Because every American
should have access
to broadband Internet.

The Internet Innovation Alliance is a broad-based coalition of business and non-profit organizations that aim to ensure every American, regardless of race, income or geography, has access to the critical tool that is broadband Internet. The IIA seeks to promote public policies that support equal opportunity for universal broadband availability and adoption so that everyone, everywhere can seize the benefits of the Internet - from education to health care, employment to community building, civic engagement and beyond.

The Podium

Blog posts tagged with 'Video Games'

Wednesday, November 14

Number of the Day

By Brad

$220 million, which is how much Halo 4, the latest installment of the popular video game, made in its first day, according to Malathi Nayak of Reuters.

Given how popular the first-person shooter series is, especially online, there’s sure to be a lot of traffic from the game in the coming days.

Friday, December 23

Flashback Friday

By Brad

Ah, 1983. The year millions of kids wanted one thing for Christmas: the Atari 5200.

Friday, December 02

Flashback Friday

By Brad

Ah, 1982. E.T. was the biggest movie in history, video games were rising in popularity, and George Plimpton was a pitch man for a new device called the Intellivision.

Friday, November 18

eSport’s Moment

By Brad

Over at GigaOm, Ryan Lawler has penned an interesting look at how streaming video — and the proliferation of faster broadband — is helping bring greater attention to a fast-growing sport:

While previous attempts to broadcast professional gamers have stalled, the eSports market might finally have reached its tipping point, thanks to the ability to live stream tournaments online. And its Super Bowl moment might happen this weekend, as Major League Gaming live streams the final tournament of its pro season.

Wednesday, September 21

Today in Innovation

By Brad

Via Talking Points Memo’s Carl Franzen comes a cool story about video game players, AIDS research, and an innovative solution to a problem:

As fanciful as it may sound at first, gamers on Foldit, a crowdsourced, online protein folding simulator from the University of Washington, actually managed to solve a longstanding problem in AIDS research that has vexed scientists for more than a decade. And they did so in about 10 days.

The full story, which involves spatial reasoning skills, structural determination, and something called “folding proteins,” is worth checking out.

Friday, September 16

Flashback Friday

By Brad

Pete Rose and Don Knotts (now that’s a pair for the ages) would like to introduce you to the amazing Atari home video game system.

Friday, August 19

Flashback Friday

By Brad

Today, video games offer absurdly realistic graphics and the ability for people around the globe to mingle and clash in fantastic online worlds. But things were very different back in 1973, as this creaky ad for the Magnavox Odyssey — which made its debut on The Carol Burnett Show! — makes clear.

Thursday, July 22

“WoW” Your Way to the Top

By Brad

Yahoo! has some good news for the millions of people who enjoy fragging enemies and going on loot raids during their free time:

[V]ideo games have long been thought of as distractions to work and education, rather than aids. But there is a growing school of thought that says game-playing in moderation, and in your free time, can make you more successful in your career.

We’re finding that the younger people coming into the teams who have had experience playing online games are the highest-level performers because they are constantly motivated to seek out the next challenge and grab on to performance metrics,” says John Hagel III, co-chairman of a tech-oriented strategy center for Deloitte. Hagel has been studying the effect that playing video games has on the performance of young professionals in the workplace.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be storming Blackwing Lair.

Wednesday, April 07

Today in Dubious Achievements

By Brad

asteroids-free-classic-arcade-game.jpg

After nearly three decades, the worldwide high score for the classic video game Asteroids has finally been toppled. Wired has the scoop:

On Saturday, John McAllister sat down at a friend’s house near Portland, Oregon to play a game of Asteroids. By Monday, he was still playing.

At 10:18 p.m. Pacific, he scored 41,338,740 points, a new all-time high score. In doing so, he beat a record that has stood for over 27 years.

All told, it took McAllister 58 hours — of continual playing — to beat the record.

Tuesday, July 07

IIA Video: Broadband and Video Games

By IIA

Mike Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (and IIA Broadband Ambassador), discusses how video games and broadband have grown simultaneously—and continue to influence one another’s development.

Monday, May 18

Leaking Ships

By Brad

Last fall, video game monolith EA found itself in a hornet’s nest when their game Spore was released with a rather severe Digital Rights Management (DRM) application. The Internet exploded, with the game’s page on Amazon receiving blistering reviews.

EA’s reason for the DRM was partially because the game itself had been leaked online weeks before its launch. And now, as Ars Technica reports, the company’s latest mega-franchise of a game, Sims 3, has reportedly been leaked to torrent sites.

With countries like France adopting severe “three strikes rules” to battle online piracy, the fight over online theft and copyright infringement—which goes all the way back to the days when Napster was a simple college file-sharing network—are still raging.

 

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