Blog 5 - Video Games and Health

For my final for this class, I am going to give a presentation on the effects of video games on health. I gathered all of the images through google, so I own nothing in the slideshow, but I will repost my favorite picture from the slide show here:

The presentation consists mostly of summarized versions of studies done on the effects of video games on the brain, which I would prefer not to post here without links to the articles (which I accessed through the school library so I'm not sure that they'd work here). So I will post a condensed version of my speaking notes.

*A study in 2008 showed that video games can increase a person's attention, spatial memory and decision making skills. Gamers slightly outperformed non-gamers.

*A 2012 study showed that FPS gamers had faster reaction times, better speed and better accuracy than non-gamers. It also helped to combat the common idea that violent video games beget violent, antisocial and impulsive behavior.

*A 2012 study done on high school boys showed that heavy gamers had better short term memory encoding than casual and non-gamers.

*A 2009 study done on a 24 year old brain trauma patient showed that 5 weeks of using a car simulator had helped improve his memory and increased brain activity.

*From here, I'll lead into Jane McGonigal, repeating things I said in my last blog: http://gamersoranye.blogspot.com/2013/12/blog-4-jane-mcgonigals-extra-7-minutes.html

*And finally, a study was done using Lumosity(http://www.lumosity.com/) and ATP3(http://www.lapublishing.com/apt-attention-process-training-test/) that showed that both programs had helped significantly improve cognitive function in brain trauma patients.

Overall outcome: Video games are good for us. So when people try to tell you otherwise, tell them that there is ongoing research that keeps proving the benefits of video games and then run off and play whatever game you happen to be playing now. Thank you and good night!

Oh and here, have some baby animals because they are adorable and good for you:

This last one reminds me of my boyfriend, who gets a special thank you for giving me the list of research that my presentation is based on.

Citations (the best I can do is SJSU library links, but the journals are there for those who don't have SJSU access).

Enhanced visual short-term memory in action video game players.

 Blacker, Kara J. Curby, Kim M. ; Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Vol 75(6), Aug, 2013. pp. 1128-1136. [Journal Article]

The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control.

Boot, Walter R. Kramer, Arthur F. Simons, Daniel J. Fabiani, Monica Gratton, Gabriele ; Acta Psychologica, Vol 129(3), Nov, 2008. pp. 387-398. [Journal Article]

Video game play changes spatial and verbal memory: Rehabilitation of a single case with traumatic brain injury.

Caglio, Marcella Latini-Corazzini, Luca D’agata, Federico Cauda, Franco Sacco, Katiuscia Monteverdi, Silvia Zettin, Marina Duca, Sergio Geminiani, Giuliano ; Cognitive Processing, Vol 10(Suppl2), Sep, 2009. Special issue: Neuroscience today: Neuronal functional diversity and collective behaviors. pp. S195-S197. [Journal Article]

Action video gaming and cognitive control: Playing first person shooter games is associated with improvement in working memory but not action inhibition.

Colzato, Lorenza S. van den Wildenberg, Wery P. M. Zmigrod, Sharon Hommel, Bernhard ; Psychological Research, Vol 77(2), Mar, 2013. pp. 234-239. [Journal Article]

Let the games begin: A preliminary study using Attention Process Training-3 and Lumosity™ brain games to remediateattention deficits following traumatic brain injury.

 Zickefoose, Samantha Hux, Karen Brown, Jessica Wulf, Katrina ; Brain Injury, Vol 27(6), Jun, 2013. pp. 707-716. [Journal Article]

Intensive video gaming improves encoding speed to visual short-term memory in young male adults.

Wilms, Inge L. Petersen, Anders Vangkilde, Signe ; Acta Psychologica, Vol 142(1), Jan, 2013. pp. 108-118. [Journal Article]

Blog 4 - Jane McGonigal's Extra 7 Minutes of Life

So this post is assuming you have seen two videos from Jane McGonigal's TED talks.

Here is the first, where she explains why we need to play more games:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Here is the second one, which I would like to discuss:



I would like to discuss the second video. In this video Jane starts off by discussing the top 5 regrets of the dying.
1. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
2. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
3. I wish I had let myself be happier.
4. I wish I'd had the courage to express my true self.
5. I wish I had lived a life true to my dreams and not what others expected of me.

She goes on to describe how games address each of these issues (though the last one is still a question) using scientific research. My favorite thing she says in this bit is that online games can out-perform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. It can boost moods and produce long term increases in happiness. I no longer need to justify why I prefer to spend more time playing games (at least, when I have the time to), but just in case, I'll be saving this statistic.

Jane moves on to describe a brain injury she had that left her bedridden and wishing to die because her doctor's orders said she basically shouldn't do anything.
So to combat the suicidal thoughts, she turned her recovery into a game and eventually posted it online. It's called SuperBetter.  https://superbetter.com

The game uses quests that boost your attributes: Physical Resilience, Mental Resilience, Emotional Resilience, and Social Resilience.
These attributes actually correspond to 4 of the 6 types of health: physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual (this one is not addressed through the game).

