As part of her Let’s Move campaign to end childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama is on the hunt for games that encourage kids to be more physically active and to make better choices about what they eat.

The Apps for Healthy Kids competition officially starts accepting submissions today and will offer up $40,000 in prizes to the winners across two categories—tool and games. Applications will be judged by both the public and an all-star panel that includes Entertainment Software Association (ESA) President Michael Gallagher, LucasArts Engineer Eric Johnson, Zybga’s Mark Pincus and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Judging ends on July 14, 2010.

Another day, another medical condition that using Nintendo’s Wii may help to alleviate.

Researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine believe that the Wii can assist people with symptoms of subsyndromal depression (SSD). A pilot study conducted on 19 SSD-afflicted participants between the ages of 63 and 94 years of age had users play a Wii Sports game on the console three times a week for 35-minutes intervals reports Science Daily.

Study lead, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, reported on the results:

More than one-third of the participants had a 50-percent or greater reduction of depressive symptoms. Many had a significant improvement in their mental health-related quality of life and increased cognitive stimulation.

Jeste cautioned that the study needed to be expanded to larger samples and control groups.

Initial results from a University of Toronto study seem to indicate that using Nintendo’s Wii can assist stroke victims in regaining and improving motor skills.

The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Using Wii Gaming Technology in Stroke Rehabilitation (EVREST) Study utilized twenty stroke survivors with an average age of 61. Those studied were split into two groups, with one group playing recreational games (card games, Jenga etc…), while the other group played Wii Tennis or Cooking Mama. There were eight sessions over two weeks that lasted about 60 minutes each.

While one Wii user reported nausea or dizziness as a side-effect, researchers found that the Wii users exhibited “significant motor improvement in speed and extent of recovery.”

Study lead Gustavo Saposnik stated:

The beauty of virtual reality is that it applies the concept of repetitive tasks, high-intensity tasks and task-specific activities, that activates special neurons…

Basically, we found that patients in the Wii group achieved a better motor function, both fine and gross, manifested by improvement in speed and grip strength. But it is too early to recommend this approach generally. A larger, randomized study is needed and is underway.

The research was funded by grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSFO) and the Ontario Stroke System (OSS).

|Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer|

A pair of researchers with opposite takes on interpreting and analyzing research related to violence and videogames are once again engaged in the scrutinization of each other’s work.

The latest findings of Iowa State University’s Craig Anderson and his team are the subject of an article in the Washington Post. Unfortunately, actual details from the study are scarce in the Post article, other than the research led Anderson to attribute playing violent videogames to increases in “violent thinking, attitudes and behaviors among players.”

Fortunately, another source provides some insight into the research, which will appear in the March 2010 issue of the Psychological Bulletin. Anderson and his team analyzed 130 existing research reports, comprised of over 130,000 subjects, using meta-analytic procedures, which is described as “the statistical methods used to analyze and combine results from previous, related literature.”

The research concluded that:

…violent video game effects are significant in both Eastern and Western cultures, in males and females, and in all age groups.

Anderson, who indicated that this may be his last study on the subject, because of its “definitive findings” added:

From a public policy standpoint, it's time to get off the question of, 'Are there real and serious effects?' That's been answered and answered repeatedly. It's now time to move on to a more constructive question like, 'How do we make it easier for parents -- within the limits of culture, society and law -- to provide a healthier childhood for their kids?

Well, hold your horses there Dr. Anderson. Texas A&M International University researchers Christopher Ferguson and John Kilburn issued their own research paper challenging Anderson’s findings. The paper is entitled Much Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation and Overinterpretation of Violent Video Game. Effects in Eastern and Western Nations: Comment on Anderson et al.

The paper claims that Anderson’s study “included many studies that do not relate well to serious aggression, an apparently biased sample of unpublished studies, and a 'best practices' analysis that appears unreliable and does not consider the impact of unstandardized aggression measures on the inflation of effect size estimates.”

“One very basic piece of information” that Anderson’s research neglected to report, according to Ferguson and Kilburn, is “as VVGs [violent videogames] have become more popular in the United States and elsewhere, violent crime rates among youths and adults in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, and most other industrialized nations have plummeted to lows not seen since the 1960s.”

Ferguson and Kilburn offer the following summation:

Psychology, too often, has lost its ability to put the weak (if any) effects found for VVGs on aggression into a proper perspective. In doing so, it does more to misinform than inform public debates on this issue.

