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每日观察:关注玩游戏对老年人认知能力的影响(9.14)

发布时间:2011-09-14 15:29:01 Tags:,,

1)休闲游戏公司PopCap最近与心理学研究人员Susan K.Whitbourne博士合作展开一项调查,发现在1万多名美国受访者中,47%经常玩《宝石迷阵闪电战》的老年用户反映自己玩了游戏之后行动更加利索(游戏邦注:其调查对象是10331名年龄在18至80岁的美国成人用户,其中有41%是不低于50岁的老年用户,女性用户占83%,超过78%受访者拥有大学文凭。)。

据PopCap所称,Whitbourne认为《宝石迷阵闪电战》或许有用助于提高老年人的认知能力。

older adult play games(from games)

older adult play games(from games)

调查发现在年龄不低于65岁的群体中,22.4%受访者玩过游戏之后提高了行动能力,23.9%受访者自称经常玩游戏可以让自己更快速地完成一些计时任务。

在不低于50岁的用户中,47.5%受访者称自己不在乎《宝石迷阵闪电战》中的60秒倒计时设置,52.9%的65岁以上高龄用户也表示对此没有压力。比起18至24岁群体,这两者对计时器的感觉更为轻松。更令人意外的是,66.4%受访者称游戏中大量的宝石并非障碍,而是积极的刺激因素。

佛罗里达州立大学教授Walter Boot也表示,他认同Whitbourne的这项调查结果,业界应该使用更多类似的手段研究并提高老年人认知能力,如果老年人不愿参与或者无法融入其中,世界上最高明的认知处理方法也会无济于事。

2)据DFC Intelligence最新报告预测,2016年全球游戏广告投入将达72亿美元,比2010年的31亿美元增加两倍以上。

北美游戏广告投入增长最为明显,预计将从2010年的10亿美元增长至2014年的20多亿美元。

in-game advertising(from anarchyatk.blogspot.com)

in-game advertising(from anarchyatk.blogspot.com)

DFC分析师Michael Goodman指出,传统广告商开始认识到电子游戏广告市场潜力,并利用这一媒介作为广告传播工具,旗帜广告等非植入性广告(游戏邦注:这里的植入性广告指出现在游戏资产中的品牌信息等内容)发展势头最为显著,预计其比例将占72亿美元投入的78%。

3)尼尔森最新报告表明,37%的美国用户通过手机访问社交媒介,有3%通过iPad访问社交网络及博客,2%通过电子阅读器登录社交媒介,1%通过iPod touch等掌上音乐播放器使用社交网络。

mobile socialnetworking(from watblog.com)

mobile socialnetworking(from watblog.com)

调查还发现,60%曾下载应用的美国智能手机受访者使用社交网络应用程序,其中最受欢迎的当属Facebook应用。

在这些受访者中,游戏应用最受欢迎,其下载比例达67%,其次是占比65%的天气应用,社交应用排名第三,其后就是地图/导航/搜索应用(占比55%),音乐应用(占比45%)和新闻应用(占比42%)。

值得注意的是,年龄在55岁以上的用户的社交应用使用率增势最为明显,这部分群体在过去一年中通过手机访问社交网络的人数增加了两倍左右。

4)据Siliconera报道,日本发行商Konami在今年8月的社交游戏用户突破1000万,其投放于GREE平台的《Dragon Collection》这款社交游戏目前用户达400万,另一款日本战国题材游戏《Sengoku Collection》注册用户超过200万,还有一款在GREE排名第二的社交游戏《Professional Dream Baseball Nine》最近用户也超过100万。

Dragon Collection(from konami-digital-entertainment.co.jp)

Dragon Collection(from konami-digital-entertainment.co.jp)

5)在日前的TechCrunch Disrupt大会上,社交游戏开发商Idle Games创始人Jeffrey Hyman表示,公司致力于开发高质量的游戏,最近进行内测的《Idle Worship》是由50名团队成员历时2年开发而成,其风格将与Zynga游戏大为不同。

Idle Worship(from vimeo)

Idle Worship(from vimeo)

他称Zynga实际上是一家包装成游戏公司的数据分析企业,Idle Games是娱乐型的游戏公司,Zynga相当于一个黑白电视机,只有在彩电问世之前才会有市场,他认为Idle Games就是彩电,因为他们更重视娱乐体验。

6)据socialtimes报道,日前有一位名为Matt McAllister博客主根据社交游戏的数据分析过程,发明了一款桌面游戏《Analytics Adventure》(如下图所示)。

Analytics Adventure(from socialtimes)

Analytics Adventure(from socialtimes)

McAllister在其博客中指出,其创意来自将数据分析过程本身视为一种游戏,该游戏可助开发者了解数据分析的重要性,明白自己需要重新调整哪些决策,思考如何制定解决方案以走向成功。

7)英国电影和电视艺术学院(BAFTA)最近针对儿童用发布一款“傻瓜化”游戏开发工具Games Unpacked,支持没有任何编程语言知识的人自主创建游戏。

Games Unpacked(from ygd.bafta)

Games Unpacked(from ygd.bafta)

