Researchers believe interactive games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life could be adapted so that children learn skills from them that could be transferred to real life. They believe that the "immersive" aspect of the games in which the player suspends his belief means that the brain is particularly engaged and can absorb complex issues. The games real life feel also means that students could effectively carry out "work experience" on the computer learning techniques and skills they can apply back in reality. Researchers believe that the games, which they say are more active than passive traditional learning, could be most useful for science based subjects with students able to carry out imaginary experiments and improve their ability to "learn to learn". "Compared with a similar, paper-based curriculum that included laboratory experiences, students overall were more engaged in the immersive interface and learned as much or more," said Professor Chris Dede, an academic in Learning technologies at Harvard University in the journal Science. Games such as Whyville and the ecology game River City have already been developed specifically to teach children and students but scientists believe established popular video games could be adapted so that players could be "dosed" with knowledge.
Much like "flight simulators" they are so "real" that many life skills can be learned from them. Early tests of these learning games have shown unusual levels of student engagement. Dr Merrilea Mayo, director of Future Learning systems at the Kaufman Foundation, said the games can also help close the gap between under and over-achieving children. "Unlike lectures, games can be adapted to the pace of the user," she said "Games also simultaneously present information in multiple visual and auditory modes, which capitalises on different learning styles.
"Although the field is still in its embryonic stages, game-based learning has the potential to deliver science and maths education to millions of users simultaneously. "Unlike other mass-media experiments in education (e.g., TV), games are a highly interactive." The new research is likely to add to the debate about the pros and cons of video games. Last year the culture minister Margaret Hodge called for a film-style classifications for games such as World of Warcraft which is said to have 10 million users worldwide. There have also been concerns that the games are addictive and that children's education and lives are being disrupted by them.
( www.telegraph.co.uk )
17-year-old World of Warcraft player told a game moderator that if he didn't get his way he would kill himself. The Ohio teen told the customer services rep that he had nothing else to live for other than his marathon sessions in the fantasy role playing game and that his frustration with the game had become so all-encompassing that he had decided to top himself. The employee, no doubt keen to avoid the kind of headlines that would follow the untimely demise of a pimply social retard blamed on the ridiculously addictive game, called the cops who traced the miscreant through his IP address. They then kicked in his back door and slapped a charge of first degree misdemeanour on him. He, of course, insisted the whole thing was just a joke. ( www.theinquirer.net )
Do you want to know why your teenager is dropping out of college? According to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it apparently has nothing to do with the cruddy state of the job market, discouraging prospects for graduates and exorbitant university fees. Instead, World of WarCraft is to blame. Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft has something of a rep for being addictive, with nerdy fans spending hours in rain, hail and snow just to buy a copy of the Lich King that they could very well have just ordered online. Even South Park managed to fill two whole episodes with the subject, when Guitar Hero only achieved one. But according to FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, the game is not just a fun distraction, but represents a dire threat to the education of an entire generation, and only she can undertake a quest singlehandedly to stop it. ( www.theinquirer.net )
Massively : 
There are some rumours circulating about Battle.net 2.0, and while some of these might be too far out there to even mention, a few are worth noting as they show what we should be prepared for in the new network version. One rumour state that the new Battle.net regime will be on new servers, and in no way related to the old network; Diablo II and Diablo III players would then not be able to chat over the ingame interface. The logical support for this rumour would be that Blizzard treat games in this manner; they support the game in the form it had at of release for a long time to make sure that everything works fine without bugs or major imbalances and then also make the next game better. WoW is the obvious exception, which get major content updates regularly. Diablo II got a large content patch after release, but for the most part, each game is treated in its own right. ( www.diii.net )
Stumble It!
