

The BBFC prefaces the press release about the research with the following.

Video games tend to polarise opinions in a way that other entertainment media do not. People who do not play them cannot understand their attraction and that lack of understanding can lead to some games being demonised.

Well said.

The research is one of the first research on why people play video games and what do the gamers think of their gaming habits. The research included gamers from 7 to 40 years old, parents of young gamers, gaming industry representatives and games reviewers.

One of the most poignant, especially during this time when the witch hunt against video games has been fueled again by the tragic events at Virginia Tech University, findings of the research state:

gamers are virtually unanimous in rejecting the suggestion that video games encourage people to be violent in real life or that they have become desensitised. They see no evidence in themselves or their friends who play games that they have become more violent in real life. As one participant said: "I no more feel that I have actually scored a goal than I do that I have actually killed someone. I know it’s not real. The emphasis is on achievement."

The research also found out that most gamers find violence on television and in films more upsetting and more real than violence in video games.

Video games used in Physical Ed classes to keep kids in shape

2007-02-28T12:38:00.000-05:00

Monroeton Elementary school in North Carolina is using Dance, Dance Revolution video game to keep their kids in shape during PE classes.

According to the news article the kids are much more enthusiastic about exercising using the video game than they would otherwise be. A lot of them are playing the game at home, too, so that they'd get better when competing against their classmates at school. The end result is more exercising.

Nintendo Wii keeping the elderly active

2007-02-21T16:01:00.000-05:00

A retirement community in Lincolnshire, IL got a Nintendo Wii as a Christmas present and the residents haven't looked back since. The retirees living in the community have taken video gaming to heart and are having 20 person Wii Sports Bowling tournaments Sunday afternoons.

Looks like video game addiction is not just for the young.

Anshe Chung becomes the first virtual millionaire

2007-02-14T13:22:00.000-05:00

A Second Life resident, Anshe Chung, is the first virtual millionaire, according to a press release she's put out.

Anshe is a virtual real estate tycoon in Second Life, a virtual world game, where she buys, develops and sells virtual real estate.

Second Life currency can be exchanged freely to real currency. According to the current exchange rates her in-game assets are now valued in more than $1M USD in real US currency.

Her press release states she's made her million entirely within the virtual world in two and a half years starting with a mere $9.95 investment in a paid Second Life account.

Burger King scores big with video game tie-in

2007-02-14T11:02:00.000-05:00

Burger King Holdings reports its quarterly earnings ending at 12/31/2006 were better than expected. Net income increased from $27M to $38M over the same period last year. Quarterly revenues were up 9%.

Burger King is stating one of the reasons for the better than expected results is the cross marketing campaign with Microsoft. Burger King and Microsoft created Burger King branded video games for the XBox 360 video game platform and sold the games at Burger King locations for $3.99 each.

Michigan State University developing a MMO game to teach Chinese online

2007-02-07T18:55:00.000-05:00

Michigan State University's Confucius Institute is developing a Massively Multiplayer Online game to teach Chinese to US high school students. The effort is sponsored by the Chinese Government.

The goal of the program is to make learning Chinese more interesting to US teenagers by taking advantage of the interactive elements of Massively Multiplayer Online games.

Child's Play Charity breaks the one million USD mark

2007-01-06T10:08:00.000-05:00

Charitable donations for the Child's Play Charity have crossed the one million USD mark for the first time ever.

That's over $400K more than last year.

Well done gamers!

Get Well Gamers expand their network

2006-11-19T23:43:00.000-05:00

The Get Well Gamers charity has managed to increase the number of hospitals in its network by more than 25% during 2006. They can now also accept electronic donations through Network for Good.

Get Well Gamers is one of the charities taking donations towards providing children's hospitals with video game related items. It's a great cause and well worth your donations.

