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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Controversy spurs Pentagon's Hagel to review new 'Nintendo' medal

Since its debut last month, the new Distinguished Warfare Medal - promptly dubbed the "Nintendo" medal by troops - has been a magnet for controversy. Now, new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is apparently reconsidering whether such a medal - which could be awarded to cyber specialists, say, or remote operators of Predator or Reaper drones that kill enemy forces threatening the lives of troops on the ground - should retain its high ranking in the medal pecking order.

Pentagon officials are expected to announce Tuesday afternoon that the medal - created to award US troops for "extraordinary achievements directly impacting combat operations" - is under review.

The medal is meant to acknowledge contributions of troops "regardless of the member's physical location or domain," according to Pentagon background papers. Many pilots of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, operate their aircraft in Afghanistan from bases in Nevada.

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The Distinguished Warfare Medal (DWM) is the first new Defense Department-wide medal to be established since 1944. The award, these officials stress, is not to be awarded for acts of valor in combat.

Few have a problem with recognizing the contributions of UAV pilots whose achievements, officials note, "have in some cases dramatically changed how we conduct and support combat and other military operations."

The problem is that the DWM was placed in order of precedence ahead of the Bronze Star, and even above the Bronze Star with a "V" device for valorous conduct in combat.

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Since 9/11, only 2.5 percent of the more than 167,000 Bronze Stars meted out have been awarded with a "V," according to Pentagon figures.

This point in particular - that the DWM would rank above a Bronze Star with "V" - prompted an outcry among veterans groups and, in a rare show of bipartisan unity, members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle.

On Friday, 22 senators signed a letter to Secretary Hagel, citing their chief complaint: "We believe that medals earned in combat, or in dangerous conditions, should maintain their precedence above non-combat awards," they wrote. "Placing the Distinguished Warfare Medal above the Bronze Star and Purple Heart diminishes the significance of awards earned by risking one's life in direct combat or through acts of heroism."

What's more, the DWM "diminishes the precedence given to acts of individual gallantry in circumstances other than combat," they argued in the letter.

The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars have also weighed in against the medal.

Some in veterans groups express a hope that Hagel will be receptive to their complaints.

"This isn't a knock on Leon Panetta, but unlike Chuck Hagel, Panetta was never a grunt, an enlisted man," Jon Soltz, co-founder of VoteVets.org and an Iraq war veteran, wrote in a recent blog for the Huffington Post. "In Hagel, we have someone who brings that unique experience to the table."

Hagel served as an infantry squad leader during the height of the war in Vietnam.

In this hope, they were not disappointed. "In light of concerns about the medal's place in the order of precedence raised by veterans organizations and a number of members of Congress" - including the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee - "Secretary Hagel is going to work with the chairman, service secretaries, and chiefs to review the order of precedence of the medal," a senior defense official said Tuesday.

In the meantime, says a defense official, the production of the medal, which some have joked should include a video game joystick, has been halted.

Read this story at csmonitor.com

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3G PlayStation Vita Prices Are Falling

Something funny's going on with Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld.

As Joystiq reports, several Sony stores around the United States are selling the 3G Vita for $200, which is $50 less than the Wi-Fi-only model. Some other stores told Joystiq that Sony is discontinuing the 3G model altogether.

Meanwhile, Sony's online store has dropped the price of the 3G PS Vita down to $250 - same as its Wi-Fi counterpart. That 3G bundle also comes with an 8 GB memory card and a free PSN game.

It gets weirder. If you go to GameStop's PS Vita landing page right now, the retailer only lists refurbished units and a $300 bundle of games and hardware. If you want to buy a new, standalone Vita from GameStop, you can't; the full list of Vita hardware on GameStop's website shows that all models are out of stock, both Wi-Fi and 3G, with the exception of that $300 bundle. Best Buy is still selling the 3G Vita for $300, but only for in-store pickups.

I've reached out to Sony to find out what's going on, and will update if I get a response.

In the meantime, consider that Sony recently dropped the price of the PS Vita in Japan - a move that reportedly quadrupled sales. It's not crazy to think that a U.S. price cut for the PS Vita is imminent, despite the insistence to the contrary by Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida.

The other possibility is that Sony is preparing a 4G LTE version of the Vita, which would of course greatly improve data speeds on the handheld. But the only evidence I can find on that front is one pretty sketchy rumor.

As my colleague Matt Peckham wrote back in August, the Vita's $250-and-up price tag is just too high compared to what people expect for a handheld, and sales have been predictably slow. This creates a vicious cycle where software makers become afraid to invest in the platform, as Gamasutra has pointed out. It's possible that "remote play" features on the PlayStation 4 will spark interest, but that won't happen until at least the end of the year. A Vita price cut, however painful for Sony in the short term, would at least help get the handheld on track, just as it did for Nintendo's 3DS in 2011.

