Registration is now open for the 2009 Games for Health Conference, being held this year in Boston on June 11-12. For the fifth time in history, this conference will bring together the best minds in the health and game development fields to discuss how the use of interactive video games can advance health and health care. Initial response numbers suggest that this conference will be the largest-ever sponsored by Games for Health – which reflects the recent booming growth of the health games industry. The event is set to include:
More than 40 planned sessions, covering a variety of health game topics
2 special pre-conference sessions: Games Accessibility Day and Virtual Worlds & Health Day
Exhibition areas with demonstrations of the newest and most innovative health games
Networking opportunities
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio is the premier sponsor for the conference, with significant sponsorship support also provided by Humana, and further funding by Virtual Heroes, Inc.. Having grown immensely since its inception, the 2009 conference is sure to be the best yet.
A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults — and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.
Now, through his organization, the National Institute for Play, he hopes to expand the study of human play into a vital science — and help people everywhere enjoy and participate in play throughout life.
Electronic Arts showed off its latest sports games today, with a heavy emphasis on new kinds of games that could appeal to wider audiences.
Among the big titles coming soon is EA Sports Active, a fitness title for the Nintendo Wii that resembles the Nintendo Wii Fit title (which topped 10 million unit sales last year). But EA Sports Active isn’t just a knock-off of the popular balance-board game.
The game has a deep fitness program for people who are serious about losing weight and staying trim. They can use its advice and tools to track their activities and design workouts that let them have fun while they exercise. You can do things like simulate rollerblading jumps by tying the Wii controller to your thigh and jumping up and down. You can use a stretch band to exercise your arms and see how precisely you’re following the instructions by looking at your on-screen avatar. The game isn’t as cutesy as Wii Fit, so it may appeal to people who thought the Nintendo game was a tad silly.
Seek ‘n’ Spell puts the iPhone’s GPS to use, so you and your army of friends (real friends see – not Facebook cronies you sad, sad, tragic loser) can go to the swings where the game will overlay the location with letters scattered about the place.
It’s then a mad dash to collect up as many letters as possible and – Countdown style – come up with the longest word possible to win. Educational, informational, sociable and … exerciseationable.
Seek ‘n’ Spell’s just been submitted for Apple’s approval, and should be with us in the next week or two, so get some new laces for your running shoes, fatso. Check out the official site, while you’re lacing ‘em up.
The government’s new health campaign suggests that video games are causing inactivity and obesity among young Britons.
Representatives of the British game industry reacted with outrage on Monday when the latest video in the government’sChange 4 Life healthy living campaign featured a young boy on the sofa playing with a games controller, below the caption “Risk an early death, just do nothing.”
“This sort of campaign just reinforces the worst stereotype of the games industry,” a spokesman for Sony told The Times. “It feels like, once again, the video games industry is being made to carry the can for society’s ills.”
The YMCA in Alexandria, Va., is piloting an "I-gym" — a workout room filled with about a dozen pieces of equipment that marry video games and fitness. Think of it as Nintendo’s Wii on steroids.
In Silver Spring, Md., Woodlin Elementary School has tried out a NEOS, a giant orange play structure with flashing lights, colors and "whoop whoop" sounds.
"Kids are going to exercise if they want to and have fun doing it," said Janice Williams, senior vice president for special projects at the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington. "So many kids are tech savvy, and video games are a draw to them, so why not have them use a video game that requires them to use movement?"
Registration is now open for the 2009 Games for Health Conference, being held this year in Boston on June 11-12. For the fifth time in history, this conference will bring together the best minds in the health and game development fields to discuss how the use of interactive video games can advance health and health care. Initial response numbers suggest that this conference will be the largest-ever sponsored by Games for Health – which reflects the recent booming growth of the health games industry. The event is set to include:
Electronic Arts showed off its latest sports games today, with a heavy emphasis on new kinds of games that could appeal to wider audiences. 
Seek ‘n’ Spell puts the iPhone’s GPS to use, so you and your army of friends (real friends see – not Facebook cronies you sad, sad, tragic loser) can go to the swings where the game will overlay the location with letters scattered about the place. 
The government’s new health campaign suggests that video games are causing inactivity and obesity among young Britons.
The YMCA in Alexandria, Va., is piloting an "I-gym" — a workout room filled with about a dozen pieces of equipment that marry video games and fitness. Think of it as Nintendo’s Wii on steroids. 