The ESA Foundation Nite To Unite charity dinner raises $800K USD

2006-11-19T23:30:00.000-05:00

The Entertainment Software Association Foundation's annual Nite To Unite charity dinner this year raised $800K to benefit Web Wise Kids, HopeLab, Working Achievement Values Education and PAX. The ESA Foundation will also establish a scholarship program to support minorities and women pursuing educational opportunities in the computer and video game field.

The ESA Foundation charity game pack raises over $1.5M USD

2006-11-19T23:16:00.000-05:00

In 2005 The Entertainment Software Association assembled a pack of four games sold at retailers nationwide since the 2005 holiday season.

The $1.5M will be distributed to various children's charities, incl. assisting the production and distribution of 6,000 copies of HopeLabs' Re-Mission cancer game.

Child's Play 2006 is open for donations

2006-11-06T18:18:00.000-05:00

Child's Play, the charity set up by the Penny Arcade people, has launched their 2006 campaign.

There are now more hospitals than ever, incl. one in Egypt.

Let's make this year a record breaking year, again.

Update: Penny Arcade has put up original Penny Arcade artwork for auction for the benefit of the Child's Play Charity.

Modified video game shows promise for stroke rehabilitation

2006-09-09T08:02:00.000-05:00

The engineers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, are using a modified XBox to fasten the rehabilitation process of stroke patients.

The low cost system is used for hand exercises in virtual environments and is a good alternative or supplement to much more expensive rehabilitation processes that are sometimes prohibitively expensive.

The Escapist Magazine on learning through gaming

2006-09-01T22:15:00.000-05:00

Issue 59 of the Escapist Magazine concentrates on learning various skills through gaming.

The first article is about using puzzle games stop a multiple sclerosis patient's congnitive skills from detoriating with the disease.

The second article talks about how games can be help the learning process in the classrooms.

The article on racing games describes one gamer's experience in developing his real world racing skills by training on video games.

The next article discusses Piano Wizard, a piano playing training program which makes piano lessons more like playtime and cheaper than paying an instructor to teach your toddler.

The last article is about The Oregon Trail, perhaps the first really popular edutainment video game.

It's a great issue, as always.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy treating post-traumatic stress disorders

2006-08-10T20:50:00.000-05:00

Exposure therapy has long been a successful method of treating post-traumatic stress disorders. It involves having a therapist guide the patient as he confronts memories of traumatic events. The article at Serious Games Source describes how the use of virtual reality environments can dramatically improve the process.

Traditional exposure therapy depends on talk and storytelling. What if the patient is so traumatized that he can't even talk about it? This is one of the problems virtual reality environments can really help.

Exposure therapy depends on the patient emotionally engaging in the treatment. Video game design has shown how immersive environments can help in that process, and that's exactly what the use of virtual reality environments is trying to achieve: making the patient feel more like they're really there. The goal is to make the environment to resemble the real environment of the traumatic event as closely as possible.

The use of virtual reality in exposure therapy appears to be particularly applicable when the traumatic event causing stress disorders has been experienced by a large number of people, for example 9/11 attack or war battles. Creating virtual reality environments to treat a single patient is prohibitively expensive.

This is an encouraging application of video game design learnings.

World of Warcraft players care

2006-08-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

In December 2005 Randy Patterson found out he had Burkitt's Lymphoma. It's a very rare and very lethal form of cancer. Randy had a tumor the size of a softball in his neck. It had to be removed and he had to go through rigorous chemotherapy treatment for the next three months after the surgery.

The chemotherapy and recovery from the surgery made Randy very ill. So ill he couldn't walk, let alone work. Losing his income he had trouble paying his bills. The utility company was threatening to shut down the power to his house, if $1,500 of unpaid bills weren't paid, and he was in danger of losing his house altogether.

He plead his State, charities, the Governor, the media, his Senators and even the US President. Nobody helped. Then his World of Warcraft guild heard about his trouble. And they helped.

One of the guild members started a PayPal fund and the money from the guild members started flowing in. The guild raised $4,000 for Randy and his family. He got to keep his house.

The best news of all, Randy beat his cancer and is now recovering quickly.

