Sure, the stereotype is of the fat kid alone in his parents’ basement playing video games, but a new study says that may not be accurate. Well, at least it says the kid may not be quite so fat, quite so fast. West Virginia University researchers are claiming Dance Dance Revolution can at least slow weight gain in kids.

West Virginia’s pilot program was to install Dance Dance Revolution into every state middle school. But did it actually help? Researchers wanted to know, so they monitored 35 overweight children between the ages of 7 and 12. What they found was that kids who played Dance Dance Revolution on a nightly basis only gained 2 pounds during the 24 week study. That compares to kids who did not play and gained 5.3 pounds. (more…)

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Are video games all bad? Sure, everyone knows seven year-old Timmy should not be playing Grand Theft Auto probably, but there has to be some redeeming value to some game out there for him, right? The Northwestern of Oshkosh, Wisconsin contends that issue is, as always, a little complicated.

The article in question profiles one family which recently started allowed their children to play video games. Their reaction so far has been that the games have taught their children about sharing and that losing is a part of life. Sounds like great life lessons. However, they do note tat gaming time is limited in their household. (more…)

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Researchers at the University of Buffalo have found there is at least some evidence of a link between playing video games and being fat. This may not come as startling news to some, but it is a rather important finding from a scientific study. The bigger news is that they think they may have a solution, and luckily for geeks it involves another box you plug into your TV!

The study measured the body mass index (BMI) of 70 boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 7. Each had a BMI that reached 75 percentile or higher for their age group and gender. The families of the children were given TV Allowance devices which measure individual family viewing of television through the use of personal access code. Each child watched television or played video games at least 14 hours a week prior to the study. (more…)

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Not that there is anything wrong with it, but over half of men and nearly three quarters of women play MMOs as the opposite sex. That’s right, that cute elf warlock you’ve had your eye on the past few weeks might actually be a dude. It’s not quite The Crying Game, but more like the ending of the first Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

The findings come from a study at Nottingham Trent University. T hey found that 54% of men liked to play as women, while 70% of women liked to play as men. Chief researcher Zaheer Hussain explains, “It seems that women gender swap for a variety of reasons, such as to avoid unsolicited male approaches on their female characters, or because they felt male characters were treated better by other males during the course of the game.” You mean, female gamers are tired of being treated poorly by male gamers? Sadly, that probably does come as a shock to many.

As for the bigger news of cyber-cross-dressing, how in the world will Halo players deal with such news? Anyone who has played that game has dealt with the rampant homophobia and racism spouted over Xbox Live. Perhaps they are simply women pretending to be ignorant 13-year-old boys? Probably not. (more…)

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Want your child to lose weight? Let them play a video game-assuming it’s the right video game. That’s the sort-of advice from a new study presented in the medical journal Pediatrics by the Mayo Clinic. The actual study gets ever so slightly more complicated. That’s science for you.

The new study measured 25 children, including 15 of normal weight and ten obese, while playing video games. Researchers found that sitting still watching TV or playing with a traditional controller caused kids to expand the exact same amount of energy. However, playing a title using a video camera interface, such as the Sony EyeToy, expanded three times as much energy. Obese children burned the most calories while playing the dance games at just over six times as many as sitting still. (more…)

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