Cooperatively Playing Games with Parents. How did it affect you? A new study may have the answers.

Call me a nerd, but there is nothing I enjoy more than researching what I love on the internet. It's pretty rare when I stumble across an accredited peer-reviewed article about gaming, but when I do, I always find it a fantastic read. I guess there has been a method to these years of college under my belt after all. This is a little something out of the ordinary for a blog, or even a gaming news site, but I will try my best to make it as interesting as possible for all audiences.



A study has come out of Brigham Young showing a positive relationship between families that game together. Particularly (and @Assassionista you will love this) between the parent and daughter. Their research asked approximately 300 families simple questions about how they interact with video games as a family, the age-appropriateness of the games they play together, and how much time is spent playing these games.

It was found that about half of the children played games alongside their parents, and these levels were associated with larger amounts of parent-child connectedness when it game to girls playing age-appropriate games. However, when it came to playing age-inappropriate game (eg. Grand Theft Auto, Duke Nukem, etc.) the sense of reality between parents and offspring faded since it was almost as if games (and the actions therein) were looked upon as being positive.

When playing appropriate games with their children parents show that they are willing to enjoy and engage in an activity that their daughter also enjoys, tightening the bond and quality parent-time between them. Girls that were studied also exhibited a lower level of stress, anxiety, and aggression when co-playing games with their parents.

What do you guys think? Did you ever play games with your parents or siblings when you were younger? And how did you turn out? Was it always a positive experience for you?

This article really got me thinking about how our parents (and video games) really have an effect on how we grow and learn about the world as an adolescent. Most of my childhood I grew up playing games locked away in my bedroom. I can remember weeks of playing Super Mario RPG on the SNES and having a total lack of social interactiveness during that time, but whenever I would play games such as Mario Kart or Goldeneye with my mother, we would have one heck of a bonding experience.

If you want to read the aforementioned article you can do so here. Until Later.

~~Disc07

Use Kinect to Control Master Chief?

Earlier today, It was announced that the Kinect was indeed going to be used to enhance 343's remake of the classic: Halo: Combat Evolved, slated for release November 15th. But what will this Kinect augmentation be used for within the game? Neither 343 Studios nor Microsoft have released any details on how the motion sensing and voice controlling will be implemented within the game; we have already seen positive feedback of what the Kinect in capable of with apps such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, but how will this technology, which seems perfect for these applications be transitioned to a fast-paced action-adventure such as Halo?

At this years E3 we saw some implication of the microphone of the Kinect with squad-based controls in the upcoming Mass Effect 3 game and the newly released Kinect Fun Labs have shown full execution of the 3D-imaging capable of the accessory. And we even heard an announcement of a release of Minecraft by 4J Studios (the same group that ported the classic Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie to XBLA) that would plot you chopping wood, mining gold, and killing innocent livestock with your bare hands all while controlling your pixelated character around the world.

All in all, the Kinect is a very young peripheral, and although the Wii has had the motion-sensing market for much longer than the Xbox, I can see the Kinect taking their technology much further than anything that Nintendo can conjure up. But is Halo really the right place to be marketing these Kinect features? Will the Kinect respond quickly enough to the fast-paced action that we tend to see throughout the franchise? If done correctly it would be awesome, but if not, it just might not be enough to persuade the hardcore gamer to the new motion sensing technology, at least for games such as this.

Microsoft followed up their announcement later with this statement:

"It's no surprise we're exploring ways Kinect can enhance game experiences in authentic and meaningful ways. The Kinect features we're exploring with 'Halo: Anniversary' are additive and will not affect the core gameplay experience or alter our mission of delivering a faithful recreation of the original game. That said we have nothing else to share just yet."

~~Disc07

Wired Gamers News!

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-Spieg89