Parents with children suffering from amblyopia (referred to by some as "Lazy Eye") frequently have trouble with kids refusing to do vision correction exercises. Since these exercises are important to correcting this type of vision problem, parents need tools to make the activity more fun and engaging for youngsters. Correction of amblyopia typically involves some sort of repetitive coordinative exercise, such as navigating a maze on paper, drawing lines on paper, etc. The problem is that some kids find these activities to be tedious and unchallenging.

Valve front man Gabe Newell fears that Apple will release new hardware that could render traditional gaming consoles obsolete. At least that is what he said during a game panel at the WTIA TechNW conference - as reported by the Seattle Times.

"I suspect Apple will launch a living room product that redefines people's expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear," said Newell.

Newell also called the rise of "closed" platforms like Apple's iOS and Xbox Live "ominous."

NASA has released an interactive educational video game today called NetworKing that its Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) network operates. The release of the video game coincides with the close of World Space Week, Oct. 4-10. Developed by the Information Technology Office at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, its developers say that NetworKing gives players an insider's perspective into how astronauts, mission controllers and scientists communicate during space missions.

GDC Online organizers announced two programs that will grant free Expo Passes to video game and tech industry locals (to Austin and the state where the event takes place next month) and qualifying students. The new program is part of the event's outreach to local talent including students and working professionals.

IGDA Japan is organizing the Fukushima Game Jam, a developer event that it hopes will stimulate game development following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last year. The Game Jam is organized with the help 9Leap, a student development contest and will take place from August 27 to 28 in Minami-Souma city. The event is modeled after Global Game Jam hosted by the IGDA each year, where development teams take a theme given by organizers to create a game in a limited amount of time.

The 2011 International Serious Play Awards, which honors "outstanding corporate, military, healthcare and learning" software titles, announced that it has recognized 20 serious games. The medal winners were revealed at the Serious Play Conference, held August 23-25 at Redmond, WA's DigiPen Institute of Technology, as attended by Gamasutra. Air Medic Sky One from University Medical Center Utrecht won Best of Show.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell says that Microsoft needs to relax the terms and conditions of Xbox Live to allow other platforms onto Xbox Live. Newell made his comments related to the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive release, which features Steamworks integration. Newell said that Microsoft would do well to emulate Sony, whose decision to allow Steamworks support in the PlayStation 3 release of Portal 2 resulted in better experience on that platform.

Independent video rental stores across the U.S. and Canada are banding together for a common cause: to promote a Video Store Day Oct. 15. The goal of this special day is to show the public that there are still alternatives to rental kiosks like Redbox and from Blockbuster, and streaming entertainment services such as Netflix and Hulu. Clearly local video rental stores have taken a savage beating at the hands of those juggernauts.

Chicago-based technology firm ImmersiveTouch has been working in consultation with the Memphis-based Medical Education & Research Institute (MERI) on surgery simulator technology that looks and feels like a next-generation video game. The inventors say that while it might be video game-like, it has far more serious implications for medical training and surgery.

MERI does not have a financial stake in the company or in the simulator, but many of the doctors and surgeons who pass through the training center have offered their input in developing the product.

"We are engineers. We are not physicians," said Cristian Luciano, Sensimmer's co-inventor and ImmersiveTouch vice president. "The needs that are coming from the physicians and surgeons drive the (product development) efforts as we produce solutions for them."

Konami, along with health professionals, policy makers, students, parents, and teachers, across West Virginia are heading to Charleston later this month to address childhood obesity. Konami is spearheading an event - the Childhood Obesity Summit - to discuss the best ways to deal with the issue. The company will also host the second annual DanceDanceRevolution West Virginia State Championship Tournament at the same time.

The West Virginia University Extension Service, West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), and Konami organized the summit to promote collaboration and develop a referral base for coordinated prevention and treatment of childhood obesity statewide.

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to strike down the 2005 California law regulating violent video games, one Utah lawmaker says that he will not pursue a similar law he tried to pass in 2008. Rep. Michael Morley, (R-Spanish Fork, Utah) told the Deseret News that he felt his bill was very different from the California law that was struck down on Monday.

For one, the bill did not impose a fine on retailers who sold mature-rated games to children, but did give parents the power to file a lawsuit against the offending business. The bill would allow parents to sue under a claim of false advertising. While the 2008 video game bill passed with broad support in both houses, former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. vetoed the bill. Former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff backed the governor's position at the time. Both expressed concern over the impact to local businesses and free speech rights.

Fable series developer and wholly-owned Microsoft studio Lionhead plans to launch a work experience program for local students next week. The company says that it wants to help build a relationship between the British development sector and area schools in the hopes that young people will be inspired to build games for a living. Students from schools in close proximity to Lionhead can get work experience on-site, and will learn about "all of the six main disciplines of making a game," according to Lionhead. Each student will also have a personal mentor to work with.