Just a note: Anderson’s study apparently used a Ferguson and Kilburn-authored analyses to contrast their own.

Thanks Adam!

The Middlesex-London Health Unit of London, Ontario has launched an online game designed to educate teens and young adults on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Adventures in Sex City will have players assume the role of one of four characters—Captain Condom, Power Pap, Willy the Kid or Wonder Vag—as they take on penis-armed (literally) villain the Sperminator, who is hell-bent on spreading his brand of STD-infected love to everyone in town.

Players will be asked a series of STD and sex-related questions. Right answers result in the Sperminator’s seed being repelled back at him, while a wrong answer can lead to your avatar being infected.

Shaya Dhinsa, Manager of Sexual Health at the Middlesex-London Health Unit, on the game:

Reaching teens and youth is a huge challenge for us, that’s why we worked directly with them to develop a resource that would catch their attention while providing important information in a fun way.

The game was developed in conjunction with Mind Your Mind, a London-based, nonprofit organization, with support from the Perth District Health Unit.

As the American Psychiatric Association (APA) opens up the 5th edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to feedback from the Internet, GamePro takes a look at how videogame addiction might factor into the discussion.

Videogame addiction is not currently in the APA classification system, but if it was, it would likely be considered an entry in the “non-substance addiction” category, alongside other suggested entries such as eating, shopping and sexual activity.

As GamePro notes, that category could be removed altogether:

… proposed changes could eliminate the "Non-substance addictions" category where people argue game addiction should go; instead, replacing it with a general diagnosis category.

Proposed draft revisions can be viewed on the DSM-5 site.


Thanks DarkSaber!

A study into whether or not videogames, along with other electronic media and devices, cause headaches or migraines in adolescents ultimately determined that there was no link between the two.

Medical News Today details the study (PDF), which queried 1,025 kids between 13 and 17 years of age. 489 of those interviewed claimed to suffer from headaches, while the remaining 536 indicated no such affliction. Comparing the groups, researchers found no deviation between the two when it came to television viewing, electronic gaming, mobile phone usage or computer usage.

The study concluded:

With respect to the current debate on adverse health effects of electronic-media use, we cannot point to systematic effects of single media types nor on specific types of headache which might predominantly be caused by the use of electronic media.

The study did suggest a casual link between daily music intake and headache suffering however.

Jo Frost, best known stateside as the principal in the show Supernanny, has a new show airing in the UK and in its debut episode she attempted to tackle the issue of violent videogames.

The Guardian has a run down of the program (Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance), in which Frost, with the assistance of Iowa State University’s Dr. Douglas Gentile, conducted an experiment on 40 boys.

In one experiment, the boys were split in half, with 20 playing a football game for 20 minutes while the other 20 played a first-person shooter for the same amount of time. Following their game play session, all 40 boys watched violent news footage and had their heart rate monitored. Boys who played the FPS were found to have slower heart rates while watching the violent on-screen reports versus those who played the sports game, leading to a voice over that declared, “Shockingly, just twenty minutes of violent gameplay was enough to densensitise the boys.”

Author Keith Stuart took the methodology to task, writing, “I'm no neuroscientist, but with the biological stress response recently engaged, surely it's no surprise that in the few minutes after violent gameplay, test subjects react differently to violent stimuli?”

Stuart continued:

So really, what does this all say about the long-term effects of exposure to violent videogames? I would suggest very, very little.

An additional experiment, in which Gentile knocked over a can of pencils in front of each boy individually, was supposed to measure empathy. Reportedly only 40.0 percent of the boys who played the FPS helped to pick up the pencils, versus 80.0 percent of those who played the football game.

The combination of the two tests, and the resulting conclusions, were a bit too much for Stuart to take:

Cognitive neuroscience is a complex field - it is perhaps not something to be prodded and poked at during a piece of realty TV voyeurism masquerading as documentary material.

He added:

…if just 20 minutes of exposure is enough to turn normal boys into desensitized monsters, our streets should be filled with violence. They're not.

Thanks to a research grant of $3.9 million from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Yale University will create a videogame designed to teach youngsters how to best avoid being infected by the HIV virus.

The grant will be distributed over the course of five years and enable the project, which will be led by Yale School of Medicine Assistant Professor of Medicine Lynn Fiellin M.D. Titled Retro-Warriors, the game will be created with different cultures in mind, in order to spread its message to adolescents around the globe.

