Video games and gambling often contain very similar elements with both providing intermittent rewards and elements of randomness. Furthermore, at a psychological and behavioral level, slot machine gambling, video lottery terminal (VLT) gambling and video game playing share many of the same features. Despite the similarities between video game playing and gambling there have been very few studies that have specifically examined video game playing in relation to gambling behavior. This Study inquired about the nature of adolescent video game playing, gambling activities, and associated factors. A questionnaire was completed by 996 (549 females, 441 males, 6 unspecified) participants from grades 7-11, who ranged in age from 10- 17 years. Overall, the results of the study found a clear relationship between video game playing and gambling in adolescents, with problem gamblers being significantly more likely than non-problem gamblers or non-gamblers to spend excessive amounts of time playing video games. Problem gamblers were also significantly more likely than non-problem gamblers or non-gamblers to rate themselves as very good or excellent video game players. Furthermore, problem gamblers were more likely to report that they found video games, similar to electronic machine gambling, to promote dissociation and to be arousing and/or relaxing. Read more...

Video games are not just an important cultural artifact of youth culture but have considerable cognitive worth. Centered within an information processing theory and mediating processes’ framework, the empirical qualitative study investigated, via stimulated recall methods, the thinking skills and strategies of five teenagers while playing an action-adventure video game. Sixteen types and 600 instances of cognitive skills and 11 types and 155 instances of cognitive strategies were identified. The thinking skills included high engagement with school valued cognitive skills, such as metacognition, and deduction and induction strategies. The findings support the informal educative value of playing recreation video games and their inclusion in schools. Read more...

Entertainment software developers face significant challenges in designing games with broad appeal. One of the challenges concerns creating nonplayer (computer-corn rolled) characters that can adapt their behavior in light of the current and prospective situation, possibly emulating human behaviors. This adaptation should be inherently novel, unrepeatable, yet within the bounds of realism. Evolutionary algorithms provide a suitable method for generating such behaviors. This paper provides background on the entertainment software industry, and details a prior and current effort to create a platform for evolving nonplayer characters with genetic and behavioral traits within a World War I combat flight simulator. Read more...