Wii sports level playing field

Nintendo says it wants to revolutionise gaming with its Wii console. Gamers can now control the action with a motion sensitive remote control, called the Wiimote - but does the novelty wear off quickly?

Wii sport is included with every Wii console and contains 5 basic sporting activities - tennis, baseball, bowling, boxing and golf.In an age of high-definition gaming with photo-realistic character models and intricately-realised buildings and models, it is a real throwback to put a Wii disk into the machine and see the cute, colourful graphics with crudely drawn figures and a somewhat retro look to the interface.

The Wii's graphical capabilities are nothing like that of its rivals, the Xbox 360 and PS3. palying on an HD TV really shows this up. The different sports are a mixed bag of entertainment - all are fun in their own way but some are clearly more involving than others.

Customers are all-round very plaesed with the Wii's performance. It is worth making sure you have plenty of room in which to play: my wife and I literally came to blows when boxing and I managed to swipe a lamp shade during one frenetic tennis match.

• Format: Nintendo Wii
• Graphics: 6
• Sound: 7
• Gameplay: 8
• Enduring appeal: 6
• Overall: 7

Brain control headset for gamers

Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone.

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year. It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer, said US/Australian firm Emotiv. It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively.

The brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) to read the neural activity. Emotiv is a neuro-engineering company and they have created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically.

• Sensors respond to the electrical impulses behind different thoughts; enabling a user's brain to influence gameplay directly.
• Conscious thoughts, facial expressions, and non-conscious emotions can all be detected.
• Gyroscope enables a cursor or camera to be controlled by head movements.
• The headset uses wi-fi to connect to a computer.

The use of Electroencephalography in medical practice dates back almost 100 years but it is only since the 1970s that the procedure has been used to explore brain computer interfaces. It can also read emotions of players and translate those to the virtual world. The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games. For example if you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous.

The $299 headset has a gyroscope to detect movement and has wireless capabilities to communicate with a USB dongle plugged into a computer. Gamers are able to move objects in the world just by thinking of the action. brain computer interfaces, like the Epoc headset were an important component of the future 3D Internet and the future of virtual communication.

Mobile gaming expected to expode

People are going to be spending millions of pounds to play games on their mobiles by next year, say experts. Mobile gaming is seen by many as the next big thing, as phones become more powerful in terms of screen quality, game graphics etc, and come with colour screens.

It has been a very good year for mobile gaming which has seen a boom in the number of phones bought with the gaming quality in mind, and the amount of games that people are downloading on their phones. this has been helped tremendously by the advances involcing internet connections on mobiles. the mobile gaming market is now a multi billion dollar scene.

This is good news for mobile phone companies, which have become increasingly desperate to find ways of getting more money from their subscribers. They are looking at how to get people to do more with their mobiles. this would require a new thought approach on the part of the phone operators, as they are not used to dealing with large quantaties of data. Games for mobiles are different from those played on a PC or a console like the PlayStation 2. They are designed to appeal to people with a few minutes to kill waiting for a train or bus.

In Japan especially, mobile gaming has already proved immensely popular, where people are happy to pay to download relatively simple games that can be played anywhere. The corporations in Japan have seen this as a sign of a worldwide marketing oppertunity and plan to sieze it with both hands.

These included the development of new technology like Java to create for games for mobiles, as well as the spread of new handsets which were effectively small computers. The gaming industry and handset manufacturers have been urged to realise the potential crossover market for their products.

Microsoft don't plan for blu-ray on Xbox 360

Microsoft has no plans to release a Blu-ray add-on for the Xbox 360 and is instead backing digital delivery, executives of the America based corporation have said. Microsoft stopped production of its HD-DVD player following the decision by Toshiba, the format's creator, to concede victory to rival Blu-ray.

It is though that in the next two to three years physical media will give way to downloads. Microsoft therfore refuse to house the Blu-Ray fromat, as they believe it will lose its value as illegal downloading grows stronger and stronger. "We have always said online is the way to go," said Microsoft's head in the UK. He denied that Microsoft had abandoned customers who had purchased the HD-DVD add-on for their Xbox 360 consoles. The add-on was not a part of the console, it was an optional application and the customers had the choice as to whether or not it was worth purchasing.

