Video Games And Sex [Rock, Paper, Shotgun via Alice]

But it does pretty much nail the always changing landscape of a criminal's life, in enemies who become friends and vice versa, risks taken trusting someone and goals that were of vital importance at one point becoming expendable in short time.

It's still "a carnival of violence, deceit, and cruelty that makes you slightly nauseated after playing for only a few hours" — well, remember he's writing for a Slate audience. He fesses up to lacking joystick skills to control the cars, but offers up a couple informed suggestions.

One, set the next one in the south side of Chicago (isn't that Carcer City in GTA canon?) and two, for multiplayer: Form gangs, or clans, which themselves have their own alliances and enemies and bargains. That gets GTA IV into MMO territory of course — but isn't that the rumor we're hearing out of latest developments with Realtime Worlds and APB?

What Grand Theft Auto IV Gets Right About Gangland and Illegal Economies[Slate]

He said: "The results of this small-scale Dr Kawashima project have shown how a targeted and managed use of such a game can help to enhance pupil numeracy skills and classroom behaviour."

There was also a noticeable impact on behaviour and levels of concentration throughout the school day, with the children becoming more self-confident.

Mr [Derek] Robertson [who designed the study], a former teacher and university lecturer, said: "It had a real calming effect on children in the class.

"In fact I have never before seen such gains across the board."

With all the chatter about the use of games in schools, it's nice to see a concrete (if small) study conducted on easy applications of gaming within the bounds of education. The researchers are hoping to do bigger studies in the future to have a better and more statistically significant sample to pull from.

Daily computer game boosts maths [BBC, thanks James T!]

Thie series is open to anyone who wants to hear from—and engage with—academics, industry leaders, regulators and influential virtual-world residents ....

... Events are only the grain of sand in the oyster. We hope to get pearls from constructing a way for people interested in metanomics to engage with the speaker and with each other in serious discusion before and after the session, and create an archive that future can serve as essential reading for future metanomicists (ok, that word doesn't work so well. Metanomists?).

We plan to accomplish this by having suggested readings before each session, inviting readers to suggest readings of their own, as well as questions for speakers. After each session, we will post archives of the event, along with post-event analyses.

It'll be taking place in everyone's favorite virtual world, Second Life, but will be available to everyone whether you want to venture into Second Life or not.

Metanomics blog [via Terra Nova]

Academic Gamers has a note about a new media conference taking place at the University of California - Irvine campus Feb. 17 and 18. The three main themes? Media archaeology, digital humanities and gaming. I wish I lived in the area, I'd definitely check it out. Anyone from UC-I planning on going?

UC Irvine: New Media, Technology and Humanities [Academic Gamers]

Calling Canadians and Americans: the world's first MSc in computer games design and technology is opening up to the Normericas.

Algoma University College in Ontario, Canada, is going to exclusively host the MSc Computer Games Technology offered by the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. Dundee, as you will probably know, has a high pedigree of making games: it's where the GTA franchise was born, so many moons ago.

According to the press release, this is the first Masters level degree in computer games technology to be offered in Canada and the US. It takes full advantage of technology to deliver the course, too: students on the program will be located on Algoma University's campus in Sault Ste. Marie, and receive instruction from Abertay's highly experienced academic staff in Dundee via "state-of-the-art video-conferencing technology." No EyeToy jokes please.

Better brush up on comprehending Scottish. We advise starting with Trainspotting (not Braveheart) and videoGaiden.

MSc Computer Games Technology [University of Abertay]

Gamasutra reports on research results just released by the WJU in West Virginia: certain types of video games can significantly distract patients or subjects from feeling pain.

The research tested six types of game on the subjects: action, puzzle, arcade, fighting, sports, and boxing. The genres most effective in distracting subjects from pain were the sports and boxing games; plus, curiously, sports games were also the genre to produce the most anger in the subject—not action or fighting, as might have been presumed.

"These gaming distractions may be most helpful in children and young adults undergoing painful procedures or suffering from chronic pain, as these individuals comprise the largest gamer demographics," said director of undergraduate research Dr. Bryan Radenbush.

It's interesting to see that the emotional responses being measured by the study are reported as "anger" and "frustration." What should we take from this? That games produce negative feelings, which are an effective pain distraction? Or that the negative feelings produced by certain gaming situations are an effective pain distration, and positive feelings aren't—and are therefore not reported?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Games Can Reduce Pain [Gamasutra]

The Paddington Academy is a new London-based school offering media and performing arts to kids of all backgrounds and capabilities — and best of all, it's free.

The school was built with the financial support of the UK's interactive entertainment industry, receiving £1.5 million in funding from the Entertainment Software Charity, the UK games industry's charitable fund.

If you want to have a look, there's an official tour coming up:

Paddington Academy, Marylands Road site, London W9 will be open from 9.30 – 11.00am on 14th December 2005. Those wishing to take part in the tour should confirm their attendance to Mark Strachan at mark at strachans.org.

A college buddy of mine gave me a heads up on NYU professor, Alexander R. Galloway. An artist and a programmer, Galloway examines the relationship between art, videogames and society. What keeps Galloway from being simply another pouncy academic is not only his experience (dude created networked surveillance tool for the F.B.I.), but his ability to make scholarly riffs on war games actually readable. "Today," he says in an interview, "gaming is the vanguard of culture—all the interesting work on interactivity, narrative, immersion, virtual spaces and networking is all being done in the gaming community. I predict a coming golden age for video games into the next decade not unlike what the cinema experienced in the late 1930s and 1940s." That prediction we've heard before, but I do feel this is a guy with something to say. His next book Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture will be out next year.

Prof. Galloway's Home Page [NYU] Thanks Nick K!