10 Games might be good for Kids

Playing cards is a fun way to teach kids basic skills such as counting, taking turns, strategy and being a good sport, of course!

Go Fish

Age: 7+
Number of players: 2+
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: Choose a “dealer” to hand out cards. If there are two or three players, each player is dealt seven cards. If there are more people taking part, each player is dealt five cards. The remaining cards are placed face down in a pile. This is the “fish pond.”

Each player sorts their cards into groups of the same number or suit (i.e. group of threes or group of kings), making sure not to show anyone. The “requester” (person to the left of the dealer) starts the game by asking another player for cards that will match his hand. For example, if the requester has two kings, he will ask the other player for kings. If the other player has these cards, he must hand them over. The requester continues asking the same player for more cards until the player does not have the cards he wants. If the player does not have the right cards, he can tell the requester to “Go fish.” The requester then has to take one card from the “fish pond.” The player who told him to “Go fish” becomes the new requester.

Anyone who collects all four cards of a set (i.e. all four eights or all four Queens) puts them face down in front of him. The winner is the first person to have no single cards left, only complete sets. If two people run out of cards together, the player with the most sets wins the game.

Crazy Eights

Age: 5+
Number of players: 2-4
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: In a two-player game, each player is dealt seven cards. In a game with three or four players, each player is dealt five cards. The rest of the deck goes facedown in a pile, with the top card turned up beside it. This is the discard pile. The player to the left of the dealer discards a card from his hand that matches either the number or suit of the top card in the discard pile. For example, if the card is a five of hearts, he could play any heart or any five. If he does not have a matching card, he continues picking up cards from the deck until he gets one that is playable. Eights are wild and can be put down on any suit. For example, an eight could be played to match a heart. The next player must match their card to the number or suit that the eight was meant to cover. Play continues with players matching the card at the top of the discard pile. The first player to use up all his cards wins. If the deck runs out before the game is over, the discard pile can be used.

Old Maid

Age: 5+
Number of players: 3+
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards is used, but with one queen removed. This leaves a pair of queens in one colour and a single queen (the old maid) in the other colour.

How to play: All cards are dealt face down to players. Some players may have more cards than others, but this is okay. Each player sorts their cards into matching pairs of the same number or suit, keeping them hidden from other players. Players holding pairs of matching cards lay them down on the table face up. If anyone has three matching cards, he only puts down one pair and keeps the spare card. If anyone has four matching cards, he puts down two pairs.

The player to the left of the dealer offers his cards to the player on his left, who cannot see them. That player selects a random card from his hand. If the new card he picks matches any of the cards he already he has, he can put down the pair. If not, he keeps it. He then offers his cards to the player on his left. This continues until all the cards have been put down in pairs, except the Old Maid, which is left alone and cannot be paired. The person left holding this card is the old maid and loses the game.

War

Age: 6+
Number of players: 2
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: All cards are dealt to the two players and kept face down. Neither player must look at their cards. Both players turn over the top card of their piles and put them face up in the centre of the table, beside the other player’s card. Whoever has turned over the highest ranking card takes both cards and adds them to the bottom of his pile. This continues until two cards of the same value (i.e. two sevens) are put down together. The game is now in a state of “war.” To continue, both players take two new cards and put one face down on top of the card they have already placed in the middle and one face up. Whoever puts down the higher ranking face up card wins all six. The game is won by the player who collects all of the cards.

Concentration/Memory

Age: 3+
Number of players: 2+
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: Older children can use the whole deck of 52 cards, but younger children may want to use fewer cards. Make sure the deck you use is made up of pairs.

Shuffle and spread cards face down on a table between the players. Cards can be laid in a random pattern or in a grid. The object of the game is to find matching pairs. Players take turns turning over two cards and letting all the players see them and study them. If they are not a matching pair, try to remember what and where they are, then turn them back over. The next player turns over two cards. If they are a matching pair, that player removes them from the table and keeps them, and then has another turn. When all cards have been removed from the table, each player counts up the number of cards they have collected. The player with the most cards wins.
Snap



Age: 6+
Number of players: 2+
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards. Two decks can be used for more than three players.

How to play: Choose a card dealer. This player deals all the cards around the group until there are no cards left. Some players may have more cards than others, but this is okay. Players do not look at their cards but keep them face down in individual stacks.

To begin, the player to the left of the dealer turns his top card over and places it face up next to his own pile. The next player does the same. (Note: If a player runs out of face down cards, he can shuffle his face up pile and use them.) This continues until a player notices that two cards on top of the face up piles are the same, such as two jacks or two sixes. The first player to notice and shout out “snap!” receives all cards in both of the matched piles and adds them to the bottom of his face down pile. The game continues with a new player turning a card over.