They were always planning to take the digital route, and move into the online world of online distrbution of content outside the gaming faction. More than 300,000 HD-DVD add-on drives are believed to have been sold to Xbox gamers. Microsoft believe that offering a Blu-ray player to Xbox 360 gamers would not be the best use of resources for the firm. "We think it's better to focus our efforts and resources on developing services in the digital domain."

Increasing numbers of people are consuming more and more hi-definition and standard-definition content online. Microsoft has been criticised for the variety of downloads on its online video service in the UK. The firm have said that they will continue to add new content and, due to this expansion, new partners.

US slowdown does not affect video games

US sales of video game consoles and software have grown 57% over the past year, completely ignoring the economic downturn of the last ten months. Costumers snapped up consoles, games and gaming accessories worth $1.7bn during March march alone, this up from jus under the billion pound mark set the revious year.

Nintedo were the most sucessful, selling 720,000 units. micrsoft shifted 262,000 Xbox 360 consoles coming in ahead, somewhat suprisingly, Sony's PlayStation 3 console, wich found just 257,000 costumers. These figures would never suggest that Americas ecominc structure is in a stae of distress.

Nintendo also lead the way in terms of games sales, with the release of Super SmashBros Brawl, which sold 2.7 million copies. Executives also claimed this was the reasdon for the huge numer on consoles they sold. I second place was Xbox 360's version of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, with 752,000 sales.

These statistics do not seem to worry Sony, who maintain that their realtively new console's sales have doubled in the past year. the also feel that new games such as Gran Turismo 5 and Metal Gear Solid 4 would help to sustain momentum.

New technology aids 'street kids' learning

Beuno Aires' 'Street Children' are learning new skills and advancing in their education, due to thier love of computer games. The Centre for Media Studies concluded that gaming helps the children improve their reading on screen and their ability to resolve conflicts. The programme is proving to be key in the development of strategies to overcome obstacles and reach goals for these depreived children, even providing them with the skills and confidence needed for them to get back into mainstream society.

8 in 10 of the children living and working on the streets are regular gamers, in cyber cafes and arcades. "We found that kids from the streets learn playing with video games," said sociologist Tatiana Merlo Flores. The children learn from each other through an empowering social inclusion process.

• 80% are regular game players
• 95% of boys go to cyber cafés and arcades almost daily
• Girls prefer home console games
• 66% prefer non violent games

They plan to make use of this potential as a true alternative learning tool, and for that they need to appeal to the games software industry with this fresh new idea. In that moment, when they are all online, they are all friends and they play in the same level. Although they don't know it the kids broke the digital divide.

One such child, Julio, a 15-year-old teenager who works on the streets and dreams of managing a cyber café, has first-hand experience of the current episode. he says that he is friends with the people that work in the cities offices and has spent over a year playing along side this group of people.

Tatiana Merlo Flores puts much importances on the fact that games provide street children with the challenge and the encouragement that they do not always get on a regular basis at school. they regularly leave their belongings to go with their peers to the arcades, and some spend as much as half thier wages on the games that they play. professionals say that if we work with these revolutionary children, we can promote this new way of learning which would please kids the world over.

Microsoft cut Xbox 360 European Prices

Microsoft has cut the price of its Xbox 360 video game console in Europe. The console will drop to €270, a price cut of 80 euros. this is the same in Britain where the model is dropping 40 pounds to £159.99. The price drops mean that the console is now cheaper than both of its top competitors - the Nintendo Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3).

Sony's top console, the PS3, currently sells at reatil price £299.99 and has a hard drive of only 40GB. This compared to the Xbox 360 Elite which, with a 120Gb hard drive, sells at £259.99. the Wii is currently on the market at £180 pounds, but the games may not attract older gamers.

Microsoft's reaoning behind the price drop is that the price of the entry level machine had historically been "the price point where a console's audience begins to expand". Despite having been launched earlier and enjoying alot of success, the Xbox 360 has been losing ground to both of its competitors recently.

