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RPG Vs Casual Games

RPG (Role-Playing Game) are more favourable than Casual Games (Short skill/IQ games). Do you agree that's because modern people love to communicate but much easier to express in-game with a virtual character? Or virtual character starts with a common level which remove age gap differences? Post your views. Do be original, avoid repeating others views or comment on them ^ ^.

A good game (3)

Recently, news reported about good games keeping patient at ease. These are some great result that benefited the public form the sweat and blood of good game developer.

Saturday December 16, 6:45 AM

Video games ease sick kids', parents' painBy Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When 11-year-old Gus Luna was able to play one of his favorite video games while recovering from exploratory brain cancer surgery in intensive care, his mother breathed a big sigh of relief.

"It was brain surgery... it was so scary. That made me feel like things seemed OK," said Marcela Luna, whose son has been undergoing chemotherapy since last year, when surgeons were unable to remove his tumor.

Gus, an all-star soccer player and tae kwon do green belt, was president of his fifth-grade class before falling ill. Now being home schooled, he cannot imagine getting through his treatments without video games: "It would be really hard without this ... You never know what's going to happen next."

Games let him focus on something other than the illness, doctors and hospital visits that dominate his life. Gus is being treated at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which is among 1,000 hospitals worldwide with video game Fun Centers that roll from bed to bed, just like regular hospital equipment.

"You're like a regular kid," he said. "You forget about needles, you forget about what's all around you."

NOT JUST KIDS STUFF
Over the last decade, researchers around the world have done hundreds of studies probing the value of video games and other forms of virtual reality to help children, and their parents, cope with medical-related anxiety and pain.

Results have been mostly positive and continue rolling in. The University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine earlier this year published details from a study of 20 children having an intravenous line inserted.

Half of them underwent the procedure while playing "Street Luge," a fully-immersive virtual reality game in which players control characters who race downhill while reclining on a big skateboard. The children wore a helmet fitted with headphones and glasses that delivered game sounds and images. They also used a rumbling joystick.

Children who did not play the game reported a four-fold increase in pain intensity from the procedure, while those who used virtual reality distraction reported no change in pain intensity.
The University of South Australia's Center of Allied Health Evidence did a study of children with serious burn injuries and found "strong evidence" supporting the use of virtual reality-based games in pain management.

In similar fashion, doctors at Israel's Chaim Sheba Medical Center used Sony Corp.'s PlayStation II EyeToy -- a camera that connects to a video game console allowing users to see themselves on TV -- as a rehabilitation tool for patients with severe burns. In a published article they said it proved to be an efficient and affordable alternative.

GAMING FOR GOOD
Nintendo Co. Ltd. executive Don James designed the current Fun Center and said the company will start shipping units that include its new Wii video game console in mid-2007. The Japanese game giant sponsors more than 3,500 of the 5,000-plus Fun Centers in hospitals through a program created and run by Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, whose aim is to combat the isolation and fear experienced by hospitalized kids.

A donation of $3,250 covers a current-generation Fun Center with a GameCube console, flat-screen monitor and DVD player, as well as its lifetime upkeep, a Starlight spokeswoman said.
Jeffrey Gold, program psychologist for the pediatric pain management clinic at USC-affiliated Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, was on the team that did the university's virtual reality pain study and continues to research the subject.

Hospitalized children are in a foreign environment with none of the familiar comforts of home, he said. "There is no normalcy. When you roll in a video game, there is some normalcy," Gold said.
Parents also benefit, he added. "If you have children and you see them in distress, then you're in distress. If they're more calm, you're more calm."

That's something all moms -- from Marcela Luna to movie star and author Jamie Lee Curtis, a Starlight proponent -- know first-hand. Five years ago, Curtis' son was hospitalized with a ruptured spleen and nurses wheeled in a Fun Center.

"It made him forget he was in the hospital ... It changed our experience," she said.

News from : http://sg.news.yahoo.com/061215/3/45hwz.html

Comments are welcome ^ ^

A good game (2)

Oh great! I love constructive post on my comment box!

Since these are personal comments, I don't think we should or should not agree with one another. Most important is the point is being shared.

My personal experience is that gaming taught me a lot of things. Take for example, StarCraft. Playing the scenario will be as good as reading a story book (more interactive). You learn something as good as reading a book.

There are some people who are good at reading books. There are some people who don't. Vice-versa, there are some who play games and some don't. Game has just open up another learning platform for "the other" group.

Rationing Pots is one good example brought up. It is another method of putting a child into a real jungle for survival training. You may learn rationing in school but this is where you practice and apply your skills. Implementation is far more important than theory. Just like getting into a school science lab after a lesson on theory.

It may not be learning something VERY IMPORTANT but every micro learning makes a better person.

Time passes every second and brain works as you take each breath. You can choose to learn something or you can choose to stall.

Do you know how long can you hold your breath? You never need to know until someone tie and throw you into the sea. If the day does come, every micro skill counts. It would be a matter of live and death.

More comments please!

A good game

AHi all, it's Sunday! Since I have some free time today, I will simply pick something general to talk about just to pass our time ^ ^

In these days, there are sooo many games! How did you choose what to play? Everyone might have different items on their checklist. For eg. Superb graphics, touching stories, etc. To keep it short, these are some of my checklist which might be worth your consideration when picking the next game:

1. Does it train and enhance my skill?

Let's take Audition for example. The game requires you to complete a set of directional arrows within a specific time frame (from slow to fast as you progress). This trains you to complete a simple task, quickly. This will eventually make you a person who will pick-up challengers and complete them quickly. It also helps to train your recognition skills linking from memory to hands.

2. Beyond the game, is there a real life element to it?

Beside playing a game, what other purpose does the game possess? In Pangya, it teaches real golfing terms, techniques, physics and regulations. Try watching the next Tiger wood game on ESPN. You will now be able to tell and feel how hard it is to gain that kinda accuracy!

3. Does the game bring value to real life?

In MapleStory, we make more friends. We also know how kind or cruel can human be. It is a platform where you can experience the reality without losing something tengible.

Share your values by commenting in this post!

Partying Chaos

It was a busy week! We saw AsiaSoft team preparing for the launch of Audition, with Mark of AuditionSEA and the Audition Party, many other events was also in the action. One of which is the Open Beta of Kong Kong, the patch from developer somehow did not work for many (successfully patched but still cannot run, including myself!).

Pangya Cashshop had a little hip-cup but was resolved quickly. AsiaSoft Passport was kinda down for 12 hours. Worst was Audition going commercialisation, the game went down for almost 60 hours!

Nonetheless, the game is now up (with new songs, new items and A-Cash usable of cos!), the party was GREAT, with MiLuBing, illers, Teresa and a nice host, everyone went home with a smile. If not for the event, at least for the exclusive cap and goodie bag ^ ^

It's KK time!

For those who waited long, yes, Kong Kong will be going for Open Beta soon. News from the Admin is that the service will be open to public this week. It's time to stress test the game and testing of your speed limit. We believe Audition had provided basic training for your fingers to react fast but in Kong Kong Battle mode, you need strategy! Visit www.kongkongsea.com and wait for the good news ^ ^