The October 2009 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has published an article which claims tests have shown that there are "measurable correlations" between playing video games and increased health risks.
Participants from the Seattle–Tacoma area (claimed to be the 13th biggest media market in the USA and the nation’s largest user of the internet) provided details to the researchers on their gaming and lifestyle habits which included “self-assessments of depression, personality, health status, physical and mental health, body mass index (BMI), and poor quality of life.”
45.1% of those that took part in the study were gamers. According to the research, female gamers were more likely to be depressed than those that did not participate in the hobby. Male gamers were reported to have a higher BMI than those that did not play games. Both sexes of gamers also reported a higher reliance on the internet for social support.
Dr. James B Weaver III (PhD, MPH, National Center for Health Marketing, CDC, Atlanta) stated in the article:
“As hypothesized, health-risk factors – specifically, a higher BMI and a greater number of poor mental-health days – differentiated adult video-game players from non-players. Video-game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns.
Internet community support and time spent online distinguished adult video-game players from non-players, a finding consistent with prior research pointing to the willingness of adult video-game enthusiasts to sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games. The data illustrate the need for further research among adults to clarify how to use digital opportunities more effectively to promote health and prevent disease."
You can read more about the study at Science Daily but the question remains; are we all really harming ourselves by participating in our hobby? Let me know your thoughts; in the meantime I’m off to discuss this with my friends on Facebook…
If there are two things we like here at Paradox; its shooters and Zombies! So the news that Konami's twin stick shooter Zombie Apocalypse hits both PSN and XBLA next week (September 23rd) has left us scurrying for our wallets in anticipation of yet more undead extermination.
Developed by Nihilistic, the overhead twin stick shooter (yes, another one!) promises plenty of frantic action in what looks to be Left 4 Dead meets Smash TV, and lets face it, how can that be anything other than great!
The game will be priced at 800 MS points and £7.99 on PSN ($9.99 for US customers) and can be played by up to four players.
Counter Strike map favourite Dust 2 has now been ported over to Left for Dead by talented community mapper Sin. Other mapper's have already tried to port Dust 2 over to Left 4 Dead, but none have been as successful as this stunning effort.
The map is currently at beta 4.1 but it’s fully playable and is designed for Survival mode although a Versus release is also in the works.
You can download the map by heading over to L4Dmaps.com. Sin has also released a conversion of Aztec following a large number of community requests.
According to Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi, developers in Japan are extremely impressed with Sony's new motion controller; so much so that they feel it will be quite easy to port over existing titles from Nintendo's Wii.
This could mean that come the launch of the new controller, we will see an influx of Wii ports to the PS3. Of course this could be a double edged sword for Sony; on the one hand they will gain an extended software library and be able to boast that there’s no longer anything unique about the Wii.
However does Sony really want a load of ports from the Wii which potentially could have sub-standard graphics even if they are spruced up? And is there really anything that good on the Wii (motion control wise) that doesn't come from Nintendo itself?
At the time of writing there is little doubt that the Nintendo Wii leads the current generation of home consoles in terms of hardware sales by some margin.
The console sits comfortably in its lofty throne; peering down on the ongoing tit for tat battle between Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3, its competitors almost dismissive of its success and perhaps already resigned to achieving no more than second place.
But whilst Nintendo’s current position on the console summit may have originally been unexpected and somewhat unprecedented; have the company scored an own goal in the long term? Could the success of the Wii actually doom its future successor to obscurity?
The Wii launched to a flurry of publicity; not just from the gaming press as you would normally expect, but from virtually every major news outlet. Nintendo’s simplistic design concept combined with the ‘innovation’ of motion control with the Wiimote captured everybody’s attention, not just seasoned gamers.
The coup de grace was of course Wii Sports, a game which perfectly demonstrated what the system was about in a way everyone (and most importantly non-gamers) could understand. Even Grandma could understand the concept of “It’s Tennis and I just swing the wand thing like a racket to play” and suddenly Nintendo had overcome the daunting prospect of getting to grips with a foreign looking controller full of buttons with devastating effect.
