All Blog Posts from Tech Talk

This may come as no surprise to folks like me who play on a regular basis (some say TOO regular), but a new study finds that more than half of American adults play video games. And it's both men and women delving into digital worlds -- nearly an even split with 55 percent to 50 percent respectively. And while there's a higher percentage of younger adults playing, older adults are playing more often. There's still some social stigma attached to being an avid gamer (though I'm not ashamed -- far from it), and who can deny the satisfaction of such escapism? We'll have the story on tonight's CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Put down the controller long enough to watch.

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Breaking news in the video game world: BioWare, part of Electronic Arts, announced details today on an upcoming massively multiplayer online game based on the "Knights of the Old Republic" (KotOR) title called "Star Wars: The Old Republic." From the BioWare press release: "...players will explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Players can choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force."

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If video games serve as your entertainment distraction from the current political campaign then you might do a double take the next time you're playing certain titles via Microsoft's Xbox Live service. Digital billboards featuring Democratic presidental candidate Barack Obama are being featured in a number of games from Electronic Arts ranging from "Burnout Paradise" to "Madden '09."

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Tonight we begin a series on video games and children. It's largely inspired by a new study released today from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It's a compelling read.

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From fear over black holes to creating your own universe. From seeing back in time to the "blue screen of death." It's been quite a week. Curious?

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Scaled back would be putting it mildly. Compared to E3s of the past, this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in the Los Angeles Convention Center was like a ghost town. I've been attending for several years (though admittedly I missed last year when it nearly disappeared off the map altogether). Now that I've had a little time to digest the event from earlier in the week, I have mixed feelings.

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At first glance, the platypus looks more like a bad taxidermy project than a vibrant example of evolution gone right. In fact, when it was discovered in 1799, some people actually thought its Donald Duck-like bill had been surgically attached by a prankster. Well, the often lampooned platypus got its comeuppence this week when researchers at the University of Washington St. Louis announced they'd mapped the genome of the cartoonish creature. Their findings about the mammalian/reptile-esque platypus were rather surprising, and you can listen to one of the lead scientists, Wes Warren, in this interview for my weekly CBS radio feed, SciEye. (I love how Warren describes the platypus.)

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Do you work at an e-mail-free Friday company? There’s an article in today’s USA Today that points out the growing trend. The idea being to encourage more phone calls or face-to-face meetings. I’m just as tethered to my inbox as the next person, but it seems to me productivity would drop dramatically. I could certainly see a decrease in stress, which would be welcome, but in the news business e-mail is necessary, and dropping it from the day’s communication tools would be detrimental to business. In an office environment with more internal networking, perhaps it might work better. But wouldn’t all those requisite social niceties really slow things down? Your thoughts? And now for a quick recap...

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By now you're wearily familiar with the controversy surrounding Rockstar Games, specifically the "Grand Theft Auto" series. For years, the company has been speared by critics as the purest of evil within the video game software market. Its newest title, "Manhunt 2," is slated for release on Oct. 31, which is obviously a tie-in with Hallowe'en. (Oh, scary!)

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Let's start with this premise: video game addiction is a controversial subject. No surprise there. And let's get this out the way: most people play video games and suffer no ill side effects (other than sore thumbs or a bruised ego). Video game addiction is also a debate that isn't going away any time soon. This weekend members of the American Medical Association are considering whether to take video game addiction more seriously, and potentially one day deem it an official medical diagnosis.

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