The game’s main goal is stated as “teaching minority adolescents sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills.” It’s proposed that instead of just preaching about things that could lead to catching HIV, the game would contain a role-playing aspect enabling those using it to participate in and learn from such risky behaviors.

Fiellin stated:

Access to the Internet is growing in developing countries and these technologies could be transferred to adolescents in countries experiencing a growing HIV epidemic but which have limited access to targeted risk-reduction strategies.

Upon completion the game will be subjected to a clinical trial in a New Haven, Connecticut community center.

Via Kotaku, Thanks Andrew!

A love of the social aspects of videogames tends to drive any perceived dependence on games more so than a game’s activity itself.

This is the angle a Kent State University article takes in examining the aspects of what fuels gamers to keep on playing, in addition to the subject of whether or not the term “addiction” is fair to use in relation to videogames. KSU Sophomore Brian Clark weighed in on the latter subject, stating that the use of such a term was misleading:

Rather than craving the game itself, they crave the interaction they get in the game so rather than going out and having a real life social interaction, they’re having social interactions with other people on a game.

The piece notes that a definition of someone addicted to videogames, as put forth by the American Medical Association (AMA), is a person that “has more control and success over his or her social relationships in the virtual world than reality.”

World of Warcraft was mentioned often in the piece, with Clark admitting that a friend of his had a reliance on the online game, which Clark, again, attributed to the social aspect of WOW. The additional factor of playing a game that never really ends only increases the difficulty of putting a game like WOW aside noted student Connor Shivers.

Achievements can also be a powerful lure for gamers to keep playing. Clark’s previously discussed WOW-loving friend also became reliant on them, “He would play some Xbox games just for the fact of getting achievement points (on Xbox LIVE) and feeling like he accomplished something.”

GP: The definition as defined by the AMA probably needs to be updated as more and more relationships that begin in virtual worlds cross over to the real world. I would venture a guess that most hardcore gamers have befriended a fellow gamer via an online guild or clan and then met up with them IRL.

Nintendo’s Wii Balance Board, which typically costs about $100 (and comes with a game), is performing on par with $18,000 medical equipment when it comes to assisting stroke victims regain their balance.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Singapore General Hospital tested thirty subjects who were “without lower limb pathology.” After running four types of tests, the researchers reported that the Wii Balance Board outperformed the expensive laboratory-grade force platform (when it came to minimum detectable changes) in three out of four tests for assessing standing balance in patients.

Researcher Ross Clark told the New Scientist:

The low price of the Wii kit is now seeing it used to assess rehabilitation after stroke, traumatic brain injuries and to examine standing balance in children who were born pre-term.
 

I was shocked given the price: it was an extremely impressive strain gauge set-up.

Catching terrorists, helping stroke victims… what’s next for the little Wii accessory?


|Via Gizmodo|

Dr. Michael Rich, Director (and self-described “Mediatrician”) of the Center on Media and Child Health for Children’s Hospital Boston  recently fielded a question on the hospital’s blog from a parent asking about the impact Call of Duty might have on teenage boys.

Dr. Rich’s first attempt at answering the question resulted in a bit of a misstep, in that he misrepresented the Modern Warfare 2’s controversial “No Russian” scene, referring to it as the game’s opening scene and then falsely wrote that the player earns points by gunning down civilians in the airport.

The doctor’s recommendation? “Given all the evidence, I personally would never recommend that a parent give this game to a child or teen.”

Following a handful of comments on the original post which pointed out his errors in describing the game, the good doctor scripted a second blog in which he apologized, writing, “… even though I play video games, I have neither the skills nor the practice time to be a great gamer, so Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was demonstrated to me—I have not played it.”

He then went on to explain his interpretation of how violent games affect younger gamers:

…many research studies have shown that the majority of violent video game players do not go out and start shooting people—but they do show that those who view violent movies or play violent video games experience a consistent, measurable shift in their attitudes and behaviors toward greater fear and anxiety (especially in children), desensitization to suffering, and, in some, increases in aggression.

Therefore, as a pediatrician, I would steer parents and kids toward video games that are sports-, logic-, or strategy-based, instead of those that center on violence.

GP: A relatively even keel, non knee-jerk recommendations from the doctor in that at least he didn’t claim that all studies suggest violent games have a negative impact on youth. Or maybe we’re just learning to expect less from non-gaming experts that judge games. What do you think?