The Wii became more than just a console; it became a lifestyle accessory in the same manner as Apple’s ever successful iPod. Surely with such success, such a high profile image, any successor should stand a high chance of success?
However things may not be as clear cut as they seem.
The consoles attach rate (the average amount of games purchased per console owned) has been lower than that of the Xbox 360 (which has a lower installed user base) for some time, and has recently also been overtaken by the PS3 (whose user base is also currently lower).
There could be many reasons for this; for example, could it be that the Wii’s assumed large casual gamer user base simply does not like to game as often as the more traditional console buyer? Or is it something else? Does in fact the novelty factor of the Wii wear off?
Consider for a moment the people you immediately know:
The seasoned gamers – these are the people who most likely own both a Wii and another platform; whether it’s the 360 or PS3 or perhaps even a gaming capable PC. How often do they use their Wii? Do they use it as much as their other system?
The casual/new gamers (delete as applicable) – these are the people who in the past have not really been into games, typically a family and they perhaps owned a Playstation once. How often is their Wii used?
You see in my experience, the majority of people simply do not use their Wii, or at least they don’t use it very much. It sits there stylishly on display by the TV, its white exterior stealthily hiding the dust that’s gathering. It comes out to play when guests visit and typically its Wii Sports that spinning in its drive whilst the guests ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ at how clever it is.
These people buy a few games here and there but find little, if anything, that truly recaptures that feeling of playing Wii Sports for the first time. This unfortunate path is not helped by the sheer volume of titles available on the Wii; far too much of it shovel ware that hides the few gems.
Even the true gamers I know rarely play their Wii; sure they will play the traditional classics such as Super Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda but for the most part their too busy playing Call of Duty 4, Halo or GTA online on their other platform of choice.
Wii Fit in many ways echoes everything that’s good and bad about the Wii. A great lifestyle idea which captured the attention of masses; again brilliantly marketed and with the sales figures to match. But yet again few people I know ever use it, it’s become a thing of novelty which people love to talk about but simply don’t use.
And this is where the problem lies for the Wii’s eventual successor. How do you get people to pay for a ‘novelty’ twice? Will people really see a future Nintendo console as innovative and a must have machine or the follow up to that smart little machine under the TV that we hardly ever use?
Will the kids who’ve grown up with the Wii want more of the same now their older or will they want to progress away from ‘My First Console’ onto something perceived as more gamer orientated like the Playstation and Xbox?
The Wii may dominate now but its future successor’s fate is far from assured. The very image that Nintendo has created and gained so much success for with the Wii may very well be the reason that any successor will be doomed to obscurity.
I guess it was inevitable given the various amount of Mario styled maps fans already make for other games; but somehow seeing Valve's undead horde wandering through the Mushroom Kingdom (Super Mario 64) is rather unsettling!
Currently 25% complete, you can follow the progress of Mushroom Massacre on l4dmaps.com. The first part of the campaign is already there for you to download along with full installation instructions.
It’s late Sunday morning. The better half is at work on a training day, the dog has been fed and is now lazily mooching round the garden looking for sticks and bugs to eat. I’ve successfully handled the kids breakfast without incident and the youngest (Lily, who’s just over a year old) has been changed and dressed.
The eldest of the two children who are here today (there can be up to 4 some weekends!) is unbelievably sitting quietly and playing with her sibling. The madness that is the morning is over and the television is unusually free.
As I sit down in the armchair I quickly do a final scan of the room; it’s still calm, the jobs really are done and the TV really is available. Opportunities like this don’t come along often so I pick up the SIXAXIS pad and turn on our Playstation 3.
Half an hour later and I’m standing up, SIXAXIS in hand and Super Stardust HD on pause. I ‘save’ Lily from the precipice that is the edge of the sofa from which she is about to dive off head first. Had Epyx still been around, she’d be in their next game! The lights of her all singing all flashing walker catch her attention and off she toddles.
I un-pause the game and narrowly avoid the incoming enemy I had forgotten about in the meantime. Games like Stardust don’t allow you much time to readjust but somehow I’m still alive; and after a frantic few seconds re-acquainting myself with my environment I’m in my rhythm again.
