Crave

I just saved the U.S. economy, and it only took a minute and a half! Yay me.

Well, I didn't actually save it, but after playing a quick round of the free casual game "Trillion Dollar Bailout!" an image of a newspaper appeared on my screen with the headline "Economy Saved! World Rejoices!!!" Apparently, amid all the disagreement over how the $787 billion economic stimulus package should be divvied up, I managed to make wise choices as to who and what should get funding. A regular Paul Krugman I am.

Wish you were an economic adviser to Obama? Now you can be, kind of.

(Credit: AddictingGames)

Ah, if only rescuing the faltering economy were as easy as this newly posted little title on AddictingGames makes it out to be. You just decide whether you want to deliver a bag of money or a slap in the face to the CEOs and homeowners who pop up along New York's skyline and city streets holding signs asking for cash.

It's pretty clear what sort of choices will net you a win. "Punish greedy fat cats and save honest peoples! Hand out moneys to homeowners. Put the hurt on dudes in suits! Do it right and save the world!" reads the game's introduction screen (and no, that wasn't me who put an "s" at the end of people and money).

Sadly, playing this game won't save homeowners from foreclosure or bail out the banks, but it's a harmless enough way to pass a few minutes.

AddictingGames, by the way, also recently brought us the free online game "Hero on The Hudson," which tasks players with emulating the success of US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger landing a passenger jet on water.

Video games reportedly can help cancer patients or awaken survival genes. Now, according to a new survey, people with acute depression and Attention Deficit Disorder are benefitting from games as well.

The survey--conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of game creator PopCap--found that disabled gamers make up 20 percent of the casual-game audience and play more often than others, citing health benefits as the reason.

PopCap, not surprisingly, makes casual games, and thus has a vested interest in the poll results. Still, the findings are worth noting.

Casual games such as Bejeweled could have physical and mental health benefits for those who classify themselves as disabled, a new survey says.

(Credit: PopCap)

The survey questioned 13,000 users on their video game use. Of those, about 2,800 classified themselves as "disabled gamers" who had mental, physical, or developmental disabilities. The most common disabilities noted by the respondents were arthritis, acute depression, and ADD.

The survey said that 94 percent of the gamers with disabilities believed that playing casual games yielded physical or mental benefits including stress relief, elevated moods, distraction from ailments, improved concentration, and mental workouts. (Casual games are a category of software-based entertainment that includes word and puzzle games, board games, and even some classic arcade titles.)

The results also said that many disabled gamers dedicate more time to video games than other players. On average they spent more time playing games per day and played more days per week. And 10 percent of disabled gamers said their medical professionals had prescribed playing casual games as part of their treatment.

Respondents to the survey cited puzzles, trivia, and arcade video games as their favorite casual games. Card games and hidden object games made up 50 percent of the top five game categories mentioned by disabled gamers.

The link between games and health isn't new. Games such as Brain Age for the Nintendo DS, for example, specifically tout mental benefits. And researchers are studying how fitness games for the Nintendo Wii can help stroke victims recover motor skills and overcome a fear of falling after their trauma

This morning at the Game Developer's Conference here in San Francisco, Alex St. John, the CEO of WildTangent, will announce a new version of the company's gaming software that he hopes will make people think twice about buying a video game console.

Taking a cue from the growing number of casual gamers buying consoles, St. John, who is most famous for helping create Direct X specification for Microsoft, figures that people are itching to get their hands on video games, but that they shouldn't have to buy a proprietary piece of hardware and pricey software titles, or even relegate gaming to one room in the house.

His solution is to take WildTangent's gaming marketplace software and tune it to work on the go, or in the living room on large televisions. The application, called "Orb" (not to be confused with the Orb media-sharing software) is designed to let anyone with a laptop and a gamepad navigate the various games available for play without having to use a keyboard or mouse. St. John notes that a majority of machines that have shipped out in the last year or so can more than handle the graphics capabilities of the Wii and original Xbox, and if users are looking to take part of that software ecosystem, they don't need to buy anything new.

WildTangent's Orb interface has been made friendly for large screens and aging eyes. Instead of paying, users can now opt in to play games for free after sitting through preroll commercials.