A new system from a company called Games for Life attempts to combat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in kids by training them to pay attention.

Play Attention is designed for the PC and centers on an object that looks like your standard issue bicycle helmet. The helmet is actually outfitted with brain wave sensors—that read EEG waves associated with attention—that will shut off the on-screen game if a child’s attention wanders. Users control the game using their mind and as long as they continue to focus on the game, they will be able to keep playing it.

A test of the system on ten UK students with ADHD showed their impulse behavior was reduced after 12 weeks with the product. Research Professor Pine said about the system, “The Play Attention method may prevent long-term problems by helping the children to be less impulsive and more self-controlled.”

Units are expected to be available to the public beginning this month.  A 2-user license system for home use costs £1,795 (approximately $2,930.00 U.S.), while a professional version, with unlimited licenses, will sell for £2,495 (approximately $4,070.00 U.S.).

Both the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and Rockstar Games have issued responses to an open letter posted on Gamasutra which claimed deteriorating working conditions at the Rockstar San Diego studio.

Rockstar’s response came in the way of a comment on the original Gamasutra story, where user "Justwanna makegames" posted what appears to be an internal email from Rockstar to employees.

A few selections:

We do not agree with the allegations in the Gamasutra post (e.g. there has been no reduction in health benefits or ancillary benefits and perks (such as free dinners and massages etc), wage increases across the studio have kept track with cost of living increases, and anyone who feels they have been overlooked for a bonus for a game they worked on please contact HR to discuss as soon as possible).

Nevertheless, we do know that the team is working very hard right now, and we care deeply about the physical health and mental well-being of every single person on our team. We are committed to working through any issues anyone at the studio may have, and to providing support wherever possible.

In a post on its website, the IGDA wrote:

In any studio, the IGDA finds the practice of undisclosed and constant overtime to be deceptive, exploitative, and ultimately harmful not only to developers but to their final product and the industry as a whole. While our research shows that many studios have found ways to preserve quality of life for their employees, unhealthy practices are still far too common in our industry.

More:

Events like these raise the awareness of quality of life issues in the industry and among the public.  The IGDA has made clear its stance on excessive uncompensated overtime, and this instance represents an opportunity for reflection across the industry.

Additionally, MTV reached out to a former Rockstar New York employee who verified the claims made by Rockstar San Diego staffers.

The unnamed ex-employee even went so far as to compare Rockstar New York to the “Eye of Sauron” when it comes to dealing with other Rockstar studios:

Basically you'd have a studio working without guidance or milestones for nearly two years and then Rockstar NYC would suddenly pay attention to the project, making major changes as if out of the blue.

A pilot study into the rehabilitative aspects of videogames has shown that custom-made games can aid hemiplegic cerebral palsy sufferers boost hand functions and forearm bone health.

The pilot involved placing remotely monitored videogame systems in the homes of three participants, who were outfitted with custom-made sensor gloves used to control on-screen action. Games for the pilot were also custom-developed for the program by Rutgers University reports ScienceDaily. Subjects were tasked with exercising their affected hand 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

The remotely monitored consoles (which appear to be PS3s) introduce a few new twists to this study; physical therapists can remotely monitor progress and make adjustments as necessary and patients are spared repeated trips outside the home in order to receive therapy. Patients can also use the devices at their leisure and are not tied to the schedule of a physical therapist or doctor. Not to mention that it's proabably a fun way for rehabbers to get their work in.

All three participants, who were adolescents, showed improved functionality in their affected hand, resulting in a greater ability to lift objects and increased range of motion in their fingers.

Lead author Meredith R. Golomb, M.D, M.Sc., an Indiana University School of Medicine associate professor of neurology, sees other uses for the technology in the future:

While these initial encouraging results were in teens with limited hand and arm function due to perinatal brain injury, we suspect using these games could similarly benefit individuals with other illness that affect movement, such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, arthritis and even those with orthopedic injuries affecting the arm or hand.

Using Avatar as a benchmark, a USA Today opinion piece praises the mainstream adoption of fantasy in media such as movies, novels and videogames.

The author wonders if the popularity of World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter indicates that today’s society is obsessed with escapism, or the ability to leave the real-world behind for the chance to immerse oneself in a fantasy world.