Youth violence at an all time low despite video games

2006-08-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

Duke Ferris' article from 2005 shows how youth violence hit a new 40 year low in 2004.

The statistics quoted on Duke's article show that the number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes declined 30.9% from 1995 to 2004. This at the same time when video gaming exploded in the United States.

This is in direct contradiction with the popular, and wrong, anti-gaming argument saying violent video games breed violence. The crime statistics kept by the FBI and US DOJ, among others, just do not show that to be true. In fact, if anything, they show the argument to be completely false.

Video gamers make better surgeons

2006-06-04T14:14:00.000-05:00

A study was conducted by Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City in conjunction with the National Institute on Media and the Family found out that surgeons who play video games performed the "cobra rope" drill faster than surgeons who do not play video games.

The "cobra rope" drill is a training exercise teaching surgeons how to sew up an internal wound.

In Praise of Video Games

2006-06-02T11:54:00.000-05:00

Brian C. Anderson has written an excellent article on positive aspects of video games.

He talks about the moral lessons in the majority of video games and compares them to the moral lessons in many books teenagers regularly read. He gives examples of how video games can teach kids budgeting and problem solving skills.

He also corrects many of the most frequently published misinformation about video games. He states that the ESRB ratings are very informative and that the most reliable studies on the impact of video game violence clearly state there is no link between playing violent video games and violent behavior in the "real world".

Gamer demographics

2006-05-17T08:06:00.000-05:00

The Entertainment Software Association publishes annual gamer demographics reports. The 2006 report is out.

In 2005, the average age of a gamer is 33. Up from 30 the year before.

25% of gamers are over the age of 50. Up from 19% the year before.

46% of all Americans expect to purchase video games during 2006.

35% of parents play video games, and 73% of those parents vote regularly.

Check out the report for more information.

I wrote about last year's report as well.

40% of adult Americans play video games

2006-05-08T19:44:00.000-05:00

A new AP-AOL poll finds that 40% of American adults play video games.

Maybe now that MSNBC is reporting on it the mainstream media would stop treating video games as childs' play.

Profile of a virtual real estate mogul

2006-03-31T22:17:00.000-05:00

Anshe Chung is a 33-year-old Chinese woman living in Germany. She teaches English, Chinese and German. She also makes a fortune selling real estate, but not by selling your ordinary German townhouses. Instead, she's the most successful land owner and real estate mogul in Second Life, a virtual world not totally unlike the MMORPG games more popular with video gamers.

She's reportedly earning more than $150K annually selling virtual real estate. That's real money, not play money. Her real estate company employs between 10 and 20 people at any given time and is paying taxes on the income earned in Second Life.

Anshe says she started playing Second Life trying to find out how real virtual reality can become. She quickly found the feelings experienced while playing are very real. In addition she noticed people making money by selling land, and decided to get into business herself. She runs her virtual business like a real business, which appears to be why she's been so wildly successful at it.

The Good of Games

2006-03-24T19:32:00.000-05:00

Andy at modulo26.net has written an excellent paper on the various positive aspects of modern games.

His paper touches on multiple issues, which include:

games have been a part of society from the times of ancient Egypt
games increase several cognitive skills of gamers
gamers make good employees and have better than average computer skills
exer-gaming is a great motivational tool to encourage exercising
games are invaluable training aids in many areas
games encourage learning

Andy's paper is a great summary of everything The Pixelantes stands for. It's a must read for anyone interested in covering video games/gaming from all angles instead of just feeding the masses with alarmist soundbytes from self-proclaimed experts.

Thank you for your article, Andy!

Oregon State prisons using video games to curb violence between inmates

2006-03-23T19:21:00.000-05:00

In 1996 Oregon State Department of Corrections launched an incentive program that would pay inmates with credits in their accounts at the canteen. In 2003 the program was expanded to allow inmates with 6 months of good behaviour to use the credits to purchase their own TVs in their cells.

