Measuring the impact of games is a complex challenge. We’ve considered why games may be effective from a psychological perspective and spoken to designers about the delicate balance between accuracy and fun. Still, fundamental questions remain. What types of people are playing games, and to what effect? Games are a huge component of the entertainment [...]
January 29, 2013
Anti-speaker recap: History and videogames
Video games allow you to take on almost any role you can think of, from an extraterrestrial to a star running back in the NFL. This capacity for close engagement with characters through play is one of the aspects that makes video games such an influential form of entertainment. In one of our previous posts [...]
December 20, 2012
Evaluating Attitude and Emotion in Video Games
On November 12th, HI researchers attended a Hey Girl (Gamer) talk on the nature of affect, emotion, and physical embodiment in games. The talk was organized by graduate student, Sarah Shoemann, of NYU-Polytechnic Institute’s Game Innovation Lab, and featured Kinect developer and adjunct faculty member, Phoenix Perry. Perry had some great insights into the games mechanics necessary to bring about [...]
November 21, 2012
Social impact games: New challenges for change
Americans above the age of 12 last year spent, on average, 131 hours playing video games. (A point of comparison: In an equal number of credit hours, you could earn a bachelors degree in computer engineering.) With gaming industry revenues projected to grow by 35 percent over the next five years to $70 billion annually, [...]
September 05, 2012
