Gaming

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04/20/2011 | Gaming

As seen here at Ted.com. The teacher John Hunter has created a classroom exercise called The World Peace Game to teach young children about the world's biggest challenges. He and his students are also featured in the documentary: World Peace...and other 4th-grade achievements
02/25/2010 | Gaming

Heavy Rain is a PS3 (Sony Playstation 3) game developed by Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain pushes the boundaries of what defines a game for as an interactive story/movie. Heavy Rain is like old books having choices which required you to read different pages based on your choice to continue toward the end.

It is definately more a story than a game for adults it's a psychological story, rated mature as opposed to an all ages game like Little Big Planet which also broke ground for gaming on the PS3.

Many gamers might be turned off by it's slow pace and little actual game play but it's worth trying and could be applied to interactive learning and storytelling on the internet.

Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain could also by the first of many games based on movies or television series. Lost which is a popular ABC television series filmed in Hawaai'i based in the "South Pacific" would be a perfect example for this genere of game. The current game lisenced by the TV series, Lost: Via Domus was develped developed by Ubisoft and has mixed reviews like this one from IGN. If the game was more like Heavy Rain it may keep much of the same audience captivated with what if scenerios and interactive dramatic storytelling. The Lost TV series includes a huge cast of characters, deep plot and a devoted fan base it would be easy to image the series story full of "what if" translated into a video game like Heavy Rain.
Heavy Rain Website
09/19/2009 | Gaming
As seen on this image, Troy Polamalu is featured on the Eletronic Arts EA Sports Madden 2010 game. In more than 20 years, Troy Polamalu is the first Samoan and Polynesian that hat been chosen for this cover.
03/26/2009 | Gaming
Even during a huge world financial crisis one consumer industry is still showing strong sales, video games. The power players in console gaming (Nintendo wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3) are utilizing the internet for online gaming ( a feature made popular from PCs), playing and streaming movies at high definition, and expanding to bridge the gap between game console, entertainment center, and computer.
No matter what your preference for gaming platform, the initial purchase for the hardware can seem like a financial investment. For the gaming consoles themselves, it’s no coincidence that they are backed by large successful corporations such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
A newcomer to gaming, Onlive gaming is challenging and possibly changing the industry as much as when it moved from cartridges to optical discs. It’s doing this not by reinventing wheels, but applying the latest technology to approach the gaming industry in a different way. The home gaming industry is very singular in nature. Starting with one console per home that originally had many one player games. Fast forward to this generation of gaming and social gaming via the internet allows even the single player to game across the world with others in real time. While this is great it’s something that PC gaming has done for years and although requiring a broadband internet connection much of the game and graphics processing is still handled on the individual game console or PC.
Onlive gaming proposes that I can build a massive server infrastructure, the same power that could analyze scientific data like climate change models, map the genome of life on earth, and assist researchers in finding the cures for diseases that plague most of humanity will be available for consumer entertainment. In simple terms it mean that their server will handle all of the work and provided you have a great broadband internet connection, there will be no need for extreme hardware requirements. If this picks up it’ll mean that people with their $400 net book or even older computer will be able to have just as good as a game experience as someone with a high end PC. This could be applicable to other world markets such as the pacific which is expanding their broadband internet infastructre but consumers don't have as much to spend on a gaming PC or traditional game console.
This is the future of gaming if even if Onlive doesn’t succeed, both Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have the network and money to develop similar feature that may even extend the life span of current gaming consoles (wii, PS3, and xbox 360).
Although this is marketed as a low financial investment, high quality gaming experience, there are a few challenges it will face. Will consumers go with the streaming/paid subscription/on-demand model playing, will moving more toward server based gaming be more vulnerable to attacks by hackers and effect more consumers should hardware fail.
We’ll have to wait and see but the results of Onlive will not only effect the video game industry but also how consumers use and purchase software and hardware for their personal computers in the future.
Comment on this blog directly or share your thoughts at the Pasefika Forum about Onlive or the future of online gaming.
02/15/2009 | Gaming

Prior to the Nintendo Wii, the graphics capabilities of a video game whether arcade, computer, or console based was one of the largest definitions of the advancement of the game.There are many other factors that effect game ratings such as game play, sound, etc.but graphics was at the fore front and this arguably was the largest contribution of gaming to other consumer product development. For example, in the first popular consumer based consoles the means to market one generation over another, marketing Atari > Sega / Nintendo > Super Nintendo/Genesis > Playstation / Dreamcast > Playstation 2/Xbox > Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 was by the graphics capabilities of the console hard ware and software for each generation. Only on the current generation to we see a shift where game play and competitive pricing with the Nintendo Wii has driven more sales then graphically superior games.