Recently the Oregon State Department of Corrections expanded the incentive program to allow inmates with 18 months of good behavior to purchase an all-in-one gaming device by dreamGEAR. The $35 gaming device includes 50 video games from the 80s. Apparently it is very popular with the inmantes.

The incentive program appears to be working as violent incidents in Oregon State prisons are down since 2003 despite the prison population getting larger.

Adults play more video games than teens

2006-03-23T18:36:00.000-05:00

A recent study by The Consumer Eletrconics Association (CEA) found out that adult Americans play more video games than teens.

The study found out that one third of adults spend 10 hours or more per week playing video games compared to just 11 percent of teens.

Not surprisingly CEA concludes this presents the consumer electronics retailers with a huge opportunity as adult gamers are more likely to buy additional audio/video equipment to enhance their gaming experience than teens.

The study is yet another datapoint showing gamers as an increasingly affluent and influential demographic group.

Video games reduce youth crime in Edinburgh

2006-02-12T16:44:00.000-05:00

The Moredun area of Edinburgh has high youth crime rates. Motor vehicle related thefts are about double than the average of rest of Scotland.

The police in Moredun is taking a very unorthodox approach to reducing youth crime rates in the area. They are holding weekly video game tournaments between the local Police Youth Action Team and a group of about 30 local youths who are known regular offenders.

The results have been phenomenal so far. Before the tournaments began, the police received 92 complaints of youth crime per month. They now receive 53 complaints on average every month.

The Edinburgh police is considering rolling out similar tournaments across the rest of Edinburgh.

Video games bring families together

2006-02-12T16:21:00.000-05:00

A recent study by The Entertainment Software Association found out that 35% of all parents play video games, and 80% of the game playing parents play video games with their children. Two thirds said playing video games with their children has brought the family closer together.

85% of the game playing parents also said the parents, not the Government or retailers, should take the responsibility of monitoring their kids' exposure to video games. 60% of the parents said it's not the Governments job to regulate games sales in order to "protect" children from violent or sexually suggestive video games. Given that 73% of these parents are regular voters, the various video game related legislative efforts might very well do more harm than good to the re-election efforts of politicians trying to score "easy" points with their constituents with video game related bills.

Exer-gaming helps you lose weight while gaming

2006-01-31T18:27:00.000-05:00

Exer-gaming or exertainment is a term used for video games that also make you exercise.

The hit product of this genre of games is the Dance Dance Revolution franchise (DDR) first released in Japan in 1998 as an arcade game. Over 90 different versions have been produced since then both as arcade and video games on Sony PlayStation (original and PS2), Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft XBox. The video game releases alone have sold more than 2 million copies. DDR arcade cabinets can be found in regular arcade halls and increasingly also in fitness clubs.

DDR is a rhythm game usually played on a dance pad with up, down, left and right panels. The dance pad is set on the floor - the arcade cabinets have elaborately constructed sets that incorporate the dance pads sometimes with hand rails. The game will display the arrows in ever increasing speeds on the screen. The player is then supposed to hit the panels on the dance pad with their feet as they appear on the screen. The arrows are synchronized to beat of the music played during gameplay, so if the faster the beat, the faster the arrows will appear and if there's a pause in the beat, the arrows will also pause. The gameplay is not entirely unlike the classic 80s party game Simon.

The State of West Virginia recently made a decision to purchase Microsoft XBox video game consoles and DDR games for all of its 765 public schools to fight childhood obesity.

While DDR is the most popular of the rhythm game genre, as these games sometimes are labeled, there are a wealth of options to choose from. Following is a short list of examples from most of the different sub-genres:

Britney's Dance Beat (yes, that Britney).
Drumming games, which include a drum controller. The idea is still the same as DDR's, but instead of hitting the dance pad with your feet, you hit the drums with your hands.
PaRappa the Rapper was probably the first rhythm game that attracted considerable support from gamers.
Space Channel 5 was an extremely popular rhythm game on the Sega Dreamcast game console.
Karaoke games are another popular rhythm game sub-genre. They can't really be labeled exer-gaming games though. Probably the most popular game in this genre is Karaoke Revolution.

