U.S. Navy: Video Games are good for you

H/T to the NeoGAF forums

"Think interactive video games are a waste of time or more suited for children? Think again. Research by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) indicates that video games can help adults process information much faster and improve their abilities to reason and solve problems. Dr. Ray Perez, ONR program officer, discussed video game-induced “fluid intelligence” on the Jan 20 webcast."

Other notable excerpts:

"...Early indications suggest that cognitive improvements from video games can last up to two and half years, Perez said, but he admitted that so far the results have been relegated to observations and measurements in a controlled laboratory environment..."

“The major question is that once you’ve increased these perceptual abilities and cognitive abilities, do they transfer to everyday tasks,” he said, “and how long do they continue to influence the person working on these everyday tasks?”

For the record, this is hardly the only instance of the scientific method demonstrating the health benefits of video gaming; one such benefit that goes unmentioned in this particular study (and, thus, earns a peculiar mention here) is accentuated eyesight. Personally, I think my prolonged hours of video gaming have done wonders for my hand-eye coordination, though that's probably the only physical health benefit I derived from them. The intellectual and spiritual formation these games provided, however, was invaluable. The artistic imagery of some of the games also gave me a taste of the transcendent, instilling in me (during those precious formative teenage years, no less!) the idea that beauty was, in fact, NOT in the eye of the beholder. I learned a bit about storytelling and characterization, as well; as a budding English major at a major Catholic University, it is no exaggeration to say that I owe my interest in the subject at least partially to the video games I enjoyed well into my teenage years...and still enjoy, albeit with less frequency, to this day.

That being said, the social isolation and addictive potential of these same games also contributed at times to a kind of spiritual desolation; I will be the first to admit that I failed to employ moderation during my more "hardcore" gaming years, and no amount of acquired ocular aptitude can replace wasted time (not to mention neglected friendships, a deteriorating physique, and a regrettably over-extended introversion). Too much of a good thing is, well, too much of a good thing. Games became my god, and that was...well, not healthy at all.

I sincerely hope the Navy Officers in this study don't fall into the same trap I did. There's something about video games and an incarnational spirituality that really...doesn't quite mesh. They can't replace love of neighbor, even if they do teach the value of the practice of this or any other particular virtue. They can impart wisdom and knowledge, but they can't make you practice it. They can depict, and even bring to life, Christ on the cross, in a way peculiarly unique to the medium, no less. They can never, however, replace Him.

man games - Scorched 3d

Scorched 3D

Imagine, if you will, the early 90's. A group three or four of middle school boys huddled around a computer screen in someone's living room or study. The focus of their rapt attention is a terrain which looks like it was made in a few minutes in MS Paint on which were gathered a handful of tiny pixellated tanks and artillery pieces. The guy at the keyboard takes a thoughtful sip from his Coke and then lines up a shot. He carefully measures out angle and power, adjusting for wind and for the fact that, despite the game taking place outdoors, the borders of the screen were "walls" of rubber which would send even nuclear warheads bouncing around like superballs. Finally, the player punches the fire key with a singular force which has a sort of exclamatory nature to it, as if the satisfying clack of plastic key were a kind of battle cry. Everyone watches the screen intently as a tiny white dot, its arc traced by a white line behind it, is lobbed across the screen and down into a small valley in which another pixellated tank waits. The shot strikes earth and issues forth a massive explosion, not only enveloping the target but disintegrating an entire chunk of hillside.

The owner of the targetted tank waits with fist clenched, willing his tank's shield - represented by a white circle around it - to save it from impending doom. But fate has decreed otherwise. The shield falls with a shrill pc speaker whine sound blurb and the tank colorfully explodes into even tinier pixels while issuing a one-line lament of its demise.

Scorched Earth was a cherished part of my early gaming years. My friends and I loaded up the simple but incredibly enjoyable game many times to blast the computer and each other into tiny pixels using a variety of death-dealing and amusing weapons. It was a great time to be a gamer. Those days are, of course, their own moments in time. The same combination of wonder, companionship, and place are something I cannot replicate because I am no longer in middle school. But the game which brought us all together around a single keyboard is still around - a classic which has spawned many similar titles, including the incredibly enjoyable Worms series.

