Finals

Mmmm….finals…it’s that time where everyone is sad and then really happy break started. As of today (Monday) I have only one final remaining….and it’s….on Friday….accursed final schedule won’t let me go home early! D= On the bright side I do believe I’ve passed every class, some better than others, we shall see when grades come! Luckily my final on Friday is just a presentation so I don’t need to worry about studying. I’m thinking it’s time to catch up on some much deserved gaming!

The Health Benefits of Video Games

A research paper I made for my english class:

Gaming for a Healthy Lifestyle
I am a gamer. Even as I was just beginning to learn to read, I was a gamer. Ever since I began calling myself a gamer, my parents have been telling me gaming is unhealthy. “You’ll get fat and lazy,” they said. “You’ll have no friends.” They said I wouldn’t earn decent grades. Fast forward a little and I am a healthy college student with plenty of friends, I even have a girlfriend. I am still a gamer.
After years of being told my gamer lifestyle would ultimately lead to failure, I am still succeeding. It’s time to stop stereotyping gamers. Gaming offers numerous benefits physically, mentally, and socially.
In recent years, gaming has become much more than staring at a colorful screen while smashing some buttons on a controller. Gaming has become a beneficial entity that can encourage a person (such as a child) to exercise, often times without the player being aware. An easy example would be the arcade hit by Konami, Dance Dance Revolution (a.k.a. DDR). DDR requires the player to dance to music by stepping on directional arrows on a pad. From my own experience, playing more than two to three songs on medium difficulty is enough of a work out that rest becomes appealing. Games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero also encourage players to move around and practice rhythm. Sports games also offer an easy way for children to learn the rules and gain a genuine interest in playing a sport.
Nintendo’s Wii has further revolutionized gaming and made the physical benefits of playing much more obvious than its predecessors. Every Wii game utilizes a motion sensitive controller that acts as an extension of the human hand. As a result, every Wii game requires the player to move their arms, and sometimes the games require the player to utilize their entire body. To further extend the Wii’s credibility as a legit exercise medium, Nintendo created the Wii Fit. The Wii Fit is akin to a motion sensitive scale paired with a wide variety of exercise instructions. Appealing to both children and adults, Nintendo has sold more than 20 million Wii Fit units.
Despite all the evidence that video games promote an active lifestyle, there is still a significant amount of video games that do not require much more movement than a flurry of mouse clicks and typing. In particular, shooting games are frequently considered useless for any purpose. However, gaming offers several long term benefits that have only recently been studied. For example, researchers have found that playing video games for “a few hours a day” can improve vision by as much as 20% (Gaming’s Health Benefits). Gaming can also hone hand-eye coordination skills and improve dexterity. On average, surgeons that played video games made 32% fewer errors, were 24% faster, and performed 26% better overall than surgeons who did not play video games (Gaming’s Health Benefits). Also, video games have been shown to be preferable to other forms of “idle” entertainment such as watching television. The average gamer is more physically fit than the average American (Online Gamers Older, More Fit Than You’d Think). Researchers speculate this is due to the fact gamers typically replace time spent watching television with videogames, resulting in less consumerism ideology forced upon them.
Video games do much more than just exercise the body, they also exercise the mind. When broken down into its simplest elements, video games are nothing more than a compilation of challenges and puzzles. Sometimes these challenges pit the player against an artificially intelligent (A.I.) computer controlled player, or another human being. As gamers work to conquer these challenges, their brains become more efficient (How Video Games Are Good for the Brain). John Gabrieli, a neuroscientist at MIT comments, “The games aren’t just hard – they’re adaptively hard. They tend to challenge people right at the edge of their abilities; as players get better and score more points, they move up to more demanding levels of play. This adaptive challenge is ’stunningly powerful’ for learning” (How Video Games Are Good for the Brain). Constance Steinkuehler, an educational researcher, started an afterschool World of Warcraft (a.k.a. WoW) group to try and help struggling kids learn to write. He comments, “Some of the eighth graders and high school freshmen who signed up for the group couldn’t have cared less about writing or reading in school. Yet those students have gone from barely stringing together two sentences to writing lengthy posts in their group’s Web site forum, where they discuss detailed strategies for gearing up their virtual characters and figuring out tough quests,” (World of Warcraft Video Game Succeeds in School).
