Video Games

In the final months of two mostly unmemorable terms in office, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri boasted about his little state's big splash - stealing former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and his nascent video game company from Massachusetts. "This is a risk worth taking," said Carcieri, a Republican, announcing the 2010 deal that lured Schilling's company, 38 Studios, to Providence, and put Rhode Island taxpayers on the hook for up to $75 million in guaranteed loans to an athlete who liked video games but had never developed one. "I think the governor...

A Massachusetts-based video game company held a job fair near the headquarters of financially troubled 38 Studios in Providence. The Providence Journal reports ( http://bit.ly/KeQil9) that about 300 people attended Tuesday's job fair by Turbine Inc. at the Hotel Providence. Turbine spokesman Adam Mersky says it wasn't a coincidence that they were looking for talent just a few blocks from Curt Shilling's troubled company. Mersky told the newspaper that turnout was higher than expected and some 38 Studios employees were at the event, but he declined to say how many.

Parents, don't put away those video games just yet - today's gamer may be tomorrow's top surgeon. Researchers gathering in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools - from increasing the problem-solving potential of younger students to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons. One study even looked at whether playing "World of Warcraft," the world's biggest multiplayer online game, can improve scientific thinking.

A look at results from selected companies in the video games business: April 12: Market tracker NPD Group says U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories fell 25 percent in March from a year earlier to $1.1 billion. It marked the fourth month of decline as Sony Corp.'s new PS Vita handheld failed to spark a turnaround. Electronic Arts Inc.'s "Mass Effect 3" was the top seller in the month. April 18: Video game maker THQ Inc. says its expects adjusted loss and revenue in the latest quarter will come in above Wall Street's expectations because of better-than-expected...

If you want to understand the problem of piracy, it is one thing to read a news story about pirates. It is quite another to steer your own ship through the blue waters off the Somali coast, ambush a fishing boat, and negotiate a ransom for the crew, all with a clock ticking. The game Cutthroat Capitalism was published on Wired.com in 2009, alongside an article that investigated the profitability of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. To play this game is to realize, as soon as you cast your anchor and board a chemical tanker, that a pirate’s life involves a pretty complicated cost-benefit analysis: bidding...

IN THE 1990s, when I used to play video games deep into the night, I found that even when I turned off the game, it was never really off in my mind. It didn’t matter whether I was playing “Civilization,’’ “World of Warcraft,’’ or “FIFA Soccer.’’ When I finally managed to fall asleep, I’d dream of playing the game or being inside of it. The next day, I’d be exhausted. I often thought about those days while awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on a California law that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Letting children play video games on a Game Boy in the operating room before surgery can help relax them better than tranquilizers or holding Mommy's hand, researchers say. Doctors found that allowing children to play the games for a few minutes reduced their anxiety until the anesthesia took effect. "Children are just so happy with the Game Boy that they actually do forget where they are," said Dr. Anu Patel, an anesthesiologist at University Hospital in Newark who is to present the study findings tomorrow at a conference.

Excerpts from the Innovation Economy blog. It's pretty counterintuitive, but what if playing video games could help improve conditions like depression or attention deficit disorder? A low-profile Boston start-up, Akili Interactive Labs, is developing games to prove that hypothesis. It will conduct its first "before-and-after" brain imaging studies on players this spring. Akili is being incubated at PureTech Ventures, a Back Bay firm that seeds life-sciences start-ups; its acting chief executive is PureTech founder Daphne Zohar.

An Oklahoma lawmaker is proposing a tax on violent video games to fight childhood obesity and school bullying. Rep. William Fourkiller of Stilwell says the lack of physical activity associated with playing the games and the violence they portray have been blamed for childhood obesity and bullying. He says the games contribute to the problems, but they can also be part of the solution because of the revenue they raise. In 2008, 298 million video games were sold in the U.S., totaling $11.7 billion in revenue.

