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Squirmy toddler? There’s an app for that

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:21:56 -0700

The Daily Record - By Associated Press - Oct. 26 - MIAMI — There’s a new routine these days whenever Amber Mullaney goes out to eat at a restaurant. While waiting to be seated, she asks her husband to get the phone ready to hand over to their 2-year-old daughter, Tatum. The phone — with its ability to stream episodes of Dora the Explorer — is a [...]

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Amazon's Kindle Fire just nuked the tablet market: Winners and losers

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ZDNet - By Larry Dignan - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the stage Wednesday to unveil an arsenal of devices that are going to disrupt rivals like Barnes & Noble as well as Android tablet makers.

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Zynga Files For $1 Bilion IPO

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Business Insider - By Jay Yarow - Jul. 02 (News Report) - Zynga has just filed with the SEC to go public. The company is on pace to generate well over $1 billion in revenue this year, and earn over $36 million. It's a pretty slim profit margin considering reports were circulating that Zynga was earning $400 million on $800 million in revenue earlier this year. It wants to raise $1 billion from the IPO, and it already has $1 billion in cash on hand.

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Violent video games, California and the ambiguity of freedom

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Keith Stuart - Jun. 28 (Opinion) - The US Supreme Court has ruled that an attempt by California to ban the sale of violent games to children was unconstitutional. We look at the factors involved and why this isn't a clear-cut victory for free speech.

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Calif. video game ban struck down by Supreme Court

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Bob Egelko - Jun. 28 (News) - California's attempt to ban sales of violent video games to minors violates the constitutional guarantee of free expression, which allows young people access to creative works such as books, films and onscreen simulations about even the most extreme brutality, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

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Amazon Server Said to Be Used in Sony Attack

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By Pavel Alpeyev, Joseph Galante, Mariko Yasu - May. 13 (News) - Amazon Web Services' cloud- computing unit was used by hackers in last month’s attack against Sony Corp.'s online entertainment systems, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Hackers using an alias signed up to rent a server through Amazon’s EC2 service and launched the attack from there, said the person, who requested anonymity because the information is confidential. The account has been shut down, the person said.

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ARTINFO: 'Jeff Koons Must Die!!!' & 4 Other Art Video Games You Can Actually Play

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Artinfo - Apr. 23 (News) - In Hunter Jonakin's "Jeff Koons Must Die!!!" the player must destroy the artist's work with a rocket launcher. / Courtesy of the artist With the Smithsonian set to crown video games the latest institutionally-ratified art

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Electronic Arts narrows losses, despite video game maker's drop in sales

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

San Jose Mercury News - By Troy Wolverton - Nov. 02 (News) - Saying its years-long turnaround effort has begun to bear fruit, Electronic Arts on Tuesday posted quarterly results that topped Wall Street expectations, despite a drop in sales.

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Dangerous Days for Video Games

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:27:57 -0800

Business Week - By Ronald Grover - Nov. 14 (News Analysis) - For months, video game fans from Topeka to Tokyo had been salivating for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sixth installment of Activision Blizzard's (ATVI) blockbuster shootfest. On Nov. 10, D-Day finally arrived. Thousands lined up outside Best Buy

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Raising a healthy gamer: seven tips for parents

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Ars Technica - By Ben Kuchera - Jul. 02 (Special Report) - Parenting is always a tough job, and video games are a tricky subject in today's families. Don't worry, we have you covered. Ars offers a no-BS guide to dealing with gaming and your children, and our advice is simple: you know your children better than anyone else.

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Rage against the machines

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Prospect - By Tom Chatfield - Jun. 05 (Special Report) - That the media stumbles and gropes when discussing video games is an old story. More dismayingly, however, similar failings are to be found in a new book by Susan Greenfield, renowned neuroscientist and head of the Royal Institution.

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Spelling Bee 2k8: This time, it's parfleche

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Posted by Drew Harwell - May. 31 (News Report) - So to all of the spellers nationwide, the So-Young Iris Chungs and the Willie Johnsons, the Akshat Shekhars and the Mallika Govindans, I salute you. Raise your rhytons high in celebration of your conquest, and dance the huapango of joy! You are all winners in my eyes! Spell on!

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A User-Friendly Computer Virus

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Utne Reader - By Brian Vastag - Feb. 28 (Special Report) - It took Blizzard Entertainment, the Irvine, California, company behind the game, nearly a week to stop the virtual plague. At that time the online Tolkienesque world of swords and sorcery boasted 4 million subscribers (it now has more than 9 million). The company's programmers had created Hakkar the Soulflayer--a monster so strong that players would have to band together to kill it--to enrich the game. They expected his blood curse to remain localized. But they hadn't accounted for human behavior.

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Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in 'Halo 3'

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:41:43 -0800

Wired - By Clive Thompson - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - The structure of Xbox Live creates a world composed of two classes -- haves and have-nots. And, just as in the real world, some of the disgruntled have-nots are all too willing to toss their lives away -- just for the satisfaction of momentarily halting the progress of the haves. Since the game instantly resurrects me, I have no real dread of death in Halo 3.

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Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:41:07 -0700

Wired - By Clive Thompson - Aug. 20 (Special Report) - All game companies test their products, but generally they just pay people to report any bugs they find -- monsters that disappear or places where graphics don't render properly. But because it is owned by Microsoft, which launches dozens of Xbox and PC games every year, Bungie has access to one of the most advanced game-testing facilities ever built. Pagulayan and his team have now analyzed more than 3,000 hours of Halo 3 played by some 600 everyday gamers, tracking everything from favored weapons to how and where -- down to the square foot -- players most frequently get killed.