该工具由阿伯泰邓迪大学与EA合作使用Unity引擎开发而成,用户可以使用“拖放平台、升级道具和危险陷阱等关卡元素”开发游戏,其宗旨是培养孩子成为电脑游戏开发者的兴趣。

8)应用开发商Comdev最近调查发现,从2009年4月至2011年4月,亚洲Facebook用户增长速度最为显著;假如Facebook是一个国家,其亚洲用户总数已相当于亚太地区第五大国。

facebook-asia(from onlinemarketing-trends)

facebook-asia(from onlinemarketing-trends)

据Comdev数据显示,印度尼西亚已是世界第二大Facebook用户大国,其用户总数为3500万,仅次于美国的1.54亿。

亚洲主要地区的Facebook用户增长情况如下:

台湾:4305%

泰国:2959%

韩国:2599%

菲律宾:2080%

印度尼西亚:1412%

Comdev指出该地区的Facebook用户仍有较大增长空间,例如印度仅有35%的网民拥有Facebook帐号,而韩国Facebook用户在网民中的比例仅为10%。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

1)Survey: Bejeweled Blitz could sharpen old noggin in baby boomers

by Joe Osborne

For the young, and now the old, it looks like PopCap games are good for everyone. In a survey of over 10,000 U.S. residents conducted by researcher Susan K. Whitbourne, Ph.D., 47 percent of older adults who play Bejeweled Blitz regularly reported feeling sharper while performing tasks.

Whitbourne, a psychology researcher at University of Massachusetts Amherst, presented her findings at this year’s American Psychological Association’s (APA) convention in Washington D.C. According to PopCap, Whitbourne believes that Bejeweled Blitz could be a viable platform for improving cognitive skills in older adults because it involves several of the skills that have been shown the be improved after playing video games.

Designed to see whether Whitbourne’s inklings checked out, the survey found that 22.4 percent of participants aged 65 and over found their ability to see patterns improved. A small 23.9 percent of the same group reported that they could perform timed tasks more quickly after playing the game regularly. While the survey consisted of 10,331 adults aged 18 to 80-years-old, 41 percent of those were 50-years-old and over (and 83 percent total were women). And it’s worth nothing that over 78 percent of participants reported to have a college degree.

Nearly half (47.5 percent) of adults aged 50 and older said that they paid no attention to the 60-second countdown timer in Bejeweled Blitz, and 52.9 percent of those 65-years-old and over reported the same reaction. Both groups of older folks were less likely than those 18 to 24-years-old to report feeling anxious because of the timer. Overall, a whopping 66.4 percent said that the game’s multiplier gems were positively motivating.

Whitbourne’s findings were well-received by some at the convention, like Dr. Walter Boot, director of the Attention and Training Lab of the Department of Psychology at Florida State University. “I believe the work Dr. Whitbourne and her colleagues are doing, using Bejeweled Blitz, is both critical and exciting, and that more research like this needs to be done exploring not only the types of games that bring about cognitive benefits, but also the types of games older adults are willing to play and why,” Boot said. “The best cognitive aging intervention in the world is useless if older adults aren’t willing and able to engage in it.”(source:games

2)Analyst: Game Ad Spend Will More Than Double By 2016

by Frank Cifaldi

As advertisers start spending more on the “underutilized” video game market, in-game and around-game ad spend will more than double globally by 2016, according to analysts.

In a new report released this week by DFC Intelligence, analysts are predicting that global ad spend on games will reach $7.2 billion by 2016, up from the $3.1 billion spent in 2010.

North American ad spend in particular is expected to grow rapidly: the estimated $1 billion spent in 2010 is expected to surpass $2 billion by 2014.

According to the company, the growth will occur as advertisers come to realize the potential of games. As the report notes, game advertisement revenue “pales in comparison” to other media.

“Video games have reached beyond adolescent males into a mainstream entertainment medium that touches every segment of the population,” said DFC analyst Michael Goodman. “Despite this, advertisers continue to under utilize video games as an advertising vehicle. This is slowly changing as more games go online.”

The biggest growth is expected in advertising around games: in other words, methods such as banners as opposed to brand messages on in-game assets. That particular type of advertising, combined with a growing advergame market, is expected to account for around 78 percent of toat $7.2 billion, according to the report.(source:gamasutra

3)Nielsen study reveals latest numbers on mobile social media

by Stuart Dredge

37 per cent of social media users are accessing it from their phones.

37% of American social media users are accessing these services from their mobile phones, according to a new study released by Nielsen.

Meanwhile, 3% of them are accessing social media – defined as social networks and blogs – from their iPads, 2% from e-readers, and 1% from handheld music players (i.e. the iPod touch).

Nielsen surveyed US smartphone owners who download apps, and found that 60% of them are using social networking apps, with Facebook unsurprisingly the most popular.

Social was the third most popular app category for these people, behind only weather (65%) and games (67%), but ahead of maps/navigation/search (55%), music (45%) and news (42%).

