gaming

Showing 265 posts tagged gaming

All my friends have it, so I think we’re the last to own a copy of Arkham Horror because we always use someone else’s…

I prefer the lighter colored boards of later reprints. Originally the board background was dark brown - now placing the encounter cards in their districts can actually be seen.

We figured out a couple of good storage ideas; the Fantasy Flight AH dice sets make excellent piece holders with the little separator trays and fit in the box tray perfectly, and a Birchbox Man box makes for a nice Monster pull-out tray.

Two-player should be interesting, we’ll see if Jenny Barnes and “Ashcan” Pete can save Arkham from Yig! I’m about to disembark from the train station…

Girls May Improve Spatial Ability by Playing More Boy Games In the new review, published in the journal Sex Roles, researchers examine one of the factors posited to contribute to gender differences in spatial ability — that of gender-roles. Although children are born either male or female, individuals differ in their degree of masculine and feminine identification and endorsement of masculine and feminine gender roles, according to researchers David Reilly and David Neumann, Ph.D., from Griffith University in Australia. Collectively these studies showed a significant association between masculinity and mental rotation performance for both men and women. In other words, men and women with either a strong masculine or androgynous gender identity fared better in mental rotation tasks. photo via flickr:CC | Nathan 2009 High-res

Girls May Improve Spatial Ability by Playing More Boy Games

In the new review, published in the journal Sex Roles, researchers examine one of the factors posited to contribute to gender differences in spatial ability — that of gender-roles.

Although children are born either male or female, individuals differ in their degree of masculine and feminine identification and endorsement of masculine and feminine gender roles, according to researchers David Reilly and David Neumann, Ph.D., from Griffith University in Australia.

Collectively these studies showed a significant association between masculinity and mental rotation performance for both men and women. In other words, men and women with either a strong masculine or androgynous gender identity fared better in mental rotation tasks.

photo via flickr:CC | Nathan 2009

Why Competition Can Be Healthy For Kids Po Bronson presented a very different picture of competition when he spoke with Michael Krasny on KQED’s Forum about Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing, his latest book written with co-author Ashley Merryman. The book examines competition from all angles – physiological, psychological, historical. Their main point: competition, if done right, is a good thing. In fact, competition and team activities can drive learning and performance better than solo endeavors. “In finite games, you compete and then you let it go, and you have rest and recuperation – that’s actually really important for kids,” said Bronson. “It’s the continuous sense of pressure that is unhealthy for them.” photo via flickr:CC | The Bearmaiden High-res

Why Competition Can Be Healthy For Kids

Po Bronson presented a very different picture of competition when he spoke with Michael Krasny on KQED’s Forum about Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing, his latest book written with co-author Ashley Merryman.

The book examines competition from all angles – physiological, psychological, historical. Their main point: competition, if done right, is a good thing. In fact, competition and team activities can drive learning and performance better than solo endeavors.

“In finite games, you compete and then you let it go, and you have rest and recuperation – that’s actually really important for kids,” said Bronson. “It’s the continuous sense of pressure that is unhealthy for them.”

photo via flickr:CC | The Bearmaiden

As a backer, I was emailed today that the first part of the Tropes vs Women in Video Games by Feminist Frequency arrived. Watch Part 1: The Damsel in Distress.

This video explores how the Damsel in Distress became one of the most widely used gendered clichés in the history of gaming and why the trope has been core to the popularization and development of the medium itself. 

As a trope the Damsel in Distress is a plot device in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must then be rescued by a male character, usually providing a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist’s quest.