Posts Tagged ‘Gaming’
With last week’s E3 gaming expo having gone down a treat over in LA, the web is abuzz with plenty of excellent in-depth coverage. Here’s a short summary of the most interesting and comprehensive sources of news, comment and highlights on this world-famous gaming industry expo.
First and foremost, the E3 official website is handy for some general orientation and overviews of what was happening last week. While that site is good for industry insiders who want to know who was there and what was exhibited, E3’s official highlights page contains links to some of the more high-profile events of general interest also for non-industry specialists. There’s press conferences from all the big players (Nintendo, Ubisoft, Xbox360, Sony etc), as well as…
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A new video gaming record has been set last week when I successfully obliterated my previous personal best on RPG classic Planescape Torment, and finished the whole thing in around five hours… In other news, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 became the fastest selling computer game of all time, beating not only the revenue stats for the previous record-holder, GTA 4, but also those of most major blockbusters, ever…
Let me give you a few figures:
‘Indiana Jones 4′ UK box office TOTAL:  £48m
‘Michael Jackson This is It’ documentary UK box office TOTAL (so far): £5m ‘
The Dark Knight’ UK box office TOTAL: £54m
‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′ UK gross FROM LESS THAN A WEEK AFTER RELEASE: £47m…
Now clearly we’ve…
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It has emerged this week from a Which? magazine organised piece of research that playing brain training games such as those advertised for the Nintendo DS actually provides little extra mental stimulus – and no more than simply surfing the net or playing ‘normal’ games.
Personally I can’t believe it – could it be true that Girls Aloud – and Nicole Kidman were wrong (both endorsed the products in tv adverts)??! That’s the last time I look to them for medical and scientific advice for sure…
On a more serious note there is quite a tricky problem here. We are often alert to contentious claims made by advertising in other consumer product spheres but yet remain awfully vulnerable to taking an ad’s word for…
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The subject of computer game addiction has been pretty prominent in both mainstream news and online blogs for a few years now – especially in relation to World of Warcraft (even WIkipedia has a tab under WoW titled ‘Game Addiction’). The release last month of the latest expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, again coincided with similar – and mostly relevant and much-needed – debates on the issue.
(NB there is even now an online WoW rehab clinic, WoWDetox, for those worried about their use).
Like many others, this blog covered the debate – but since then has not featured much WOW or even gaming news. So this week we’re going to put the spotlight on something really positive coming out of…
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Last week saw the release of the latest World of Warcraft expansion pack – Wrath of the Lich King, and as with previous releases the hype and anticipation across the gaming community was huge. But in the news and press once again questions are being asked about computer game addiction and the negative consequences of virtual ‘living’ – with WOW unsurprisingly at the center of the debate.
Not for the first time I found myself wondering – how serious is gaming addiction, and also who or what (if anything) is to blame? It can’t be a simple case of pointing the finger at Blizzard and ignoring the wider contexts in play…
Firstly though one quick observation about the release evening. As thousands…
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