Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat, "a killer doc about game violence debate," says new media scholar Henry Jenkins.  You can now watch the indy documentary for free: @ http://bit.ly/ajYokh

I am trying to learn more about the games Little Big Planet and Spore: Galactic Adventures... sadly, I don't have any friends on either network!

Here's the abstract for my essay historicizing our tendency to blame youth for generational change and our tendency to scapegoat new media for social change.  It  just appeared in International Journal of Learning and Media.

There is a lot of attention today on educational video games. But what should scholars think about when trying to examine the learning effects of games? I offer a few simple guidelines.

I recently finished reading Structures of Participation in Digital Culture, a collection whose authors explore the ways in which technology enables new forms of cultural connection. One of the most interesting essays in the book was Robert F. Nideffer's "Game Engines as Open Networks." In this essay, Nideffer argues that instead of encouraging passivity--typified by the stereotype of the couch potato--game systems create new means of creativity for gamers, many of whom are active participants in creating and modifying games.