Powering Up: Are Computer Games Changing Our Lives? (Science Museum TechKnow Series) - Softcover

Mileham, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470723106 ISBN 13: 9780470723104

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2008

Synopsis

When it comes to computer games, the numbers are astounding: the world's top professional gamer has won over half a million dollars shooting virtual monsters on-screen; online games claim literally millions of subscribers; while worldwide spending on computer gaming will top GBP24 billion by 2011. From techno-toddlers to silver surfers, everyone's playing games on their PCs, Wiis, Xboxes and phones. How are we responding to this onslaught of brain-training, entertaining, potentially addicting, time-consuming, myth-spawning games? In Powering Up, Rebecca Mileham looks at the facts behind the headlines to see what effect this epidemic of game-playing is really having on us and the society we live in. Is it making us obese, anti-social, violent and addicted...or just giving us different ways of getting cleverer, fitter and more skilled? She examines the evidence, from experts and gamers alike, and asks some controversial and thought-provoking questions: Are car-driving games turning us into boy racers? Could becoming a virtual bully help children solve classroom disputes? Should you feel remorse for killing pixel people? Does it matter if you cheat in a single-player game? Can games get ex-prisoners back to work? If you're part of the gaming revolution yourself, or are just curious to know what's fact and what's fiction in the media coverage of this topic, then this is the book for you. About the author Rebecca Mileham has written for the Sunday Times, She magazine, and for museums all over the UK. In ten years at the Science Museum, London, she developed exhibitions on topics as diverse as Charles Babbage's Difference Engines, robotic submarines, face transplants and the male pill. http://www.rebecca.mileham.net/

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca Mileham has written for the Sunday times, She magazine, and for museums all over the UK. In ten years at the Science Museum, London, she developed exhibitions on topics as diverse as Charles Babbage's Difference Engines, robotic submarines, face transplants and the male pill.

From the Back Cover

In Powering Up, Rebecca Mileham examines the latest research to see what effect the epidemic of game-playing is really having on us and on our society. Are computer games making us obese, anti-social, violent and addicted... or are they actually offering us new ways to get smarter, fitter and more skilled? This book presents evidence from experts and gamers alike, asks some controversial and thought-provoking questions such as:

Is there a hidden plague of game addiction in our society?

Can computer games improve your vocabulary?

Are car-driving games turning us into boy racers?

Could games help patients fight cancer?

Should you feel guilty for killing pixel people?

Discover. Question. Provoke.

From the Inside Flap

TechKnow

Curious about technology? Want to join the discussion on how it will affect our futures?

If so, this series will get you up to speed with the most thought-provoking issues of the day and leave you wanting more. Each book brings to life a particular area of technology and takes an informal, sometimes controversial but always challenging look at where we are now, where future developments will take us - and how they will affect us as individuals and as a society. Peppered with real-life stories from across the globe and interviews with those at the cutting edge, these books will fuel you mind and get you thinking beyond the technology headlines!

www.danacentre.org.uk/techknow

The Dana Centre is the Science Museum's purpose built, adults-only venue for interactive events that explore how advances in contemporary science, technology, engineering and medicine impact on our culture and society.

Every week the Dana Centre hosts events which bring together experts from many disciplines, including art, history and sociology, as well as science and technology. Their viewpoints are contrasted with personal opinions to provide different and often controversial perspectives on issues that affect us all.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470723106
• ISBN 13: 9780470723104
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 332