(Credit: WildTangent)

Orb has also been created from the ground up with a new advertising model that lets home users play titles for free as long as they're willing to sit through a commercial from sponsors that's inserted at the beginning of each gaming session. St. John equates WildTangent's model to that of television programming, noting that advertisers have been more than willing to get on board, whereas users aren't always into shelling out the cash up front to play a game.

Besides advertising, WildTangent runs off a micropayment system similar to what you see on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace with packages of credits that are purchased several at a time instead of an a la cart model. With the new system users don't even have to invest in the micropayments if they're willing to opt in to the advertising in front of each gaming session.

In addition to the new software, Orb will be launching with developer support to get various titles into the marketplace. The two being announced today are Sierra Online and THQ. St. John says other developers will likely want to join up to place their games on Orb in time for software that's slated for release in April.

News Corp.-owned social-networking site MySpace.com announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with casual-game maker Oberon Games, part of Oberon Media, to create a "channel" of social games.

Slated to launch in January, MySpace Games will allow users of the service to play games against other MySpace members and embed game widgets in their profiles.

Additionally--as it seems that there just can't be a social-networking announcement without talk of the "D" word--developers will be able to submit ideas for new games, and Oberon will be providing a developer toolkit when the game site launches.

Currently, the games.myspace.com subdomain encourages users to "stay tuned for updates." It offers them an array of video game-related videos instead of actual games.

Vyro Games presented a way to de-stress by playing a game. Call it the ultimate in casual gaming.

A biosensor, or a little egg-shaped "personal input pod," connects to a mobile phone via Bluetooth and pits you versus the computer or someone else to see who can relax the quickest. Stick your finger in it and it tracks your heart rate. Vyro is pitching it as a health aid, citing stats including that there are 12.8 million work days taken off due to stress.

There are two games so far: in the first, the more you relax, the faster the dragons on screen fly. In the second, Storm Chaser, the more calm you become the more calm the storm becomes on screen. Cute. Everything's a competition these days, apparently.

See the video for Rafe Needleman's interview with Vyro CEO Paul Kewene-Hite.

Plant Tycoon, a garden simulation game that lets players nurture simple backyard gardens into lavish nursery empires, is about to set down roots in the PC and Mac. Now here's an upbeat title even grumpy game foe Jack Thompson might like.

(Credit: Last Day of Work)

Created by game studio Last Day of Work, the new version of the handheld title lets players breed and cross-breed species, within a budget, in a search for six magic plants. Solve the genetic puzzle and you'll be rewarded with wealth--and virtual horticultural fame.

In a nice twist on real-time green-thumbing, the gameplay continues unless you pause it, so you may return to your monitor to find a verdant burst--or a bug-infested mess, depending on how faithfully you've tended your digital oasis.

Previously, Plant Tycoon was only available for Palm OS and Windows Mobile Pocket PC. The new versions are due to start blooming in September, for an estimated price of $19.95.

One of the many phones expected to play N-Gage games

(Credit: Nokia)

The rumors were true: Nokia's N-Gage is returning, but it will be a gaming platform available on several new phones rather than on a single gaming handset. Gaming blog Kotaku was among the first to report on the news, which Nokia will expand upon at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. Top mobile publishers such as EA, Glu Mobile and THQ Wireless are said to be on board, and Nokia is showcasing at least six N-Gage games, including versions of such well-known franchises as Brothers in Arms and FIFA 2008.

Nokia's press release specifically mentions that the new N-Gage platform "will deliver a global games platform that leverages the performance of the tens of millions of S60 converged devices that we are shipping each year," but later specifies "S60 3rd edition devices," so it's unclear exactly which phone models will be supported (and the Symbian S60 line is extensive, to say the least). Also, the N-Gage news was muddied somewhat by the mention of SNAP Mobile in the release as well. That, apparently, is a gaming and application platform that will be available on a wider array of J2ME-compatible phones.

While Nintendo and Sony have little to fear from a resurgent N-Gage, Nokia's new gaming thrust could actually fill a niche between those dedicated gaming handhelds and the often bland entertainment options found on most phones. There are plenty of times when I don't want to lug around a PSP or a DS, but I always have my phone with me--and being able to play a game that's a bit more engrossing than Bubble Breaker or Solitaire is an inviting prospect.