Another major exer-gaming product group is exercising equipment incorporating games or connecting to video game devices. They either come with special software as in the case of the Peak Training System or various Tacx products designed for indoor cycling or just with the exercising equipment like The GameBike, which acts just like regular controllers on the PlayStation2 and XBox video game machines.

A very exciting new product group is made of devices that use digital cameras and motion recognition software to "see" how the players are moving and then translate them into movement of a virtual representation of the player. Applications range from virtual golf games and Kick Ass Kung-Fu to EyeToy (r).

Exer-gaming is one of the most quickly growing video game markets. The reasons are easy to understand when you look at the statistics of childhood obesity; 16% of boys and 14.5% of girls ages 6 to 11 were obese in 1999 and 2000. While going out for a quick jogging session might not appeal to children much, put them on a DDR dance pad with their friends, and the story is entirely different.

Here's an excellent roundup of exer-gaming.

Gaming for God - Christian online gaming communities

2006-01-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

+CGO+ or Christian Gamers Online is a three hundred member online gaming community. The members are all actively religious Christians who love playing video games. For them online gaming is a great way to connect and communicate with fellow Christians, and also to spread the word of God.

Other Christian online gaming communities, such as Men of God International use online gaming primarily as a tool to evangelize. In fact, Owen Parker, of MGO, says "We're more than just a gaming clan-we're a full-blown ministry". They've essentially formed a virtual church with Sunday services, outreach programs and counseling services.

The emergence of these communities is explained by the increasing popularity of game playing and online game playing among Americans and especially young people. If there are missionaries in war torn places like Darfur and Afghanistan, why would online games be any different? Just like Parker of MGO explains, taking the ministry to the network-connected masses is just culture catching up with technology.

An online adult gaming community I belong to has a number of devoted Christian members. They hold regular Play and Pray nights on XBox Live.

The person who started the Play and Pray nights works as a Pastor of Media at a large church in North Carolina, where he oversees all broadcast and worship media, and graphic design and publication teams. He writes about the Play and Pray nights:

I got the idea for ‘Play and Pray’ after I saw that several people in the online community I’m a part of were Christians, or at least interested in Christian things. I asked a few people if they would be interested in getting together before some games, sharing, and praying. We set a time and it happened. The Halo 2 Live interface really worked well, and when we got finished we launch into some custom games. We started meeting about once a week.

Later we started doing a Bible study as part of it. We even went through Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life”

The number of people who attending has ranged anywhere from 2 to 11. Not everyone who comes is a Christian, sometimes people just need some prayer and encouragement, or just to talk.

We are all just normal people with everyday problems, with one common factor: we love to play video games. The people who take part in Play and Pray get to know more about each other than their favorite gametype. They share real concerns and real joys. I have made some very close friends through this, even though I have never seen their face. The praying together brings us closer than simply playing together could.

It has never been my intention that this be anyone’s church. While this is a great thing, it can never take the place of attending church in person. That kind of corporate worship and interaction is just beyond the limits of the Live interface. But it is a very easy way for people who are interested in knowing more about Christ, but don’t want to go to a church, to be introduced to Christian ideas.

A regular participant in the Play and Pray nights writes:

The main reason why I decided to give Xbox Live a try was because I wanted to get away from the rest of the world for a while and just relax, let me mind go, and just enjoy doing something that I always have fun doing: playing video games. To me, it was just a great stress reliever. Well, that seemed to turn around very quickly when I realized that my competitive juices were probably going to get the better of me, and not only that, everyone else that I played with just seemed to take the game WAY too serious. I can't stand listening to people curse, take the Lord's name in vain, and just have a flat out disrespect for everyone around them. Not to mention the cheating, cheating, and more cheating.

I had searched for "Christian Gaming" sites before, but I never found one that suited me at all. It seemed to be all about PC gaming, which I have never been a fan of. Sooner or later, I came to find the "Play and Pray" meet-up that took place at different times of the week. I was tripping out. I had been looking everywhere for some fellow believers who I could just have a great time with, play games, and just fellowship in the Lord.

