Thunder

I was reading Ewans post about computer games and girls earlier this afternoon, which quoted a BBC report that said that only 40% of girls play PC or console games compared to 90% of boys. I wonder if it actually matters that only 40% of girls play PC or console games, what are they doing instead - it might be better than playing games Maybe that is why girls are getting better exam results than boys? What would the figures be for boys/girls playing football or rugby, or what about teenage boys/girls reading books?

Just looking at the top 10 games for the Xbox 360:

1. Prey
2. Lord of the Rings - The battle for Middle Earth II
3. Chromehounds
4. Hitman: Blood Money
5. Over G Fighters
6. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
7. Rockstar Games Presents: Table Tennis
8. Project Gotham Racing 3
9. Dynasty Warriors 5
10. Lara Croft Tomb Raider - Legend

How many of those titles would appeal to girls? Is that the issue, the industry needs to make more games that might appeal to a wider audience, for example SIMS?

I have now come across a post on Gizmodo which talks about Sony releasing a pink PSP and a pink PS2. I wonder if the fact that the device is pink will make more girls play them or is it just a good advertising gimic, what do you think?

I have just read on the BBC News site that:

Microsoft is to offer a consumer version of professional tools used to develop videogames for the Xbox 360.

The tools will be available in trial form from 20 August and there is a £55 annual subscription.

How cool is that, it will be very interested to see how it compares to the software we are using in Shropshire schools (GameMaker and MissionMaker).  I will download it on August 20th and keep you informed of my progress.

I can’t remember how I found this website last week, but I am glad I did - it has managed to keep me away from doing any proper work for several hours. It suggests 55 different ways of using Google..

You probably use Google everyday, but do you know… the Google Snake Game? Googledromes? Memecodes? Googlesport? The Google Calculator? Googlepark and Google Weddings? Google hacking, fighting and rhyming? In this book, you’ll find Google-related games, cartoons, oddities, tips, stories and everything else that’s fun. Reading it, you won’t be the same searcher as before!

From reading I have found out that … “Steve is” a DJ in Boston. He is interested in new music, both local and world wide.

Have a read and a play, feel free to leave a comment about what you think of them, I could see some education value to using the ‘site:‘ command in Google images to find all the images on a particular site.