computer games :- Video games that help keep kids fit

Video games that help keep kids fit

 Tampa, Florida - Active video games like Nintendo's Wii console are changing the way kids play. They're no longer sitting at a computer, they're up and moving.

USF has spent three years studying the impact active video games have on childhood obesity.

"Why not take what everyone is deeming the enemy, why not let them play the games that they love just make them more active?" says Lisa Hansen, USF assistant professor for Physical Education and Exercise Science and co-director of the active gaming research labs at USF.

The program has caught the attention of the White House and today the executive director of the President's Council on physical fitness and sports was in Tampa to visit the program at Witter Elementary. A classroom at the school has been turned into an arcade.

Walk into the room and you'll find kids at each video game machine working up a sweat.

"It's fun and I still get to exercise my leg muscles," says Edgerrin James, 10, 4th grader.

"I don't feel weak, I feel stronger," adds Jasmine Jean, 10, 5th grader.

Witter Elementary students use the active gaming room two to three times a week.

"The more we can push the fact exercise is fun with friends, social type of thing, the more likely they will do it," says Lynda Correia, PE Teacher at Witter Elementary.

Some students box a virtual opponent. Others let their feet tap to the music. It takes coordination and stamina, plus sweat and muscle to keep these games moving.

10 year old Edgerrin James has taken more than 1,400 steps in 25 minutes. "I feel great. I know I worked hard but I feel very tired," describes Edgerrin. Does he feel energized? "Yes Ma'am," he adds.

The active game room is part of a research project by USF on childhood obesity. Hansen says research shows the active games encourage kids to move and learn.

"Students feel when they are able to play these active games fun and exciting, they're encouraged to go to PE wanting to learn the objective of the class," says Hansen.

Students say while having fun, they learn the importance of exercise.

Jasmine says, "When you play the game it increases your heart rate, makes your legs stronger."

Edgerrin says, "It's taught me as long as you keep exercising your heart will be good and healthy."

USF researchers suggest this holiday season, parents should buy active video games for their family to help keep everyone up and moving.

It's Easy to Ditch Games Now

In the past, once you bought a game, it was pretty much yours unless you gave it to somebody else or your family held a garage sale. The systemic rise of the used games market now offers you an escape route if a game just isn't your bag. Is the middle of a game testing your patience? Then why not sell it back to your local game shop, get money back in your pocket, or trade it in for a game that's better – or at least better suited for your tastes? After all, the sooner you ditch it either at a shop or on an online auction site, the more value you stand to get in return.

video game was in the manual

Failed Narrative

At one time, the only story you found in a video game was in the manual. But as game technology has advanced, so has the ability to tell a compelling narrative inside a video game with cutscenes, voice acting, and exciting locations that boost your involvement with the narrative. Now, with so many good stories in video games -- Uncharted, Fallout, and Mass Effect 2 to name a few -- a cheap or cheesy narrative now risks diluting a gamer's interest. "For me, Borderlands was a textbook case of, This is Awesome, But Dear God in Heaven I Can Only Take So Much. Gearbox's RPG/shooter controlled like a dream, the environments and art style were awesome, and the constant gun and gadget upgrades were like a sweet, sweet drug. But then one day I just realized I was done. The storyline just wasn't there to pull me through the rest of the experience. In a lot of ways, the environment in Borderlands is the story, which only takes you so far."

There will always be exceptions to this rule. For example, I think the second act of Red Dead Redemption sags thanks to main quest missions that I know will have little bearing on John Marston's success or narrative events that work at odds with the main character's persona.

games

Do you remember game-ending glitches fifteen years ago?

Straight Busted

Do you remember game-ending glitches fifteen years ago? Personally, I can't recall a single game found on a cartridge that suffered from a crippling bugaboo. (PC games have long endured a reputation for shipping before being completely stable.) But in the last few years, more and more video games have hit retail before being fully tested. Recent offenders include Metroid: Other M and Fallout: New Vegas. Really, a Nintendo game with a game-ending bug that stopped players cold? Nintendo eventually offered a fix for the bug, but how many Metroid fans just threw up their hands and moved on to another game? There's now an over-reliance on the ability to patch a console game after it ships via the console's Internet connection.
Another fun-killer is the suspicion that a video game is playing from a loaded deck. Rare is there a game like Mario Kart that is so fun you can overlook insanely unfair artificial intelligence from computer-controlled characters. ("Hey, I'm in first place. Blue shell in three… two… one… And I'm in last place.")
A fantasy board game card battler? That's totally my speed, so I was eager to get into Culdcept Saga. About halfway through, however, I realized the game was broken. Players take turns rolling dice and moving their characters around the game board, but it turned out the dice rolls were all pre-determined. If you played a round multiple times you'd see the rolls come up with the same numbers in the same order each time -- there was nothing random about them. The game was ruined and I moved on."

