studies
Books about gamers for librarians, teachers
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…
Warranty company calculates Xbox 360 failure rate at 16%
SquareTrade, a firm that deals in warranties for electronics, analyzed the data taken from more than a thousand warranty purchases. It found that the Xbox 360 has a failure rate of about 16.4%, making it much more malfunction prone than the Playstation3 and Wii, which have a failure rate of only 3%. According to 1UP, they were far above Microsoft’s own estimates, which were, ironically, also 3%.
Sixty percent of those 360 failures were due to the system’s infamous “Red Ring of Death,” where 3 flashing LED lights go on around the power button to indicate a…
Racing games a boon to professional drivers
On Saturday (February 2, 2008), the Arizona Republic published an article about professional race car drivers who are using videogames to practice for actual races.
The article begins with Denny Hamlin, a rookie NASCAR driver who played videogames featuring Ponoco Raceway to get himself acquainted with the Pennsylvania race track. Hamlin won first place for the actual race…
Report: Video game rentals hurt overall sales
Newsflash: game rentals hurt sales. Proving the obvious through research, a gamedaily affiliated study recently found that very few people who rent games actually end up buying the titles. According to the study, a full 49% of people bought none of the games they rented, 42% bought 1-10% of the games they rented, and 9% more »
Health Games Research Injected with $8.25 Million Grant
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced Monday (November 12, 2007) that it will use its $8.25 million grant to fund project contributions that aid in RWJF’s Games for Health Project to develop and create games that improve health through interactive games. The primary research will be held at the University of California in Santa more »
