A-Grade gamers

Nintendo is turning out to be quite the darling of the gaming industry, and to think that only a few years back the majority of the media wee signalling that the end was neigh with poor sales of the GameCube.

But, just like the ugly and unpopular kid at school that turns into the most successful, good looking person from your class – there’s a bit of “In your face!” about what Nintendo has achieved. Granted, they started off battling the likes of SEGA for the gaming crown way back when, but up against the PS1, PS2 and the original Xbox, the brand struggled a bit and lost a fair bit of ground.

But, just as Gloria Gaynor once sang, “and now I’m back”, and they are, in a huge, huge way. The point of this post is not to muse upon the achievements of Nintendo the brand, but to talk about an interesting bit of news about the company’s handheld, the DS. Just as the Wii is making huge inroads away from traditional gaming audiences, so is the DS.

Over the past few weeks I have been reading more and more reports about the DS being used in education. There have been a couple of cases here in Australia where whole classes have been given DS handhelds to help them “warm-up” their brains ahead of the day’s lessons and it’s had some startling results with grades improving across the class. In another report a Junior high school teacher in Japan has used the DS in weekly lessons to teach English.

MyTake – I must have said this a hundred times – gaming is good. The more fun you have, the more you learn and remember. There are also scientific benefits associated with gaming, such as increased hand-eye coordination, faster reactions and so on. Technology is becoming a bigger part of out day-to-day lives and the more we embrace it the better we will become, the more we ignore it the more we are missing out. Ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s boring

(non) smoking hot

I smoked – like post of my people my age, when I grew up cigarette advertising was everywhere and you could buy a 10 pack of cigies for about $2.50. I was smart enough (no offence to any smokers out there) to give up many years ago, but for those trying to kick the habit, it could be as easy as playing a game.

A new game being launched for the DS based on "Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking" method (which reportedly has apparently helped more than 10 million smokers to quick) is set to be released by Ubisoft in November.

The game requires players to enter a short history about their smoking habits and then choose a personal “coach” to guide them through the process of quitting. The game includes elements to "dispel the illusions about nicotine addiction" and would-be-quitters can track their progress using the "Path to Freedom" meter.

MyTake – Gaming is becoming a bigger part of everyday life and is breaking out of the basement, into the living room and through to other parts of our lives – such as fitness and now, self help. The other interesting is that playing the game gives you something to do with your hands, something that many quitters say is one of the most difficult aspects of the quitting process. I remember my mum telling me how her father, my grandad Freddie Capper, actually ordered a fake cigarette to have something to do with his hands. We’ve got it a lot easier these days, I wonder what he’d say if I told him all the different aids that people have to help them quit – including a game. Well, I pretty much know what he’d say.