Earlier this year, CCP Games, Massively Multiplayer Online Science, and Reykjavik University jointly announced Project Discovery. The program is ostensibly an EVE Online mini-game that presents players with images of protein patterns w...   read

CCP is giving EVE Online players a chance to take off their space pilot hats and put on their space scientist hats. The Iceland-based developer has introduced a new mini-game to EVE Online that both rewards players and takes a cra...   read

Most gamers scoff at the suggestion that video games can influence real life behavior. "I've been playing violent video games my whole life and I turned out all right!" we say, citing anecdotal evidence as fact. Well, sorry to say, a new st...   read

It has been known for 20 years now: Charmander is the right choice. For one, its tail is on fire. For two, it's a lizard, which is better than a turtle or a whatever Bulbasaur is supposed to be (some sort of gremlin, probably). For three, i...   read

A new study by Pew Research Center presents data on American adults' views of video games, their impact, and the term gamer. The study found that while 49 percent of all American adults play video games, only 10 percent of those identify th...   read

Would you believe me if I told you that more women own a home video game console in the United States than men? According to Pew Research Center's study of 1,907 adults ages 18 and older, that is indeed the case. As you can see from the re...   read

Usually when science and video games meet, it’s to do the billionth study on whether or not they cause violence. Every time, a lot of money is spent to find out that no, video games probably don’t cause violence, and then six mo...   read

The placebo effect is a well-known psychological concept wherein performance and results can be altered when a subject believes conditions are different even when they aren't. Classically, placebos are given in medicinal studies in order to...   read

One of the great aspects of this reawakening of the roguelike sub-genre is seeing the systems in place in genres that you'd least expect. For those unaware, roguelike is a sub-genre that features hardcore-focused RPG systems that offer deep...   read

When it comes to games with sci-fi settings, the thing that usually excites me is the locations you'll be able to visit. Often times, you'll be blasting foes on other planets throughout the solar system, or invading enemy motherships. But s...   read

A new study's findings show that men who perform worse at Halo 3 treat their perceived female teammates worse than their male teammates.  The researchers observed 163 games of Halo 3 with 82 of the games having a female voice...   read

[Update 2: Some people have questioned the methods of the survey to which this response has been given by the surveyors:  "Wiseman reached out through Twitter and Facebook because that’s where her colleagues in the education...   read

A study on the use of violent video games shows that women felt motivated to play violent games in part because doing so made them feel more attractive to a partner. "What we found was that desire for sex was correlated with their violent ...   read

Streamers are a bit of a strange lot, with their "Kappas", raidings, and being sociable to strangers… I don’t really get it, and I've streamed for years.  However, their mysterious world may have just been opened up, as Te...   read

Phillip Zimbardo, a leading psychologist at Stanford University, has warned that men are facing a "crisis of masculinity" because of porn and videogame addiction. A study of 20,000 young men's gaming and porn habits was conducted by Zimbard...   read

I have to applaud Genius Games. I've had the idea for a card game based on ionic bonding kicking around in my head for years now, always with the thought that I could develop it and set up on Kickstarter for publishing. True to my nature, ...   read

Some smart people over at a company called Flint Rehabilitation Devices recognized the potential of videogames and developed the MusicGlove, which helps stroke victims recover the use of their hands by moving their fingers in rhythm to a g...   read

With more people trying out virtual reality headsets these days, an increasingly common issue is motion sickness brought on when visual information and motion don't match up. For simulators that involve walking, it can confuse a participant...   read

Everybody knows that people who play videogames are impressionable. After playing Pac-Man, we invariably binge eat. After a session with Call of Duty, we all joined the military. But science says that maybe we shouldn't do everything we see...   read

I always enjoy PBS Digital's Game/Show as a source for smart commentary on the culture surrounding games. The whole videogame thing must be good for views, because the first episode of newest show Space Time! is all about Mario's jump...   read

[Note: We've been known to do board game reviews from time to time, and although this one isn't exactly based on E.V.O.: Search for Eden on the SNES, it's close enough. Happy New Year! --Chris Carter] Two things that define my tastes m...   read

I always appreciate seeing science represented in games, outside of the typical "heroes need to clean up the mess these mad scientists made" trope. Videogames can be so powerful as tools for learning, and that potential is still largely un...   read

At first, Transmission looks like a pretty standard Eulerian path-based puzzle game. That is not a bad thing; I was pretty hooked on Lyne for a while. But as Transmission progresses, it follows the history of electronic communication, and i...   read

When I was talking to one of the developers of Extrasolar on the show floor at PAX East, I said something that I now regret. "This looks like something I would really like, but might not appeal to a ton of other people." He responded gracef...   read

To take a brief aside from videogames: are you watching Cosmos: a Spacetime Odyssey? If not, you should be, especially if you are not particularly scientifically literate. It is filled with a lot of important information about how the Unive...   read