If two players shout “snap!” at the same time, they form a snap pool with the two matched piles of cards placed together in the centre. Play continues until someone turns up a card that matches the top card in the snap pool. Whoever shouts “snap pool!” first takes the whole pool and adds it to the bottom of their face down pile. If a player mistakenly shouts “snap!” he has two options: 1) give every player one card from his face down pile, or 2) his entire face down pile becomes a new snap pool. If a player has no more face up or face down cards he is out of the game. The winner of the game is the player with all of the cards.

Pig

Age: 6+
Number of players: 3-13
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards for up to 13 players

How to play: For each player, take four of a kind (cards of the same number or suit) out of the deck and put aside the remaining cards. For example, if there are three players, take three groups of four matching cards, such as four queens, four sevens and four aces. Shuffle all these cards and deal them so each player has four. Players can look at their cards privately.

To begin, each person discards one card from their hand and puts it face down on the table in front of them. When everyone has a card on the table, they will simultaneously pass their card to the player on the left and pick up the new card that has been passed to them. When a player collects four of a kind, he puts his finger on his nose. If another player notices this, they must also place their finger on their nose, regardless of whether they have four of a kind or not. The last player to put a finger on their nose gets a letter – first P, then I, then G. The first player to reach “P-I-G” is the loser.



Rummy

Age: 7+
Number of players: 2-6
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: The object of the game is to get rid of your cards as you group them into “melds.” A meld is a set of three or four of a kind, or a “run” (three or more cards in order of the same suit, such as the three, four and five of hearts).

The “dealer” shuffles the deck and deals the cards one at a time to each player as follows: Two players get 10 cards each; three or four players get seven cards each; five or six players get 6 cards each. The remaining cards are placed face down in the middle of the table and serve as the “stock” pile. The top card of the stock pile is turned face up and set next to the stock pile; this card begins the “discard” pile. Each player then groups all matching cards and runs together in their hand, which makes it easier to see the melds in their hand. Do not show the other players.

The player to the left of the dealer plays first by taking the top card from either the stock pile or the discard pile. If the player has a meld, he will lay it down on the table so all cards in the meld are visible. Then he will discard another card from his hand by placing it face up in the discard pile. Players can also place a card down on any existing meld if they have a card that matches the meld or if they draw a card that matches the meld. For example, a player could lay a queen down onto an existing meld of three queens.

The game continues clockwise around the table with players drawing a card from the stock or discard pile, making melds and laying down a card in the discard pile. The first player to get rid of their cards wins the round. Win the entire game by being the first to win five rounds.

Slapjack

Age: 4+
Number of players: 2-5
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: Choose a “dealer” to deal the cards face down to each player. Players cannot look at their cards, but instead put them into piles. Some players may have more cards than others, which is okay. The player to the left of the dealer begins by turning the card on the top of his pile face up in the centre of the table. The game continues with each player adding a card to the face up pile. When a jack is turned, players try to be the first to “slap” their hand over the face up pile. Whoever slaps their hand on the face up pile first gets the entire stack of cards and adds it to the bottom of their pile. The player to their left starts a new face up pile and play continues. If a player has no more cards, they have one more chance to stay in the game by slapping the next jack that appears. If they miss this opportunity, they are out of the game for good. The last person in the game is the winner.

I Doubt It

Age: 6+
Number of players: 6-12
Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards

How to play: Choose a “dealer” to deal all cards, one at a time, to each player. Some players will have more cards than others, which is okay. Players can organize their hand of cards as they please, but do not show any other players. The player to the left of the dealer begins the game starting with aces. He places the card(s) face down in the centre of the table saying “two aces” or whatever the desired number of cards are. Players can lay up to four cards of the card they are required to discard. The game continues clockwise to the next player, who will discard twos. The following player discards threes, and so on. Players announce their cards as they lay them. Start again with aces after kings have been played. Keep in mind that players don’t have to play the cards they announce. They can be lying. Even if you do not have the required card to discard, you must put down and name a card.

After each turn, allow a moment to let anyone challenge the player by saying “I doubt it.” Remember to challenge a player only if you think he might not be discarding the cards he says he is. When a challenge is voiced, the challenger can look at the discarded cards. If they match what the person who played them said, the challenger picks up all cards in the discard pile and adds them to his personal pile. If the cards are not what the person said they were, the player who discarded them must pick up the entire discard pile. The player to lay down his entire hand of cards first will win the game.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Getting New Lady Aurelia the Baroness Character

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is getting a brand new DLC which adds a new playable character. Introducing Lady Aurelia the Baroness, the older sister of Sir Hammerlock from Borderlands 2. She’s a real fine lady with a bit of class that’s as cold as ice. Besides, she can actually turn a co-op partner into her servant. This is the third DLC content for the recently released Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel that costs USD$9.99. It’s not a proper expansion pack, but adds a little bit of new into the game, and heck, it’s cheaper than Evolve’s DLC pack for a single monster... but that’s a topic I’ll get into in another post... soon. Check out the trailer for the DLC below...

