Ok, maybe not smarter exactly, but a new study shows it does increase brain function.
SEATTLE, Washington – May 26th, 2010 — PopCap Games, the worldwide leader in casual video games, today announced that preliminary results of a new study being conducted by East Carolina University’s Psychophysiology Lab have identified improvements in cognitive function through the playing of “casual” video games such as Bejeweled and Peggle. (PopCap Games, maker of the aforementioned games used in the study, did not underwrite the study.) The study, which has been underway for nearly six months and will be completed later this year, involves dozens of U.S. consumers age 50 and older, and explores the effects of the games on subjects’ short term cognitive acuity. In each instance, sizable improvements were identified in the performance of the experimental group as compared to the control group.
Dr. Carmen Russoniello, Director of the Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic at ECU, is presenting initial data and analysis from the study today at the 6th annual Games for Health Conference in Boston. Full study results will be submitted this fall for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.
“The initial results of the study are very intriguing, in that they suggest that the ‘active participation’ required while playing a casual video game like Bejeweled provides an opportunity for mental exercise that more passive activities, like watching television, do not,” said Russoniello. “Future applications could include prescriptive applications using casual video games to potentially stave off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-type disorders.”
More than 40 test subjects have participated in the study so far, with dozens more being included by the study’s completion. Measurements were achieved through tracking of Electroencephalography (EEG) brain waves as well as subjects’ participation in the standardized Trail Making Test™ parts A and B. Both cognitive response time (the speed with which a subject completes a task) and executive function (the frequency of correctly completing parts of the task) were tracked. Those subjects who played Bejeweled or Peggle for short (30 minute) periods showed an 87% improvement in cognitive response time and a 215% increase in executive functioning when compared to a control group. According to ECU, these improvements in overall cognitive acuity are comparable to changes recorded after other types of cognitive interventions such as mindfulness based cognitive therapy and cognitive remediation therapy.
“Video games with more complex rules and controls, and more sophisticated or detailed imagery – so-called ‘hardcore’ video games – might provide similar cognitive benefits for many people,” said Russoniello. “But those games take significantly longer to learn to play and appeal to a considerably narrower subset of the overall population, especially older consumers. In our experience, ‘casual’ video games are ideal both in terms of their accessibility and ease of understanding and because they appeal to nearly everyone.”
Jason at the Brick Show reviews the LEGO set 7569 Desert Attack, the fifth and final set in the Prince of Persia collection. The Brick Show works out price per piece, always interesting with a playset, and pre-tests the assembly difficulty and suitability for kids, in case you were thinking of getting this for a little niece or nephew. He rates this one as an 8 for little ones, and a 6 for adult collectors, because we probably won’t be making the Hassassins chase the hero around on the carpet. (But you never know.)
I’m already sold on Lego Universe, but this cute trailer is worth watching just for the dark, evil Lego-men holding up cardboard cutouts of the happy, dancing Lego-men.
Issue 7 contains a review of Monkey Island (Episodes 1-3, not just Screaming Narwhal), my Slide Colors review, other game reviews, and new articles on indie games in general.
Just in case there’s someone who’s not yet reading Alice and Kev, go check it out!
RoBurky created Alice and Kev as an experiment in what Sims 3 capabilities and personality traits can do, creating two homeless sims and blogging their actions. RoBurky isn’t cheating by sending her sims out to collect valuable finds, either. Blogging a game character often seems like the worst case of let-me-tell-you-about-my-level-80-paladin ossed with blogging from the pet cat’s point of view, but it’s an amazingly engaging story on so many levels.
RoBurky created Alice and Kev as an experiment in what Sims 3 capabilities and personality traits can do. The original Sims was more of an exercise in putting out domestic fires — sometimes literally — than actually seeing your sims’ personalities, but in Sims 3 the focus is off keeping your sims from starving to death, and on creating interactions.