She has her audience do the first 4 SuperBetter quests which gives them all +1 to each type of resilience and then she uses science and math to explain how this increases your life span. The short version of this is if you do simple things every day, you will live for, at least, an extra 10 years. The math breaks it down to an extra 7.5 minutes added on for each day of these activities. 

The reason I love this video is because Jane used gamification to help herself recover from a brain injury and she has since turned into into a game that anybody can play, that is extremely healthy and good for you and that is the easiest thing in the world to play. Simply because it's life. It's the good life, broken down into silly quests that can only be good for you. It encourages people to live happy lives and it's really an inspiring video. The scientific research to back up her game adds an extra layer of awesomeness. Who doesn't want to live longer from enjoying themselves? And what gamer doesn't want to be able to tell all the nay-sayers that science is providing more and more evidence that games are good for us?

Blog Post 3 - 5 games

Game 1 - dis4ia
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/591565

I think this was a pretty amazing game. The mechanics were simple, just use the directional keys and find your way through the story of a transgender person's experience with hormone therapy and how they felt about their own body. The art was simple, the mechanics were simple, but the constant change in each "challenge" per story page (or room) was enough to keep my attention. 



Game 2 - Canabalt
http://www.kongregate.com/games/AdamAtomic/canabalt
This was another simple game, great for people who need to kill a few minutes.  The game is all shades of gray. You are a person, running across the tops of tall buildings. You have to learn to control your speed in order to control your jumps. When you run into things, you slow down. It seems like the next building is randomly generated so you've only got a split second to adjust your speed (if you can at all) in order to make the next jump. It is a bit of a game of chance in that respect. If you try to control your speed so you're not going too fast for the low jumps (where you have a very small window to make it on to the next building) you will not make the longer jumps. The background is entertaining. There is some giant monster/machine shadow destroying the city. Not sure if that has anything to do with why your person is running. I never got through the small openings.

Game 3 - You have to burn the rope

 http://www.kongregate.com/games/mazapan/you-have-to-burn-the-rope

This was probably the cutest game out of all the ones I played. The instructions were very clear and the controls were pretty simple. Any non-directional key throws things! It appeals to the easily amused side of me. The ending song was fun to listen to and the game itself was short and sweet. I get the feeling the game was made either for a class or as a simple experiment. The song makes me think it was for a class because they say they didn't feel like making another level and you beat the damn game. 

Game 4 - This is the only level

http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level

More cute games! This one only had one level design, but 30 stages with slight changes to the controls, physics or rules of the level. I stopped after level 8 because...well the candy stripes started pissing me off. I wanted to get through quickly.  I did enjoy the game though. I think the changes were genius. It's definitely giving me ideas for the mechanics of my own game, though all I know right now is that I'd like to make a platformer. Probably why I'm enjoying all of the platformers here so much.

Game 5 - Don't shit your pants

http://www.kongregate.com/games/rete/dont-shit-your-pants

Another fun and simple game. You have to give step by step instructions on how to not shit your pants. If you type an unknown command, the fat man who really needs to shit tells you he doesn't know how to do what you've typed. Don't tell him to fart. Don't forget to take off his pants. It turns out, if you shit on the floor, you still win. You just have to not shit your pants. The game has simple computer art and an achievement list that makes it a fun game to replay (you know...for the achievement whores because...well you gotta know how to get them all!)

Blog Post 2 - Paper Prototype

Call It
My paper prototype project is called Call It. The main mechanic of the game is chance. It is a race to the end game that relies entirely on chance and luck...unless you cheat. 

RULES

START
Player tokens (coins) on start space.
Flip coin to decide who goes first. Someone calls heads or tails while the coin is in the air. If there are more than 2 players, players flip against each other to determine play order.

TURN
Flip a coin and pick a card from either the HEADS or TAILS pile depending on coin results. Move according to cards.

When two players end up on the same space, they must BATTLE (best 2 out of 3 coin flips). Winner gets to draw a movement card from the corresponding pile of the final flip and play the card. This does not count as a turn.

CHALLENGE SPACES
When a player lands on a challenge space, they may battle another player (best 2 out of 3). The winner gets to move their token to the more advanced space between the two (if they are already on it, they keep their position).

DECK
Each deck contains the same number of cards.
(4) Move forward 2
(3) Move forward 1
(2) Move back 1
(1)Move back 2
(2) Leap (move forward 3)
(1) Slide - The players may keep this card until they land on a space that overlaps with another space (marked with stars). This card allows the player to slide to the inner space.
(1) Set Trap - When a player draws this card, they may set a trap on the board anywhere they like. The first person to land on the trap springs it. They must move their token to the ring outside their current ring. The person who places the trap is NOT immune to it. Trap cards are removed from the deck until their traps are sprung.They may be added back in after that.
(1) Transport- This card allows the player to move to the next space with a circle they see on the board. If there is not one ahead of them, they stay where they are.