Growing up as a gamer, I can definitely say my education was positively impacted by playing video games of all types. For example, when I was in third grade, I remember passing a spelling test because I had remembered the word “command” from a popular strategy game known as Starcraft. My math skills also improved from the same game, where I would ponder things such as “If I need to create 12 units that cost 50 minerals (a form of currency) each, how many minerals do I need to make all 12?” Another game that changed my education would be World of Warcraft. Through the vast number of spells, items, and enemies all with unique names, I learned hundreds of new vocabulary words. In fact, a sizeable number of those words were on the SAT.
Researchers are also looking at video games for medicinal purposes. Games such as Brain Age for the GameBoy are being given to stroke patients (such as my mom) to help them recover both mentally and physically. Video games are also being considered for pain suppression and helping depression. A professor of psychology, Bryan Raudenbush considers our state of mind while playing video games is most similar to that experienced during meditation, wherein the brain is in an intense state of working while completely relaxed (Gaming’s Health Benefits). This meditative state is what allows gamers to concentrate on the challenge at hand. Personally, I have found gaming to be an excellent way to escape the discomforts of the common cold or muscle soreness. Raudenbush comments, “The pull that makes it nearly impossible for parents to get their kids to put down a game and come to dinner can be used to take people’s minds off pain during physical therapy sessions or dental work,” (Gaming’s Health Benefits).
People that are in physical or emotional pain often turn to video games to distract them and ease their suffering. As a result, video games have been stereotyped to be addicting and a root cause of depression. However, there is no conclusive evidence that gaming is responsible for depression or other mental illnesses. In fact, the video game Bejewelled distracted Gail Nichols from suicidal thoughts and ultimately saved her life (Rx: Xbox?).
Contrary to popular belief, gaming is an excellent way to boost one’s social life. World of Warcraft players are commonly stereotyped to be socially awkward people cowering in a dark room all by their lonesome selves. This stereotype clouds the fact that WoW players cannot succeed in-game without social skills. At the maximum level, players participate in challenges called raids, where large groups of players attempt boss fights that would otherwise be impossible in the conventional group of five players. These raids can range in size from ten to forty players, while some game events can utilize multiple raids of up to 120 players working together. To be successful, most raids form a chain of command to establish responsibilities and order for the benefit of all participants. There are also groups of players known as guilds, a collection of players in a corporation style structure where there is a leader, officers, and players. Most guilds have recruitment processes not too different from most workplaces. Regardless of skill, if a player cannot make friends with their raid/guildmates, they will likely be removed and be unable to rejoin.
Aside from meeting new people in games, gaming helps people connect with their local friends. I remember when Halo 3 was released and I invited several of my friends over to play every day for weeks straight. Similarly, I have taken Rock Band to parties and played with friends and strangers alike, meeting new people and having fun with the friends I already have. Also, video games have helped me keep in touch with friends that live too far away to visit on a regular basis. Video games hardly hinder social behavior.
As can be seen, video games are clearly beneficial to children and adults for a number of reasons. They drastically and positively affect health, intelligence, and social behavior. There is only one question that remains: do you have what it takes to become a gamer?