In the PC gaming market, games are often driven my graphically performance allowing for massive marketing campaigns from companies such as Nvidia and ATi competing for consumers by consistently pushing graphics chip capabilities as fast as Intel and AMD push their micro processing capabilities. What this means for the end user and consumer is that the demand for increased graphics performance in gaming has lad the developments in graphics development and pricing in other consumer products. For every video game generation that pushes the bar further in console/computer graphics we see more graphics advancements and competitive pricing on other products such as pcs, laptops, apple iphone and other devices. As the graphics advance and prices drop, more and more consumers are using devices with advanced graphics capabilities which in turn leads to demand for higher quality graphics.
02/12/2009 | Gaming
Nintendo release in the US was the Nintendo Entertainment System.Its interestring to note the title entertainment system (as opposed to famicom or family computer in Japan) as a marketing decision.Although gaming is entertainment the NES, and SNES Super Nintindo Entertainment System were still essentially video gaming systems or consoles. The first video game consoles that really made an impacts as entertainment systems were mostly likely Playstation 2 and Microsoft Xbox with their ability to offer movie playback from DVDs. It’s also interesting to know that these were the first two systems to offer online gaming like their PC gaming counter parts. The current generation game systems bridge the gap even more between game system and entertainment system.They offer options for movies, media streaming, online gaming and internet surfing thanks to building on previous system generations Wii It goes without saying that the wii is redefining consumer expectation of the video game entertainment. With it’s acellerameters in it’s controllers, the wii is doing for gaming what the iphone is doing for cell phones, pushing the way we interact and interface with computers. Although the wii does not support high definition video or graphics, the game play from the controllers have allowed it to cimb to the top of video games sales over the superior hardware and entertainment capabilities of both the xbox 360 and ps3. With the wii internet channel, wii users can also surf the internet with the Opera web browser and have media streaming capabilities from that browser with the additional orb streaming software. The only drawback is that both the internet channel (web browser) and the orb software are not included with the wii out of the box and as with any online service that intergrate with personal files, users should read through the terms of agreement and privacy policies carefully Xbox 360. Unlike the Wii the xbox 360 has built in capabilities to stream media from pcs in your home network with windows media player. Other streaming media capabilities include the netflix paid service to stream movies. Xbox can support dvd movie discs but with the lack of HD-DVD support his limited to the netflix internet based streaming service for high definition movie playback. Music can only be played locally by attaching a usb device with compatible music files or ripping the music files from the owners original cds to the xbox 360 hard drive. The xbox live gaming network is very high quality but is a paid subscription based network and the xbox 360 does not have a web browser.It’s also good to note that while the wii and ps3 have wireless internet (wifi) capabilities built in, the xbox 360 wifi antenna must be purchased separately. Playstation 3. Although it has the highest price tag and a smaller library of games, as an entertainment system, the PS3 could lead the pack depending on the trend for retail demand. The PS3 has a Blu-ray player built into it which supports dvd and bluray movie discs. Blu-ray won the home movie disc format war over hd-dvd nd regardless of if the next generation of home video will be solely internet based streaming, the current generation of home video consists of a mix of DVD, internet streaming and blu-ray disc. Not only does the ps3 support all three formats, Sony Pictures and Sony Music are proof that Sony itself has a foundation in the entertainment industry beyond gaming, The PS3 can stream media files from local computers or transfers compatible media files with ease from USB attached storage, without having to re-rip or The last thing that the PS3 has is it’s ability for perform as a computer. For most PS3 owners this means it comes with a web browser, for experienced users it also easily supports laptop 2.5” hard drive upgrades. For computer savvy people it supports a Linux OS installation giving linux based computer capabilities and for scientists and computer engineers multiple PS3s can be networked together to perform super computer calculations. So where the Playstation as fallen short with high cost and a small video game library it makes up as an entertainment system for this generation of consoles.
02/10/2009 | Gaming
The entertainment aspect of video gaming cannot be overshadowed by the ability of games to teach. Part of the appeal for a person to play a new game or a revised version of the same game is to try something new. Whether it’s feature, reward, or task based new things in games require learning. Game play itself is based on learning, actions based on learning, then the consequences and rewards from what the user has learned.
02/09/2009 | Gaming
Historically the Gaming Industry has been a niche market, a luxury consumer product by price if not prestige. Credited to have begun in the early 1960s-1970s it picked up a lot of momentum with 1977’s Atari. This gives the consumer based industry an age of more than three decades in which it has spread to influence and integrate itself with many consumer products used everyday, as well as the everyday lives of people who participate in the gaming industry. Gaming may be defined as an industry because gaming is making a multi-billion dollar impact on the US economy alone with sale including computer gaming, console gaming, and portable gaming hardware and software. Although a substantial percentage of house holds in developed nations can afford these items many citizens of developing nations cannot afford video gaming product. Therefore with the cost and fact that video gaming is not a necessity of life or required for survival on this planet console gaming can be categorized as a luxury. It is estimated that a little over one out of three households in America has a game console. And that most participating people of the same age of the mainstream gaming industry in or around 30 years old have been doing so for over 10 years.

Gaming