childhood-obesity
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Konami to host Childhood Obesity Summit and DDR tournament in West Virginia
Konami, along with the West Virginia University Extension Service and West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency, is hosting a Childhood Obesity Summit at the Embassy Suites in Charleston, West Virginia on July 27. Speakers will include The Biggest Loser's Dr. Michael Dansinger, as well as some very important-sounding people from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. But why should you care? Because the summit will also play host to the state's second annual Dance Dance Revolution tournament for students, of course, where scholarships and other prizes will be awarded to the victors. DDR has been a part of West Virginia's physical education program since 2006, and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin believes the game is "is reshaping our youths' mindset regarding what constitutes physical activity." Konami agrees, telling Gamasutra that they intend to "help encourage today's youth to lead more active and healthier lifestyles in a way that works best for them." As always, we suggest a strict diet of Cooler Ranch Doritos and Throwback Mountain Dew for peak health performance.
Vector City Racers aims to combat childhood obesity
Childhood obesity is a big problem in the US, and Vector Entertainment and the Childhood Obesity Foundation are teaming up to try and do something about it. Enter Vector City Racers, a casual multiplayer online game and community that seeks to teach kids aged six to twelve about eating healthily.The game is in closed beta right now, but you can still check out the site and experience the game for yourself. We hopped on there for a few minutes and didn't find anything that would help obese kids. There weren't any health tips or motivational phrases laying around, and we didn't avoid the accursed chocolate chip monsters or anything, so we're wondering just how Vector City Racers plans to combat childhood obesity. Maybe that information will be available after the beta.
FCC commissioner Deborah Tate resigns
The Huffington Post (among other sources) is reporting that FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate has resigned. This is the woman who, less than a month ago, said that World of Warcraft was one of the top reasons for college drop-outs. Now, I can't entirely blame someone for seeing MMOs as a bad thing, there are certainly a lot of people who don't seem to have the ability to throttle their playtime, but that really wasn't her first silly act or statement while she held her position (taking advice from corporations is bad, mmkay). A lot of people will take this news as a godsend.Of course, that doesn't mean she didn't do any good at all. Your personal views may differ from hers depending on the topic, but she's generally pretty well regarded for her efforts when it comes to issues regarding children and their protection. Personally, I don't agree with the extreme 'think of the children!' mentality (or Tate's approach to it) that's become increasingly common, but again, my opinion doesn't represent a nation. A few out of line comments don't negate her efforts entirely.
FCC Comissioner: World of Warcraft causes college dropouts
Oh boy. Deborah Tate is an FCC Commissioner (and will be for another three years at least -- she was appointed for another five year term in 2007), and claimed in a speech about telecom policy and regulation last week that "one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction -- such as World of Warcraft -- which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide."Never mind that World of Warcraft, is a game, not an addiction, and never mind that most of those 11 million people play it and are completely healthy socially and financially, and never mind even that any evidence you'd find that World of Warcraft causes dropouts is anecdotal at best. Can you really blame a game for someone making the choice to leave college? We, as you might have guessed, think not.And there's more: Tate's Wikipedia page says that not only has she spoken out strongly in favor of DRM, and not only has she taken talking points directly from Clear Channel in trying to work on the Sirus/XM merger (a government official speaking the words of a corporation, that's just what we need), but she has also blamed television for childhood obesity. Nice one. One more reason why we are thrilled to see that we may finally get some folks in the FCC who actually know what they're talking about when it comes to online gaming.
