Encourage your Teenager to Make Video Games ? the Benefits are Astonishing

October 2, 2010 by  
Filed under Video Games

Video Game making is a pursuit that involves creativity, visual design, writing, logical thinking, collaboration, and many other skills. It is something that your teenager could get very enthusiastic about and it can be done at no cost whatsoever.

Making video games is not about computer programming

Video game making is no longer the pursuit of the cliched nerdy computer programming types of individuals. There are freely available software programs that take the “programming” right out of the process and free the user to explore the creative potential of making video games.

What skills are developed?

When building a video game a person is building a world and this processs entails a wide variety of skills and disciplines that begins with the generation of ideas then progresses into design of buildings, landscapes and characters. During this process the game maker learns writing skills, storytelling skills, graphic design and architectural skills. Then the game progresses into playability where the game maker will learn logic, flowcharting, storyboarding and even the basics of economics and trade. The process for making a video game is a complete creative cycle that starts with the generation of ideas and ends with the completion of a project.

The Feedback and Positive Reinforcement comes quickly and often

The first lesson learned by a game maker is the lesson of persistence. But this persistence is done in gentle steps with frequent positive feedback. A game maker can have his or her first small game up and running in one afternoon. From there the challenges get more complex and more rewarding. The only limit to the complexity, size and creativity of a game is the limit that the game maker puts on himself.

Scalability, the Learning Curve, and growth

Game making is an extremely elastic pursuit that challenges and develops a person from the absolute beginner to the very advanced. Someone new to video game making can actually have a small working game completed within a few hours and this can be developed and expanded into a very large world with challenges in economics, player interactions, complex design of worlds and cities and more. There is always a new set of things to learn and a new set of skills to learn.

Applicability to the regular career world

The biggest gain in making video games is the gain of learning how to manage projects small and large but game making also brings experience in a variety of creative pursuits from visual design to computer skills, writing, and even music. Your teenager, while learning to make video games, will be exposed to a whole host of different creative pursuits. He or she can get a good look at all these pursuits and even if he or she doesn’t want to be a game designer the skills learned will apply to almost any career path imaginable. And all of this is neatly wrapped up in something your teenager can get excited about.

To learn more about the creativity of Making Video Games for free visit the author?s website at:
Make Video Games

What are the benefits/ detriments of playing video games?

September 3, 2010 by  
Filed under Video Games

I’ve been playing video games since I was 5 years old. A lot of people assume playing video games gives you faster reflexes. Others say it ruins your ability to think. Could somebody please enlighten me on this and tell me what’s good AND bad about playing video-games?

Are there Medical Benefits to Video Games?

August 23, 2010 by  
Filed under Video Games

Video games have always been given a modest nod of tolerance by parents who struggle to see the benefits of learning how to crash a car into a tree at 120 miles per hour. But new evidence is proving that video games have a new respect in the medical field. And if you suffer from chronic pain, you soon may be knocking on your children’s door asking, “can you show me how that controller-thingy works?”

One of the best benefits is that there are now video games like Dance Dance Revolution that can help you get physically fit. If you’ve been to a movie theater or mall lately, you may have noticed the 3-foot square platform with an arrow on each side of the square pointing up, down, left and right. The player may appear as though they have joined the toddlers in a dance along with The Wiggles, but the game does take skill. The player faces a video screen that has arrows scrolling upward to the beat of a song, and the player steps on the correlating arrow. Tempted to try it but not in a public place? The home version costs about $80 for the game and plastic dance pad and it includes a “workout mode” that actually will track how many calories you are burning.

Another study has just been released about the ability for video games to actually reduce chronic pain. A group of students from Wheeling Jesuit University reported from their study that playing sports and fighting video games produces a dramatic level of pain distraction. The students presented the results of the study, “Effects of Video Game Play Types on Pain Threshold and Tolerance,” during the University’s Seventh Annual Student Research and Scholarship Symposium, April 4, 2006. The study examined 6 genre types (action, puzzle, arcade, fighting, sport, and boxing). Sports games and fighting games were able to “produce a dramatic level of pain distraction.” Some are suggestion that physicians install more video game consoles in their waiting rooms to lower the tension of upcoming surgical procedures. That seems fair, since many surgeons are now requesting Ipod players in their surgical rooms.

The video game may not help just the patient either! If you must have surgery, you should be glad to hear that your doctor actually spends some down time playing video games. Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 27 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster, claims Dr. James Rosser Jr., a top surgeon and director of the Advanced Medical Technologies Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Rosser and his colleagues recently brought together surgeons, movie makers, and video game designers to discuss ways that better tools to train physicians can be developed. Players are hooked up with heart-rate and skin-conduction monitors on their fingers and they must calm their body and mind to make the game respond.

All good news, but don’t be surprised if your teenagers here about this news soon too. When they ask for the next PlayStation sports game and you say no, he may just respond with, “but it’s good for my health and I may even be training to be a surgeon!”

Don’t miss Lisa Copen’s new consumer magazine, HopeKeepers, for people
who live with chronic illness or pain and the sponsor of Invisible Illness Awareness Week. Articles, chat, groups. http://www.restministries.org

Benefits Of Cheat Codes Used With Video Games

May 16, 2010 by  
Filed under Video Games

Video game cheat codes are designed to give gamers an added advantage in particular video games, which enables them to give their video game character infinite health, special abilities, or other necessary advantages that helps them to advance to the next level.


Video games used with any video game system on the market today have certain cheat codes that enable gamers to get through seemingly impossible areas in video games. Gamers are given special ability when using cheat codes that make walking through walls capable and many other fantastic functions as well. Many cheat codes allows gamers to finish difficult levels in particular video games, which be found in a variety of video game publications and through several web sites.


When getting stuck in particular areas of video games, gamers will search a variety of web sites to find the cheat codes that they are looking for to complete the most difficult video games. Of course, on several of these web sites cheat codes are submitted by other fellow gamers that have either figured a cheat code out on their own or have found the cheat code on another gaming web site. Normally, gamers can find these cheat codes listed by the different video gaming system used and then by the type of video game, which makes looking for the cheat code desired much more convenient for gamers. Another added convenience for gamers is that when these cheat codes are released they have been tested for their accuracy and ability.


Each cheat code will give gamers access to a variety of different hidden abilities or tips to assist the gamer through particular stages of a video game. Many gamers only use cheat codes to enable them to pass difficult stages within a video game and other gamers will use cheat codes throughout the entire video game. Being stuck on a particular level in a video game can be extremely frustrating for even the advanced gamer. When a video gamer uses cheat codes regularly they will often write them on either index cards or some sort of tablet for the easiest access possible, which keeps the gamer from constantly having to look particular cheat codes up.


Cheat codes for video games are enter into the video game system by using a set sequence using the pads on a gamers controller, joystick, keyboard, or steering wheel. The majority of cheat codes are created by video game developers and beta game testers for the sole purpose of testing out specific aspects and functions of a video game. Once a video game has been tested for its accuracy and gaming performance, then these video games are often disregarded and left behind forgotten.


There are very few avid video gamers that do not know what a cheat code is or has never used a cheat code while playing video games. Cheat codes are terrific for any video gamer that desires to add a little zing to video games in which they have already defeated. Cheat codes allow video gamers the ability to unlock hidden items or with video games involving sports often times hidden teams within the video game itself. Some times cheat codes will allow the difficulty of video games to become harder so that video gamers will become much more interesting for the more advanced gamer.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant about kids toys, dolls, and video games. You will find the best marketplace for kids toys, dolls, and used video games at these sites for kids toys, dolls, and cheat codes.

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