I have never been able to make the majority of the meet ups, but when I have, it's been a real blessing and a real fellowship. It was never fake. Whenever someone can get on a service like Xbox Live, and have prayer requests, prayer time and Bible study, you know that it's real. Not being able to see these people, you really have to listen to what they are saying, and you feel for them and hurt for them when they go through struggles. "Play and Pray" blended worship and gaming, and that's not a bad thing.

I am thankful for the Lord allowing me to find the "Play and Pray." I have met some amazing people who love the Lord and just want to serve Him. But, like anybody, these people go through struggles and pains, and to have a place like Xbox Live where we can connect and speak to one another about our problems, it's truly an amazing thing. I know for a fact that if I have something going on and I need prayer, I can send a voice message to one of these people and I know they will lift up prayers for me.

That's great, and it's something that I'll always cherish.

Social commentary or art? Maybe both

2005-12-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Alex Chan, a 27-year-old Parisian of Chinese descent, lives in the North Paris suburbs rocked by the riots. He thought the coverage on the riots didn't quite capture the true essence of what was going on in his neighborhood. He decided to do something about it.

He bought the Lionhead Studio's new video game Movies and spent a week directing a 13-minute short film called The French Democracy using the video game. For $50 USD and a week of his time he was able to get his thoughts heard around the world. The return on investment can't get any better than that.

Using video games to make films is called Machinima. Chan's machinima creation may be the most well known, but the genre has been popular for quite some time.

Video games helping in disaster recovery planning

2005-12-13T15:34:00.000-05:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is funding development of a series of video games designed to help prepare first responders to deal with different disasters.

The games are being developed by University of Illinois at Chicago and its The Center for the Advancement of Distance Education (CADE).

There are multiple benefits to using interactive video games for training such as this, some of which include reduced training costs, wider variety of scenarios available to trainees and better participation. The video games are not designed to replace existing training methods, but to supplement them.

Video gaming myths debunked

2005-12-12T18:23:00.000-05:00

PBS has published an interesting essay on often cited myths about video games by Henry Jenkins, Professor of Literature and Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

None of the following eight myths are true according to Professor Jenkins:

The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.
Children are the primary market for video games.
Almost no girls play computer games.
Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.
Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.
Video game play is socially isolating.
Video game play is desensitizing.

Who are these video gamers anyway?

2005-11-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

The mainstream media and detractors of video gaming culture often refer to video gaming as somethings only kids do. The Entertainment Software Association publishes industry key figures yearly and they show a completely opposite view.

Here are some highlights. Please refer to the PDF file linked for a more complete picture.

The average age of a gamer is 30. 19% of gamers are over the age of 50. The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 37.

The Ziff Davis Digital Gaming in America (DGIA) study lists mean income of $69K for computer gamers and $62K for video gamers.

Not only are gamers getting older, but they are getting increasingly affluent. Hardly the demographics for politicians to ignore and stomp on.

Fatal1ty - Professional Gamer

2005-11-17T22:03:00.000-05:00

Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel is 24 years old. He's been a professional gamer since 1999. He's made more than $350,000 in tournament winnings since he started. He's got a computer gaming product line licensing his name. He's the Tiger Woods of professional gaming.

To understand what professional gaming is all about, you have to understand the business side of it. There are 300 million gamers in the world, who will spend $34B this year on gaming hardware and software. By comparison worldwide box office ticket sales worldwide come to about $21B.

Fatal1ty competes in the Cyberathlete Professional League. CPL is sponsored by some of the biggest computer companies in the world, including Intel and nVidia. The 2005 CPL World Tour Finals in New York city later this year have a cash prize pool of $500,000. The finals will be covered by MTV.

