Sony fired its salvo in the next-generation console wars with last month’s announcement of the PlayStation 4, set to be released later this year. But the hardware specifications of the new console – placed…
Hunting game has been turned into a hunting game.
TrackingPoint
If you were born before 1985 there’s a good chance you watched Looney Tunes on a Saturday morning and followed the exploits of Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
Poor old Daffy, at times disguised…
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, we need to more concerned than ever about the effects of violent videogames.
JBLivin/Flickr
The Connecticut town of Southington last week introduced a videogames return program, offering a $25 gift card to parents who wanted to rid their households of violent titles.
The program comes in the…
Tough enemies tend to become easier by the end of a game, normally because you learn and they don’t.
Robots image from www.shutterstock.com
When you first stare down that tough opponent in a videogame (think Big Daddies in Bioshock or Striders in Half-Life 2), it can seem impossible to beat the computer-controlled character you’re facing…
Google Ingress turns walking the city streets into a game of territorial control.
Google
Don’t read technology blogs? Then a new innovation in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs) may be passing you by.
Perhaps, like me, such games have never been of much interest to…
Black Ops II was one of the most-anticipated games of 2012, and it’s had the sales figures to match.
Activision
Last week, the first-person military shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops II hit the shelves. The release marks the fourth year in a row that a game in the Call of Duty series has had the “biggest entertainment…
When we’re deciding how our character should act in-game, do we default to our real-world moral codes?
rachel a. k.
A recently published study in the journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking suggests most videogame players are governed by the same moral codes they apply to real life.
But there are…
Like the cultural forms that came before them, videogames overlap with everything.
Axel Pfaender
Last week’s Freeplay Independent Games Festival in Melbourne served as a reminder that videogames – all videogames – are culturally significant.
Freeplay, which gives people from Australia’s videogame…
The videogame classification scheme was revised to better protect minors from inappropriate content.
Ian Muttoo
New guidelines for the classification of videogames have been released by Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare and, despite being a step in the right direction, the revisions are largely disappointing…
Could you survive if the world was overrun by undead?
DayZ
Amid the resurgent popularity of zombies in recent years – think The Walking Dead, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Shaun of the Dead and so on – the 2011 publication of Dan Drezner’s Theories of International…
Could the answer to obesity be sitting right in front of us?
pizzasso
Here’s an idea for improving the health of our children: let them play more videogames.
Obesity has numerous health risks and it is most frightening in children as early learned behaviours will last throughout…
Historically, strong competitors have had greater access to both resources and mates.
studio.catastrophe
Of all violent videogames, first-person shooters are viewed as the biggest problem because of the perspective taken during gaming: the first-person standpoint makes it seem as if the player is performing…
Gamers can choose to play a gay character in Mass Effect 3.
BioWare
It may seem surprising, but the number of queer characters in videogames has increased dramatically over the last decade.
A key influence of this is “media convergence”, that is, the flow of subject matter…
The supposed link between videogames and violence is riddled with holes.
Rudy Lara
Is there an explicit link between playing violent videogames and becoming a deadly killer? If we are to take seriously a new study published in the journal Communication Research, there seems to be.
Cue…
The fact a pleasurable behaviour is done to excess does not necessarily mean it’s an addiction.
PhotoCatcher
I am a Warcraft widow, an affectionate term given to those who have “lost” a partner to World of Warcraft (WoW) as a result of excessive game-playing.
I have first-hand experience of the way games such…
The boundary between the military and everyday life is being eroded by videogames.
gelle.dk
The ongoing trial of Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Breivik has generated a great deal of media coverage, public debate and analysis.
Much of this has focused on claims made by Breivik that he…
Playing violent games didn’t make Anders Breivik a mass-murderer.
alessio.sartore
“Violent videogames cause people to become violent in real life”. It’s a familiar refrain for anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 15 years.
Today, the media reporting surrounding the trial of…
Is the search giant’s foray into augmented reality an exciting or daunting vision of the future?
