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December 12, 2008, 0:30 p.m. Game ChangerTotally video. By Robert VerBruggen Video games are undeniably popular: Over Thanksgiving week alone, Nintendo sold more than 800,000 Wii consoles. This trend could have serious ramifications for society; experts have speculated about consequences ranging from an uptick in childhood obesity to better-developed visuospatial skills. But video games’ effects on our way of life could exceed even these expectations. In Changing the Game, David Edery and Ethan Mollick focus on the world of business, explaining how companies are increasingly turning to games to solve various problems. The book both advises companies on how...

Wow! With Wii Community Service, it's almost like you're really helping. With community service mandates for high school and college in the works, Nintendo is developing "Wii Community Service." Benny Haha, the developer in charge of the Wii Community Service project, said the popular home video console that detects movements and reproduces those movements virtually is a 21st century approach to forced volunteerism. "The youth who so passionately backed the change of Barack Obama now must contemplate the mandates on community service, which may mean they will be forced to unsatisfying things, like work in the elements and, like, lift...

It's a given that every time we write about digital piracy, or laugh at silly pirate jokes, somebody will write in and admonish us. "Shame on you," they say. "Shame on you for laughing at pirates, when there is real piracy taking place in the world that ends up with people being hurt." Well, those among you who are already preparing to tell us the same, take your fingers off the keyboard: this story really is about high-seas piracy. According to Reuters, the recent growth in piracy off the coast of troubled Somalia means that lots of shipping companies are...

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho, March 27 (UPI) -- Two U.S. Department of Energy scientists in Idaho say they have adapted technology from Nintendo's Wii remote to control a mine-clearing robot. David Bruemmer and Douglas Few said they adapted the video game controller, which utilizes wireless technology that detects three dimensional movement, to control Packbot, a robot with bomb disposal capability, Sky News reported Thursday. The scientists said operating the Wii remote is more instinctive than traditional controllers, which can take too much of the user's attention and prevent the operator from concentrating fully on data gathered by the machine. The pair...

Hospitals Turn To Wii For Rehab Therapy 'Wiihabilitation' Growing More Popular Among DoctorsPOSTED: 11:07 am EST February 9, 2008 CHICAGO -- It could be called "Wiihabilitation." Nintendo's Wii video game system is now gaining popularity in hospitals and medical centers, which are using the system as part of physical therapy programs for patients. While traditional physical therapy can be painful, repetitive and boring, hospital officials said playing Wii is more fun for patients, to the point that some almost forget they're in therapy. The system's motion-sensitive controller requires body movements similar to traditional exercises, but officials said the game format...

f there is anything such as hell on earth, it was that moment," said the grey-haired, 90-year-old man at the front of the room.The hell on earth the old man, James Megellas, was talking about is a thing of legend, something one sees in movies. It can be seen in one movie in particular, "A Bridge Too Far."

Since its debut little over a year ago, the Wii has been a startling success for Nintendo. The company managed to shift an astounding 981,000 units in November alone. However, Wii sales have been constrained by supply. While Nintendo having trouble meeting demand for the Wii is nothing new, it looks like those supply problems could cost the console maker some serious money. James Lin, a senior analyst at MDB Capital Group, believes that Nintendo could be selling twice the 1.8 million Wii consoles it is manufacturing a month and that the company is set to miss out on an...

After catching his teenage son smoking pot, a father sold his son's coveted "Guitar Hero III" video game on eBay as punishment, and made over $9,000, PC World reported. The father, a Canadian school teacher, spent two weeks searching for the rare video game for the Nintendo Wii gaming system before buying it for his son. But later, after coming home from work early, he caught his son smoking reefer in the backyard with his "delinquent friends," PC World reported. Click here to read the full PC World report. In the eBay listing page, the man said he put the...

MONTREAL (AFP) — After catching his 15-year-old smoking pot, a father sold the hard-to-get "Guitar Hero III" video game he bought his son for 90 dollars for Christmas at an online auction, fetching 9,000 dollars. The sale took place after the father spent two weeks searching for the video game for the Nintendo Wii gameboard. "So I was so relieved in that I had finally got the Holy Grail of Christmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time. I couldn't wait to spread the jubilance to my son," the father wrote on the eBay website. "Then, yesterday, I...

Greenpeace has released its updated Guide to Greener Electronics and, ohhhh...Nintendo...not doing so well. In fact, Nintendo has received the first score of absolute zero that Greenpeace has ever handed out. It's almost as if, as soon as I really start to like a company's products, GreenPeace just HAS to slam them. But the story behind Nintendo's 'zero' has a lot more to do with the way it reports its practices than its actual practices. The Wii might not have any brominated flame retardants in it...but Nintendo has no policy against using BFRs and doesn't report whether or not it...