New Xbox Wiimote

Microsoft are looking to develop a controller that resembles the sensor controlled handset of the Nintendo Wii. This is an attempt to keep up with progressive state of the market and to stay in touch with the other 7th generation consoles, like the Wii.

The main difference between the Wii remote and Microsofts Xbox 360 prototype is that it lacks a second controller to be held in the other hand, like Wii's 'Nunchuck'." The controller has not been created by thoroughly thought out design plans, although MTV reported that the new idea genated a varying response from its source.

Feedback stated thatt "The whole thing is a colossal marketing ploy because Microsoft just want it so they can match the Wii point for point."

On investigation of this new product, It looks far too similar to the existing Wii remote to deter Nintendo from taking some kind of legal action against the idea in terms of protecting their copyrighted design. The MTV report was over ridden with anonymous sources and the oposition to Microsofts's appears to be piling up.

It has been said that it would be much easier, cheaper and less stressful for Microsoft if they were to just simply modify its existing controller design to cope with motion sensing, which is hat Nintendo and Sony have done with the Wiimote and the SIXAXIS controller respectively.

Will Women Jump at exergames?

• Women make up 75% of the players wwho engage in games such as online poker and puzzle games, most commonly on the MSN Games site.
• companies are now research how to use these statistics to lure women into the new phenomena that is exergames, on such consoles as Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii.
• They know that women purchase 37% of console games, however they are unsure wheather that is for personal use or for the males in their lives. so to ensure it is for the fomer, new genre and game themes are being produced.
• And the strategy that many developers are pursuing involves the new genre of "exergames" or "exertainment". Instructional workout DVDs and immersive game environments, often featuring female characters. Case in point: Eyetoy: Kinetic, the workout game for the PlayStation 2 console that Sony Computer Entertainment America released this week.
• "So much of our target audience for this is women." In the game, players follow two computer-generated trainers, one female and one male, through a variety of exercises onscreen. A by-product is that they'll experience firsthand the PlayStation2 console that's already in the house, previously used by their husbands, brothers, or male friends only. They might cross over to other games and become dedicated users.

Shocking game has ban lifted

The evil and demented horror game, Manhunt 2, has won its 9 month legal battle against the BBFC to have its ban lifted.

It was banned in 2007 after being accused of having overly graphic and gory content. also it was seen that the film was unsuitable for children and for that reaason should not be sold in the UK. However, it is now free to be sold and purchased in brittish shops, further increasing the chance that children of an unsuitable age obtaining a copy.

Although the game has been modified in order for it to pass the BBFC's quidelines, there is still an unnecessary amount of gore. th creators of the game, Rockstar, beleived that the game is well within the legal boundaries and not even the most gruesome game on the market.

They also argued that the system used for the certification of media, should be revised to take into account the gaming industry. especially as more games of the type will surely be produced, and with the vast array of new media technology that we, and in this case young children, have at our finger tips, they are not safe from the danger's that these types of medium produce.

Horror game denied rating

The extremely violent and sadistic sequel to controversial horror epic Manhunt, Manhunt 2, on the 20 July 2007 became the first game in over a decade to be refused a rating by the British Board of Film Classification.

The game has players help a deranged scientist to escape asylum and then go on the run, on his way commiting random acts of violence particularly against pimps and prostitutes. the BBFC stated it had no direction other than an unrelenting focus on brutal slaying.

It has been heavily criticised by parents across the UK, with some of them citing that it 'no-one should be allowed to view such inhumane acts of violence and gore, least of all a child'. The game came further into disrepute when a boy, who claimed to have been influenced by the original Manhunt, killed one his friends.

The fact that children, young children, can get online and get their hands on technology such a this shows the serious flaws that the rapidly expanding technology industry has. it suggests and displays acts that are not legal, let alone a regular occurance, within our society and these norms should not be available to affect the minds of young children.

Games are certfified according to the age for which they are suitable, so although Rockstar games disagreed with the decision, the BBFC pointed out that the game was the first in 10 years to be banned, proving just how twisted and sadistic the content was.

