Blood, guts and gore aren’t what thrill avid gamers when they slaughter zombies in The House of the Dead III video game, a new study suggests. Instead, feelings of control and competence are what the players crave.

via: Science News

Another survey study of gameplay.  I’ll have to take a look in more detail at the paper before I can judge the results.  From a quick read I do wonder I wonder how there focus on “avid gamers”  influences the results.  Most likely a focus on casual gamers would even strengthen their findings more (based on the survey they use).    I would think casual gamers would be even more interested in feelings of control and competence over violence.  Technorati Tags: gaming

Senior Bowling

Senior BowlingTechnorati Tags: wii health seniors gaming

Given the interest in using video games to improve players health, I’m not surprised that there would also be interest in looking to see how virtual worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft, Second Life) could be used to improve health given the popularity of this genre of gameplay. 

Maybe in the future we will see quests in World of Warcraft giving the user the choice  to choose between a healthy or junk food food buff, where the healthy choice has a long term effect, and the junk food option has a more potent but short term effect.  That would be a value laden quest, but then again, we already see values strongly embedded  in the gameplay today.  For example, by killing certain animals in the game you will encounter the wrath of DEHTA (Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals), or how in the original release you had multiple guests were you were asked to stop illegal logging by the Horde or other factions.  

So from my perspective the introduction of quests to promote a more healthy lifestyle would be no more or less value laden and controversial  then those that already exist.  As seen for example in the torture quest that got Richard Bartle, a game researcher and one of the founders of the first virtual world, so upset. 

 Technorati Tags: mmorpg, health, games, virtual worlds, values

In 2007 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched a Health Games Research initiative.  This is a national program that looks to use games and gameplay as a way to improve health.  It is interesting to see that researchers and practitioners outside of the game industry are starting to understand that gameplay can serve a purpose beyond pure entertainment. 

WHEN the world entered the digital age, a great majority of human historical records did not immediately make the trip.
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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

As preservation officer at U.C.L.A., Jacob Nadal safeguards materials (digital and analog) in its collection.

Literature, film, scientific journals, newspapers, court records, corporate documents and other material, accumulated over centuries, needed to be adapted for computer databases. Once there, it had to be arranged — along with newer, born-digital material — in a way that would let people find what they needed and keep finding it well into the future.

During December 2008 and January 2009, the user experience research firm User Centric conducted an independent comparative usability study of two existing online personal health record applications, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault.

So what is the outcome? Well as seen in their other systems, Google’s app provides a more user friendly experience when compared to Microsoft. However both personal health record applications have a fair amount of experience issues that limit user acceptance and participation.