Powering Up

When it comes to computer games, the numbers are astounding: theworld's top professional gamer has won over half a million dollarsshooting virtual monsters on-screen; online games claim literallymillions of subscribers; while worldwide spending on computergaming will top £24 billion by 2011. From techno-toddlers tosilver surfers, everyone's playing games on their PCs, Wiis, Xboxesand phones. How are we responding to this onslaught ofbrain-training, entertaining, potentially addicting,time-consuming, myth-spawning games?
In Powering Up, Rebecca Mileham looks at the facts behind theheadlines to see what effect this epidemic of game-playing isreally having on us and the society we live in. Is it making usobese, anti-social, violent and addicted... or just giving usdifferent ways of getting cleverer, fitter and more skilled? Sheexamines the evidence, from experts and gamers alike, and asks somecontroversial and thought-provoking questions:
* Are car-driving games turning us into boy racers?
* Could becoming a virtual bully help children solve classroomdisputes?
* Should you feel remorse for killing pixel people?
* Does it matter if you cheat in a single-player game?
* Can games get ex-prisoners back to work?
If you're part of the gaming revolution yourself, or are justcurious to know what's fact and what's fiction in the mediacoverage of this topic, then this is the book for you.
About the author
Rebecca Mileham has written for the Sunday Times, She magazine,and for museums all over the UK. In ten years at the ScienceMuseum, London, she developed exhibitions on topics as diverse asCharles Babbage's Difference Engines, robotic submarines, facetransplants and the male pill.
http://www.rebecca.mileham.net/