During the same time period, video game sales totaled about 1.75 billion pounds. TV and music, with their associated fees, hardware and media costs, remain bigger still. But for video games to knock off the lead of a mainstream entertainment venue (one that is about 100 years old, BTW) is a significant accomplishment, especially when it’s by such a large margin.

The number of gaming consoles in British households has increased from 13.5 million units in 2008, to about 25 million in early 2009, or enough for one console to be in nine out of 10 households (though obviously many households simply have one of each of the big three consoles).

This is another feather in Britain’s video game cap. I noted in 2008 that Rob Fahey indicated Game Group (the UK’s equivalent to GameStop) had grown to three times the market cap of Britain’s largest construction firm.

The data have certainly generated discussion in Britain, offering ammo for video game defenders such as Tom Watson, a former Cabinet Office minister: “The industry has matured over the last decade, and so too have gamers.”

Via Blast Magazine & Game Politics

References:
Wallop, H. (2009, December 26). Video games bigger than film. Daily Telegraph. [Online.] Retrieved January 4, 2009 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6852383/Video-games-bigger-than-film.html

1. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, $9.99

2. Monopoly, $2.99

3. Tetris, $2.99

4. Bejeweled 2, $2.99

5. Scrabble, $2.99

6. The Sims 3, $4.99

7. Need for Speed Undercover, $2.99

8. Madden NFL 10, $6.99

9. Implode, $1.99

10. Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes, $4.99

via PC World.

References:
Video games favourite pastime among two-third Aussies amid recession. (2009, May 21). [Online.] Available: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/video-games-favourite-pastime-among-two-third-aussies-amid-recession_100195437.html

Here’s a list of games the article mentions that are either out or forthcoming:

• Charm Girls Club
• FarmVille (on FaceBook)
• Hannah Montana
• Just Dance
• Littlest Pet Shop
• Petz
• Sports Active
• StyleLab
• The Imagine line for the DS
• Wii Fit Plus
• Your Shape

Finally, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have cross-gender appeal.

References:
Kane, Y.I. (2009, October 13). Videogame firms make a play for women. The Wall Street Journal, B4.

The research firm went on to break down the US gaming population into seven groups, four of which use both PC and non-PC platforms. The biggest group makes up what NPD calls “Secondary Gamers” (33.6 million), mostly female gamers who play less than four hours a week and don’t own a console. The fastest-growing segment was the mostly male “Console Gamers” (32.9 million), who own at least one or two dedicated gaming machines and play around 12 hours per week. Next up is the shrinking “Heavy Portable Gamers” group (30.0 million), who own at least one portable and are the youngest group, with an average age of 19. The smallest section is the so-called “Extreme Gamers,” whose gaming habit takes up nearly as much time as a 40-hour work week.

Lots of good stats here. The full corporate research report can be purchased directly from NPD Group.

Via Wired GameLife.

Reisinger says venture funding tapered off a little for new virtual worlds in the fourth quarter, just as funding for everything else slowed down.

Several interesting findings came out of the research, including one that seems obvious but now has hard data backing it up: almost all children in the US play video games. Lenhart’s team broke down the data by gender, genre, game title, console, and more, ferreting out many interesting items. Here is a paragraph on gender:

The stereotype that only boys play video games is far from true in 2008, as girls constitute a large (if not equal) percentage of total gamers: 99% of boys play games, as do 94% of girls. While almost all girls as well as almost all boys play video games, boys typically play games with greater frequency and duration than girls. Boys are significantly more likely to play games daily than girls, with 39% of boys reporting daily game play and 22% of girls reporting the same. Boys are also more likely than girls to play games on any given day (60% of boys did, compared with 39% of girls), and when boys do play, they’re playing for longer periods of time.

Lenhart said I’d be interested in the findings on school gaming software, and she was absolutely correct. I suspect this might spur additional academic investigation, as a host of potential research questions come to mind from the findings on school games. This paragraph details the breakdown of students reporting school educational game use:

One-third (34%) of American teens have played a computer or console game at school as part of a school assignment. Lower-income teens (41%) and teens from homes with lower overall education levels (41%) are more likely than their counterparts (29%) to have played a game for school. Black teens (46%) are more likely that white teens (32%) to have played a game at school for educational purposes. Younger teens are also more likely to have played a game at school than older teens: 40% of teens ages 12-14 have played a game at school as part of a school assignment, while 29% of teens ages 15-17 have done so.

From there, researchers asked the students which games they played at school. Interestingly, here the answers got fuzzier:

When asked what games they played in school, many teens said they could not quite remember or that they played “math games” or “typing games.” Thus, we are not able to report on the most commonly played games with a degree of precision, and it was clear that no one game or one kind of game predominated. The games mentioned by five or more teens were: Oregon Trail, Fun Brain, Lemonade Stand, and Roller Coaster Tycoon.

I found it interesting that half those heavily mentioned titles stem from series started in the 1980s, which I blogged about recently here. It reminds me of some research a friend of mine once worked on in a third world country, focusing on non-governmental organizations. People working for the NGOs thought they were doing great, while the locals often held different opinions when answering the same survey questions. I suspect teachers using video games in the classroom could answer specific questions about them better than their students, but this probably holds true for other pedagogical activities as well. What kid remembers the name of any particular intervention? Without casting aspersions on either students, teachers, or the educational video games played, it was an intriguing tidbit.

In summary, this is an important dataset and report on teen gaming that other researchers will want to mine for details. There is something of interest here to anyone focusing on video games. I also liked the attention Lenhart’s team gave to social interaction in gaming, a facet so often overlooked by non-players. The main page for the report is here.