The Witcher Battle Arena Released On iOS & Android

Here's another free-to-play game. This one is set in The Witcher universe. The Witcher Battle Arena is a 3 versus 3 multiplayer online battle arena, MOBA... like DOTA 2 or League of Legends 2 but maybe at a smaller scale than those. It's available for the iOS and Android mobile devices and also support single player matches with bots... although... I don't know why you would want to play with bots other than for practise. There are two maps and 9 heroes to play with at launch... and more will be added later on. Check out the launch trailer and the tutorial video to get an idea of what the game is about below...

Cities XXL Coming on Jan 29th

Cities XXL may not have been the most innovative city builder out there. While it's approach may seem novel at first, the countless variations with little 'new' in them have soured the experience for some of their fans. Cities XXL is their first proper new city builder. A new engine that means bigger environments, 65 new maps and an improved trading system to share resources amongst cities. Again, not incredibly new ideas but if they do it well, this could be a sleeper hit. But I'm being extremely cautious with this game. Cities XXL releases on Steam on January 29th. Check out the new gameplay trailer below...

The Game You Play and Your Personality

Our true natures are revealed by many choices we make: the cars we drive, our clothing, the food we eat, the music we enjoy and the films we watch. We are, to an extent, what we consume.

Then there are video games -- the red-headed stepchild and favorite whipping boy of pop media. Video games also betray our hidden selves. By their interactive nature, we relate with games more intimately than any other entertainment medium. An average video game requires an investment of 10 to12 hours of our precious time.

Since video gaming is a mostly private pursuit, the games we play may be the most honest expression of our inner lives. Let's face it, there's usually no one around to see us let our freak flags fly.

Eric Zimmerman, author of "Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals" and CEO of developer gameLab, elaborates: "Unlike a book, a film, and other forms of prescripted media, a game is more like a set of tools that the player uses to build his or her own experience. The games we choose to play, and the way we play them, reveal a tremendous amount about us -- from our creative drives and ambitions to the dark corners of our desires."

Video games are a window to our souls and the view isn't always pretty.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, please find here the field guide to the inner lives of gamers.

The Decompressor

He or she has a high stress, manic paced job -- cop, air traffic controller, stock trader, or kindergarten teacher. Since time on the job is so heart attack inducing, gaming is usually a cathartic release. All those activities that are frowned upon in real life (murder, mayhem, mutilation, etc.) are not only OK in games, they are the foundations of many favorite titles.

"If it feels good, do it" is the mantra of The Decompressor. After six hours with small children or a double shift patrolling the mean streets, nothing short of some unbridled, heavy-caliber gunplay will soothe the nerves.

The Decompressor shares many favorite games with the Latent Sociopath (see below). "Halo 2," "SOCOM 2," and "GTA: San Andreas" all offer a full range of primal pleasures guaranteed to let some of that potentially lethal pressure off.

Without games, The Decompressor literally would pop a gasket.

The Latent Sociopath

Unlike The Decompressor, The Latent Sociopath (LS) can come from any walk of life. They may be the next-door neighbor, the pharmacist or the UPS guy.

We've all seen dumbstruck folks on the news saying things such as, "he seemed like a regular guy," or "her kids were always well dressed" when describing the perpetrator of a horrific crime. The same outwardly normal appearance is typical of the LS.

These are the gamers who come home, fire up the Xbox, and let their id reign supreme. The purpose of gaming is to provide fuel for the inner beast. The more mundane and uneventful real life is, the hungrier the beast becomes.

Fave games will be M-rated bloodbaths. "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher's Bay," "GTA: San Andreas," "Hitman: Contracts," and "Burnout 3" all feature protagonists free of societal constraints, indulging every psychotic whim.

LS's use games to stay latent. Despite the proclamations of Congress and concerned parents everywhere, games such as "GTA: San Andreas" actually make the world a safer place.

The Alpha Dominator

The Alpha Dominator toils away at a thankless, perpetually promotion-free job. Temp agency regulars, data entry clerks and industrial custodians fit the AD profile.

What the AD longs for is superiority -- utter fear and awe from lesser beings. What may be professionally unattainable is only an Ethernet connection away in the game world. Online multiplayer games offer an even playing field that can be ruled by anyone with the requisite hand-eye coordination.

