With the fear of child obesity steadily on the rise in California, Anthem Blue Cross and the Boys & Girls Club of Camarillo joined forces to improve the health and physical well-being of children in California.

The idea for the project started when Dr. Harvinder Sareen, director of clinical programs for Anthem Blue Cross, visited the Boys & Girls Club of Camarillo with an idea according to Bill Locker, CEO/President of BGC of Camarillo.

“She asked about the idea and we said we were very interested. We then did some research on exergaming and thought it would be a great program for our kids…

This week has had a similar theme when it comes to subscriptions in games. Star Wars: The Old Republic came under fire by the CEO of Bigpoint because it uses a subscription model. Bigpoint’s CEO said he doesn’t think The Old Republic will ever make a profit because more money is in microtransactions, not subscriptions. Also this week, K2 Network was reported to have purchased the rights to APB. K2 offers a number of Free2Play games and APB may adapt that formula as well.

$500 is a lot of money to spend on any device. But we all know by know that most Apple products don’t come cheap. Time and time again Apple has risen the bar in consumer electronics and other companies have to play catch up. But have you ever stopped to think what your purchases say about your personality? One research firm did, and it drew some staggering conclusions. The results were, in short, typical iPad owners are terrible human beings.

Researchers from the University of Iowa conducted a study to analyze the relation between gaming for prolonged periods of time and attention levels when performing certain tasks.

The results indicated that the group that played games more than 40 hours a week had significantly less proactive attention – the kind used in anticipation of events – while reactive attention – the kind triggered by an event – was similar in both groups.

According to a recent article published in the SouthTown Star and written by GateHouse News Service, online gamers may have been wrongly stereotyped.

Of the 7,000 online gamers researchers interviewed who played EverQuest 2, a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game), they are not the overweight rotund teenage boys most people once thought they were…

In the Los Angeles Times, writer Alex Pham reports that the San Fernando Library encourages youth to play video games and even invites them to be as loud as they like.

“It lets teens be more comfortable with the library and become familiar with librarians,” San Fernando librarian Lydia Harlan told Pham. “And it’s what kids are into these days.”

In the article, Pham reports that more libraries are turning to video games to connect with technologically savvy youth who might be losing interest in books and stories. In New York, the New York Public Library has even added a collection of books, films, music and maps about video games.

Click through for the full article and a list of recommended books…

Two papers presented on August 5, 2008, at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Boston, MA (USA), demonstrated that some videogames can help improve the ability to solve problems and dexterity.

In the first paper. titled Children’s Problem Solving During Video Game Play, Fordham University psychologist Fran C. Blumberg, PhD, and Sabrina S. Ismailer, MSED, presented the results of a study that examined the problem-solving skills of grade-school aged children while they played videogames.

Another paper titled Four Dimensions of Video Game Effects by psychologist Douglas Gentile, PhD, and William Stone, BS, described effects of game usage within high school and college-aged students along with a few professionals in the field of laparoscopic surgery…

Independent research group NPD Group has releases its US video game sales numbers for June 2008.

A few games dominated the month, especially Lego Indiana Jones, which took four of the top 20 sales spots. Likewise, Guitar Hero titles took four spots (Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was three of them). Topping the chart was Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for PS3 at 774,600 units (not including games bundled with a system). May 2008′s top game, Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360, dropped down to 11th and its partner release, GTA4 for PS3, came in 19th after being fourth the previous month. Thirteen of the top 20 selling games in June were released that month.

The oldest game on the list is…

Dan Laton, a Psychology graduate from Victoria University, recently conducted a study on the effects of games on social well being. Gamers tend to be thought of as a group of socially awkward, shy nerds. The purpose of the study was to find out whether or not that stereotype is actually true.

His study had shown that there are no clear links between shyness and gaming, since only one percent of his subjects actually suffered from shyness. The gamers that have been found to have problems socially end up being the players of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Everquest. These findings have some implications for the American Medical Association (AMA) which will be readdressing whether or not video game addiction as a mental disorder by…

We all know that the Wii has found extensive use as a fitness device besides being incorporated into rehabilitation programs world over. There have been a few researches to study its relationship with a player’s health and fitness but a deeper understanding of the subject can fashion a fitness revolution of sorts. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced grants worth $2 million for research on effects of video games on health through its Health Games Research program…