From the Boston Globe comes a curious bit of research suggesting that videogames may allow people to “burn off the desire or the time to commit a crime.” Across U.S. counties from 1994 to 2004, a greater number of videogame stores is associated with less arson, car theft, robbery, and mortality.
Don’t you love counterintuitive findings like that? Does it mean that fantasy (or “Queen Mab” as Charles Dickens contended in Hard Times) continues to play a valuable role in our lives? Read about the research here.
And while we are on the subject, the Innovators Insights listserv linked to an article on how playing a videogame has assisted city planners in their work.
“IBM has partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop CityOne, a game simulation that provides city planners with an interactive tool to help them investigate complex energy and water interactions, learning how best to achieve certain performance goals under budget. Outside of the U.S., the tool has been used by governments in China, France, and South America.” Read more here.
These are just a couple examples. As Jane McGonigal, the author of Reality is Broken has written, today videogames are being used to “change the world.”
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 