The AD lives for the thrill of bringing online opponents to their knees. Public recognition for his or her virtual feats is key to the AD's sense of self worth. When Sony decided to reset the online rankings board for "SOCOM 2," the AD may well have sunk into depression.

Games of choice include online battlegrounds "Unreal Tournament 2004," "SOCOM 2," "ESPN NFL 2K5," and "Madden 2005." The AD isn't concerned with violence or a particular sporting event. Winning is everything.

The Escapist

Everyday life is a struggle for The Escapist. They come from all walks of life; their condition may result from an unfulfilling job but is just as likely to be independent of career events. Nothing seems as good as it could be to The Escapist.

TV and movies are effective ways to bring some joy to their bleak and dreary lives, but games are the only true remedy. Games can offer another, infinitely more stimulating existence. Why be a mere mortal when there are otherworldly empires to explore and ancient kingdoms to conquer? Regular life seems unbearably dull compared to the fantastic online exploits for The Escapist.

Like The AD, The Escapist inhabits the realm of online multiplayer games. But that's where the similarities end. Winning or conquering may play a part in The Escapists gaming, but only in the context of a much grander scheme. Escapists may sink the equivalent of entire months into their fave games, lovingly building experience points and elaborate inventories.

The exotic lands of "Everquest II," "Final Fantasy XI," "World of Warcraft," and "Rome: Total War" are where The Escapist prefers to dwell.

The Inner Child

Life for The Inner Child isn't so much unpleasant as it is, well, complicated. The golden prepubescent years are fondly remembered and silly things such as bills and jobs are a downright nuisance.

ICs may be regarded as simpleminded, but this would be a mistake. They can, after all, keep track of the location of every star in "Mario 64" and can name every title released on every platform in the Legend of Zelda saga. Nintendo holds a place near to the heart of every IC.

The ugly, dirty real world has to be tolerated for a time each day, but after work the IC retreats to a simpler, shinier place. "Kirby and the Amazing Mirror," "Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door," "Pikmin 2," and "The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures" are the playgrounds of the IC.

The Control Freak

The Control Freak may think that only games can bring some much needed order to their lives. If everyone else is calling the shots in the real world, they can rule over every detail in the digital realm.

So-called god games are a godsend for the CF. Micromanaging may be a pain to co-workers, but in The Sims and Tycoon series games it's an essential skill. Mighty corporations and entire populations live or die under the CF's focused gaze.

The CF got hooked on gaming with Sid Meier's "Civilization" and "Railroad Tycoon" and has most recently found an outlet for obsessive compulsive tendencies in "The Sims 2," "Rollercoaster Tycoon 3" and "City of Heroes."

Voice-controlled “There Came an Echo" Coming on February!

Quick question: How many games can you think of used voice as a control interface? I’ve got Tom Clancy’s EndWar off the top of my head and that’s pretty much it, with other examples feeling like shoved-in gimmicks. Designing games around alternative control inputs is no easy feat but I’m glad to see that one studio hasn’t given up just yet.

Iridium Studios, an indie outfit that debuted with rhythm-RPG Sequence, have just announced that their voice-controlled RTS There Came an Echo launches on 24 February. Its Kickstarter campaignraised over US$100,000 in 2013 and drew additional interest for featuring geek celebrity Wil Wheaton as the narrator.

Joining Wheaton are famous voice talents Ashly Burch, Yuri Lowenthal, Laura Bailey, Cassandra Lee Morris, Cindy Robinson, and Rachel Robinson – search their names up and you’ll definitely recognize the games they’ve worked on.

Things also seem impressive in the music department, with Ronald Jenkees, Jimmy Hinson, and Judith de los Santos as contributing musicians.

There Came An Echo is one of the first to use Intel’s RealSense technology, presumably its voice-recognition bits. It’s hard to say how it all works out once the game is finally exposed to the dozens of accents out there but for now, we’ve got the following trailer to help convince us that things are coming along great.

Should We Kick Religion Out of Video Games?

Here’s a moral puzzle for you. Do you believe it is acceptable to use religious figures as characters in video games?

It’s a question that has come up in the past week, one that raises many difficult issues about freedom-of-expression, the responsibility of avoiding giving offense and the diverse nature of faith.

Smite is an online multiplayer combat game from Georgia-based Hi-Rez Studios, best known for shooting-MMO Global Agenda and Tribes: Ascend. Players take on the role of various characters from historic-mythical pantheons such as the ancient Greek, Norse and, more controversially, Hindu traditions. The Hindu deity, Kali, is a playable character, prominent in the game’s pre-release promotions.



Very few people today worship Thor or Aphrodite. But there are one billion Hindus around the world, with an estimated 1.5 million in the United States, according to a2004 State Department report. And many of them care deeply about their revered deities.