Version 1.5, the last release of Scorched Earth, is still easily available online as free shareware. It can be played using Dosbox. I do recommend that anyone who has never played it before give it a try because it is a real part of gaming history.

However, out of all of the various descendants of Scorched Earth, one has stood out to me both as a fan of the original and as a Linux gamer. That game is Scorched 3D.

Put simply, Scorched 3D is Scorched Earth with a 3d environment. It presents the players with a group of tanks and artillery set on an island or set of islands with the objective of lobbing heavy munitions at each other. Why? For what purpose are they engaging in this conflict? What are the ecological ramifications of disintegrating small islands? None of that matters. This is a game about tiny tanks and huge explosions. That is all we need to know.

Whenever you have an "update" of anything creative - be it a tv show, movie, video game, or what have you - I am suspicious. So very often these things just screw things up royally. Well, I am happy to say that Scorched 3D treats the original property with the tender loving care which a classically destructice game like this deserves. In fact, the designers have done their best to deliver an authentic experience of what the original Scorch (as we called it) would be if it was put into a 3d environment.

Among the things which carry over from the old classic are the basic mechanic of turn based artillery gameplay, the deformable terrain, and, very importantly, the massive arsenal. All of the great weapons are back - from the funky bomb to the sandhog. So are shields and other accessories. In short, it does not try to fix what was already a fantastic gameplay element.

Where the new game shows its improvements is, naturally, in the area of graphics. I found the environments to be impressive, varied, and enjoyable to play on. Perhaps the best part is the water, both in terms if how it looks and how it reacts to terrain being blasted away. Watching a newly created crater fill with seawater makes the game that much more fun.

Adding 3d to what was once a 2d game works extremely well in this case. The additional dimension adds a great deal of tactical thought that was not available before. Moving your vehicle was always important, for instance, but now it is even more essential. The terrain can become an asset or a liability, depending upon how you make use of it. I have played matches in which a tank nestled in a particularly tough to hit spot proved to be a real pain for everyone else. On the other hand, if you start a match in the middle of the open, expect to be a target. It's all part of the experience. And while all of this was present in the old Scorch, it is magnified and made more complex through the new iteration.

In the old days, we used to gather around a single keyboard in order to play Scorch. While that is still possible, the evolution of networking capabilities in games has opened up new possibilities of which Scorched 3D takes full advantage. It is easy to set up a game to play with friends or to join online games. If you play with friends. I recommend using some kind of audio chat - such as Ventrilo - because the best part of Scorch has always been the interaction with your buddies.

Overall, Scorched 3D captures the sense of fun which the old Scorch had to it. It continues the spirit of the original and is a great update for both those of us who played in years past and those who are new to the legacy.

Scorched 3D works in Linux, Mac, and Windows. Downloads are available on their website. You can also install the game via the Synaptic Package Manager in Debian based Linux distributions (including Ubuntu and Mint). Synaptic has a GUI available. However, if you want to use the terminal, do the following:

prompt ~ $ sudo apt-get install scorched3d

Then if you want to play the game, simply use the following command:

prompt ~ $ scorched3d

I played the game in Linux Mint and, aside from some sound issues which are probably related to the sound card on my Sony laptop, it worked quite well. When I played it on my desktop in Ubuntu, it ran with almost no issues, though again the sound could bug out at times. Since the game is 100% free, I will not complain. It is such a fine production overall.

And now for the links.

Scorched Earth Website: http://whicken.com/scorch/

Scorched3D: http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

Greetings, Salutations, etc.

Hello, all.

Andy has already kindly introduced me and provided the introduction for my new column, man games. I thought that I ought to introduce myself a little further.

I have been gaming since my early adolescence. In those enchanted days of my first forays into gaming, my opportunities were sparse but cherished. My parents did not consider video games to be a very high priority for them. That is not surprising. And so for awhile, my primary opportunity to play games was at friends' houses. I always jumped on these chances. And, in the process, made gaming at that time into a social activity for me.