Hundreds of rocks are exploding from my barrage of fire and the enemies, although increasing in number are not faring any better.
Somehow I manage to keep it going, half of my brain managing to direct my fire with delicate accuracy whilst all the time the other half uses part of my vision and aural capabilities to monitor Lily’s playtime.
Having failed to base jump from the sofa and then destroy the walker, Lily converts to Solid Snake mode and makes here way over to the chest of drawers. She thinks I don’t notice; failing to realise she lacks a cardboard box and that I have deliberately positioned myself where I can see both the television and the entirety of the room.
As she approaches the drawers I hit boost in an effort to find some clear space among the ever increasing field of debris and get ready to hit pause for the 6th time.
But she gets there quicker than I anticipated. Perhaps realising a guard lay in wait, her speed increases and before I know it she’s there and the drawer begins to open. There’s nothing dangerous in there of course but like most parents I worry about the possibility of trapped fingers and the household documents that are about to be shredded or hidden by this master infiltrator.
I leap to my right and my rescue attempt is successful but unfortunately my reactions are not so quick this time with the pause button. A split second is all some enemies need; and this one has used the split second respite from my onslaught to smash my ship into a million virtual particles of light whilst I save the Princess in my other ‘game’.
One spare ship remains. But as my third sight pauses to evaluate what turns out to be another non-danger event, that comfort zone erodes and The Last Starfighter enters battle.
The unexpected timing of his predecessors fates combined with my own style of play means that this last warrior has a rather ample stock of smart bombs. I’ve racked up a fair score by my own standards and whilst I’ll never challenge for the top spot on the global leaderboards; the top spot from my friends list is within reach.
The last fighter is good,very good. With the kind of determination and luck only a last fighter seems to possess, he’s laying waste to all in his path with a devastating efficiency. The bombs are not only still intact, they’ve been added to whilst the score is rapidly rising.
A swarm of homing type enemies surrounds the ship, confident in the number of their ranks. The circle they have formed quickly tightens; slowly strangling the limited space my fighter has to manoeuvre. But I’m ready for this, in fact I’d been waiting for it, and my finger hovers over the right trigger ready to unleash the most devastating item in my arsenal – the smart bomb.
I’m calm and in sync with the game despite my permanent observations elsewhere. I don’t panic, but instead let the enemy draw closer so I can ensure the imminent detonation takes down as many of the enemy as possible. Just a little closer and…
” Are you one, are you two, are you three, are you four?”
“Are you five, six, seven, or maybe more?”
“CBeebies wishes you a happy birthday with lots of birthday cards through your door.”
“Happy Birthday!”
It takes a moment for the reality to sink in and when it does I laugh out loud as I see Lily sitting next to me with the remote, a big grin etched on her face! I give her a kiss and laugh even more when I realise she’s switched the TV’s source input with the cable remote, something no one in the household even knows how to do (we all use the actual TV remote).
I flick the source back over but of course I know the outcome already; the Princess has destroyed him, his fearsome arsenal no match for the power of Cbeebies.
Ands that’s what it’s like when you get older. Some say your hand eye co-ordination goes but I retaliate with the fruit that is experience, experience born in real arcades and eventually nurtured at home. Ultimately it’s really all about time.
When you’re older you have less time to play, less time to practice and too many games to fill into too few slots. You ultimately become a digital whore; pimping yourself out to many whilst committing to none.
But I don’t envy those who look down on me from the height of the global scoreboards. My points may be less but in many ways they were harder to achieve and required a skill they have yet to need or learn.
Everyday I play and I fight and I strive to be the best Dad I can be. I’ve rescued the Princess more than them and I’ve unlocked far better achievements. Because every time my kids smile or laugh and every time I pick them back up I know I’m in the best adventure of them all.
One of Valve's beta testers has recently released footage of a beta update on You Tube. Guess that's the NDA broken then. Perhaps a Spy really is sapping Valve's sentry!
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