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  • 2007 Serious Games Summit GDC: Jane McGonigal On ilovebees, ARGs This latest Serious Games Source feature covers a keynote by alternate reality game creator Jane McGonigal presented during the recent 2007 Serious Games Summit, during which she stated “I design games from the future,” and offered insight into the creation of Halo 2 ARG ilovebees.
  • Serious Game Engine Shootout In the march up to the Serious Games Shootout panel to take place in March during the Serious Games Summit in San Francisco, writer Richard Carey presents a comparative analysis of several prominent engines currently used for developing serious games, as well as quotes from the companies behind the technologies.
  • Playing with Fire: Enemy Dolls In this latest Playing with Fire feature, Powerful Robot Games' Gonzalo Frasca offers his unique insight into the perception of conflict in games, as well as in other media, and notes how looking at events through the eyes of the opposition could lead to better understanding.
U.S. Study: Games Boost Mental Skills in Seniors[12.12.08]

A recent U.S. study has shown that strategy-oriented video games can improve cognitive skills in adults in their 60s and 70s.

Research author and University of Illinois psychology professor Arthur Kramer said that initial tests brought about noticeable effects in the mental functions of older participants. The findings are the first to show such improvement in skills not directly related to those specifically learned in video games.

Subjects were tasked with playing 23.5 hours of Microsoft's real-time government and military simulation Rise of Nations. Afterward, researchers noted improved participant performance in several tests, particularly in group activities.

Compared to a non-gaming group, test subjects who had recently played video games displayed significantly better and faster task switching capabilities, along with improved working memory and reasoning ability.

Minor improvements were also found in short-term visual memory and object identification. Video games apparently had no effect on word order memory or calculation.

The full text of Kramer and lead author Chandramallika Basak's study can be found in in month's edition of the journal Psychology & Aging.

By Danny Cowan
December 12, 2008 12:29:00 PM PT