Swat Rock Interactive Gym

There is a third product in this saga of the virtual fitness world. The Clifton Leisure Centre, is currently offering the Swat Rock Interactive Gym application. Unlike the others, it is not yet available for you to have it in the comfort of your own home. It invloves playing phyiscally challenging games under the watchful eye of a qualified instructor.

It consists of 8 dance mats, two game walls and a specially modified PS3 on which you play things like racing games, but without using your thumbs as is the norm with traditional console controllers, you use your entire upper body to steer the car.

The programme follows a conventional method of training, e.g. startin with a warm up then completing the main activities, taking breaks and cooling down at the end. however the activities consist of things like, 15 minutes on the dance mat, then throwing bean bags at the game wall in correspondance with the flashing coloured lights.

this revelutionary technology not only helps you with your general fitness in a fun hearty environment, but it works to improve factors such as your co-ordination and balance. Those who take part in the programme swear by it and say that when they come out they feel as if they have done a full gym workout.

Virtual Gym Online

Another new phenomenon in the same area of the market as the Wii Fit is the Virtual Gym. it is a CD/DVD like all fitness programmes. It claims to have the best instructors in the UK and you can have these masters of fitness in your home.

Unlike other, more conventional, fitness programmes where the instructor leading the routine goes at one pace and you at home are expected to keep up it doesn't have a fixed programme. There is a on screen libary of classes to suit everyones capabilities and needs. You chose the exercises that you feel suit you and you do them in your own time and at your own pace, stopping when your tired or at the end you can compile a programme that is tailored to your prefernces. Also by putting it onto a CD you can take it wherever you go. This shows how versatile technology has become in the last 10-15 years.

The programme even acts as a personal trainer. It asks you questions on your health, lifestyle, fitness and diet and processes this inforrmation in order to suggest a programme that will suit you. The added bonus is that if you feel that you are not doing the positions corresctly or if you missed a part of the routine, then as it is a DVD, you can easily rewind and double check to make sure.

The response for the new product was very positive. Although the results may not be as positive as if you go to an actual class but it makes it alot easier for those people whos life does not allow enough time to do regular exercise.

There was one minor criticism in that the programme, does not have a system in order for you to keep track of your progress, so if you are progressing, there is no way of knowing what level you have reached.

South Korean Gaming leads the way.

• Gaming is a highly developed market in South Korea and is experiencing a huge boom at the moment.
• The gamers, who contest the complex real-time strategy game, Starcraft, are celebrities in their own right. They are mobbed by teenage girls, they have their own clothing lines, and many of them are millionaires.
• To put Korean gaming into perspective, baseball's (South Korea's national sport) Grand FInal two years ago attracted 25,000 fans, whereas the Starcraft Final, which ran on the same weekend, had 100,000 spectators.
• The unreal tournament 3 contest is merely a quiet taster for what is to come from the korean faction of gaming.
• The excessive skill of the korean players means that they adopt the skills necessary to succeed in unreal tournament, something that the english champions take years to master to their full potential.
• They have made sure, with the obscene amount of money pumped into this industry, that Pro gaming could quite easily be the next big World Wide sports property and craze, with predictions that the sport and its players could reach the dizzy heights of professional Football.

Gaming Gets UNREAL!

• Unreal Tournament is an online MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) and europes best gamers came to Wembley Stadium to play Unreal Tournament 3 and in the process battle it out for a share of £50,000.
• 200 gamers contest the prize, with the winner of the one-on-one tournament collecting 20,000 and the winners of the 5-on-5 contest picking up 30,00 between them.
• eSports (pro gaming) is huge in the UK. most players are semi-professional at best due to the paultry amount of money involved, howecer many spend entire weekends playing in LAN tournaments. this shows the influence the internet has.
• Some playeers are as young as 16. Play.com hosted a massove gaming event with a wall of 44 interconnected PC's with a pro gamer glued to each one. there are up to 20,00 vistors come to watch these furious concebtrating 'geeks'.
• in the US, eSportsmen do battle in the Championship Gaming Series, run by Fox Sports, contesting a gross $500,000 top prize. many of the top gamers are contracted to this tournament. Fox Chairman David uses the gaming series as sport to combat such attractions as ESPN's BMX championships, the X-Games.
• he saw it, that if he bought the rights to host thst the sports, and brought it to the summit of sports entertainment, then he would effectively own a part of it, making it a great money earner.
• Championship Gaming tournaments and leagues are shown on primetime TV, on DirecTv in the U.S.A, Sky in the UK, and Star in the Far East, which gives it a potential audience of 350 million people.
• Also hugely popular in the US is Major League Gaming, which puts on glitzy pro-gaming events in cities up and down North America - attracting 10,000 spectators a time.

