In today’s computer gaming news, learn more about casino and video game sectors, both of which are highly competitive, and are in agreement that there is significant financial potential in merging their two businesses. Meanwhile, a person’s working memory is critically important for functioning in daily life. Researchers found that cognitive training alongside transcranial direct current stimulation like games significantly strengthens working memory. Lastly, In Montreal, Wizards of the Coast has created a new video game studio where they are currently developing a new Dungeons & Dragons video game.
Experts Say Esports Have Huge Betting Potential
Original Source: Esports Video Games Hold Vast Betting Potential, Experts Say
Competitive video games have huge economic potential in the U.S. and internationally, especially after gambling corporations find out how to interest players and spectators in betting on them, conference attendees said Tuesday. Speaking at the Casino Esport Conference in Atlantic City, video game and casino executives agreed there is a huge potential to getting online gamers interested in casinos.
The chairman of Las Vegas’ Downtown Grand casino says esports will grow. It’s no fad.
According to Newzoo, the global viewership for competitive video games, or esports, will grow by 8.7% this year to 532 million. According to the corporation, the games will generate $1.38 billion worldwide, a third of it in China.
Casinos are trying to integrate esports into their gaming offers, with varied degrees of success.
The Luxor resort in Las Vegas erected a 30,000-square-foot esports arena to host events. Atlantic City’s casinos have held esports events, while Stockton University unveiled its Esports Innovation Center on Monday, highlighting the growing interest in esports among schools and universities.
A Stockton official said 50,000 people watched a recent Rocket League event online.
He said it’s more than any typical athletic event Stockton has held.
Ahman Green, a four-time Pro Bowl running back for the Packers, now coaches esports at Lakeland University in Wisconsin.
NFL players would play competitive video games to relax during downtime, but he loved them as a child.
2020 was a landmark year for esports when most professional sports shut down for months during the coronavirus outbreak.
“People started finding new items online,” he added. “Their kids played videogames. What is Twitch?
Twitch has 3 million to 6 million users at any given moment, an esports and media entrepreneur stated. That might provide regulated gambling revenue as regulations grow and increase.
“It’s like online (casino) gambling, but with Angry Birds,” he said. That climate is coming. There’ll be betting, probably a lot of it. It will be big.
But video game players and casinos haven’t wed on a large scale.
Several conference speakers agreed that video game players aren’t willing to rely on random events to win — the basis of casino games like slot machines and table games. Younger players like to feel involved in the outcome of their bet, therefore video games are a perfect on-ramp for them at casinos.
Schorr said the sector should target gamers online first.
He responded, “Fishing where the fish are good.” Not in casinos, but online. Start online, then bring them to casinos.”
CBS Sports HQ anchor Larry Ridley hosts esports programming and visits casinos to promote video game contests.
“We do activations where people want to participate,” he remarked. “There’s a station where they can make an account and play.”
Anthony Strangia, deputy attorney general of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, said states must ensure video game tournaments are fair and transparent. Regulators in New Jersey and Nevada are exploring revisions to their esports gambling legislation to make it easier to take wagers while preserving event integrity.
“It’s expanding,” he remarked. It has a future.
Games and Brain Stimulation for Memory
Original Source: Esports Video Games Hold Vast Betting Potential, Experts Say
Age, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or a stroke can reduce working memory. This can damage their quality of life, making even routine chores discouraging.
Prof. Gail Eskes spoke Medical News Today about working memory.
“Working memory is the brain’s mental scratchpad,” she said. “It can store and process a range of information.”
“For example,” she said, “you utilize working memory to remember someone’s phone number or a city map to plan your route.”
Prof. Eskes says working memory is necessary for reading a newspaper, calculating a tip, making decisions, and problem-solving.
Prof. Eskes is a member of Dalhousie University’s Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neurology, and Neurology. She co-wrote a research describing a way to improve working memory.
Researchers from Dalhousie, Trento University in Italy, and Birmingham University in the UK showed that cognitive training and tDCS increase working memory.
Dr. Jacqueline Becker, a clinical neuropsychologist at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told MNT that “with working memory training, the brain can rewire and remodel itself”
Dr. Becker said that this is based on neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to evolve and adapt.
Transcranial direct current stimulation can also alter brain plasticity by activating and boosting neural network activity.
A 2 milliAmpère electric current is used to directly stimulate the scalp in the investigation.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience published the work.
Cognizant
COGNISANT stands for “cognitive needs and skills training”
Dr. Sara Assecondi of the University of Trento’s Center for Mind/Brain Sciences wrote the study. She described how COGNISANT’s two parts work. Working memory training and brain stimulation target the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a spatial processing area. COGNISANT’s memory-training
Online memory training is proposed. Prof. Eskes discussed its operation.
