Rachel Helps

The Japanese accesory site, WaSaBi, has come out with a line of clear plastic 3DS cases garnished with traditional art. The result: a sophisticated, personalized look. [via TinyCartridge]

Valve has hired economist Yanis Varoufakis, and he has a blog, where he recently looked at currency in Team Fortress 2, or rather, how people aren’t just using keys to get stuff. There’s a sophisticated bartering system, and you can actually end up with more than you started with if you trade right.

Merely having active Wii games isn’t enough to increase fitness levels, and new study shows.   The study selected children ages 9 – 12 who had a body mass index above the median and who did not already own a Wii. Each household was given a Wii, with half of them assigned to a group that could choose

What was your favorite toy when you were a child? A survey of children fifteen years ago probably wouldn’t have included computers as toys. But these days, “toy” and “electronic gadget” are sharing a lot of territory. Both girls and boys prefer virtual toys and games to physical ones.  Adrian Voce O

Let’s get realistic about post-apocalypse survival, Jericho and Battlestar Galactica style. We’re going to have to work with our neighbors and compete against other towns to survive by gathering food and maybe shooting zombies. Dead State is a Kickstarter game that considers all these aspects of sur

At any institution of higher learning there will be a teacher whose lectures are boring. It’s not hard to tell when students are bored—they’re usually staring off into space, texting, or sleeping. But some teachers may have lost this ability, having become habituated to a lack of eye contact, and Bi

New research on death days shows that we’re 14 percent more likely to die on our birthdays.  The researchers analysed 2.4 million deaths over a 40-year period. Results show there were 13.8 per cent more deaths on birthdays than might be expected compared with any other day of the year. The risk incr

If you’re willing to shell out $20 a month, you can encrypt your phone calls and instant messages with a new app called Silent Circle. The app’s creator, Phil Zimmermann, thinks it’s a service worth paying for.  “I’m not going to apologize for the cost,” Zimmermann told CNET, adding that the final p

You’ve probably heard of the videogame that treats depression; now there’s a videogame that teaches scientific reasoning. It’s called Operation ARA and the initial research looks promising. Students learn the skills of scientific reasoning by engaging in interactive dialogs with avatars. They are tu

This vision of Japanese Ronald McDonald as the final boss in Earthbound is even more surreal than the original game. The not-so-subtle commentary on fast food may make its way into your nightmares.  video

In early Zelda games, Link had little personality, but he did have a role to fulfill, whether it was as an adventuring son or a fairyless boy. His silence let players more readily identify with him… or so the Art of Gaming 101 puts it.  Over at PopMatters, Kevin Dickinson argues that “silent” protag

A hospital brain bank recently accidentally thawed over fifty brains. Luckily, some of the DNA is still intact. The NY Daily News reports that all is not lost: An initial review indicates that the DNA in the samples is intact and can still be used for genetic research. It’s unclear, however, whether

Imagine you’re a game designer obsessed with recreating your games in your apartment, and that you’re looking for a roommate. Beth Newell imagines just such a situation: Future roommates are responsible for buying their own food and should NOT eat anything from the refrigerators in the biohazard con

Stumbling on a note left by a stranger is always a bit exciting. For New Yorkers last weekend, Chelsea Davison challenged them to a game of truth or dare: She left 300 cards around the park that asked people to answer “truth” questions via Twitter or perform often embarrassing “dares” in front of fe

A couple of weeks ago Anita Sarkeesian started a Kickstarter project to document female tropes within videogames and how they impact society. The Kickstarter aims to create videos to educate players and developers about these common stereotypes in hopes that they will see videogames with a more crit

Models hired to demonstrate at conventions, or booth babes, stand around in heels for long hours and fairly low pay. While they might help attract some attention to their employers’ booths, their presence is controversial. Including scantily clad women in a booth can distract attention from the adve

Stimulants help people be more alert and focused, which often helps with studying for school. High school students share their Ritalin and Adderall,, as the NY Times reports, but even more problematic is how illicit stimulant use tends to rise after such articles are published. Vaughan Bell at Mind

video Chasing Aurora, a beautiful looking indie game coming to Wii U’s eShop late this year from Austrian developer Broken Rules (And Yet It Moves). Per their description: Drop from the cliff and ride the wind from peak to peak. Fight for the beacon of light in the hostile environment of the Alps. C

A special exhibit in a museum traditionally has a focus on architecture that websites haven’t been able to replicate. Michael Alfred’s graduate exhibit, Print Fiction, has his art displayed on virtual walls. It’s worth the load time.  [Print Fiction] [via Banquet]

Video Fresh off the heels of our Soundplay project with Pitchfork, Swedish four-piece The Amplifetes take their own swing as music game excellance. To promote their upcoming album, they’ve created a the Guitar Hero-like interactive music video Where is the Light. (They’re planning to turn it into an

Video How can we help overweight people eat less? Convince them they’re eating more than they really are. At the University of Tokyo, augmented reality glasses have convinced test subjects the snack they were eating was 50% larger than it really was, helping them eat ten percent less than usual. The

Spy films are tiring of the old femme fatale. For the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), apathy and demoralization may have extinguished sexual desire, making sexual tactics defunct. Or at least that’s what Samantha Hinds argues in the New Inquiry. The new style in spy cinema has been one of a

video “Bad people” aren’t the only ones who lie; creative types are more likely to to have strong “moral flexibility.” That is, more creative people are better at justifying dishonest actions. Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, explores the motivations behind such justifications in his bo

What kinds of videogames did you play when you were in Jr. High? For those who are in their 20s now, Megaman, Zelda, and Catz might be on the list. There weren’t many games for tween girls back then. Mobile and Flash games have really changed the market for young gamers, who can play games for free