In this reflection, game designer and writer Frank Lantz explores the intersection of objective truth and aesthetic experience in video games. Drawing on Richard Feynman's analogy of appreciating a flower as both a scientist and an artist, Lantz discusses the tension between the scientific perspective, with its quantified data, and the poetic perspective, which values intuitive understanding and direct experience.
Read More"What's really motivating about a good learning game is the learning," says Louisa Rosenheck, researcher at MIT's Education Arcade Lab and an adjunct lecturer at HGSE. "Humans like to learn, and we like to get better at things." But, she observes, many games used in classrooms or that are deemed "Educational" tend to focus on content and procedural skills, and don't necessarily encourage learning that sparks intrinsic motivation and genuine engagement.
Read MoreAfter eight months of planning and mission rehearsal, all five U.S. Special Operations Command components did just that for the first time in conjunction with the 16th annual Air Force Special Operation Command hosted Emerald Warrior exercise.
Read MoreThere's less reliance on happenstance that the right person will meet your game at the right time; as a game developer, I have tools to reach out and meet each player where they are. The narrator expresses doubt that the game is so advanced, and it isn't clear how exactly the data is used, so it's hard to say if the game is adjusting itself based on heuristics, or if she's projecting her internal mental state and trauma onto the game mechanics.
Read MoreStudents at UNC Chapel Hill are playing video games in class and earning credit for it. Students play all kinds of video games to learn about all kinds of subjects. "We are really interested in narrative, in storytelling, and games represent this new form of telling stories," she said.
Read MoreDamon Packwood, founder and executive director of Gameheads, a nonprofit teaching tech and video game design skills, is helping underserved youth gain the necessary tools to get jobs in the field.
Read MoreAt our recent GI Academy Live event, Sam Barlow of Her Story, Telling Lies and Immortality fame laid out his thoughts on creating narrative-centric video games. In his talk, which was aimed at inspiring and giving advice to students, Barlow first explained the specificities of narrative in games, exploring why the medium differs from other forms of entertainment, before sharing his own core ideas for building stories.
Read MoreWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A high-tech startup that uses game-based interventions to help users identify stress- and anxiety-related events in real time and receive a personalized intervention has been awarded a federal grant to partially develop its technology through research at Purdue University's College of Engineering.
Read MoreWith enough characters to rival a Lord of the Rings novel, the Candy Crush Saga is a "Match three" puzzle game largely centered around matching three or more candy pieces to save the Candy Kingdom.
Read MoreFlying under the radar are video games even though kids in the United States spend much more time playing video games than engaging in social media, according to a recent Common Sense Media report. Last year, China acted: It prohibited minors from playing video games on school days and more than an hour on weekend and holiday nights.
Read MoreThe point of a TTRPG is that it reacts to you, making it a unique avenue of play; video games and classic board games stick to a set of rules, possible choices, and known entities, with little wiggle room, says Dragon: "A video game is this object that exists, and your engagement with it can be one-sided, but with a tabletop game, ideally it's something that is actively responding to the things that you're doing."
Read MorePeople often discuss the idea of using memory games for dementia that can help stimulate the brain. In this article, we explore how brain games might help with cognitive functions, and the best games to play. A more recent analysis on the research surrounding brain games and cognitive impairment found that brain games weren't more effective for improving cognitive function than control interventions.
Read MoreThe expression is appropriate not only because of its ingenuity, but also because dating apps are becoming more and more like video games. A study by Stanford University in the US found that 39% of heterosexual couples and 60% of same-sex couples meet through dating apps.
Read MoreA group of second and third graders at New Century School played a hand in helping develop the video game for PBS Wisconsin Education. Teachers Larry Gundlach's and Courtney Bennett's classroom joined 18 other classrooms across Wisconsin involved in testing out the free online video game, which is based around shipwrecks and maritime archaeology.
Read More"It's important to your survival rate within the context of the game," said Maria Burns Ortiz, co-founder of 7 Generation Games. "We make educational video games and the tools to develop them." In their office tucked away on a quiet street in Minneapolis, game developers are creating fun, interactive video games that combine math, history and culture.
Read MoreGames bring young people closer to computer science/unlp figures. A team of researchers from the Faculty of Informatics of the National University of La Plata developed two educational games, one based on augmented reality, and the other on virtual reality, so that young people learn more about the great figures behind the development of technology.
Read MoreUbisoft has decided to use its games to help climate change awareness and modify its games accordingly. This decision comes from the UN-led initiative that wants to use the games.
Read MoreOk, yes there are video games that get the future completely wrong. Whether this is a case of pure luck with so many video games trying to predict the future we might never know, but it is always fun to speculate.
Read MorePath Out is one of a growing number of video games designed to engender empathy in those who play them. "We are now starting to realize the power that games can have at evoking certain competencies such as empathy and compassion," said Matthew Farber, a professor of educational technology at the University of Northern Colorado and author of "Gaming SEL: Games as Transformational to Social and Emotional Learning."
Read MoreThe play experiences game designers and developers create for teens can support them in building core social and emotional skills vital to their wellness.
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