References:
Lenhart, A., Kahne J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008, September 16). Teens, video games, and civics. Pew Internet & American Life Project. [Online]. Available: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/263/report_display.asp

Those opinion-meisters at Reddit posted a link to my post from late July regarding the new ESA survey indicating females comprise 40% of the gaming audience. Discussion so far has centered around whether females truly comprise 40% of the audience for advanced MMORPGs and not just casual games. Read the profanity-laced conversation here.

Lee Wilson and Nicola Whitton, both of whose opinions I respect, linked to my post on Seven Questions to Ask Before Using a Video Game In the Classroom. Both disagreed with Question 7: Are the graphics and gaming quality on par with contemporary entertainment titles? Both seemed to suggest the graphics in casual titles may not compare with the newest $60 games for home consoles, but were adequate in relaying pedagogical content. I suppose I should have elaborated and indicated I was concerned with really basic graphics that are even below casual game standards. Probably I was thinking of the research outcomes from the old AQUAMoose project at Georgia Tech, where programming a game from scratch (not the programming language Scratch, but literally from scratch) led to some disappointing feedback from the target audience.

To sum up, I’m still here and posting, and thanks for the feedback. The old goal of one post each weekday has been suffering of late, but I should manage to get something of interest up on a regular basis. As always, shoot me an e-mail if you’d like to call my attention to something.

1. Is the game’s cognitive load appropriate for your students? Many simple edutainment titles are aimed at younger audiences. Consequently, these titles are often inappropriate for older students, who will find them less of a challenge and potentially insulting to their intelligence. Conversely, modifications of such titles as those in the Neverwinter Nights series, or the Civilization series, might be beyond the abilities of younger audiences.
2. Is the game easily modifiable? Many educational games on the market offer no capabilities for modification, giving teachers a “what you see is what you get” approach. Some games might have a higher level of adaptability for classroom use. For instance, a foreign language teacher can run a copy of The Sims 2 on her classroom computer and simply change the operating language, offering an instant immersive language environment for her students. Ideally, however, a game can be easily modified by the teacher, so that he can insert whatever objectives are needed into the gaming environment. Such modifications are more difficult and time consuming but doable, as seen in several examples for the Neverwinter Nights engine and Second Life.
3. Does the game align with your standards (local, state, national)? Fortunately this question is increasingly being addressed by educational video game companies, as they realize that the purchasing of their titles in large quantities by schools largely hinges on this question. Look at the excellent job Tabula Digita is doing making sure their math games are aligned with state and national standards. Hopefully the company selling the product has already done the alignment for you, however your job as a teacher will be to make sure you know where the product lines up with the standards you are responsible for teaching. If nobody has done that previously, chance are good you will have to do it yourself if you need to justify using the game in your classroom to parents and administrators.
4. Can the game present useful outcomes within a short time period? Class periods are generally short. Time spent on any lesson is perforce brief. Many excellent video games with learning potential are hugely complex and take hours to complete. However, you have just minutes in your class to drive home a point or two. Therefore you will need to eschew games that take an inordinate amount of time to develop their pedagogical points. Also, setting up a game and getting students going takes additional time, whether in a lab, on laptops, or on classroom computers. Setup and shutdown times will decrease the available minutes students can spend on the game and its learning objectives.
5. Does the game train or teach? This is a critical difference classroom teachers need to fully understand. Most “serious games,” as they are commonly called, train players in something. This training may involve safety practices, industrial techniques, machinery operation, or a host of other skills. Academic games aligned to state standards will focus on testable outcomes and high stakes exams. Most teachers will not want to deviate from the standards they are required to teach, or at least have a ready explanation as to how the game is germane to their subject matter. For instance, a geometry teacher could certainly justify using a game that involves creating floor plans; a history teacher can find plenty of justification for the many Civilization mods out there; and a language arts teacher can justify the typing and reading involved in most any higher level game. Regardless, if a game actively seeks to teach academic content, its appropriateness for the classroom will naturally rise above a rival game designed more for work skill enhancement.
6. Does the game track player progress? Videogames that keep track of the progress your students make will lift that burden off your shoulders. Ideally the game will offer reporting functions on each student so you can easily track their progress, and perhaps suggest remedial actions or advanced activities if a student is behind or ahead of the norm.
7. Are the graphics and gaming quality on par with contemporary entertainment titles? It is certainly possible to buy educational games which fall far below the expectations of students used to higher quality offerings. Since studies show that nearly two-thirds of all households play videogames, it behooves us to use quality games in the classroom since our students will likely be used to high standards. It’s always good to pilot test any particular title with students you trust. If they like the game, it’s probably worth the investment to outfit a school computer lab or buy a site license. Dr. Brian Woodfield over at BYU noted how a teacher set up Virtual ChemLab on one machine in the back of her classroom, which eventually led to the school purchasing a site license. I do mini-studies with my own kids from time to time. Also, my paper on assessing higher order thinking in videogames might help pinpoint the pedagogical potential of games with which you are unfamiliar.

In conclusion, any classroom intervention is worth serious consideration beforehand. Hopefully, these seven questions will help steer you toward quality products. Educational videogames are strong tools for teaching in the classroom. Judicious selection of appropriate titles may result in many positive results.

References:
Rice, J. (2005). Evaluating the suitability of video games for k-12 instruction. Paper presented to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), 2005 International Convention, Orlando, FL.

- 65% of US households play videogames

- 38% of US households own a console

- Women over 18 make up a larger percentage of gamers than boys under 17 (33% to 18%)

The new 2008 “Essential Facts” booklet by the ESA is available in PDF format here.

References:
Heflinger, M. (2008, July 17). Survey: Average U.S. gamer age is 35; 40% are women. [Online]. Available: http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/17/survey:-
average-u.s.-gamer-age-35%3B-40%25-are-women

Update:
Click here for info on new games designed for female players and how software companies are tackling this emerging market.