Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

December 13, 2008

Researchers at the University of Illinois report that senior citizens who played the PC real-time strategy game Rise of Nations performed better in tests of cognitive function than a control group that did not play.

As reported by Physorg.com, researcher Chandramallika Basak, the study's lead author, explained why RoN was selected:

[In Rise of Nations] you need merchants. You need an army to protect yourself and you have to make sure you're spending some of your resources on education and food. This game stresses resource management and planning, which I think for older adults is important because many of them independently plan and manage their resources.

Test subjects who played the game showed significant improvement at switching between tasks, as well as gains in memory and reasoning. And, the more they played, the better they did.

Comments

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

Your grandpa wants additional pylons

---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

Well, I always found RTSes ridiculously complex and difficult, so I guess if it excercises my brain that much it's probably as good for you as a game of sudoku or some maths excercises.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

Depends on which RTS game you're playing. Some of them are pretty simple and easy-going, others require alot of management.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

Have to agree with Krit on this, a game like StarCraft where micro-management of all your units special abilities and movement can be the key to victory compared to for instance Supreme Commander, where you essentially just set up a base, churn out units and buldozer the enemy with many of the units special options and even small scale maneuvering is done by the AI.
Supreme Commander gives you more a  "the big picture" view of a battle (with hundreds of units, if your PC can handle them), while StarCraft focusses on relatively small groups of units.

Both are a lot of fun, but in terms of the level of multi-tasking StarCraft is much harder than Supreme Commander.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

The resource development and management along with the base building aspects turn me away from the RTS genre. I'm partial to World in Conflict where there is no base building or resource gathering (unless you count doing secondary objectives as gathering resources). However I don't mind that aspect of TBS games like Civilization. But the "think on your feet" mentality of the RTS genre is probably also a beneficial factor that deep turn-based games don't offer.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

 

SC and WC2 are evil no other RTS I have played was as fun or intense.

 

BTW its rather simple to translate core RTS controls to a game pad with more than 10 buttons and refine it with customizable control options its just the RTS market is frowned on like RPGs once were and no one wants to risk porting it over.


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Pirates,Shearers,Lenders and downloaders are not a market that can be taped by the mainstream.
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I is fuzzy brained mew =^^=
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri

ahh...  if only i could tell of the hours i spent on this game, even if it is turn-based.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

LOL this'll please my Dad no end, although he hates being called a senior citizen :D

Gift.

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

I'm going to use this to get my grandfather to play Company of Heroes.

The Honest Game - http://www.thehonestgame.org

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy
Gotta love RoN! Best RTS ever IMO and was the best choice for this.
Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

No wonder all those professional sc players in Korea look so young

 

http://www.eliteownage.com/nice

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

There's another interesting article from one of the authors (see Arthur F. Kramer of Illinois University; The effects of video game playing on attention, memory and executive control) I started reading it. Comparing the two articles at first glance, looks like there's a developmental difference on the effects of video games between the elderly and young adults.

http://vgresearcher.wordpress.com/

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

 I've always loved this game.  I knew it had greatness to it.  Anyone up for a couple games online?

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself.  Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children.  Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story.  Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age.  The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself.  Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head.  Not gonna happen.  Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status).  In  a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent.  The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me.  Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time.  It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?

Re: Real-time Strategy May Be Anti-Aging Strategy

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself.  Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children.  Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story.  Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age.  The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself.  Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head.  Not gonna happen.  Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status).  In  a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent.  The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me.  Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time.  It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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