Nevada-based Rajan Zed describes himself as a “Hindu leader” and is head of an organization called the Universal Society of Hinduism. He has slammed Smite, saying, “[Hi-Rez] should be more understanding of the hurt feelings of Hindus worldwide over the mishandling of their revered deities like Kali. [The] purpose of online games is to entertain and not to offend a large chunk of world population.” He called for Kali and other Hindu deities to be removed from the game.



Zed today released a new statement including supporting opinions from a Jewish and a Buddhist associate. Rabbi ElizaBeth W. Beyer, described as a “prominent Jewish leader in Western USA” said, “We join the Hindus in requesting the company developing this online video game to avoid trivializing the deeply held beliefs of Hindus by changing the product accordingly”.

In the past, Zed has condemned various entertainment outlets for disrespecting Hindu figures, and has counted on the support of Beyer. In 2011, for example, he criticized a SNL skit featuring Jim Carrey that, he said, mocked the deity Lord Ganesh.

Earlier this year he took aim at the game Asura’s Wrath saying its use of Hindu imagery was guilty of “trivializing and re-imagining of highly revered symbols and concepts of Hinduism”.

Zed declined to be interviewed directly by IGN, instead supplying us with various emailed statements. I spoke to Hi-Rez’s co-founder and COO Todd Harris and to Amit Kumar, a blogger of Hindu culture.



Harris claims that Zed’s opinion is not shared by many Hindus, arguing that Hinduism is “embracing and tolerant” and that Hindu’s ancient stories have often been used for entertainment purposes. , “He [Zed] is certainly entitled to outrage if he personally feels that. To my knowledge there's no word or concept for ‘blasphemy’ in Hinduism, because at least in my understanding of it, all deities are considered to be a manifestation of the essence within Hinduism.”

He adds “These particular deities are seen in pop culture, not just in the west, but within India as well, as icons, in comics, depicting the battles between these gods. Smite is basically a game about battling deities, and so we're looking for inspiration from an authentic tradition that has rich stories about deities battling.”

There is one obvious question here, which is that while the game features Hindu deities, it features no religious iconography or reference to other great religions such as Judaism, Christianity or Islam.

I ask Harris if he simply wouldn’t dare to address these religions, because the reaction from large numbers of followers of those traditions would be extremely negative and possibly even dangerous to the safety of the game's makers.



Choosing his words carefully, he acknowledges that, yes, “the reaction would be much more predictable. And again, from a group of believers that believes perhaps, in one truth, versus a faith that is known for its plurality of ways to get to truth.”

Harris argues that the mythology associated with those religions do not include deities battling with one another and would not be appropriate from a story-telling point-of-view.

Here is an excerpt from a Hindu text, the Devi Mahatmya, that gives some flavor of Hindu story-telling traditions. Kali “decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering...that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes”.



Very beautiful. And, for those of us raised in Abrahamic traditions, quite different from the religious stories we likely learned from our teachers.

Harris adds, “In the Abrahamic traditions, the main figures are all human. They never overlapped or battled with one another. They're actually positioned as prophets within a monotheistic tradition. There are no stories there of deities battling one another. So it doesn't necessarily provide an inspiration for a game about deities battling one another.”

Put another way, the prophets of Abrahamic traditions make way less interesting video game characters than the deities of the Hindu tradition

Harris says, “There are many stories of gods having dramatic encounters and fights and battles between one another, and what we're doing is trying to take the essence of those deities as we understand it from those stories, give it a unique twist within Smite, and then put them on a battleground with deities from other pantheons as well.”



He rejects Zed’s argument that the depiction of Kali is “pornographic” and a story in The Times of India that pointed out that Kali is “scantily clad”. “I've traveled to India personally three times, and I can tell you that Kali and other goddesses represented on Hindu temples are often much less clothed than the depiction in Smite.”

The Hindu tradition is unfamiliar to me, something exotic and gorgeous and strange. Armed with such ignorance, I wanted to get the perspective of a follower of Hinduism (if that is even the correct phrase). Amit Kumar is a 25-year-old software developer based in Mumbai. He runs a Twitter account devoted to discussing Hindu culture. Talking to IGN, he stresses that he does not speak for Hinduism’s one billion followers.



He says, “It's not right to assume that the Hindus will not be offended if their Gods are portrayed in a video game. The Gods are after all highly revered by the Hindus and are worshiped much like Jesus Christ of Christianity and Allah of Islam. But it's less serious in our case because at the end of the day, we believe that God is within oneself. The life giving force within each one of us is what Hindus refer to as God. This life giving force is what we call Consciousness or Soul or Spirit.”

