“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 accused…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
“There is [a worldwide] audience of approximately 600 million gamers who may be virtually violating International Humanitarian Law,” read the Daily Bulletin of the 31st International Conference of the…
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…
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…
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…
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…