The scribe answers with a resounding no, and offers a positive spin on the new state of geek (and gaming) culture:

I've met hundreds of gamers and geeks. Their reasons for embracing fantasy and gaming aren't about mindless escapism. Games teach social skills, leadership and strategy; they inspire creativity and storytelling.

They provide rites of passage, accomplishment and belonging, even belief systems. They let people safely try out aspects of their personalities — often dark, evil sides, or extroverted or flirtatious — that they can't or won't flex in "real life." The games connect folks to magical thinking, to nature, to a primal, pick-up-your-battle-ax and kill mentalities long suppressed by so-called society.

As an added bonus, the author writes, the ability to insert ourselves into a different world—even if only for a short time—allows us to mitigate the “minutiae of our modern, mundane troubles.”

Amen.

In an open letter reminiscent of the now infamous 2004 blog postings by EA Spouse, a group of Rockstar San Diego employee wives have banded together to lament working conditions at the West Coast videogame developer.

Gamasutra has posted the letter in its entirety, which was signed by the “Determined Devoted Wives of Rockstar San Diego employees.” The group alleges that Rockstar San Diego employees have been in a perpetual state of “crunch” since March of 2009, employees have been diagnosed with symptoms of depression and that mandatory work hours have extended to nearly 12 hours a day, six days a week.

The letter also claims that comp and vacation time have been recouped by the company and that, since doctor’s offices are typically closed on Sunday, those working six days a week must utilize a sick day on a Saturday in order to visit their doctor. Those that do so receive “an attitude presented to them that they pose a hindrance.”

Additionally, the spouses claim that salary raises issued over the past four years have not kept up with inflation and that:

While managing to endure through the trying times, they still were hit with more blows. Again balance is denied, as working conditions worsened with no appreciation. Working harder, longer, faster, yet there was never a guarantee of a bonus nor if there was any earned, when they will be received! Moreover, bonuses could significantly be reduced based on ANYTHING management comes up with, while the employee would have no way to know about it.

The spouses write that if conditions “stay unchanged in the upcoming weeks, preparation will be made to take legal action against Rockstar San Diego.”

A user comment on Gamasutra posted by someone who claims to be a Rockstar San Diego employee stated:

RSG is not a bad place, and for many years, we hadn't crunched a lot. The last 10 months though have been terrible and were avoidable. Same for all previous projects that went through the same extended crunch, and unless something changes, for all future projects.

Rockstar San Diego is currently working on Red Dead Redemption, the successor to 2004’s Red Dead Revolver.

Because they are engaging and motivational on their own, a Canadian professor is convinced that videogames can eventually be a reliable means to improve a player’s mental health.

Dr. Mark Baldwin of Montreal’s McGill University is a leader in this fledgling field, having already released a PC game in 1997 called MindHabits Trainer. It’s claimed that spending only five minutes a day with the title can improve confidence and reduce stress in participants.

Baldwin told Canada.com that while there is certainly room for advances in this field, there may be a ceiling in terms of how much a player can be affected. He doesn’t think, for example, that such a trainer would ever be able to convince someone that they are a good person, but that improving abilities like learning how to ignore criticism should be possible.

One level from the MindHabits Trainer has players trying to find a single smiling face among a sea of those with frowns. Baldwin explained what these types of game mechanics can do for a player:

It's just like Pavlov's dog. This boosts self-esteem, makes people feel a little less aggressive in response to insults. It's a long way from being a therapy of any kind; these things are games and little laboratory tasks. But someday I think there's going to be some use for this as a part of some kind of psychological intervention.

The release of games such as Brain Age and the Wii Fit in the past few years has furthered Baldwin’s optimism for what the coming years might bring:

In terms of where the future goes, that's what makes me hopeful that the application idea is growing and the line between them will get blurred and you'll see more of these positive efforts being integrated with entertainment-type games.

The straight-shooters over at Vice interviewed the co-founder of Washington State’s ReStart facility, which treats people for gaming, Internet and texting addictions.

Dr. Hilarie Cash was asked whether or not she believes games are becoming more addictive:

All games focus on the idea of unpredictable reinforcement – you don’t know what’s going to happen when you reach the next stage, but you get “rewards” or “treats” at random points. And people who develop successful games have figured this out. In fact, many games companies hire professional psychologists these days to help them develop the best unpredictable reward payoff structures.

