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.

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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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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 02/09/10 at 12:22pm
Valdearg: @AE: And that's fine. Official "Church" functions are fine, despite the fact that it's discrimination, it's what I guess I would
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:21pm
Valdearg: What's stopping someone from working with the church to declare a Catholic Corporation, that would retain it's "right" to discriminate against non-Catholics?
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:20pm
Valdearg: Let me ask you this. What defines something as "catholic"? There are Catholic Schools, Churchs, Charities, and even law firms.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:20pm
Andrew Eisen: Indeed. You can restrict the membership of your private club however you see fit. However, a business can't refuse to hire someone based on sexual orientation.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:20pm
gellymatos: Would you hire someone against gay rights for a position of leadership in a gay rights advocacy group?
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:19pm
gellymatos: So, it's wrong to not hire a guy for a position specific to a belief when his belief conflicts with his position.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:18pm
Valdearg: And either way, it's discrimination. I'm not saying that the Government should force the church to make gay people priests, but there are plenty of other seemingly "religious" posts that really aren't all that religious.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:17pm
Valdearg: There's a fine line between Job Descrimination and Letting them practice their religious "right" to discriminate.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:15pm
gellymatos: Oh, and they are worried that "would restrict the right of a church school to employ a head teacher who shared their faith"
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:15pm
Andrew Eisen: If it is separate, then the church has every right to discriminate against its own members. Put another way, the gov't has no say who the church lets in its own organization.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:14pm
Andrew Eisen: Haven't read the law and not sure how it works overseas but is there a separation of church and state?
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:14pm
Valdearg: Like I said. He wants the Church to retain it's right to Job Discrimination. He want's the right to be above the law, and discriminate against gays. ALSO, there were provisions in the bill to prevent that scenario, with the priesthood.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:12pm
gellymatos: How about actually reading the article: " which they fear will make them admit homosexuals to the priesthood".
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:09pm
Valdearg: So, yeah.. From your official leader, your church OPPOSES equality.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:09pm
Valdearg: He wants the church to be able to discriminate against gays. He wants the chruch to be above the law, when it comes to discrimination.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:07pm
Valdearg: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7133053/Pope-attacks-Labour-laws-on-equality.html
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:07pm
gellymatos: And I never said "we're totally with you guys".
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:07pm
Valdearg: Oh, BTW. Here's the POPE coming out in SUPPORT of Employment Discrimination of Gays.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:06pm
gellymatos: Sorry we're not totally on one side or another. It's how we are. It's our belief.
Posted 02/09/10 at 12:04pm
Valdearg: You can't just pick and choose what rights you want to support and say "Ok, we're totally with you guys, now!"
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