urn:wd:wdlabs.com:atom1:twilight Your Home For Snappy Repartee 應龍 urn:wd:wdlabs.com:atom1:twilight:20051209.0824 2005-12-09T13:24:00 2005-12-09T13:24:00 2005-12-09T13:24:00 The other day I was writing about my positive experience with video games. Just now I read <A HREF="http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5244028&amp;subjectID=348909&amp;fsrc=nwl&amp;emailauth=%2527%2529%252063H%255E%255B%255EQQ%252F%2524%250A">an article</A> from <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist">The Economist</A> about the therapeutic applications of video games (mostly they talk about treating phobias), which concludes: <BLOCKQUOTE> Critics denounce video games for promoting violence and destruction, despite the lack of solid evidence to support such claims. The evidence for gaming's curative and therapeutic benefits, by contrast, is rather more convincing.</BLOCKQUOTE> Mostly the article talks about custom written applications, or modifications of existing games (using a magical <A HREF="http://wiki.whitedactyl.com/wiki/patch">patch</A> which allows you to do magical computer things). If the nay sayers who denounce video games had their way, we wouldn't have the technological expertise to explore such possibilities. <BR/><BR/> Anyway. I just thought it was interesting that I came across the article, since I had been writing about the subject recently.