I blogged the other day about emotional games, and how the personality traits of Sims 3 could have emotional implications (Watch your significant other manage a Sims couple sometime!). The story of Alice and Kev turns personality algorithms into an alternately hilarious and depressing storyline.
The newest Indie Game Mag comes out today. Issue 5 promises to have some great games and interviews, including my piece on Wonderland Adventures: Fire Island.
The July/August Issue of the Indie Game Magazine hits news stands everywhere today. In Issue 5: We have a brand new roundtable feature where 4 reviewers rate 10 of the latest indie game demos. This issue is chock full of indie goodness with over 20 indie games featured. We have an extensive interview with Edmund McMillen, Fling around bodies in Ragdoll Cannon, Solve some family friendly puzzles in Wonderland Adventures, Build an empire in Romopolis, and take a look at the IGF student finalist City Rain.
Paradox Interactive — the people behind the upcoming Majesty 2 and East India Company games — is releasing Restaurant Empire 2 today.
Paradox Interactive today announced that Enlight Software’s Restaurant Empire 2 has been released worldwide. Restaurant Empire 2 builds on the highly popular Restaurant Empire franchise, a title that has already sold over 300,000 units in the United States alone.
With two handfuls of cash and a dream of creating a legacy; build, cook and hire your way to the very top of the culinary world, where tasty food is king and smart management reels in the dollars. If you’re skilled enough in the kitchen and behind the management desk, you just may go further than any aspiring restaurateur before you and cement your status as a true legend of cuisine.
You know what they say about keeping your fingers in as many pies as possible? It pays to diversify. In Restaurant Empire 2 you get the chance to grab a slice of the lucrative café and dessert house markets. Both types of establishment are available when playing the sandbox scenario, or throughout the second campaign, where you must help Delia carve out her own business empire.
Sprinkle your magic on a failing franchise, yet be wary of spreading your finances too thinly as your empire grows. Tailor your menus to include the very best and most popular beverages from teas and coffees to shakes, coolers and smoothies. Whip up some tasty treats for your customers in the form of sandwiches, salads, ice-creams, cakes, tarts, pies and many other items. Then set about decorating the interiors and exteriors with more theme-specific items, some of which must be unlocked through game events. Finally, invite the very best entertainers to perform exclusively in your outlets, making them stand out more from the competition.
If you still believe running a restaurant empire is as easy as baking a cake, here’s your chance to step up to the plate.
Target announced today a new reservation program that offers guests a chance to reserve the biggest and most popular video game titles. Beginning April 19, Target guests can purchase a collectible reservation card, only in stores, for $1. When they bring the reservation card back within seven days of release to purchase their game, they will receive a $5 Target GiftCard to put toward a future purchase.
So you pay $1 to reserve the game, then when you come in and buy the game, you get a $5 gift card. Not bad!
via VerticalWire.
Bento boxes are a cute, stylized Japanese lunchbox. They use food to make cheery pictures, think smiling apples or rice balls with veggie hearts and stars. Of course, some people turn bento into edible art. Like this Cooking Mama bento box!
I hate to post a link to blatant advertising, but I just saw the Gillette “Gamer” razor. (It’s not shaped like a controller or anything, seems like ti’s just a name) Not entirely sure what gaming and razors have to do with each other. Unless, it’s just that men play games and men have to shave!
Game development isn’t exactly my strong suit. Personally I prefer to let other people work long hours, pouring their heart and soul into a game, and then I play it and complain about what’s wrong with it. Hey, that’s where my talents lie!
But I do have huge admiration for indie developers, and I hope to focus on lesser-known titles here on ThumbGods.
Who will survive in the casual game business in 2010?
Big Fish Games, Popcap.
I think I’ve got the full list there.
Big Fish Games is an awesome casual games portal. The “new game every day!” works perfectly for repeat business. They’re a total giant, even my mother-in-law has a Big Fish Games account. But I worry that massive portals like BFG (much as I love them!) and now Amazon are making it harder for the guy-with-website development model to succeed.
