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Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games

Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games

The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games Is playing video games good or bad for you? It can be both. Video games are frowned upon by parents as time-wasters, and worse, some education experts think that these games corrupt the brain. Playing violent video games are easily blamed by the media and some experts as the reason why some young people become violent or commit extreme anti-social behavior. But many scientists and psychologists find that video games can actually have many benefits – the main one is making kids smart. Video games may actually teach kids high-level thinking skills that they will need in the future. “Video games change your brain,” according to University of Wisconsin psychologist C. Below are the good and bad effects of video games – their benefits and disadvantages, according to researchers and child experts: The Benefits: Positive Effects of Video Games When your child plays video games, it gives his brain a real workout. Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions. Other Benefits of Video Games:

Social Innovation - Act You're new to social innovation. You need inspiration. Search for a hero online. Here are a few places to start your search. Shadowing a hero means keeping up with their latest ideas and projects. Friend your target on Facebook, if you can find them! 3.1 Million Copies Of Halo 4 Have Been Sold On Launch Day! Advertisements When you’re living off a franchise as big, a name as pivotal, and an anticipation level as colossal as that of Halo 4′s, you expect sales figures to be pretty impressive. One of the first titles to release on the original Xbox, the Halo series has maintained its momentum, and so much so in fact, that it managed to shift an unbelievable 3.1 million units in its first day alone. Microsoft has been doing everything it can to gear Xbox 360 users up for this week, and all the teasers and tantalizing trailers appear to have paid off. In passing the 3 million mark, the Redmond company has surpassed first-day sales numbers of any prior edition of Halo, which is no mean feat considering the level of doubt as to whether Halo 4 would still continue to capture the imagination post-Bungie. Of course, while the numbers are great, they don’t quite measure up to the undisputed King of the first-person shooter. (via VGChartz)

10 | March | 2012 | phillipshakesbymasters I have reached an exciting stage of my application, I have conducted a large amount of research into the application content, target audience, comparative applications and the technical knowledge required to create the application. I will continue to look for new options and possibilities as I go along but I feel I am now in a good position to move forward into the advanced planning stages before I start development. As a designer I try to follow a design process, the design process that I am using can be seen below: Designers use design processes in their work but designers often tailor the process to suit them; The Design Council says “Different designers manage the process of design in different ways.” During research in 2005 The Design Council found similarities in the approaches of designers within eleven different prominent design companies and from this research they produced a graphical representation of the design process, see below: Discover Define Develop Deliver

Time spent gaming on the rise - NPD Gamers are spending more and more time with their home consoles and less on their portable systems, according to the market research firm NPD Group. A survey conducted by the firm concluded that gamers over the age of 2 in the United States spent over 13 hours playing video games each week, up from 12.3 hours per week for the previous year. The uptick is based on a January 2010 online survey that garnered 18,872 responses. The study also found that hours spent playing console games spiked the most dramatically, with the average time spent playing vaulting 9 percent from the year prior. According to the survey, the "extreme gamer" classification saw its weekly average hours spent playing games rise from nearly 40 to more than 48. Best Overall Game - Best of 2012 Steve Butts - Where so many of our online interactions are filled with aggressive competition and the pervasive vulgarities of the multiplayer community, one of our favorite aspects of Journey is its emphasis on anonymous cooperation with other players. With no opportunity to speak directly to each other, or even to know who the other players are, meeting another traveler in Journey requires you to define your entire relationship using only the game's few simple mechanics. Through wordless chirps and leading by example, players in Journey work together to solve the game's puzzles and share an experience free of insecurity and free of rivalry. Anthony Gallegos - Journey gives as much as you put into it. Casey Lynch - Trying to interpret Journey is like trying to interpret a blank piece of paper. Colin Moriarty - Journey is an extraordinary game for so many reasons. Justin Davis - Journey is a truly magical experience. It feels effortless. ESRB: E: Contains: Mild Fantasy Violence

How Many People Play Video Games? Video games really didn't appeal to a lot of people when they were first invented and introduced in the 1960s, at least not until Ralph Baer created a home console that brought video games to the masses. Decades later, playing video games has practically become the national pastime, and you might be surprised to learn just how many millions of people play every day. Millions of People Play Video Games According to author and game designer Jane McGonigal, more than half a billion people play computer and video games for at least an hour each day, and about 183 million of those gamers live in the U.S. It appears that the younger a person is, the more likely it is he or she is plays; nearly 100 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls under the age of 18 regularly play video games. Entertainment Software Association Statistics To get a better understanding of who these gamers are, look at these stats compiled by The Entertainment Software Association. NPD Group Statistics Post a comment

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