CMS News Archives

Via gamingblog.org, a reference to a now-restricted article in The Harvard Business Review where Professor Jenkins offers a few interesting quotes:

Gamers become very good at making rapid decisions based on limited information. Online games make constant demands on your attention; there are multiple problems emerging at the same time, and players get very good at making reasonable predictions and charting actions based on information as it comes in...

Collaborative play is quickly becoming dominant in this medium. Most people who play alone are just rehearsing the skills they need to participate in group activities. Users of multiplayer or alternative-reality games learn to work with other people over distance, to share knowledge, to resolve disputes quickly, and to stay on task.

Read the article.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 1:07 PM in CMS In The Press | Permalink

Professor Henry Jenkins has contributed an article at PBS.org debunking eight major myths about video games and their social impact. The myths in question?

1. "The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence."
2. "Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression."
3. "Children are the primary market for video games."
4. "Almost no girls play computer games."
5. "Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them."
6. "Video games are not a meaningful form of expression."
7. "Video game play is socially isolating."
8. "Video game play is desensitizing."

Read the article.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 12:39 PM in Publications | Permalink

An article on Knight-Ridder tackles the omnipresent games-and-violence debate, and looks at the possible social benefits of video gaming. Accordingly, there's an obligatory mention of CMS's Education Arcade, and a soundbite from Professor Henry Jenkins:

Video gaming, like television a half-century ago, has taken a permanent seat in the house of kid culture, especially for boys. The question no longer is whether games are worthwhile -- they're here -- but how to harness their awesome appeal to benefit coming generations.

"You've got a technology that clearly captures the attention of American young people," said Henry Jenkins, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, academics are building video games that classrooms can use to teach principles of magnetism and the history of colonial America.

Read the article.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 1:15 PM in CMS In The Press | Permalink

Article from the New York Times, December 4, 2005.
(Link no longer available, but you should be able to find the article by searching at the NYT website.)

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 11:14 AM in CMS In The Press | Permalink

An article on SyFy Portal picks up on Professor Henry Jenkins' recent article for FLOW ("I Want My Geek TV!"), and more or less reiterates each point of the article as a quote attributed to Henry. Still... nice to get the word out!

Read the article.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 1:18 PM in CMS In The Press | Permalink