Sometimes I feel like I am a Jetson equpped as a Flintstone (or is that, Flintstonowitz?) in a Jetsons' world. An example: Even though I'm very good at video games and have excellent hand-eye coordination, I do not have any Wii stuff or other similar gamer software or equipment. That said, I still keep up with it all. And the hottest gift--stores can't keep it on the shelves--is supposed to be the Nintendo Wii console. If you're looking for one, WiiTracker and WiiChat have the tips and info. Customers are reportedly waiting early in the morning outside stores a lot...

July is supposed to be when things start to cool down for the games industry, as students and holiday makers take time off from games over the summer and spend their breaks doing other things. But not this year. The latest figures from the US from NPD Group, reported by GameDaily, have the games industry racking up nearly 40 per cent more sales in July compared with last year. And Nintendo is the one to thank. The Wii and the DS are proving nearly unstoppable, as the pair topped the chart yet again. This time the Wii even managed to...

Rochus Misch, Hitler's bodyguard and telephone operator, is the last surviving member of Hitler's entourage. He has just turned 90 and is publishing a book about his time with the Führer. The strangest thing was the sight of the two guitar players at the "Kaiserhof" subway station in Berlin. "I come out of this bunker of death, all that drama, and someone's playing music," recalls Rochus Misch. "They played Hawaiian music!" It was May 2, 1945, at six o'clock in the morning. Near Hitler's bunker, French SS troops and German army units were prolonging the end of World War Two....

Police: Pa. Boy Stabs Brother Over Game Jul 17 01:16 PM US/Eastern LANSDOWNE, Pa. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed his brother with a steak knife after the 16-year-old refused to turn over a video game controller, authorities said. Jahmir Ricks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Antwan Ricks at their home outside Philadelphia. The older boy died of a single stab wound to the chest, police said, and a bent and bloody knife was recovered from the home. Lansdowne police said the younger boy told them, "I just stabbed my brother," when they arrived at...

When Wii hit last fall, one of my coworkers considered canceling his YMCA membership and working out with Wii Sports instead. While some people were working out with Wii and getting good results, I wasn't convinced that Nintendo could replace a good old-fashion gym membership, no matter how much Wii Sports boxing made me sweat. At E3 on Wednesday, Nintendo kicked it up a notch when Mario creator and all-around gaming god Shigeru Miyamoto introduced Wii Fit, the game that "turns the living room into a fitness center for the whole family," Nintendo says, utilizing an innovative new Wii Balance...

Reporting NPD sales figures for the next-gen race between Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 has gotten to be a tiresome affair. Off the top of my head, I don’t believe the rankings have changed ever since December, 2006. Not a lot of drama there. The NPD sales figures for May in the USA were as follows: Nintendo Wii was the big kahuna, selling 338,000 units for the month. Next on the totem pole was Microsoft’s Xbox 360 coming in with 155,000 consoles sold. Bringing up the rear was PS3, with 82,000 as their magic number for May. The handheld department...

Wii on winning spree, scores fourth consecutive win over rivals by Shubha Krishnappa - May 19, 2007 - 2 comments Among the trio of next generation gaming consoles, Nintendo has emerged as the numero uno in April for the fourth consecutive month after selling 360,000 of the popular video game devices in the United States, repeatedly outshining both its rivals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the US video game consoles market. After attaining the top position in the first three months of the year, Nintendo has once again performed exceptionally well by selling nearly four times as...

Wii on winning spree, scores fourth consecutive win over rivals by Shubha Krishnappa - May 19, 2007 - 2 comments Among the trio of next generation gaming consoles, Nintendo has emerged as the numero uno in April for the fourth consecutive month after selling 360,000 of the popular video game devices in the United States, repeatedly outshining both its rivals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the US video game consoles market. After attaining the top position in the first three months of the year, Nintendo has once again performed exceptionally well by selling nearly four times as...

A classmate of mine has had a short film accepted for the Cannes Film Festival, and is raffling off a Wii to finance his accomodations. His name is Dave Footman, and here is his message: ************************************************************ Hello my friends, I wanted to give you the official "Foots Update" news. Since I hit the Big 5-0 in January I have been a traveling man (insert Ricky Nelson song here). I was asked to go to Australia and work with a good friend, producer/writer/director Natalie Hechtman, on her short film, Courting Hope. I'm happy and proud to report that the film looks...

Nintendo Wii on Winning Spree, beats Xbox 360 and PS3 again by Shubha Krishnappa - April 20, 2007 - 2 comments After attaining the number one position in the first two months of the year, Nintendo has again emerged as the numero uno among the trio of next generation gaming consoles in sales after selling 259,000 Wii video game consoles in March, repeatedly outshining both its rivals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the US video game consoles market. According to fresh sales results provided by market research firm NPD Group Inc., US gamers bought 259,000 Wii consoles...