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Chinook, the unbeatable checkers-playing computer

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:38:23 -0700

Salon - By Farhad Manjoo - Jul. 19 (Opinion) - Scientists at the University of Alberta report that they've built an unbeatable checkers-playing computer. Their machine, Chinook, has solved checkers: It proves that if two players play perfectly, making no mistakes, the game of checkers will result in a draw. The proof required analyzing 500 billion billion checkers positions -- 5 x 1020 -- a computational process that began in 1989 and has been running on hundreds of processors almost continuously since. Chinook now knows everything about checkers, the perfect response to any move, and the best that any human can do is drive Chinook to a draw. You can never win.

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'Civilization' and Its Contents

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:57:05 -0800

Weekly Standard - By Victorino Matus - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - Today, videogames are a $10 billion industry--a couple of years ago their sales surpassed U.S. movie box-office receipts--and still people are asking the Higinbotham question. Some have blamed videogames for juvenile delinquency and violence. Take Grand Theft Auto, in which you can rise through the ranks of a criminal enterprise and "power up" with prostitutes. In one version of this game, players were able to unlock a secret sex scene (known as "Hot Coffee"), creating an outcry on Capitol Hill. Or take Left Behind, based on the bestselling pulp novels aimed at Christians fascinated with the End Times, in which you must convert others to Christianity and, if they refuse, you can kill them. Delinquency aside, given the amount of time some people spend on the games, especially on their employers' computers, you have to wonder if that $10 billion in sales isn't more than wiped out by the loss in productivity.

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Video games may be beneficial to the brain, suggests McMaster researcher

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 03:05:00 -0800

Canadian Press - By Anne-Marie Tobin - Dec. 23 (News Report) - Video games have been maligned by many as "a mindless activity," but playing them may be good for the brain, says a researcher who is conducting studies on the possible benefits. The research, being done at McMaster University in Hamilton, involves hooking test subjects up for a brain scan while they are given tests of their working memory - otherwise known as short-term memory.

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Game makers say Wii a bargain

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 04:05:00 -0800

Reuters - By Lisa Baertlein - Nov. 17 (News Report) - In the unfolding video game war, underdog Nintendo has lined up powerful allies -- game makers, who like the new Wii's unconventional features and game development costs that run about half what's required for Microsoft and Sony's new consoles.

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A video game showdown

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 15:37:39 -0800

Philadelphia Inquirer - By Rob Watson - Nov. 16 (News Report) - "If the industry was ever poised for a shift, it's now," says Anita Frazier, industry analyst for NPD, which researches video-gaming sales. "Whether it's purely a gaming system like the Nintendo Wii, or Sony and Microsoft, who are concentrating more on owning the living room, the game of gaming is about to shift, for sure."

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Wired News: Picking Sides in the Console War

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:44:06 -0800

Wired - By Chris Kohler - Nov. 14 (Special Report) - This weekend, the gloves come off and the controllers turn on. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has enjoyed an entire year all to itself in the war for gaming supremacy. But on Friday, Sony's hotly anticipated PlayStation 3 finally debuts in the United States. Two days later, Nintendo launches its Wii gaming platform.

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Women outnumber men in online games, survey finds

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:11:07 -0700

CNET News - By Candace Lombardi - Oct. 05 (News Report) - Of the 117 million active gamers in the U.S., 56 percent play games online. Sixty-four percent of those online gamers are female, according to results of the survey, released by Nielsen Entertainment on Thursday. The survey defined active gamers as those who are 13 years or older, own at least one game device, and play at least one hour of video games a week. Game devices include game consoles, personal computers and handhelds. Nielsen surveyed 2,200 active gamers online in July. "The expansion of next-generation hardware and technology in the marketplace is simultaneously delivering new ecosystems of social exchange, interactive entertainment, media experiences and advertising models," Emily Della Maggiora, a senior vice president of Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, said in a statement. The survey found that while the casual game segment is growing, casual gamers tend to jump from one free demo to another with little sense of brand loyalty. While banner advertising provides a good revenue stream for the online game providers, gaining brand loyalty and getting people to spend money for subscriptions or downloads will be the key to growing the market, Nielsen researchers found.

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Media Coverage of Left Behind: Eternal Forces -- Just the Beginning

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Talk to Action - By Frederick Clarkson - Jul. 21 (Opinion) - We can reasonably expect to see a lot of media coverage of the convert-or-kill-New Yorkers themed video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces over the next few months. The latest article to appear is currently running on Alternet. Alternet's story, by Zack Pelta-Heller is quite comprehensive, and will no doubt inspire further reporting on the game and its forthcoming release. The story features Talk to Action's Jonathan Hutson and his dramatic series of stories that showed, among other things, how the game, based on Tim LaHaye's controversial series of novels, and intended for children as young as 13, is an indoctrination program that teaches that in the End Times, Christian militias will roam the streets of New York, requiring people to convert or be killed. (But when the Religion News Service wrote about the game recently, they left some things out.)

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Playing Games in the Park

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:43:20 -0700

New York Times - By John Freeman Gill - Jun. 18 (News Report) - By registering with www.secondlife.com, residents can stroll — even fly — around a three-dimensional representation of the existing park, then create their own dream park by adding such design elements as trees and bushes. The project, first reported in Wired magazine, is intended to solicit neighborhood input on how the park should be improved. And though the software is still being fine-tuned, Mr. Lowenhaupt said, "in an ideal world, everyone would be able to save their favorites, and then everyone could vote, 'American Idol'-style, for their favorite park design."

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The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Part 1)

Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Talk to Action - By Jonathan Hutson - May. 29 (Opinion) - Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

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