For now, $200 seems like a good deal for the Vita - 3G or otherwise - if only for the included 8 GB memory card that usually sells for $30 on its own. If you actually have a Sony Store in your area and have been considering a Vita, it could be worth investigating. Otherwise I'd hang tight and see if any official price cuts or new bundles are on the way.

Angry Birds cartoons head for TV screens

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The makers of Angry Birds are launching a cartoon series this weekend, expanding further beyond its highly addictive games in a bid to expand entertainment and merchandising.

Rovio, the company behind the popular mobile app game Angry Birds, said the cartoons will feature adventures of birds that appear in its games.

Angry Birds Toons can be downloaded through on-demand services, and will also air on television channels such as FOX8 in Australia, ANTV in Indonesia, Cartoon Network in India, and MTV3 Juniori and MTV3 in Finland, it said.

Rovio has expanded into merchandising and licensing in the past few years and its colorful, round bird characters are sold as stuffed animals and appear on everything from T-shirts to soda cans.

It announced in December that it hired Hollywood executive David Maisel as executive producer of a 3D animated film planned for release in 2016.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando, editing by Paul Casciato)

Monday, March 11, 2013

Research In Motion, Zynga, Barnes are big movers

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Monday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market:

NYSE

Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., down $5.49 at $45.11

The sporting goods retailer said that its fourth-quarter net income rose 17 percent, but results still missed Wall Street expectations.

Barnes Group Inc., up $1.05 at $28.88

A KeyBanc analyst upgraded the aerospace parts maker to 'Buy,' due to its decision to sell one of its businesses.

Genworth Financial Inc., up 66 cents at $10.50

Barron's predicted that the insurer and mortgage backer's shares will get a boost from a rebound in the housing industry.

The Walt Disney Co., up 27 cents at $57.66

The media company's film, 'Oz the Great and Powerful,' debuted this weekend and earned $80.3 million at the U.S. box office.

Nasdaq

Research In Motion Ltd., up $1.84 at $14.90

The Blackberry maker said it will launch its new touchscreen smartphone in the U.S. with wireless carrier AT&T on March 22.

Canadian Solar Inc., down 58 cents at $3.15

The solar company said its fiscal fourth-quarter loss widened compared to a year ago, as solar module shipments fell and costs rose.

Zynga Inc., up 36 cents at $3.93

A Wunderlich analyst said Internet company Yahoo Inc. should consider buying the maker of games for Facebook and smartphones.

Denny's Corp., down 3 cents at $5.78

The restaurant operator said it canceled plans with a franchise partner to develop 50 restaurants in southern China.

Zynga shares up on takeover speculation

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Zynga Inc., which makes games for Facebook and smartphones, jumped Monday to their highest level since July, after the company was mentioned as a possible candidate for takeover by Yahoo.

THE SPARK: In a research note Monday, Wunderlich Securities analyst Blake Harper said that while last week's speculation about Yahoo acquisitions focused on the reviews site Yelp Inc. and reservations service OpenTable Inc., Zynga could make sense as a target, along with companies like the blogging service Tumblr and location app FourSquare.

THE ANALYSIS: Harper says Yelp is the most attractive candidate. Its market capitalization is half that of Zynga. Larger deals would be discouraged by Yahoo's shareholders who want the company to focus on improving its core business, Harper said.

San Francisco-based Zynga's fortunes have declined with the popularity of its games, which include FarmVille. It's revenue has flattened, and it is cutting jobs.

SHARE ACTION: Zynga shares rose 35 cents, or 9.8 percent, to $3.92 in afternoon trading. The shares hit $2.09 in November. That was the lowest level since the company went public in Dec. 2011, for $10 per share.

How to Hack the Video-Game Industry's Male Domination

Everyone likes a butt-kicking heroine, but the gaming industry is never going to give in - male-centric titles sell way better, and Katniss fever isn't going to stop that. So Mike Mika, a programmer and, importantly, father, decided to build a workaround for his 3-year-old daughter so she could 'play as a girl.' The result - well, for starters, it's about time Mario got saved in the end, but here's Mika's female-friendly version of Donkey Kong that's going viral to start off the week:

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In the accompanying YouTube description, Mika explains how the hero-for-heroine swap came to be in this very geeky but very equal opportunity family:

Two days ago, she asked me if she could play as the girl and save Mario. She's played as Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong. I told her we couldn't in that particular Mario game, she seemed really bummed out by that. So what else am I supposed to do? Now I'm up at midnight hacking the ROM, replacing Mario with Pauline.

