Spoiler alert: In the end, our best fictions can’t be spoiled, according to a new study in Psychological Science called “Spoilers Don’t Spoil Stories.” The results of the experiment, based on the reactions of college students, elucidate why their subjects could greater empathize with a story when they already knew what happened. That’s why critic Ty Burr wants us to rethink the spoiler. – – – The paper, published in the September issue of Psychological Science, presents the results of a series of experiments conducted by Jonathan D. Leavitt and Nicholas J. S. Christenfeld. The authors asked a large group…

Are we most content doing the smallest imaginable tasks? Mobile apps can apparently make even the most insignificant market cog-work into a fun sort of game, especially if you’re getting paid. For a story, this Wall Street Journal columnist became a freelance mobile stock-boy—and liked it.  This week, I earned a little dough on the side using an iPhone and two free apps: EasyShift and Gigwalk. The idea behind the apps work is simple: Companies hire you to do some pretty simple work using your iPhone. You submit the work using these apps and you get paid via your PayPal account. ……

Since last year, educators have made efforts to co-opt Minecraft as the champion of videogames as learning tools. But it’s become like trying to get vice to sublimate into utility—to build utopia out of dystopia. This newest article for Slate and Future Tense by Lisa Guernsey, mother of Minecraft-obsessed daughters, is caught in between states. One minute I’m mesmerized with its potential for encouraging children to get creative, explore, and think critically about what it takes to build new communities. The next I’m shrieking at my kids and issuing ridiculous threats. (Me, stomping over to our kitchen computer: “I have…

The Disney execs behind the forthcoming Wreck-It Ralph must have been asking: How do you get more aging gamers to see your videogame movie for kids? The answer: Aggregate cameos from nearly every recognizable videogame character ever. Maybe even make a game out of seeing how many you can spot while watching the film. IGN wanted to know how they got away with it. – – – Just to put it in perspective, most animated movies have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or 50 character designs, but Wreck-It Ralph boasts a staggering 188. What’s more, dozens of these models…

Plunging us deeper into the abyss of bloodless simulacrum, this sketch-up designed submarine offers its crew all the thrilling, claustrophobic anxiety of submarine warfare, except everything that’s not fun about submarine warfare. Metaphorical blip on radar: they’ve volunteered to become the target of Twitter. – – – One of the events is if enough people tweet #firetorpedo while the game is in play, red lights start flashing and warning sounds go off letting you know a torpedo has been launched (you can even see the torpedo incoming on the LCD radar screen). You get a voice command telling you what…