A Rhode Island hospital is investigating whether popular video games that make users jump, dance and exert themselves have any health benefits. Researchers at Miriam Hospital in Providence say they want to know whether players of so-called "exergames" are more likely to increase their physical activity than those participating in standard aerobic exercises. Lead investigator Beth Bock says existing research shows exercise video games can lead to the same positive health impact as traditional exercise.

In 2010, the man who'd helped Boston win its first World Series in more than 80 years came to Rhode Island promising the job-starved state something even better: hundreds of good jobs, millions of dollars in tax revenue and a foothold in the booming business of video games. To former Gov. Donald Carcieri and top economic development officials, it was an opportunity too good to miss. The state's Economic Development Corp. offered a $75 million loan guarantee to lure Curt Schilling's 38 Studios to Providence.

In the final months of two mostly unmemorable terms in office, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri boasted about his little state's big splash - stealing former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and his nascent video game company from Massachusetts. "This is a risk worth taking," said Carcieri, a Republican, announcing the 2010 deal that lured Schilling's company, 38 Studios, to Providence, and put Rhode Island taxpayers on the hook for up to $75 million in guaranteed loans to an athlete who liked video games but had never developed one. ...

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling asked Rhode Island for additional help to save his video game company Wednesday, prompting state leaders to consider whether the firm is viable enough to justify further investment. Schilling briefed Gov. Lincoln Chafee and the state's Economic Development Corp. board in a closed-door session. Following the meeting, Chafee would not say what Schilling is seeking from the state. The governor said the question before state economic development officials was, "How do we avoid throwing good money after bad?"

PROVIDENCE ---- Governor Lincoln Chafee says he and Rhode Island economic development officials have been meeting with the video game company owned by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling about its finances. Providence-based 38 Studios moved here from Massachusetts in 2010 after Rhode Island offered a $75 million loan guarantee the state said would help bring hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenue. Chafee tolds WJAR-TV on Monday "We're always working to keep Rhode Island companies...

A Manhattan judge says a lawsuit by a video-game developer against Beyonce can go to trial. The decision was made by Justice Charles Ramos. The company, Gate Five, claims the superstar backed out of a $20 million deal for a game called "Starpower: Beyonce. " The Grammy Award-winning singer's lawyers contend they were within their rights to opt out of the deal because Gate Five didn't have its financing in place. But the company says Beyonce knew it was ready to sign a contract with its financier on Dec. 6, 2010 when she pulled out three days earlier.

There's a lot more that goes into an online video game than meets the eye. Behind the slash, bang, and pow are complex engineering and intricate design to create texture, animation, and sounds. Jason Krupat, 38, is the mastermind behind the games launched by GSN (Game Show Network), a multimedia entertainment company with offices in Waltham and creator of the online Wheel of Fortune. Krupat, GSN's game director, conceptualizes the games. He dreams up the type of play that will take place, the features it will include, and how the game will use the technology on a particular...

WASHINGTON -- A chainsaw-wielding killer and blood-splattered shooting rampages are featured in some of the 10 video games that a media watchdog group says should be avoided by children and teens. "These games are brutal, primitive," Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said yesterday. With the holiday shopping season underway, the National Institute on Media and the Family released its 11th annual video game report card. The group urged parents to take a stronger role in safeguarding their children from games that glamorize sex and violence.

NEW YORK - After a day of dirty diapers and "Dora the Explorer," of laundry and homework time, when her four kids are finally asleep, Sarah Ninesling begins roaming the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., fighting mutants to help save the survivors of a nuclear war. The 30-year-old stay-at-home mom from New York's Long Island plays Fallout 3 and other games like World of Warcraft and The Lord of the Rings Online. She plays every day, sometimes past midnight, to escape and relax and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Inside a hot, cramped room in the Somali capital, 10 sweating children sat on wooden desks, not unlike those found in schools. These boys, though, were not in class. They were staring at a small TV and tightly gripping video-game controllers. Video games are the new rage in Somalia, a first-world entertainment option for teenage boys that wasn't permitted when ultraconservative al-Shabab militants controlled the capital. The insurgents — who were pushed out of Mogadishu last year by African Union and Somali troops — banned recreational pleasures like movies and Nintendo.