Forget, if you will, the new standard in awesome parenting set by this Mike Mika character, and remember that video-game publishers don't exactly support games with female main characters. Penny Arcade's Ben Kuchera pointed out in November that a study examining 669 titles found that,'Games that allow you to choose your gender are reviewed better than games that offer male-only heroes, but the games with male only heroes sold better.' Kuchera added some context: 'If you're funding a large-budget game and you see these numbers, you see that you lose sales by adding the capability to choose a female hero, and you lose significant sales by releasing a game with a female hero.' Essentially, numbers trump quality and a hard-to-break self-fulfilling prophecy. The video-game industry ignores female characters for the bottom line.

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Faced with that, Mika delivered to his daughter the only other option available with an ignorant industry: re-code a popular game for his daughter. This isn't unlike what father Mike Hoye did back in November, when he coded a version of The Legend of Zelda to swap the male pronouns for his daughter. But Mika's solution - having his daughter play as Pauline, the damsel in distress and Mario ex-girlfriend who always gets kidnapped by Donkey Kong, and actually saving Mario - is pretty much the best geek-dad move of the year so far... and a good segue until the little one's old enough to get into Metroid.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

7 health benefits of playing video games

Your parents may have tried to kick you off your Super Nintendo just about every time you sat down in front of it because they were concerned about how it might affect your long-term health. Plenty of studies have shown that games that don't require a lot of physical movement can have an adverse effect on children as they grow older. But perhaps counter-intuitively, there have also been several studies touting the health benefits of gaming.

1. Video games are therapeutic for children with chronic illnesses
The University of Utah released a study last year that examined the effects of regular gaming on children diagnosed with illnesses like autism, depression, and Parkinson's disease. Kids who played certain games, including one designed just for the study, showed signs of improvement in 'resilience, empowerment, and a 'fighting spirit.'' Researchers believe the games' ability to act on 'neuronal mechanisms that activate positive emotions and the reward system' helped improve kids' demeanors as they faced the daily challenges of their illnesses.

2. Video games improve preschoolers' motor skills
Letting a 4-year-old sit in front of a TV with a game controller might not seem like the most productive use of her time. But researchers from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, would disagree. Their study examined the development of 53 preschool-aged children, and found that those who played 'interactive games' had better 'object control motor skills' than those who didn't. It's not clear, though, whether children with better-than-average motor skills tend to gravitate toward video games in the first place.

3. Video games reduce stress and depression
2009's Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine included a study that found that gamers who suffered from mental health issues such as stress and depression were able to vent their frustration and aggression by playing video games - and showed a noted improvement. The study hypothesized that games gave certain 'Type A' personalities time to relax in 'a state of relative mindlessness' that allowed them to avoid reaching 'a certain level of stressful arousal' as they tried to relax.

4. Video games provide pain relief
Video games don't just provide relief from emotional pain. They can also help those who are suffering from physical pain. Psychologists at the University of Washington developed a game that helps hospital patients suffering from immense physical pain by using an age-old mental trick: distraction. The virtual reality game 'Snow World' put patients in an arctic wonderland in which they throw an endless arsenal of snowballs at a series of targets, such as penguins and snowmen. Military hospitals found the experience helped soldiers recovering from their battlefield wounds. The soldiers who played 'Snow World' required less pain medicine during their recuperation.

5. Video games can improve your vision
Mom may have warned you that sitting in front of the TV wasn't good for your eyes. But one developmental psychologist found it could actually be beneficial to your vision. Dr. Daphen Maurer of the Visual Development Lab of Ontario's McMaster University made a surprising discovery: People suffering from cataracts can improve their vision by playing first-person shooter games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. She believes these games are so fast-paced that they require an extreme amount of attention, training the visually impaired to view things more sharply. They can also produce higher levels of dopamine and adrenaline that 'potentially may make the brain more plastic,' she said.

6. Video games improve your decision-making skills
Most video games require fast reactions and split-second decisions that can mean the difference between virtual life and virtual death. Cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Rochester in New York found these games give players' brains plenty of practice for making decisions in the real world. Researchers suggest that action-oriented games act as a simulator for the decision-making process by giving players several chances to infer information from their surroundings and forcing them to react accordingly.

7. Video games keep you happy in old age
Researchers from North Carolina State University looked closely at our aging population to see if there was a link between playing video games and mental well-being - i.e. 'happiness.' They found that senior citizens who said they played video games - even occasionally - reported 'higher levels of happiness, or well-being,' says Rick Nauert at PsychCentral. 'Those who did not play video games reported more negative emotions' and were more likely to be depressed. It's unclear what exactly is behind this link - or if the relationship is even causal.View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week

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