GameStop is doing something a bit unprecedented: it is honoring ancient pre-orders for Duke Nukem Forever. GamePro asked the retailer if they would honor pre-orders taken just after the game was originally announced many years ago. The company confirmed that it would.

"With a long-anticipated release like Duke Nukem Forever, we encourage customers who pre-ordered more than a year ago to verify their reservation with their local store prior to launch," a GameStop representative told GamePro. "Provided the customer has a receipt, we will honor even those pre-orders taken long ago. At this time, we expect that all pre-order customers will receive Duke's Big Package at time of purchase, regardless of when the reservation was made."

Duke Nukem Forever releases June 10 on various platforms, with a demo coming June 3. Obviously it is rated "M" for "Mature" by the ESRB.

A new video game created by Yale School of Medicine researchers hopes to help "at-risk" youths learn about and avoid the risks associated with HIV. The game was developed as part of the Play2Prevent initiative at Yale, a collaboration and partnership between scientists, educators, video game designers and developers, and community-based organizations. The game development process is being spearheaded by Schell Games.

Dr. Lynn E. Fiellin, associate professor of medicine at Yale, says the goal is to develop educational materials and "targeted interventions" that produces risk reduction and prevention in youth and young adults.

"Games are powerful tools in helping people explore roles and risks before life makes them all-too-real and risky," says Fiellin. "The Play2Prevent initiative focused on helping its players meet the challenges at-risk youth must face head on."

Carnegie Mellon University's Lori Holt and Sung-Joo Lim and Stockholm University's Francisco Lacerda are using video game training with a mock "alien" language to replicate the challenges of learning languages as an infant. The research found that listeners were to quick recognize word-like units. The study was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

To uncover how spoken sounds are decoded by the brain, the research team designed a video game narrated in deliberately distorted speech. The soundtrack (unintelligible babble in any language) was the only source of instruction for the 77 adult players in the study. After only two hours of play, the participants could reliably extract world-length sound categories from continuous alien sounds and apply that learning to advance through the game.

Serious games developer Red Hill Studios has developed a series of games designed specifically to help Parkinson's patients using physical therapy. Red Hill is working with the UCSF School of Nursing on the software, which uses Microsoft's Kinect. The software offers users specific motions and gestures that have been proven effective in improving the gait and balance of those suffering from the disease.

"These games demonstrate the value of combining innovative health game designers with a top flight clinical team," said Bob Hone, creative director of Red Hill Studios. "Creating games that are both fun to play and provide concrete medical benefits takes a special kind of team. We are much more than the sum of our parts."

From Red Hill's web site:

In a recent Develop interview, Valve head honcho Gabe Newell said that his company is looking for new ways to charge customers. One of the more novel payment schemes involves a community member’s popularity. Apparently, if you are a social pariah in the Valve community, it may cost you more money if Newell's payment idea takes hold. Newell says that the "same price for everyone" model is a "bug."

"The industry has this broken model, which is one price for everyone. That's actually a bug, and it's something that we want to solve through our philosophy of how we create entertainment products."

Instead of basing the price on what a product is worth, Newell wants to base it on "what the player is worth."

The seventh annual Games for Health conference is gearing up for its launch on May 18 and registration is opened for those planning to attend. From May 18 – 19 (registration on March 17), join hundreds of game developers, health professionals, and leading researchers will attend the event to brainstorm and debate how video games and video game technologies that can work to improve health and healthcare.

Here's an interesting story about real world technology that has a minor connection to gaming. Developed for Richland, Washington-based CH2M Hill, the technology is called the Sand Mantis, and it is described by its creator as a new tool that takes rock salt-based waste, and turns it into a fine, powdery waste.

The technology, which is used inside giants tanks, is controlled using a PlayStation 2 controller. After the Rock Salt waste is smashed into a fine powder, it can easily be sucked out of the tank and disposed of. The technology helps CH2M Hill reach their goal of less than 2,700 gallons of waste per tank. It will also reduces cleanup costs; the $2.7 million dollar tool replaces the original $12 million per tank cost estimate. CH2M Hill is best known for creating engineering solutions for waste management and water treatment.

According to Stardock CEO (the company that used to own Impulse before it sold off its digital distribution platform to GameStop) Brad Wardell, Steam is holding up Valve's ability to develop its various game properties in a timely fashion. Wardell made his comments in a recent interview with IndustryGamers. In Wardell's opinion, the resources needed to continually operate and manage a digital distribution platform as massive as Steam has led to a slowdown in Valve's game development capabilities over the years.

"Even though Valve is in Seattle, where you can get developers everywhere, [Steam's] had an effect on their own development schedule," Wardell told IndustryGamers. "There's not been a new Half-Life in a long time; a lot of people have complained about that."