SpongeBob is the real online threat to our kids

It emerged recently that the real threats that parents should be worrying whrn their kids log onto the net, are harmless childrens TV characters such as SpongeBob Squarepants. Kids television companies have takken to the web in order to expand their empires and keep up with the market. Kids are so obsessed with their online profiles and 'commitments that the best way to reach them is online. You are practically printing your brand on the audiences eyeballs.

Disney did the same thing last year with their introduction of child-friendly world Club Penguin. and Nintendo did it with Neopets, which is now nursing a community of more than 45 million users. So now Nickelodeon, who have already created a virtual word named Nicktropolis, are set to launch a further to, in order to solidify their comsumption. the first, will be based on the surreal world of SpongeBob and the second named Monkey World. The SpongeBob phenomenon is set to continue as SponeBob's virtual world is looking to be scarily huge.

At present, there is a new virtual world aimed at the youth culture being created everyday, everyone desperate to send their busimess to the top of the media pile. The approach has changed drastically. There is no reward for probing kids from a TV set anymore, its about enticing them where they spend most of their time, online, creating a world for them and subtly dropping hints and messages for them to pic up on. and if you can't create a virtual world for yourself, advertise elsewhere.

it is acary how easily it is for these corporate giants to reach the youth community of today. They can develop poiwerful connections with their audiences. this makes it very easu to manipulate childrens imagintive and curious minds.

Kids help big boys to produce games

Microsofts Xbox 360, last week, made history by becoming the first of the leading consoles to host community - created games. they releasaed their XNA package two years ago allowing home coders and small syudios to write and create games without the enormous expense. these 'home made' games are now available for all gamers to try on microsofts online application Xbox Live.

Other leading gaming companies such as Sony, have tried before to market these community games, but without much success. Microsaft have succeeded as they have made the games available online, unlike Sony's Net Yaroze project. The only downfall in Microsafts plan is that there managed programming language, C#, slows the process down due to its continuous checks.

However depite Microsoft's 'love' of feeding the comunity, Xbox live arcade is not making the turnover they hoped. With games selling at just £5 a go it means professional developers are not willing to take a gamble. this means that there are alot of remakes being done e.g. Worms and Pacman: Championship Edition.

There has however, been some very good games produced by people involved in the scheme. Flow, Space Giraffe and Outpost Kaloki X are the main ones that spring to mind. If Microsoft, Sony and the likes want to stay atop the gaming mountain then they need these home coders to produce more of the hits that have been such secceeses. It's the kids Helping the BIG BOYS.

If we deny children access to all computer games, we deprive them of a rich and magical experience

Recently, the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) recently banned the advet for the game 'Kane and Lynch', deeming it too gory. This after the advert for the 'torture porn' film was allowed to run unchallenged.

Dr Tanya Byron reported last month that the games children play and their interaction with various new technologies, are a good and fun opertuinity for them to learn. She also posed the question "why is what we see on alot of television channels any worse than some of the games available?"

Newspapers and television news channels tend to show screenshots form games such as 'Manhunt' and 'God of War' in their stories. This is putting a very negative view on gaming as a whole as many of the games being sold on the marketthat have very non-violent themes.
Naomi Alderman commented in her report that there are many games that are widely accessible to children, free on the internet, that are beautiful, moving and inspiring works of art. The decision of many of these people to label all games as 'violent killing sprees' is quite an old fashioned view based on the fact they did not have the form of gaming when they were young that we are accustomed to today.