Back then, I played some of the more primitive PC games, such as Oregon Trail - which I got to play at school sometimes (gasp!) - as well as Hugo's House of Horror's, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Scorched Earth. Then there was the much wished-for Nintendo Entertainment System, which my parents eventually bought for me. Even then I only had precious few games.

As time went on, adulthood brought on the ability to buy and play games as a chose. Now I run into the problem of having games that I don't even get around to playing. It is a state of affairs I would not have imagined in those young days. Now that I look back, though, there was something special about those times of trying to squeeze every last bit of fun out of those old, low-tech games. You cannot go back to where you came from sometimes. But I am happy I was there.

These days, I share my gaming hobby with my beautiful fiance and fellow geek, Linda. She is not as much a gamer as I am. But that has its own fun. I get to introduce her to games she has never had a chance to see before. So once again, I have returned to gaming's social aspects - not just in terms of multiplayer games - but in single player games enjoyed with others.

It has been and will be a fun journey.

God be with you.

Steely

"Man Games"

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first ever edition of "man games." Those who are unfamiliar with Linux and Unix might be somewhat bemused by the title of this post. This is not, in fact, a column about games for men. Rather, in Linux and Unix the “man” command in the terminal brings up a text manual for the requested subject. For example, “man grep” would bring up the manual page for the grep command. So man games is, in fact, a column about games on Linux. Many of these games are also available on Windows, so if you are a Windows user then you might find some good stuff here too.

If you have never used Linux, I would encourage you to give it a try. At the basic level, Linux can be very user friendly. An excellent starting point is the Ubuntu distribution, which has wide compatibility and a helpful user base.

The truth is that I am fairly new Linux myself and through this column you will be joining me on my own journey of exploring the gaming opportunities on this robust and powerful family of operating systems. And if you are new to Linux or have never tried it, then you can rest assured that I was once in your shoes.

You can obtain a liveCD version of Ubuntu Linux to try it out without changing a thing on your current system here at the Ubuntu site:


http://www.ubuntu.com/


As a final note, I am proud to be hosted at the Catholic Video Gamers blog. God and the Catholic Church are of prime importance to my life.

Steely

posted via proxy by Andy Kirchoff

New Contributor!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooood Morning Catholic Video Gamer readers!

Today I have the privilege of introducing a new contributor: Brian "Steely" Swan. He'll have his first post up shortly. Welcome to the blog, Steely!

Facebook games?

Everyone on earth is STILL playing farmville, Mafia Wars, and oodles of other video games on various social networks. The legendary game creator Sid Meier now claims he's making a Civilization game for facebook, as well!

Yet I've done everything I can to avoid "social network-based" video games. I spend too much time on both social networks and video games separately already.

That I don't spend time with this particular breed of video game, however, also means I can't attest to their quality. I CAN say, however, that they certainly LOOK like garbage - Farmville = cheap graphics, loading issues, and time-based gameplay that rewards prolonged screen exposure as opposed to skillful time management.

Why not just play one of the better iterations of Harvest Moon instead? Is there really something different about them?

What's on the Horizon for 2010?

Though I've had some success in eliminating my gaming backlog this holiday season, I'd be kidding myself if I committed to doing this throughout the coming year.

So, here's a list of video games slated for a 2010 release that I'm looking forward to:

Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver (I'm a pokemaniac. Need I say more?)

Dragon Quest IX (portable Dragon Quest! WIll the soundtrack be as good as VIII's though?)

Final Fantasy XIII (all indications are that it is NOT like Final Fantasy XII, so I'm all in!)

Star Wars: The Old Republic (in spite of it being an MMO)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (even though I haven't really played the first one!)

Yeah, it's rpg-heavy, but I'm a sucker for the genre, and even though there really isn't much else I'm interested in, DQ and Pokemon alone (let alone together!) will be enough for me in the coming year.

Dark Void, Capcom's latest action game, is out soon, too...anyone gonna go out and buy that one?