Positive Technology Journal

Via Wired

Some game designers are discarding "heads-up displays," trying to create a more immersive environment by providing game data such as a player's health and ammo levels using subtler hints that are truer to life. Big mistake, according to Clive Thompson:

I let fly with a flurry of jabs, then lean in and deliver a sneaky uppercut. It connects perfectly -- I can hear the moist thwack of my boxing glove on my opponent's cheek. When he staggers back to his corner of the boxing ring, I admire my handiwork: Swollen eyes, drooling crimson -- it's like something Picasso might have painted if he worked with blood. I can tell that one more barrage is gonna win me the round.

Kino 3D is a forum (in Italian) about open-source computer graphics. It includes several sections:

- Discussion on 2D and 3D computer graphics and open source for any platform;

- OpenLab: Experiments, work in progress, prototypes;

- Tutorial about Blender (the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation);

- Discussion about video, animations, and 2D/3D videogames;

- Off topics;

- A link to the international Blender forum;

The forum is an useul resource for professionals and people interested in knowing more about the world of open-source computer graphics.

Via Mind Hacks

USA Today has an article about the use of computer games and neurofeedback as a treatment:

A generation raised on video games is inspiring researchers' efforts to unlock the mysteries of a puzzling learning disorder that afflicts millions of school-age children and even some adults.

Whether speeding down a virtual street in Sony's Gran Turismo or slaying Spyro the Dragon, researchers hope games such as these will improve the lives of those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as ADHD, or cognitive-processing difficulties.

People with these disorders experience "constant frustration," says Henry Owens, a Melbourne, Fla., clinical psychologist who recently began offering a patented video game system, which evolved from NASA technology, to some of his patients.

"If they just play video games on their own, they will zone out," he says. "When they play on this system, if they zone out, the video game doesn't respond any more," acting as an incentive to improve focus and concentration.