He does not agree with Harris’ distinction between Hinduism and other religions. “Not fair at all. God is God. Whether it is the God of Islam or Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism...There are stories about the lives of Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ. Why would it be inappropriate to have them as characters in a video game when it's appropriate to trivialize Hindu Gods as video game characters? Beats logic.”

Perhaps Hinduism’s all-embracing view means that reaction from the faithful is not as hot as it might have been from adherents to other faiths. He explains, “There is no concept of eternal hell or heaven in Hinduism and hence there is no dogma attached to the religion. I'm allowed to question, criticize and reject any of the teachings that don't suit me without having to face any backlash from the community. As a Hindu I can carve my own path for myself which means I'm allowed to revere Jesus Christ and his teachings while still being a Hindu.”



Back with Hi-Rez, I ask Harris if it wouldn’t have been better to simply avoid offending anyone, and to stick to those pantheons that are not active today as a focus of devotion. Did the team sit down to debate leaving aside Hindu deities? “Yes," he says, "we did have that conversation and debate as a development team, because we recognize that certainly deities that have an active following and set of faithful believers is a different categorization. But we decided that, when there's a rich tradition of deities authentically battling, that would be good inspiration for a game about battling deities.”

Finally, I ask if this controversy has been a useful piece of PR, or an unhelpful distraction. He says, “I think it's probably not too much of either. We're pretty comfortable with our position. I honestly don't think that there is an outrage beyond this one particular organization [Zed’s]. I guess it's enabling a conversation around belief systems and tolerance and that’s a good thing.”

Assassin's Creed Unity Dead Kings DLC Comes for FREE!

And for once... it's such a pleasant experience to know that it is absolutely FREE. In the first DLC for Assassin's Creed Unity, Arno travels to St. Denis to discover the secrets beneath the city. Ancient tombs of the kings of past. But there is danger. The greed of men have made some wanting the wealth of the kings they think they might find in the catacombs. Check out Dead Kings gameplay trailer below...

Teens and Video Game

The gamer community had a near-miss this week in Ohio, when a 15-year-old boy collapsed after playing "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" for up to five days straight.

The Columbus teen was rushed to the hospital with severe dehydration, where he recovered, according to a report from TV station WCMH on Aug. 7.

Players who delve too deeply into their electronic worlds can face various health risks, ranging from deep vein thrombosis, or blood clots, to severe dehydration.

For instance, in July, a Taiwanese teenager was found dead after sitting for 40 hours in an Internet cafe playing "Diablo 3." At the time, doctors speculated he died from a heart attack caused by a blood clot that formed during the long session.

And last summer, a 20-year-old man from the U.K. died from a blood clot after spending 12-hour sessions on his Xbox. His father told "The Sun" newspaper, "He lived for his Xbox. I never dreamed he was in any danger." [10 Easy Paths to Self Destruction]

While these are extreme cases, they are a reminder that sitting at a computer or console for days, whether it's for "World of Warcraft" or for work, isn't healthy for anyone. But psychologists who study video games and kids say parents needn't worry about the amount of time spent gaming, unless screen time starts to affect school, health or social life. (And, of course, a stint of tens of hours gaming is likely to negatively affect schoolwork and lead to social woes.) That said, researchers remain concerned about the effects of violent content in video games, which have been linked by many studies to aggressive behavior.

Too much screen time?

These days, screens of one kind or another occupy youth for 50 hours a week, a 2010 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation reports. "It's a full-time job plus 10 hours of overtime, and that's the average," said Douglas Gentile, a psychologist and director of the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University.

Video-gaming consumed nine weekly hours for teens, the Kaiser survey found, while a Harris Poll conducted for Gentile during the same period reported 13 hours a week spent gaming on computers and consoles.

While some kids can shoot 'em up for hours, for others, too much time gaming leads to poor school performance. Recent studies have finally linked the cause and effect, showing that gaming displaces after-school academic activities such as homework and reading. A 2010 study from researchers at Denison University in Ohio, published in the journal Psychological Science, compared two groups of boys that had never owned gaming systems. They gave one group a system right away, but withheld games from the other group for four months. Boys who received the video-game system first had more teacher-reported learning problems and significantly lower reading and writing scoresthan the other boys.

Problems in school are relatively easy for parents to fix: Limit screen time — of course, if you can get the controller out of his or her hands. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours per day in front of any electronics.

Violent games and aggression

What's harder to control is violent content in video games. The Pew Research Center reported in 2008 that more than 90 percent of games rated as appropriate for children 10 years or older contained violence, including games rated "E" for everyone. (Most researchers define violence as the ability of a player to intentionally harm others in a game.)

Now most researchers will agree that video games can help as well as harm. For example, educational games boost learning, and action games can improve vision and spatial skills. Video games have also been used successfully to teach children self-care skills for asthma and diabetes.