Not to be all doom and gloom, because as Cliff’s interview shows, an indie game developer and creative marketer can still do very well.
Do you love your role-playing character? What about your WarCraft toon? AvatarArt offers portraits of your role-playing characters. You describe your character, and they’ll make it into a pretty picture for your game room. Or wave your nerd flag at work by framing your picture of Gudrun the dwarven warrior, and having it on your desk where your co-workers have pictures of their wives and kids!
AvatarArt also offers a character life insurance policy:
One improvement this policy has over a real policy is that it doesn’t cost you $100 per month.
A second and even better improvement this policy has over a real policy is that you don’t have to die to collect
This wonderful policy is offered as a free rider to any conventional character portrait package offered by AvatarArt. To wit: if/when your character dies AvatarArt will, free of charge, remit to you, free of charge, one portrait of similar style to the one that you purchased, which was therefore not free of charge, illustrating your character’s death. Free of charge!
Would you get your favorite character’s portrait done?
I saw this cool project over on Photojojo to make an old game board into a picture frame. Sounds weird, but it would look awesome in a gamer’s bedroom or study, or bring it to work and hang it over your desk. They have pretty detailed step-by-step instructions, with photos. This would be a great use of a favorite old game, once you’ve lost a couple pieces. I especially like turning the Scrabble letters — or any other game tokens — into pushpins to easily update your gameboard photos.
Fortunately, I played Frogger so I know how to dodge cars.
(This picture has been forwarded to me a bunch of times, I guess all my friends know I’m a nerd. If anyone knows where to attribute this photo, let me know and I’ll link.)
How cute is this? A WarCraft onesie, perfect for a little nerd baby! I don’t have kids myself (I’m going to wait until I can keep a plant alive before moving on to mammals) but I love seeing stuff like this that shows you don’t have to give up your gamernerd side when you get married and have children.
$15 seems a little steep to me for essentially transfer-paper letters on a baby onesie, but I don’t really know the going rate for onesies. I’m mostly proud that I know the word “onesie”.
InsideSocialGames.com talks about the new blend of tweeting and gaming:
The sharing concept of Twitter is what Twoof expands upon, and rather than simply dealing with 140 word text-based posts, this website connects Twitter friends via Flash-based games. The site works similarly to most other social/casual gaming sites, but rather than creating a whole new social system, it connects various Twitter users together with its social gaming experience.
I already waste more time than I should on Twitter, so this would be a slippery slope for me. But what better way to not be productive than to play games with friends! What do you think?
Gamertell talks about the proposed videogame warning labels:
I read the report posted on CNet by Don Reisinger which indicates that on January 7, 2009, Joe Baca, a democratic representative of California, introduced the H.R.231: The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009 bill to 111th Congress requesting to make it mandatory that video games that have received a rating for violence to display the following warning:
WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior.
I thought it was funny. At first. Then again, (according to a report card published by the Nation Institute on Media and Family in 2008) if we can’t get parents to read the labels that are already displayed on the packages now, how would this be any different?
I don’t believe videogames provoke violence or aggressive behavior — I think the cause goes the other way, that aggressive teenage boys are attracted to blowing up pixels, not that blowing up pretend people makes you want to blow up real people.
It’s the same thing as when people worry that Barbie is going to give little girls warped self-esteem. Um, Barbie is pretend. Videogames are pretend. I hope that kids can sort out the difference between real and pretend, and it seems like a gross failure of parenting if they can’t.
So, warning labels are a total waste of space. Good parents talk to their kids about what they’re playing, and don’t need it, and bad parents probably wouldn’t be swayed by a little warning sticker.
And that’s not even the best part. No, the best part is that owners Double Jump Books are selling the magazine on eBay. So to get it, you’ll have to bid. $42,001 is as good a place as any to start.
With more and more magazines going entirely digital or just going under, this is definitely a creative way to solve financial problems!
bout the proposed videogame warning labels:
Now