“With our program, one may train utilizing a range of information, including hearing and working with numbers or words, or seeing and dealing with items in space, etc.,” she told MNT.
This app helps adults improve their working memory. She highlighted that it can be done anywhere with an internet-connected PC.
Participants ranged in age from 55 to 76, so they may have different online skills.
“We’ve tried it with adults and patients of all ages, and training can usually be done independently,” stated Prof. Eskes.
“For this study,” Prof. Eskes said, “we employed a therapeutic game called ‘N-Igma.’ It uses the ‘n-back’ technique in which players must maintain track of a stream of information and signal when they see a match to an item they saw ‘n’ turns ago,” where “n” indicates an unspecified numerical value.
“The quantity of stuff they have to track changes to their performance, so they’re working hard but not impossible. To make it game-like, we offer them lots of feedback and let them track their score, said the researcher.
Prof. Eskes said, “These therapeutic games are intense and hard, but we attempt to make them interesting and pleasant.”
COGNISANT
“We encourage healthy aging, so our treatment may be advantageous to anyone with memory loss,” stated Dr. Assecondi.
“Older healthy persons are more likely to have a lower working memory, and that’s when working memory training and brain stimulation are more effective,” she said.
Dr. Becker noticed that older persons (over 69) with executive dysfunction may benefit most.
COGNISANT may be best for those whose working memory has declined beyond a particular level, although that barrier is unknown.
Dr. Assecondi stated it’s difficult to predict a ‘ideal’ level of working memory loss for the strategy to work. This is significant for future development and use in healthy populations.”
“We’d need a lot more data to get a representative sample of the healthy population,” she said.
“With my group,” she said, “we’re still in the early stages of using state-of-the-art statistical methodologies to forecast cognitive intervention from baseline abilities.”
Future?
“There is still much research to be done,” said Dr. Assecondi, “but from our work and that of other laboratories around the world, we know that cognitive training and brain stimulation have promise”
“I intend to develop a low-cost procedure that can be utilized at home and adapted to the individual’s needs,” she said.
The authors are collaborating with Birmingham and Dalhousie to find COGNISANT partners.
“Home-care technology will allow individuals to take rehabilitation into their own hands,” said Dr. Assecondi.
Invoke Games, a New Wizards of the Coast Studio
Original Source: Wizards of the Coast launches new studio Invoke Games, built from ‘Dark Alliance’ dev team
Wizards of the Coast has built a new video game development facility in Montreal.
Wizards purchased Tuque Games in 2019 and renamed it Invoke Studios. Tuque later developed Dark Alliance for Wizards.
Dominic Guay leads both Tuque and Invoke. Guay spent 15 years at Ubisoft Montreal, where he produced the first two Watch Dogs games.
Guay: “We have our own culture and work practices.” “We’re not just Montreal’s branch of a global company.” We provide ideas and direction.”
Wizards calls Invoke Studios a “AAA” studio, which means it works on major, high-budget games. Guay aims to extend Invoke’s development team to 200 by 2025.
Its current Dungeons & Dragons project uses the latest Unreal Engine. Since it’s a AAA game, it could be a few years before it’s ready for general release.
More than 200 studios, including Ubisoft, Montreal, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Eidos, and Amazon Games, operate in Montreal. This is because of hefty local tax subsidies, which began in the ’90s to bring the gaming sector to Montreal.
Wizards of the Coast opened six gaming studios in North America, including Invoke. Skeleton Key, which launched last summer in Austin, Texas, is working on an unannounced AAA project; Archetype Entertainment, also in Austin; Atomic Arcade in Raleigh, N.C., is working on a G.I. Joe game; and two unnamed Washington sites.
Wizards leased 110,000 square feet in Renton, Wash.
Summary of Today’s Computer Gaming News
Overall, competitive video games have huge economic potential in the U.S. and abroad, especially if gambling organizations can get players and spectators to wager on them, industry conference delegates said Tuesday. At the Casino Esport Conference in Atlantic City, video game and casino executives agreed there’s a huge upside to getting online gamers interested in casinos.
On the other hand, researchers from Dalhousie, Trento University in Italy, and Birmingham University in the United Kingdom collaborated on the study, which demonstrated that cognitive training combined with transcranial direct current stimulation greatly improves working memory. For that reason, they created a training software or a game which was designed to help any adult who wants to enhance their capacity or efficiency of their working memory. It can be done anywhere using a computer with access to the internet
Finally, Wizards of the Coast has built a new video game development facility in Montreal. Wizards purchased Tuque Games in 2019 and renamed it Invoke Studios. Tuque later developed Dark Alliance for Wizards. Dominic Guay leads both Tuque and Invoke.
