Word: gamely
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...already converted, games can be learning environments that would be impossible in an ordinary classroom. The creators of People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance, expected to launch in February, designed their product to be used to train nonviolent activists. "We want to provide people with a chance to make decisions and see what the results are, but without getting killed or thrown in prison," says U.S.-based Steve York, the game's project manager. (See pictures of World of Warcraft...
...Anybody who has ever powered up a Nintendo knows the addictive pull to finish another scene or gain one more level. "Engagement, reward, leveling up - those are powerful tools," says Alan Gershenfeld, former vice president at the game firm Activision and now president of E-Line Media, a New York City-based developer of social games. "Game designers have it honed to a whole new level...
...that games' remarkable ability to forge otherwise distant connections. When racists attacked a virtual Darfur refugee camp in 2006 in the online role-playing game Second Life, it caught the attention of KallfuNahuel Matador, a bald, blue-skinned avatar. "It was like somebody had thrown a virtual bomb," says Matador, a Canadian who asked to be referred to by his online name so as not to blend his real life with his second one. What he saw motivated him to organize a team of online superheroes to secure the camp, make patrols and recruit players to stop similar acts...
...millions of gamers looking to do such things as play sudoku or simultaneously count people entering and leaving a house. Allstate launched a pilot program in 2008 that gave 100,000 customers software designed to improve their reaction time behind the wheel. And American Airlines offered a free memory game in an online promo in December...
...self-reporting is not a reliable way to assess how well our brains are working. And slick marketing makes it hard to tell what's good from what's gimmicky. "There is not enough evidence that paying for a $100 fitness program gets you better results than a free game of chess or learning a new card game or bridge strategy, when it comes to improving your memory," says P. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and geriatrics at Duke University and head of the school's new mental-fitness lab. (See 10 myths about dieting...