Valve has thanked the Team Fortress 2 community for its hard work and generosity in raising a whopping $430,543.65 for the Japanese disaster relief fund. That massive number represents the sale of three limited-edition hats and two noisemakers that were added to the Mann Co. Team Fortress 2 game store at the end of March. While those hats and noisemakers disappeared the indelible imprint of the community's generosity remains.

Below is the message that Valve left the community via its official Team Fortress 2 blog on April 8:

"Nice work, everyone! We're excited to share that, thanks to the generosity of the TF community, in two short weeks we managed to collect $430,543.65 for the Japanese disaster relief fund. It's been inspiring to watch gamers around the world come together for such a worthy cause.

GameStop is up to something big. The company announced that it has acquired a streaming technology company and a popular digital distribution platform. The company announced that it has acquired Spawn Labs, a streaming technology company and has entered into an agreement with Stardock systems to purchase Impulse. The Impulse acquisition is subject to closing conditions and is expected to be complete in May 2011.

Spawn Labs becomes part of the GameStop network, and will bring its game streaming technology to GameStop's suite of digital game products and services. Once the Spawn Labs integration and testing on a new consumer interface is complete, users will gain access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand.

Impulse is a digital distribution platform that allows users to download and manage games. The Impulse suite is comprised of a client, Reactor technology for DRM, and publishing tools.

The winners of the Youth Prize for original game designs have been selected by the National STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Video Game Challenge. The 12 U.S. students (grades 5-8) were announced by United States chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra.

The science-themed "You Make Me Sick!" was awarded the Grand Prize in the Developer Prize category, and a collection of math games called "NumberPower: Numbaland!" received the Collegiate and Impact prizes. Filament Games' Dan Norton and Dan White won the grand prize, and will receive $50,000 for their game about bacteria and viruses.

According to the official Team Fortress 2 blog, over $300,000 in virtual hats have been sold - all to benefit relief efforts in Japan. The hats were introduced last week and proved a big hit among players. The three hats are the "Humanitarian's Hachimaki" ($7.99), the "Benefactor's Kanmuri" ($19.99) and the "Magnanimous Monarch" ($99.99). Valve did not reveal exactly how many hats were sold but $300,000 is a very big number by anyone's accounting. Here's the thank-you note from the TF2 blog:

"Wow. Seriously, people, WOW. We knew you had it in you, but we're still amazed you've raised over $300,000 so far.

Inventing the Future of Games, a day-long symposium taking place April 15 in Silicon Valley, aims to explore the possibilities of the next decade of gaming with luminaries from the industry. Sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media, the symposium will gather academia and industry leaders to discuss the advancement of game design and technology.

We have to write a story about Jack Thompson today. The anti-video game firebrand and former Florida attorney fired off a letter to Valve Software threatening to do something (we're not sure what he is threatening to do because he hasn't indicated the consequences in his letter to Valve's CEO) if the company doesn't do something about the Half-Life 2 mod, "School Shooter: North American Tour 2012."

Before we get into what Valve can actually do about a mod it has nothing to do with, here is Thompson's letter:

Microsoft today announced the release of Microsoft Kodu Game Lab for the PC and the launch of the nationwide Microsoft Kodu Cup 2011 competition. The Kodu Cup encourages students ages 9 to 17 to design, build and submit their video games using the Kodu Game Lab software. Microsoft Kodu Game Lab is available for free at fuse.microsoft.com/kodu. The game design tool lets kids build their own video games using a simple drag and drop system to implement various game functions, add art and icons.

Zynga has launched a fundraising initiative across more than seven of its games in partnership with Save the Children to support relief efforts in Japan. Zynga will donate 100 percent of the purchase price of newly created virtual items to the Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children Emergency Fund, created by Save the Children to support the children of Japan’s ongoing needs.

In addition, Facebook is donating all of its Facebook Credits generated through the in-game purchases to support the fundraising efforts.

A rundown of how players can donate - from Zynga - can be found below:

Following Friday's devastating earthquake, several major Japanese game publishers have announced campaigns to help with relief efforts. This is much needed as the latest statistics estimate that nearly 10,000 people have died and 15,000 are missing.

The Gamers Outreach Foundation and Able Gamers Foundation are invading PAX East in Boston on Friday. The groups are teaming up to host a special panel called "Gamers Doing Good." Penny Arcade Expo takes place in Boston, MA, March 11-13.

The point of the panel is to have an intelligent discussion on how video gamers can be used to help others, and how gamers can combine their passion for gaming with charitable contributions. The panel is scheduled to take place on Friday at 5:00 PM in the Cat Theatre. Panelists include Stefanie Shea and Zach Wigal of Gamers Outreach, along with Mark Barlet, Steve Spohn and Ben Herz of The AbleGamers Foundation. Avery Alix of PopCap Games (moderator) will also be on hand, as well as Christopher "Frost" Sheffield of Radioactive Nerd.