Are you racist? You might want to change your avatar Is racism a matter of perspective gone wrong? And, if so, how can we fix it? A new study in Consciousness and Cognition demonstrates technology may be able to offer part of the solution: donning the skin of a dark-skinned avatar significantly decreased an individual’s [...]
With all the new indie and zinester style games being released, it’s time to add a section that highlights some of the wonderful games that individuals have created about science. I’ll be updating details on this site every time I find a game that teaches gamers some aspect about science, no matter how simple. Also, [...]
Unfortunately, sexism is common place in much of society. From wage equality to health coverage for birth control, women seem to have to justify to men why they are deserving of all these things. Given this uphill battle women have, you would think that we could all just play games together in peace. Unfortunately, it [...]
Questions of what why individuals play violent video games are currently at the forefront of psychological research. Most studies, however, examine video game choices through self-reported surveys. Although interesting, there is a limit to the inferences and understanding one can gain from such studies, and more importantly, it doesn’t answer what specifically drives game choice. [...]
Studies of video games often focus on the effect they have on children. But given that the majority of gamers are adults and that we have a growing ageing population, it’s as important to understand the role games play in the lives of older adults. In this study, Allaire and colleagues explored the role digital [...]
The pleasure centers in our brain respond to positive outcomes and winning is no different. Yet, beating different opponents may have different values to a player. Apart from examining the brains responses to winning or losing in a video game, Kätsyri and colleagues examined whether these differences are further exaggerated by the type of opponent: human [...]
“…there maybe great value in understanding video games as something children choose to do rather than something done to them.” This idea, grounded in self-determination theory, is how Chris Ferguson and Cheryl Olsen (co-writer of Grand Theft Childhood) decided to explore why children play video games in general, and why some decide to play violent video [...]
New research headed by Sandro Franceschini and Andrea Facoetti examines whether the focus employed while playing action video games can improve the focus and reading ability of dyslexic children. To test this, they took 40 children that never played video games and had them play 12 hours of Rayman Raving Rabbids over two weeks. Half [...]
The debate around videogames and violence is getting seriously out of control – not least in the US. Just take this recent homepage above on The Huffington Post. Hyperbole aside, videogames are (once again) being used as a scapegoat by politicians looking for a simple answer to causes of violence. But despite how they [...]
I went to see Disney’s new animated movie Wreck-it Ralph yesterday with my family. I have to say, it was the most enjoyable movie experience I’ve had in a while. The story was part of the reason for this. The movie centres around a Donkey Kong-esque bad guy named Ralph and a ‘glitchy’ racing avatar [...]
Your a worm that’s escaped your fate as a lure. Now get to safety!
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Are you racist? You might want to change your avatar
Is racism a matter of perspective […]
Ever wanted to crush anything in your path? Well, playing as a massive boa constrictor […]