And then there's the primary reason people play video games: They're relaxing. Gentile thinks the flickering screen and varying sound levels trigger a primitive brain response. "One of the reasons I think we find television and video games so relaxing is they provide the attention for you. It forces you to orient to the media. You don't have to work to pay attention like you do in [a] classroom lecture," said Gentile.

But a preponderance of evidence links violent video games to an increase in aggressive behavior in teens. The behavior wasn't violent crime, like school shootings, but small yet hurtful offenses like teasing, name-calling, rumor-spreading and fist fights. In a review of 130 studies of kids and teens, Iowa State University researchers found that violent video games increased the likelihood of aggression and decreased empathy. The meta-analysis appeared in 2010 in the journal Psychological Bulletin. [5 Ways to Foster Self-Compassion in Your Teen]

Which teens are vulnerable?



Of course, repeated exposure to violence in any environment has a deleterious effect, Gentile noted. "Seeing violence anywhere increases the risks that a child might become involved in aggression, whether as a perpetrator or a victim," he said. But video games are phenomenal teachers. Players get immediate feedback and rewards for punishing competitors. And not only do games reward hostility, they train your brain to respond to real-life problems with aggression, research indicates.

In fact, games can prime teens to react to slights with name-calling or pushing, instead of choosing to avoid confrontation. "So when I get bumped in the hallway, I don't assume it's an accident anymore," explained Gentile. "What comes to mind first is to retaliate in some way. Those aren't the only options you have, but we never think of them because what we see over and over in the media is 'You killed my monster, now you must die.'"

But psychologist Patrick Markey's research suggests just some teens are susceptible to these effects. Markey found people with certain personality traits — those who are highly neurotic, less agreeable and less conscientious — are those more likely to become hostile from gaming. The 2010 study appeared in the journal Review of General Psychology.

"The truth of the matter is that most people can handle this media, but for some people with a select predisposition, these people might be a little more aggressive, more prone to an argument here and there," said Markey, a professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

"The most interesting part is there is really no research that suggests video games have a different effect than TV or movies. It has empirically never been shown," said Markey. "Any media is supposed to engage us emotionally, and video games are a form of media, a form of art even."

Evolve Has Gone Gold! Coming in February this Year!

2K Games has announced that the monster romp multiplayer action shooter, Evolve, is done is right on track for the 10th February release. The 4 versus 1 human versus monster FPS will have single player bot controlled games (if in multiplayer you have less than 4 players, the remaining ones will be bot controlled). 2K Games plans to release mini expansions that add new monster types to play with and if you pre-order now, you get the first one for free. 

Zombie Army Trilogy Announced!

Rebellion has answered the wishes of fans. They've finally announced Zombie Army Trilogy! No what?! That's a compendium of Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 1 and 2, and a new chapter they call Zombie Army 3. Releasing for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One in 2015, the game will feature remastered graphics, 4 new playable characters, a new horde mode and new Nazi monsters (I suppose normal Nazis are already monsters... these are monsterier Nazis). If you just want to blow up nazis with slow-mo sniper shots and blow stuff up.. this seems like mindless fun. Could be a great co-op game. Check out the announcement trailer below...

DOTA 2 The International 5 Coming in August!

Valve has announced the date of The International 5. It will run 6 days from 3rd - 8th August and will involve 16 teams. Team invites will begin in May. No details about prize pool or ticket availability yet, this is just an early heads up from Valve for teams to clear their schedule for the tournament. Last year, Newbee beat ViCi gaming to take home the USD$5 million prize pool.

Gaming for being Healthier!

A new paper in American Psychologist, the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association, looks at the positive effects of video game play.

I’ve already written about the 5 reasons I’m buying my kids a Wii U this holiday season. In a way, this post offers 4 more reasons, emphasizing some of the positive impact that comes from gaming. As you’ll read below, I have some reservations about the paper, but I also think there’s a lot of good information in it.

The research paper, by Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels, entitled “The Benefits of Playing Video Games,” attempts to balance out the kinds of research that has been undertaken around gaming. The authors write:

Decades of valuable research on the effects of violent video games on children’s and adolescents’ aggressive behavior already exists, and this is indeed an important body of work to consider. However, we argue that in order to understand the impact of video games on children’s and adolescents’ development, a more balanced perspective is needed, one that considers not only the possible negative effects but also the benefits of playing these games.

They summarize research on the positive impact of gaming in the following areas: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social. Here, I summarize their summary.