Dr. Cash on the potentially violent side of the addicts she treats:

There was a young man who ended up having to have an intervention. When the parents tried to take the computer out of his room, he tried to attack them with a knife. They just backed down, gave him his computer, went away. A teenager whose parents just take the computer away cold turkey – it’ll send them into a rage, and that rage can be quite dangerous.

How about Dr. Cash’s thoughts on whether gaming addiction or porn addiction will be more hazardous to society over the next ten years?

I think they’re equally hazardous. Pornography taps into anyone’s sex drive or need for sex. I’m sure the numbers of sex addicts far outnumber game addicts. That will probably continue, but I know that the internet-based games are typically highly addictive.

A new study conducted by a Wheaton College professor has concluded that people that play action and puzzle games are better able to think through complex problems.

Rolf Nelson, a professor of psychology, conducted the study and published his findings in the November edition of the journal Perception. In the study, he had 20 students try to solve a spatial relation problem. The students were then given a puzzle game or action game to play. Once done with the game, the students were given the chance to finish the spatial relation problem again.

Results showed that puzzle players finished the task slower, but with more accuracy, while action players finished the task quicker but less accurately. Both finished quicker than if they had not played a game at all.

The goal of the study, according to the abstract from the journal:

To understand the way in which video-game play affects subsequent perception and cognitive strategy, two experiments were performed in which participants played either a fast-action game or a puzzle-solving game. Before and after video-game play, participants performed a task in which both speed and accuracy were emphasized. In experiment 1 participants engaged in a location task in which they clicked a mouse on the spot where a target had appeared, and in experiment 2 they were asked to judge which of four shapes was most similar to a target shape. In both experiments, participants were much faster but less accurate after playing the action game, while they were slower but more accurate after playing the puzzle game. Results are discussed in terms of a taxonomy of video games by their cognitive and perceptual demands.

The full study can be found in the Perception journal or online, although you need a subscription to view the complete study in PDF format.

A press release from an online casino company latched onto the study, adding blackjack and poker to the puzzle category:

Of course there are other games that may also boast some of the same results as the video puzzle games including popular games like Sudoku and Boggle as well as card games like poker and blackjack. Activities that might have similar effects to the action games are most sports which not only improve response times but also promote strength and fitness.

GP: How much more brilliant could Einstein have been if he played games?

Ever wonder why you get a rush every time you find some new loot in a game, be it a new gun, better armor or a rare drop. A gamer with a PhD in Psychology has attempted to briefly explain the phenomenon, using his own experience as a springboard.

Using his experience in World of Warcraft, but touching on other games such as Torchlight and Borderlands, Jamie Madigan looks at the scientific reasons why our brain goes loopy over loot on his site, The Psychology of Video Games. 

According to the article, the culprit is something called dopamine neurons, which are trying to learn and predict the loot drop rules:

But this is only part of what makes loot-based games work so well. The real key is that while dopamine neurons fire once your brain has figured out how to predict an event, they really go nuts when an unexpected, unpredicted gush of dopamine shows up, giving you an even bigger rush. It’s like DUDE! UNEXPECTED HOT POCKET! Again, I’m guessing that this is an evolutionary advantage that causes us to obsess over unexpected pleasures and try to predict them so that we can get more of them.

But we can’t predict the inherently unpredictable. This is how slot machines get you. Your dopamine neurons are trying really hard to learn what precedes a jackpot in terms of what bells, you hear, pictures you see, or even which cocktail waitress last walked by. But in reality, it’s utterly random and by definition can’t be predicted. More rational parts of your brain may understand this, but not the dopamine neurons. They’re stymied, but that doesn’t stop them from flaring up and saying “HEY! THERE’S SOMETHING HERE! KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING UNTIL WE FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN AGAIN!” So you keep playing.

An interesting look at the science that makes gamers compulsive about breaking crates or killing mobs.

It appears that anti-health care reformers are rewarding Facebook gamers with virtual currency for participation in a letter writing campaign to Congress featuring the message that government-run health care is not the answer.

A story on Business Insider details the alleged practice, which is being done at the behest of GetHealthReformRight.org, a website backed by a series of insurance brokers and underwriters, including the BlueCross BlueShield Association, the National Association of Health Underwriters and the America’s Health Insurance Plans. The National Retail Association is also listed.

The group states that they “are concerned about federal legislation that would create new government bureaucracies that would unravel the workplace healthcare system.”