Video games are supposed to provide a challenge. Cake walks are boring. But there is a massive difference between a difficult game and one that deals from the bottom of the deck, whether it's because of poor programming or the hope that an ultra-hard segment will somehow extend the longevity of an otherwise short game. Would you read a book that printed an entire chapter in reverse just to slow you down?

The rise of video game franchises

I'll Catch the Next One

The rise of video game franchises isn't entirely the fault of some bean counter working in the depths of Activision's marketing department. Gamers are just as much to "blame" for the rise of sequels and annual installments. (After all, gamers poured $360 million into Activision's coffers on the launch day for 2010's annual Call of Duty release, Black Ops.) But now that gamers have come to expect the annualized franchise, does that limit the impetus to jump on the train knowing another one will pull up to the station soon enough? "Despite my roots with Japanese role-playing games, I'm actually a big Halo fan. Before ODST dropped, I was pretty excited for Bungie's spin-off, but I only ended up playing the campaign for an hour or two. It wasn't a lack of interest or distaste for the gameplay -- I was just already feeling the anticipation for Halo: Reach and I didn't want to play two Halo games in a row. This is usually how things go for me: by the time I get around to a game, the sequel is already on the horizon!"Clements hits on something so critical here: with some many franchises now running on twelve-month schedules, is there much incentive to finish a franchise game sixth months after its initial release? Game companies like Bioware may be tracking whether or not you complete a game for internal use, but you can be sure the accounting department couldn't care less if you saw the ending credits.

video games are first and foremost entertainment

Wake Me When It's Over

Despite great debate over whether or not games are art, video games are first and foremost entertainment. They are an escape. They are windows into a life that's not your own. And if a game can't sell that experience, gamers begin to weigh the value of their time versus the cost of the game itself. If a video game isn't providing a level of excitement or engagement that a competing source of entertainment offers, it moves to the back burner.
"Earlier this year, I caught a nasty cold and was laid up, head full of meds, for a week or so. Eager to play a game that would suck me in and require very little thinking, I picked up Final Fantasy XIII. I sat there for days on end, mashing the PS3's X button and letting the game sort of happen to me. It was a perfectly passive experience, and it was just was I needed. But once I started feeling better and the haze in my brain faded, I realized that Final Fantasy XIII was boring, and I stopped playing it."

Now, twenty years ago, when there were fewer games, you might have just persevered through a boring game simply because, well, it was a video game. Video games still felt new and exciting just for existing. That crutch, though, was turned into kindling when the PlayStation 2 took video games mainstream once and for all.

Video Games :- Why Don't We Finish More Video Games?

Video Games
With video games more expensive than ever, you would think that gamers would squeeze every last second of play out of them before moving on to the next adventure. But that's not always the case. Earlier this year, Bioware released some fascinating statistics about Mass Effect 2, but the stand-out figure was the revelation that only 50 -percent of players actually finished Commander Shepherd's mission to stop the Collectors.
Obviously, Mass Effect 2 isn't alone in this phenomenon of early bailing on a game. Every gamer has at least one or two titles on their shelf that they never completed for a number of reasons. Interest waned. Bought a new game. Real life came calling. And because of reasons like these, that $60 investment was relegated to the game library (or the used game store) before the adventure was brought to a proper close.
Of course, some games can't be finished by design. Arcade-style games are all about getting the high score rather than racing toward a cutscene pay-off and some closing credits. But the majority of games now are contained experiences with a designated end point, even if after the final conflict is resolved the player can still tie up loose ends such as outstanding side quests. So, knowing that there is an ending out there somewhere, what makes us push the eject button before all is said and done?