I feel compelled to mention that I do have a number of questions about the validity of the general concept of “psychological health.” The criteria with which we assess one’s psychological well-being seem, to me, inescapably political in nature. That is, I believe we should seriously question what agenda underlies any attempt at identifying an “ideal” image of health. Healthy for what? Often, we are defining what it means to be healthy enough to participate in an inherently unhealthy system. Consider that myriad authors have pointed out that many of our most ‘successful’ citizens, our most famous CEOs in particular, display sociopathic tendencies.

Still, despite the many objections to their diagnostic practices, the American Psychological Association does hold the predominantly accepted definition of mental health, the definition of the ‘ideal’ psychological comportment for our current society. Since we don’t have the space here to question that ‘ideal’ in depth, we’ll have to take it at face value. Therefore, I present this particular research with reservations about its underlying assumptions, but enthusiasm about its findings.

Here are 4 ways video game play may benefit adolescents overall psychological health.

1. The Cognitive Benefits of First Person Shooters



In controlled tests, folks who played first person shooters showed “faster and more accurate attention allocation, higher spatial resolution in visual processing, and enhanced mental rotation abilities.” Apparently, the improvement in spacial skills that gamers develop are comparable to those developed in formal courses designed to teach the same skills.

In addition, “Preliminary research has also demonstrated that these cognitive advantages manifest in measurable changes in neural processing and efficiency.” Which, best I can tell, means that gamers use their neural resources more efficiently–their brains don’t show as much activity as non-gamer’s brains show while solving problems.

Finally, there seems to be convincing evidence that playing games enhances problem-solving skills and improves creativity. “Among a sample of almost 500 12-year-old students, video game playing was positively associated with creativity.” The same results were not true when kids interacted with other kinds of technology.

Sure, most of us were already skeptical of the illogical inclination to scapegoat violent games, this paper validates our position. The author’s write, “these data suggest that agendas to ban shooter games may be too simplistic.”

I still don’t let my kids play first-person shooters, but I don’t have a simple explanation for why. For now, it is just my intuition that tells me it is not in their best interest.

2. Call It Motivation Not Addiction



The idea here is that through persistent engagement, young people develop a sense of identity, “beliefs about their intelligence and abilities,” that can have long-term impact on their proclivity for success.

The work of Carol Dweck makes a distinction between an entity theory of intelligence and an incremental theory of intelligence. When kids develop an entity theory of intelligence, they believe they have innate, fixed traits. They are praised for being so smart, or being good at math, etc. It has a negative impact on long term attitudes. When kids develop an incremental theory of intelligence, on the other hand, they understand that they have certain skills. They are praised for their effort: “you worked so hard on that problem, you solved that puzzle.”

Video games, the authors argue, help kids to develop an incremental theory of intelligence. “Immediate and concrete feedback in video games (e.g., through points, coins, dead ends in puzzles) serves to reward continual effort,” keeping players in a “motivational ‘sweet spot’” that “balances optimal levels of challenge and frustration with sufficient experiences of success and accomplishment.”

As my two sons and I slowly learn to beat each level of New Super Mario Brothers U by failing and trying again, we are all reinforcing positive motivational attitudes.

3. Control Your Emotions



“Gaming may be among the most efficient and effective means by which children and youth generate positive feelings.”

If you follow me on Forbes, you know that I regularly write about game based learning. One of the strongest arguments for game based learning is that games allow us to build simulations of complex systems. Players get to situate themselves within the system and practice navigating the particular challenges of that system.

In a broader way, by creating realistic enough simulations that elicit strong emotional responses (both positive and negative), commercial games provide players with an opportunity to try and regulate their emotions. Players feel that “the accomplishment of goals matters” and also know that because they’re controlling the Mario avatar with the Wii U controller, rather than throwing real fireballs, the space is “safe enough to practice controlling, or modulating, negative emotions in service of” the game’s goals.

The authors write, “Adaptive regulation strategies such as acceptance, problem solving, and reappraisal have repeatedly been linked to less negative affect, more social support, and lower levels of depressive symptoms.”

4. How To Be A Social Butterfly

“Contrary to stereotypes, the average gamer is not a socially isolated, inept nerd.” So many of today’s games are multiplayer games that require interacting with other players. According to this paper, “over 70% of gamers play their games with a friend, either cooperatively or competitively.”

My son spends hours on Minecraft servers, making friends, asking what he needs to do to become a member, etc. I’ve written in detail about the benefits of the cooperative multiplayer mode that many of the new generation ofNintendo games include. I play the Mario games in coop mode with my 8 year old and my 6 year old constantly. I’ve explained in other places why I think playing video games with my kids makes me a better dad.

According to the authors, playing games leads to prosocial “helping” behaviors. Two recent studies have shown that playing games leads to cooperative behaviors outside of the gaming context. Apparently, “even the most violent video games on the market (Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty) fail to diminish subsequent prosocial behavior.”