It seems that the campaign is offered on Facebook under the guise of a quiz, which participants are required to take in order to receive virtual currency to use in a Facebook game. Upon completion of the quiz, and after entering personal information, an email is sent to Congress with the message, “As the Senate considers healthcare reform, I’m writing to express my strong opposition to a government-run health plan. I am concerned a new government plan would cause me to lose the employer coverage I have today.”

The growing proliferation of fake grass-roots campaigns has resulted in a name being spawned for the practice—astroturfing.

Vision Audio Inc. has developed a PC game designed to provide assistance for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by teaching them to cope with noise while improving sensory processing.

EASe Funhouse Treasure Hunt combines therapeutic music with several different types of interactive immersion “designed to stimulate, but not over-stimulate, a child who is challenged by sensory processing and organization.”

Bill Mueller, president of Vision Audio explained, “Our goal is to balance the child’s sensory experiences. Too much stimulation can result in fight-or-flight responses. Too little stimulation and we won't get past the child's existing sensory defense mechanisms."

Those afflicted with ASD have difficulty filtering information from their environment, which can result in overstimulation, “A touch may feel like a burn, lights may be blinding, sounds deafening, smells repugnant.”

The game, recommended for kids ages six and up, is on sale for $39.00 on the EaseCD website. A demo is also available for download.

Disabled gamers can now check out reviews of videogames done expressly with them in mind thanks to the AbleGamers Foundation.

Reviews featured on the main AbleGamers website are ranked, from 1 to 10, in terms of how the game performs for those with visual, hearing or motion impaired disabilities. These numbers are then factored in with additional ratings for closed captioning, speed settings, difficulty settings and options for colorblindness, among others, before a final grade is calculated.

AbleGamers Foundation Presiden Mark Barlet added, “There are countless sites out there that review games for their graphics and sound, but no one is looking at the game from the standpoint of accessibility. With 63 million Americans with disabilities this is a focus that is needed and who better to do it than the flagship site for disabled gamers, AbleGamers.com.”

16 game reviews are currently up on the site. BioWare’s Dragon Age for the PC is currently the highest-rated game to-date, garnering a 9.8. From the Game Accessibility section of the review:

One-handed gamers and the mobility impaired will have no problems playing at all. If you can only play with one hand or have difficulty playing many mainstream games, such as only being able to play with a mouse or a keyboard, this is a game for you. If you can play titles such as World of Warcraft, Aion, and Guild Wars then you will be able to play Dragon Age.

The lowest rated game so far is Nintendo’s Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Story for the DS, which received a 4.5 score. The reviewer enjoyed the game, but noted, “I pretty much can't recommend it to anyone with just about any disability.”

An Oklahoma videogame developer is in the midst of creating a title designed to teach players how to manage diabetes.

Diagnosed himself with Type 1 diabetes at age 10, Adam Grantham and his company Game Equals Life just wrapped up a prototype of their first game, The Magi and The Sleeping Star. The title features a protagonist with diabetes, who must manage his carbohydrate ratio and insulin sensitivity in between battles against robot dragons.

Grantham told NewsOK that his plan was to flavor the game with educational bits in a bid to stealthily provide the ability to learn about the disease while being entertained, "Usually, education games don’t feel like regular games, they seem too academic. But with this game, we’re kind of sneak-teaching them the fundamentals of diabetes.”

Two principles the game teaches are the importance of testing blood sugar and patience—gamers must wait for food or insulin to take hold before the game’s character powers up.

Grantham is seeking additional funding to complete the game. A trailer and game demo can be viewed on the game’s website.

Recent research suggests that the Wii Fit is “no panacea” when it comes to providing a workout.

As part of a study (PDF) funded by the American Council on Exercise, 16 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 24 underwent Wii Fit training to determine the effect the title can have on health.

After establishing a baseline fitness level in each participant, each was then subjected to six activities chosen from the game especially for their ability to aerobically challenge— Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, Advanced Step, Super Hula Hoop, and Rhythm Boxing. Of the six activities tested, Island Run and Free Run had the best results, though “neither was sufficient enough to maintain or improve cardiorespiratory endurance as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

John Porcari, Ph. D., one of the lead researchers on the project, had this to say about Wii Fit:

I guess anything is better than nothing, but we were a little bit underwhelmed with the exercise intensity of some of the exercises. The Wii Fit is a very, very mild workout.