Interestingly, Nielsen also found that people older than 55 are part of this growth in social mobile usage. In the 55+ age group, the number of people visiting social networking sites on their phones more than doubled in the last year.(source:mobile-ent

4)Contra creator Konami welcomes over 10 million social gamers

by Joe Osborne

Does this mean we’ll get to blast alien scum with giant guns on Facebook anytime soon? Probably not, but Konami sounds quite proud of itself, regardless. Siliconera reports that the creator of hit franchises like Contra and Castlevania welcomed its 10 millionth social gamer just this past August, thanks to its games on smartphones and Japanese social networks like Gree.

Specifically, Konami cited games like Dragon Collection, a game available over Gree and on smartphones that has over 4 million players collecting Dragon Cards and battling their friends with them. The game has been so successful that it has been inducted into the Gree Hall of Fame for apps, and has its very own weekly manga (Japanese take on comic books) serialization.

Other social hits published by Konami include Sengoku Collection, which sounds similar to Dragon Collection only set during Japan’s Warring States period, with over 2 million registered players. Another, according to Siliconera, is Professional Dream Baseball Nine, a game that has held the number 2 spot on Gree’s app rankings for 17 weeks running with over 1 million players. According to Siliconera, the game is even licensed by Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League.(source:games

5)Idle Games: “Zynga is a black and white television”   Facebook

By Andrew Webster

The upcoming Idle Worship, the debut release from Idle Games, may still be in closed beta, but that hasn’t stopped the creators from claiming that it will be a marked imrpovement over the types of games released by Zynga.

During a Q&A session at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Idle Games co-founder Jeffrey Hyman explained that the studio has put its focus on creating a quality game. Idle Worship has been in development for two years with a team of 50 working on it. And he says that that focus will help differentiate the game from the likes of Zynga.

“Zynga is an analytics company masking as a game company,” he explained. “We’re an entertainment and games company. Zynga is a black and white television. Everyone wants it until the color television comes out. That’s us. We care about the entertainment experience.”(source:gamezebo

5)A Board Game to Help Developers Understand Analytics [Infographic]

By Kenna McHugh

I spoke briefly with Matt McAllister about his new game called “Analytics Adventure,” which helped me understand how analytics applies to social media.

For social game developers, analyzing the data is a crucial process for optimizing the performance of their games. As McAllister stated in his blog, “What if the analytic process was itself a game? What if we took the twists and turns that analytics often leads developers down and created a game board out of it?”

I kind of like that idea. Analytics, after all, is a series of if-then scenarios that often determines how far down the road towards success a game will travel. If your cost of acquisition is too high, for instance, you’ll need to fix it before proceeding. Or if your K-Factor is too low, you’ll need to take a step back and figure out where you got off track.

McAllister went on to explain, “We took this idea and ran with it, and the result is what you see below — a game we call ‘Analytics Adventure.’ Aside from being a lighthearted take on the analytics process, we hoped it would serve as a framework to help social game developers understand how analytics can help them, as well as providing a few benchmarks along the way.”(source:socialtimes

7)BAFTA Launches Unity-Powered Game Maker For Kids

by Frank Cifaldi

Independent charity The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has released a tool to help children create their own games without knowing any programming languages.

The tool, called Games Unpacked, was developed in the popular Unity engine by the University of Albertay Dundee in association with Electronic Arts and with support from UK organization The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

According to BAFTA, games can be created “by dragging and dropping level elements like platforms, power-ups and dangerous traps,” with the intention of teaching interested children “about what it takes to become a computer games developer.”

“Every young person I know absolutely loves playing games, and Games Unpacked is a fun and easy way to take the next step into making their own games,” said Albertay’s Paul Durrant in a statement.(source:gamasutra

8)Facebook Continues Asian Growth, But For How Long?

by David Cohen

Asia continues to represent a huge growth opportunity for Facebook.

Application developer Comdev found that from April 2009-April 2011, countries with the highest Facebook membership growth were from that region.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth-largest nation in the Asia-Pacific, solely based on subscribers from countries in the region.

And that does not even take into account China, where access to the social network is restricted.

According to data from Comdev, Indonesia is the second-largest country in terms of Facebook membership, with some 35 million users, trailing only the U.S., at 154 million.

From April 2009 through April 2011, the growth rate of Facebook membership in Asia-Pacific countries was exponential:

Taiwan, 4,305 percent;

Thailand, 2,959 percent;

South Korea, 2,599 percent;

Philippines, 2,080 percent, and

Indonesia, 1,412 percent.

Of course, these figures need to be taken with a grain of salt, as the April 2009 figures are quite low, and two years is an eternity in Internet time.

However, Comdev points out that there are still ample expansion opportunities for the social network, as only 35 percent of Internet users in India have Facebook accounts, and that figure drops to 10 percent in South Korea. Expanded smartphone usage will likely help the cause, as well.

Comdev Chief Executive Officer Bryan Gan said:

When the majority of Internet users in your country are using Facebook at least once a day, you should consider promoting your business using the social-networking platform. With Facebook, you are able to gather your clients as fans to consistently build your brand awareness.

Readers, do you think the growth of Facebook membership in the Asia-Pacific region will continue to skyrocket, or level off?(source:allfacebook


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