Works Referenced
Mazel, Jacob. “Wii Fit Sales Top 20m Worldwide, Revenue Nearing $2 billion.” VGChartz. 16 June 2009. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.

Van Dusen, Allison. “Gaming’s Health Benefits.” Forbes.com. Forbes.com, 19 Mar. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.

Hsu, Jeremy. “World of Warcraft Video Game Succeeds in School.” livescience.com. LiveScience, 3 Oct. 2008. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.

Anthes, Emily. “How Video Games Are Good for the Brain.” The Boston Globe. Globe Newspaper Company, 12 Oct. 2009. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.

Vedantam, Shankar. “Rx: Xbox?” The Washington Post. The Washington Post. 18 Aug. 2009. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.

Hsu, Jeremy. “Online Gamers Older, More Fit Than You’d Think.” foxnews.com. LiveScience, 1 Oct. 2008. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.

Halloween……..boo!

Yes my post is a few days late, deal with it. Anyways, a long (not really) awaited (not really) picture of my leet industrial punk costume.

Halloween was really cool and lots of people liked my costume which made it even better! Sadly I only have one picture of the complete costume (gas mask included) and it didn’t turn out particularly well. Halloween was best due to the visit of a certain special someone!

Halloween Costume

Concept teaser.

College Continued

So here at Cal Poly we have something called WOW week (Week of Welcome….week). Apparently it’s the largest volunteer orientation program in the nation. Crazy imo. There’s over 500 groups totaling around 4000 freshmen. It’s insane, it’s fun, it’s awesome, it’s COLLEGE! The past week of activities includes but is not limited to: hiking, paintballing, eating, kayaking, swimming, crafts, exploration, free stuff, cross-campus capture the flag, mind games (I can play the key game, the key game, the key game, I can play the key game, how about you?), barbecues, and two things I want to elaborate more on specifically, the hypnotist and the big…rally…thing…in the field.

The Hypnotist show was BEYOND funny. This guy hypnotized roughly 20 people from the audience and had them do various amusing things from the beginning while the ‘most under’ did crazier things as the show progressed. Eventually, a bunch of guys took their shirts off and pretended they were in a body building competition. Things progressed to a live performance of Bye Bye Bye by Nsync. I must admit the person portraying the lead singer did an excellant job singing and dancing. However, his performance led to his downfall when the hypnotist threw a bunch of tissues on the stage and told him they were 1000 dollar bills and to hide them somewhere no one would find them (he was shirtless…). Naturally, he shoved a ton of tissue in his pants. He was then instructed to forget what had happened during the show that night. 20 minutes later I was going to the bathroom minding my own business when I turn around and there’s 9875928374928734982 people crammed into a tiny bathroom. Apparently the guy walked into the stall and people followed him to hear his reaction. The complete silence was broken– “…..hey guys….what happened tonight….? Did he put something in my pants…?”

The rally on the field included all 4000 freshmen. For about 2.5 hours, we did a TON of crazy games that became more and more crazy as the night went on. They would have all 4000 of us run around playing tag and then have to return to our lines as fast as possible. They had us organize ourselves by birthmonth and birthday with no help. They had the ladies ‘mount their mustangs’ where they had to jump on a guy’s back and shoot their finger guns into the air like a cowboy. The only catch–it had to be the same guy every time it was called. Mind you, it can be very challenging to find ONE person in a crowd of 3999. Somehow it all worked out and everything fit into place. Fun, silly, and memorable; a night well spent.

Tomorrow is a concert by some band I haven’t heard of, not sure what’s planned for the rest of the day. I just know I’m going to sleep in. ‘night all!

College

is amazing. There’s so many new people to meet, it’s awesome! I think the best part is the sheer volume of nerdiness around me. 127.0.0.1 sweet 127.0.0.1 (Nerd joke). Last night we had a LAN party downstairs until 2:30am or something, a couple people hauled their desktops down but I opted to just take the laptop. Had a little wc3 goodness and made some friends.

I drank my first ever Monster and I must say, that stuff wakes you uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup. The aftermath wasn’t so great–ended up with a stomach ache. D= Ah well, it was fun and definitely worth it. They’re pretty much feeding us every 30 minutes and keeping us super busy with activities. Well, that’s all for now, I’ll be around moar.

Successes

Things have been going well lately, sold one of the tv’s (PROFIT!!! w00t!!!11!1) and getting some bites on the next one up for grabs. Grabbed some new (and to my dismay, expensive) fans for the computer in an attempt to quiet things down while keeping airflow up. It seems to have helped a decent amount, shy of watercooling I’m running out of additional quieting options. I am considering modding the case with a 120 or 140mm intake fan on the top panel. The graphics cooler (pics on the prior post) does not exhaust hot air like the last one did, so the CPU runs a little hotter than it used to. Plus it would be the preface to radiator mounts for watercooling…

Hawaii, Birthday, & More

Where has the time gone? The past few weeks have been very fun filled and busy. For example..
Hawaii
Helicopter ride in Hawaii
Then a little birthday joy back home,
Plus the typical nerdgasm computer parts,

Thus concludes the summary of the last 3 weeks. Oh, except for the epic airsofting showdown at audrey’s house. owned. That’s all there is to say. Just owned.

-God

The Definition of OVERKILL

I am win.

The TV Projekt Pt. 2

3 out of 5 Functional
2 out of 3 Flawless
2 out of 5 Remaining.

Sharp 26lv67 (26″)

Westinghouse SK-32H240S (32″)