It has been stated that film such as The Godfather and Goodfellas contain the same, if not more graphic violence. It is a parents responsiblilty to make sure their children understand the media that they are consuming.
the creators of such gaming phenomenons as Grand theft auto and Call of Duty, have combatted these criticisms by saying, "our work portrays reality, if it offends you take action to change the world around you, not to change our creation. it is our world that is full of violence, not our game!"

The solution being, if our children are playing computer games and their content worries us, we should be playing them too.

The Wii Fit and Virtual Gyms

Due to the huge succes that the Nintendo Wii had with children of all ages, not just those of a younger age, Nintendo have produced that Wii Fit. This is known as an 'Online Gym'. They are flooding the fitness market and the console is the first of its kind. the games played are called 'exergames' (basically exercise games). Unlike convetional games consoles they are designed, like the Wii, to negotiate the player out of the comfort of their armchair. This is done by incorporating two of the most popular markets today, gaming and exercise.

The new Wii console works with a 'balance board' which, via a wireless remote, co-ordinates your statistics with the Wii. It can work out such things as your Body Mass Index and whats known as your 'Wii age'. It supports four tpes of exercise, Yoga, aerobics, balance and muscle c- conditioning which in turn include such exercises as hulahoops snowboarding and skiing, to name but a few.

The new Wii Fit was well recieved by those that tried it out. They said that the exercises were good and reasonably challenging however many felt that a gym workout would still be thier choice of fitness training. "the skiing was hilarious but a half-hour brisk walk would probably be better exercise." they also commented that the lack of a proper instructor assessing you in person meant that the Wii may have mislead you.

NMT: Gaming Case Study Research

For my case study on New Media Technologies have chosen to research Gaming - exergames / children and gaming.

Questions 29/3/08

1. What is endism?

Endism is the theory that sees new technologies as replacing older ones. eg. When the DVD arrived, people prepared for the demise of the VHS.TV (end of) Radio and Movies. TV News (end of) Newspapers



2. What is a Media Ecosystem?

It is an environment where many 'organisms' (in this case TV, Movies, Radio, Press and the Net) interact with each other.



3. What is Narrowcasting?

Narrowcasting television is T.V in which specialist content is aimed at subscription-based audiences and distributed via digital channels. i.e the media's way of aiming to get more money.



4.What is the difference between the internet and the web?

The web is enormous with traffic that runs on the internet's tracks and signalling. The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP) eg ip adresses. Whereas The web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.



5.What is a push and pull medium?

Broadcast TV is a 'push' medium. A select band of producers deiced what content is to be created, create it and then puch it down analogue or digital channels at audiences which are assumed to consist of essentially passive recipients. The web is the opposite of this, a 'pull' medium. Nothing comes to you unless you choose it and click on it to pull down on to your computer. You're in charge. So the big implication of the switch from push to pull is a radical increase in consumer sovereignity.



6.What is the positive aspect of blogging?

People can get their opinions across and show each other what they want to know about certain things. They can do this annonymously and without ridicule.



7.How has the Internet added another dimension to digital photography?

Websites such as the ever popular Flickr have added an extra dimension to digital photography through the means of file sharing. Flickr is predominantly a photo sharing website when users can upload photographs from their digital camera to the Internet on their own page, which anyone in the World can view at anytime and download to their own computer. Users are able to search the website for a subject which they want a photo about, and the website will display results of photos that are relative to the subject.



8.Why are people watching less TV?

I believe that this i because the internet has expanded and progressed so much in recent years that consumers can find averything they need on the net. it provides news, tv shows, music, which I believe are the main uses for Television.



9.What are media companies doing in response to this change in consumption?

Microsoft is bringing out Internet Protocol TV, with international partners - including BT, which will use the technology when it launches 'BTTV' over its broadband network later this year. That will allow consumers to watch telly over the Internet. Apple and Sony are likely to develop hardware, creating a single media centre that will allow homeowners to download music and films, store photos and surf the net.