PLAY SESSIONS

The first time I played this game was with a classmate whose name I can't remember. This was on Monday, September 16 and we decided during the initial brainstorming that we would use a coin flip to move our pieces on the board and that it should be a circular board. After the first couple of minutes, we had drawn two different boards and decided to play on mine. We decided heads would move forward one, tails would move back one. Realizing that was getting us nowhere (I kept flipping tails), we made movement cards for heads or tails. We made a few different forward and back cards. After a couple of minutes, we decided we needed more forward cards than back. After another 5 minutes, we decided the game needed something else. We were getting around the board, but there was nothing that kept the game interesting. We needed conflict. Our time ran out after that.

My second play session was with my boyfriend, using the current form of the game. I had just finished clearly writing out my rules (so I thought) so I didn't bother rereading them before we started. We ended up playing with the wrong reward for the challenge. We were never on the same space, so I never realized the mistake. We did have a lot of fun playing, mostly because I was losing at my own game for most of it. I filmed the last few minutes of play, where I ultimately won and was accused of cheating. The most amusing part of that was that I had considered cheating before I filmed anything because I thought I shouldn't lose my own game.

The third play session was in class on Monday with Ramone. We played with proper rules and I realized that there were some nuances I hadn't explained in my rules (which are now in the blog) and that I needed to rewrite a couple of cards to make them more clear. We both enjoyed playing the game, and I have not made any more revisions, though if I were to, I would try to add some kind of story or theme. Something along the lines of aesthetics instead of mechanics.

Blog Post 1 - Play Session

I missed the day of the class play session, but in my spare time I did play Star Fluxx with a friend.

Star Fluxx is a card game which follows the standard mechanics of any other Fluxx game. There are 6 types of cards.

Rule cards- Rule cards set limits on players such as how many cards can be in their hand, how many must be played per turn, and how many Keepers can be on the field.
Keeper cards- These are cards that can stay on the field. Some have abilities on them.(In Star Fluxx, these cards contain references to popular sci-fi space shows and movies).

Creeper cards- These cards must be attached to Keeper cards and prevent the player from winning the game using the Keeper the Creeper is attached to.

Goal cards- These cards will say which two Keeper cards are required to win.

Action cards- These allow players to do special actions such as drawing extra cards, completely discarding their hand, playing extra cards,etc.

Surprise cards- These cards can be played at any time to stop another player using an Action card. They can also be played during a normal turn.

Until Rule cards have been placed, Star Fluxx follows a simple draw 1 card, play 1 card per turn. Each player starts with 5 cards in their hand. Star Fluxx cards reference all things star related, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Doctor Who and more.

For the first couple of turns of the play session, my friend and I stuck to the draw 1, play 1 rule. I had a Play 3 rule in my hand, but did not want to have to play all of my cards at that time. Eventually, my friend put down a draw 5 rule and my hand quickly got out of hand.

After the draw 5 rule went into play, I put down a play 3 rule and changed the draw rule to draw 4. Eventually, we started to set goal cards. At this point, I had plenty of goal cards in my hand and for every goal my friend set, I set one that included at least one of my Keepers. A rule card was put down later that limited us to only 1 card in our hand, forcing me to discard all of my cards and my friend to do the same. 

My draw 4, play 3 rule was still in place. I had a Surprise card in my hand allowing my to draw 3 then play 2 cards(discarding the last). This gave me the keeper I needed to win, but I was foiled by the creeper on the second keeper. I still had two more cards to play so I set down a different Keeper, used it's ability to steal one of my friend's keepers and changed the goal so I won with that pair instead.

Introduction

Hello James (and general public, I suppose). 

I am Ashley. 

I have never used this site before so if it looks a little boring, I promise I'll make it better later. 

I am in the BFA program for Digital Media and I am taking this class because I am a gamer. 

I ultimately want to make video games for a living, so my school "career" has been spent gaining skills that can somehow be applicable to that field (and if not that, some other job that I will enjoy). My goal in life is to enjoy every aspect of it. So far, I have hated every job I've had, but they have all been a means to an end (and retail is terrible by nature).

So that's the boring, standard stuff out of the way. Which leaves me not knowing what else to say really. Since I work and go to school full time I barely find time during the school year to pursue my hobbies. The only thing I have really managed to make time for (and even then, not enough time for) is Star Wars: the Old Republic. I have been playing this MMO since launch with my brother and sister in law, so the game is more about my own character and anything we can do as family than it is about  meeting new people. That being said, we have joined a guild with people who are there for themselves and other family members (spouses or siblings) and we end up having a lot of fun.  My brother and I say particularly horrible things to each other and very much enjoy confusing people who have not met us before. That is the best general description of about 3 hours of my week outside of work and school.

I do have other hobbies such as watching anime, reading manga, reading books, making costumes,etc but I have not managed to make enough time to do any of those in...2 years or so now. 

I am actually calling this past summer the most successful summer in years because I played a console game from start to finish, read 3 books, went on vacation and quit the most stressful job I've ever had for a less stressful job where I get paid more to work less. This semester, I have weekends! (I haven't had weekends in 5 years), though I have 6 classes this semester so we'll see how these weekends turn out.

I hate endings (which is partially why MMO's get more of my attention than any other game) and I have no way to wrap this up nicely so...yeah........