Gamertell

In the Los Angeles Times, writer Alex Pham reports that the San Fernando Library encourages youth to play video games and even invites them to be as loud as they like.

“It lets teens be more comfortable with the library and become familiar with librarians,” San Fernando librarian Lydia Harlan told Pham. “And it’s what kids are into these days.”

In the article, Pham reports that more libraries are turning to video games to connect with technologically savvy youth who might be losing interest in books and stories. In New York, the New York Public Library has even added a collection of books, films, music and maps about video games.

Click through for the full article and a list of recommended books…

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So you wanna work with video games, eh? Well, then don’t get a degree in computer games, at least not in England.

Britain’s huge gaming industry has put universities under major attack for failing to equip students for work while handing out their gaming degrees. According to The Daily Mail UK, several of the country’s top firms go so far as to say that the schools are offering “mouse degrees with little job relevance.“  Ouch. Hope the students didn’t…

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The Second Annual Elan Awards -  which honor excellence in the Canadian video game, animation and digital arts industries - were held at Vancouver last Friday (Feb 15, 2008). The show was hosted by animator Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame, who brought his impish humor along and also managed to win an award himself.

Mass Effect, which was developed by Canadian developer Bioware, bagged the top honors. It was recognized as the game of the year and triumphed in…

Click through for a complete list of winners.

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In the later portion of 2007, a British study had rebuffed the Wii as a fitness solution and found that Wii gaming sessions can’t actually replace physical exercise. Now, on the other side of the Atlantic, Canadian students have seconded that opinion. Twenty-eight students at the Halifax-based Dalhousie University put the Wii to the test by comparing it with other generic exercises.

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Microsoft has heavily plugged its XNA game software development platform as something that might change games development forever, something Microsoft does with every new innovation. It is slowly improving the platform with each version, and the newest version, XNA Game Studio 2.0, which was released on December 13, 2007, is supposed to have 15 new features. It is a marked improvement upon the previous version, mainly because it supports Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live.

The new version will allow game designers to create online, cross-platform multiplayer games for both the 360 and Windows. Chris Satchell, GM of the XNA organization, said in the official press release that this new feature will allow everyone (including hobbyists, students and pros) to make games with extensive Live support, something only AAA developers have been able to do till now.

Now even a bunch of hobbyists can develop online multiplayer games for Xbox 360 and Windows having the trademark Live features like matchmaking. The best part is that even this new version retains XNA’s ease of use and negligible coding despite the added features. The system requirements for XNA Game Studio 2.0 are same as for Visual Studio 2005, along with a graphics card with DirectX 9.0c support and Shader Model 1.1. The revolutionary tool is free to download.

Read [Joystiq] Also Read [Xbox] Site [XNA Creators Club]

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With technology expanding and luring youth away from school, the British are trying to use technology to lure students back to school. One such way is through the upcoming BETT technology fair at Olympia in London starting January 9, 2008.

The goal of this event is to bring together the global teaching and learning community for four days of innovations and inspirations. Some of those inspirations stem from current gadgets children may already own, which is why Sony is getting involved in this technology fair with a few ideas of its own.

Sony, famous for its video-game consoles, came to the event to offer educators a way to reach children who play games and to help make learning fun using the PSP. The handheld was first made available in Europe on September 1, 2005, allowing children to play their favorite games on the go.

Since the recent upgrades and added capabilities such as being able to download videos,  the handheld system could be used for educational purposes. Using the latest models, Stimpfig suggests that teachers could create video lessons their students can download and review wherever and whenever they like by simply downloading them to their PSP and watch it later.

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Teenagers are always looking for adventures, but how bored do they have to be to go on a “mission” at their local high school in Kingston, Washington?

According to the North Kitsap Herald, police busted five teens, four 18-year-olds and a 15-year-old, who entered Kingston High School November 4, 2007 by climbing the school and entering a door located on the roof. Once inside the teens relieved their boredom by pushing each other around in a wheeled garbage can through the halls.

While playing around and having fun, the teens set off the school’s security alarm around 1 a.m. and, because the alarm included an audio device, the dispatchers could hear the teens talking. The teens were so busy trying to find a place to hide that when the sheriff’s deputies could see one of the students walking through the hallways wearing a black mask and tactical vest.

It wasn’t long before the deputies figured out how the kids got into the school. They found a ladder propped against the wall to the school’s second floor roof and a rope they were using to access the third floor roof. Which the deputies used to gain access to the roof and quickly found all five students hiding inside an air conditioning unit.

Once the deputies got all five teens on the ground, the kids pleaded that they never intended to vandalize or steal from the school, they just wanted to “climb something.” The youngest of the group said she and her friends just wanted to go on a mission after playing Splinter Cell and decided to go to the school.

Three of the 18-year-olds were booked at the Kitsap County Jail for second degree burglary with bail set at $10,000, the fourth 18-year-old was charged for second degree burglary and possession of burglary tools setting his bail at $10,500. The 15-year-old was sent to juvenile detention for second degree burglary.

Read [North Kitsap Herald] Read [Game Politics]

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Back in the day, video games were primarily homebrew creations, programmed by a single person who just wanted to share a bit of fun. Now it can literally take years to create a video game from scratch an involve a staff that reads like feature film credits.

In a throwback to those early days of gaming, students at Ohio University were challenged to develop their own amateur video game in less than 24 hours. Yep, one whole sleepless day to create a video game - not compete in a video game - based on the theme “nature and technology.“ The challenge, dubbed the Ohio Game Jam, took place on March 31, 2007, had 17 competitors that made up six teams from three schools.

All the teams completed a game before the deadline, with a little time to spare for testing. The winning game, I Can’t Breathe, was completed in two hours. Three games tied for second place: Brows of the Martian Landscape, Zomborgs and Hydroponic Hyperbole. The games were created using either GameMaker, C++ or Flash.

The best part: You can download all the completed computer games as PC (Windows and Mac) executable files at the Ohio Game Jam web site.

Here’re a few interesting stats listed on the site about the competition on the site:

• Total number of participants: 19
• Number of development groups: 6
• Number of working games created: 7
• Number of groups that failed to produce a game: 0
• Pizzas consumed: 12
• Caffeine consumed: Too much to measure!

Read [The Post] Download [Ohio Game Jam]

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