CPL is only one of several similar professional gaming leagues. Probably better known is the World Cyber Games, sometimes referred to as the Olympics of cyber gaming. WCG runs national qualifiers, and the national champions compete in the WCG Grand Finals, currently happening in Singapore. 2006 Grand Finals are going to be in Monza, Italy. WCG's main sponsors include Intel and Samsung. The WCG Grand Finals has a cash prize pool of roughly $435,000.

To be successful as a professional gamer Fatal1ty trains 8 hours a day in his basement where he has 4 PCs networked together. He studies the games he plays, watches videos on his opponents to know their weaknesses and varies his gamestyle against different opponents to gain an advantage. Poker and football fans will instantly see a striking similarity to how professional poker and football players prepare for their games.

People don't call Fatal1ty the Tiger Woods of professional gaming only because of his gaming skills, but also because his business savvy. He's licensing his name to several computer manufacturers, which are putting out Fatal1ty branded computer equipment. Along with the hardware, he's got apparel and accessories on sale at his online store.

Time will tell if professional gaming will ever reach the popularity of professional sports, but professional gaming is booming right now. Prizes are getting bigger, more and more sponsors are interested, TV networks are competing to cover events and public interest is greater than ever. It sure isn't just for kids any more.

Update: Fatal1ty wins big in the CPL grand finals, which puts his total winnings for the season at $231K.

The 2005 Child's Play charity website is up

2005-11-08T11:20:00.000-05:00

Child's Play is a charity founded by the Penny Arcade owners Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (or Gabe and Tycho). In 2003 they had an idea to rally the video gaming community they had built around Penny Arcade for a good cause. They figured their 150,000 members would willingly and generously give to charity. And they were right. Through Child's Play people have sent nearly a million dollars in toys, games, and cash to the sick kids in Children's Hospitals around the nation.

Penny Arcade works with hospitals, this year for the first time outside of the US as well, and Amazon.com to set up Amazon.com wishlists for video games, toys, and movies. Donators can then go to Amazon.com and purchase items on the wishlist to be sent to the hospital.

Please give generously. I know I will.

Video games as a means to escape physical pain

2005-11-03T22:21:00.000-05:00

Steven Burkeland has a club foot, a birth defect that has forced him to go through several surgeries, one of which left the nerves in his foot damaged. Apparently the nerves do grow back, but painfully so. Steven says he's happy just to be able to walk.

Steven's also an avid video gamer. He's 18 and has played video games since the age of 12. He says:

"In games, I can run, I can jump, I can play sports, and I can defeat fantasy creatures and save the world. Video games take my mind off my pain and allow me to live at least through the characters as a normal person."

His parents are well aware of his video gaming habits and when he was younger actively monitored his game playing. They also pay close attention to game ratings.

"Please, if you care so much about your children," his father said, "take a minute when you're with them buying games and read the rating box and why it's rated that way."

Steven maintains a role playing game site called The RP Site.

Overcoming physical handicaps and societal prejudices in Virtual Worlds

2005-11-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

Wilde Cunningham is famous in Second Life, a popular virtual world game. He's well liked and respected. The story is quite different in real life.

Wilde Cunningham is actually a group of severely physically disabled people almost all of whom are confined into a wheelchair. Many of them can't use a mouse or a keyboard, so they require some help playing the game. The group takes votes on how to respond to situations presented in the virtual world, and their friend, an employee at the care center they're living, acts on what the majority decides.

They're using the virtual world as a form of therapy, a way to overcome their physical disabilities, but more importantly to communicate with "normal" people without the disabilities and prejudices getting in the way. They're also raising funds by keeping a virtual gift shop.

In real life "normal" people flinch at interacting with the Wildes. Their severe disabilities turn people off quite involuntarily. In Second Life they can walk, fly, talk, flirt and befriend "normal" people without the prejudices coming in between. It is impossible for the Wildes to get that level of interaction with "normal" people outside of virtual worlds.

Please read the four part article on the Wildes written by W. James Au. Also see Live2Give, a collaborative project to help develop an online virtual community for people dealing with cerebral palsy and similar physically disabling conditions.