Google
Earlier this month, Google released a video (see below) announcing Project Glass: the development of a pair of glasses with a real difference.
Google’s augmented reality eyewear (or “eyeware”) will provide…
Sure, gesture-based gaming can be fun, but is it really “better” than using a button-based controller?
Ludovic Maillard
Researchers at Baylor University in the US have conducted a study that reportedly shows players get more pleasure from videogames that use motion and gesture controllers (such as the Nintendo Wiimote…
People have always sent each other letters, but now they can be worth “triple words”.
Brandice Schnabel
They are everywhere: people in cafés or supermarket queues, staring at their smartphones with determined concentration, occasionally shuffling yellow tiles of letters to use all of them in a killer move…
Do confusing videogame controllers prevent you from gaming? They shouldn’t.
Jeff the Trojan
To the uninitiated, videogames have a bit of a reputation for being a difficult media form. A control pad, for such people, can be a cold and grey device covered with alien buttons, intimidating and unwelcoming…
Games have come a long way … as has our understanding of how games affect us.
gseven
Just like rock music in the 1950s, Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, and death metal in the 1990s, videogaming has been demonised by parent groups. For decades, gamers were portrayed as obese social…
The gaming industry’s decade-long journey might soon be over.
Bethesda Softworks
Late last week Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare introduced a bill to parliament that takes Australia one step closer to an R18+ classification for videogames. No sooner had the classification…
We can use our strength in mobile gaming as a springboard to greater things.
michaelnugent
For many years, the Australian videogame industry has been trying to carve a niche for itself internationally. There have been moments of success and moments of decline, but the sector’s true potential…
Is it time to take your working life to another level?
Holly Ford Brown
A white paper was released this week stating that “Gen Y” employees could be better engaged and motivated by applying “game dynamics” to the workplace. Bunchball, the company behind the paper, would say…
Should battlefield rules apply to war-based videogames?
reway2007
“There is [a worldwide] audience of approximately 600 million gamers who may be virtually violating [International Humanitarian Law] (IHL),” read the Daily Bulletin of the 31st International Conference…
Dopamine, which is released during gaming, can influence the wiring of the adolescent brain.
Steven Andrew Photography
Teens who frequently play video games have larger reward centres in their brains than those who play less often, according to a study published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
The researchers…
Compromising E-commerce sites has become the bread and butter of many hackers.
http://store.steampowered.com
One of the world’s largest online video gaming networks, Steam, has been hacked and its 35 million users may have had their accounts “compromised”. And yes, “compromised” means their (encrypted) credit…
Australia’s classification system has been updated to ensure the audience can judge whether content is appropriate for them.
Flickr/kennymatic
By Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology
Media classification in Australia is being dragged into the digital world. At the moment it’s based on analog legislation, unsuited for today’s convergent media. But proposals unveiled today will transform…
Painting gamers as “exotic others” is one of three main tropes used in the media.
Jim D
The phrases “real world scientific progress” and “the power of online games” are strange bedfellows. Yet surprisingly, they found themselves thrust together in the media last week due to the publication…
Video game makers and other “creatives” may be pulling in the same direction.
Cynr
Talk creative cultures and you may think high-end and low-end, the starving artist and the toast of Manhattan. But what about video game makers? Where do they fit in?
The very idea of an independent video…
Look around: the profile of gamers has changed dramatically in recent years.
awee_19
Ever heard the one about the morbidly obese (and probably mentally unbalanced and somehow dangerous) teenage “gamers” locked in their bedrooms playing online computer games?
Turns out, they’re really…
The average Australian gamer is now more than 30 years old.
RodrigoFavera
After many years of debate and deliberation Australia might finally be about to receive an R18+ rating for video games.
On July 21 and 22 the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting will…
Are adult gamers being unfairly targeted by the current classification system?
Sibeckham/Flickr
If you are in any way exposed to computer games on a regular basis, it won’t have escaped your attention that Australia does not have an R18+ classification for video games.
This is particularly strange…