In fact, playing Wii Sports may be a better workout than Wii Fit, as Alexa Carroll, M.S., the study’s author, noted:

You’re better off doing Wii Sports than Wii Fit. In Wii Sports there’s more jumping around, and you’re not constrained by having to stand on the balance pad. I just think there’s much more freedom of movement and you get a better workout.”

|Via IndustryGamers|

As part of an initiative to chronicle the health benefits of videogames, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has bestowed over $1.85 million in grants to nine research teams.

RWJF’s Health Games Research program, headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is backed by $8.25 million in funding from RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio, which operates under the mantra of supporting “innovative projects that may lead to breakthrough improvements in the future of health and health care.” The grant winners announced today are part of a second round of funding.

Pioneer Portfolio Team Director Paul Tarini stated, “The pace of growth and innovation in digital games is incredible, and we see tremendous potential to design them to help people stay healthy or manage chronic conditions like diabetes or Parkinson’s disease.  However, we need to know more about what works and what does not—and why.”

Research teams were chosen from 185 total proposals and each was awarded between $100,000 and $300,00. The grant winners, and a short synopsis of their field of study, are:

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - Reward Circuitry, Autism and Games that Teach Social Perceptual Skills
 
• George Washington University - Active-Adventure: Investigating a Novel Exergaming Genre in Inner City School Physical Education Programs

• Georgetown University - Wii Active Exergame Intervention for Low-Income African-American Obese and Overweight Adolescents

• Long Island University - Dance Video Game Training and Falling in Parkinson’s Disease

• Michigan State University - Buddy Up! Harnessing Group Dynamics to Boost Motivation to Exercise

• Michigan State University - Short-Term and Long-Term Effectiveness of Exergames for Young Adults

• Teachers College, Columbia University - Lit: A Game Intervention for Nicotine Smokers

• University of California, San Francisco - A Video Game to Enhance Cognitive Health in Older Adults

• University of Southern California - Robot Motivator: Towards Adaptive Health Games for Productive Long-Term Interaction

Following the news of a treatment center in the UK expanding its offerings to include treating game addiction, an Australian academic has called for a similar program to be launched down under.

Sydney University Psychiatric Professor Vladan Starcevic, also billed as a game addition expert, made the call for action to the Herald Sun citing his own recent research in which he polled 2,000 gamers. The results of the survey led him to believe that up to one in ten subjects showed signs of addictive behavior. Starcevic said that his study was undertaken due to more patients exhibiting signs of being addicted to games.

Of the UK’s Broadway Lodge treatment center, Starcevic noted, “I think it's good that someone has taken this seriously. I think it should be recognised that this is a problem for some people.”

Starcevic’s full study will be released in this month’s Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

The family of Jennifer Strange, a woman who died following a radio station contest that had her drink large quantities of water and attempt to not go to the bathroom in an attempt to win a Nintendo Wii, has been awarded $16.0 million.

The contest was held in 2007 and put on by the Morning Rave show at Sacramento radio station KDND-FM. The 28-year old Strange had taken second place in the contest, but after drinking about two gallons of water during the event, was found dead in her home. A subsequent post-mortem indicated that her death was caused by water intoxication.

While no criminal charges were filed, the radio station fired 10 employees. The payout to the family was the result of a wrongful death suit, which had sought $34.0 million.

Sky News reports that lawyers for the station had “argued that her death was unforeseeable, and her 'contributory negligence' led in part to her death.” A jury deliberated for two weeks before coming out with the decision.

Thanks Phillip and Andrew

As part of a policy statement on media violence, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) outlines steps pediatricians can take to evaluate potential heavy media use by children.

Beginning with the claim that “the evidence is now clear and convincing: media violence is 1 of the causal factors of real-life violence and aggression,” the AAP paper encourages pediatricians to ask at least two media-related questions per each adolescent visit: How much entertainment media per day is the child watching? and Is there a TV or Internet connection in the child’s bedroom?

The AAP recommends that parents remove televisions, Internet and videogames from their kid’s rooms and limit screen time to one to two hours per day, totally avoiding violent games. Parents are also encouraged to co-view any material in order to screen it for appropriateness.

The AAP had recommendations targeted at the entertainment industry as well, including these specific videogame-related topics:

• Video games should not use human or other living targets or award points for killing, because this teaches children to associate pleasure and success with their ability to cause pain and suffering to others.
• Play of violent video games should be restricted to age-limited areas of gaming arcades; the distribution of videos and video games and the exhibition of movies should be limited to appropriate age groups.