Video games

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Scientists at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, have confirmed what kids have been insisting for ages: playing video games can be good for you. Specifically, playing block-building games like Tetris can do more to fix lazy eye than traditional treatments.

Lazy eye (medical name: amblyopia) is a condition in which vision doesn't develop properly in one eye. It can cause permanent sight problems if left untreated, since the brain eventually just stops processing the blurry images coming from the underfunctioning eye. According to The Eye Digest, about 3 percent of people in the United States have amblyopia.

Find out how doctors use video games to improve lazy eye after the jump.

Every kid begs for video games. Parents hear the plea over and over again until they're so worn down they knuckle under and buy one. But as soon as you buy the game, the real trouble begins: junior sits down and won't get up. When he does, he's aggressive, screaming, "But the game isn't finished!" At that point you wonder, "What have I done?"

Electronics are part of your daily life, too. You're reading this online, I just hung up my cell phone, most of your Christmas gifts were probably bought online to avoid the crowds, and soon you'll be hopping over to Facebook to see how things are with your "friends." Like it or not, our children will need to know how to use electronics and computers in order to be successful in this world.

Did you know that the underlying principal for every video game is math, problem solving, and strategic thinking? Those are the skills your child is using and expanding as they play video games. But Circle of Moms member Mell L. still wonders: "With all the new tech out there . . . are we dulling our children's imaginations?"

I ponder the same thing as Mell. No matter what the researchers say about video games, I still wanted my kids outside, reading books, and using their imagination. Because of that, we locked horns, a lot.

Then one day at work, while the tech was fixing my computer, again, I asked, "How did you become a computer tech?" His answer rocked my world: "I played video games." Turns out playing video games benefited my kids, too. They both work in the computer industry today. But I made sure there were limits.

Here, we're sharing eight limits to set for video games so that your child's electronic world is balanced with creative outdoor play.

Keep reading.

"The Starry Night," "The Scream," The Sims. No misreading here. The New York Museum of Modern Art just announced what so many of us already knew: video games are art! This week, MoMA revealed that it acquired 14 video games for its permanent collection, with the intention of adding a total of 40 works in the future.

In a blog post by the museum's senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, Paola Antonelli explains how the games are, of course, art, but they're also bastions of intelligent design. "Our criteria, therefore, emphasize not only the visual quality and aesthetic experience of each game, but also the many other aspects — from the elegance of the code to the design of the player's behavior — that pertain to interaction design."

So what games were deemed worthy of the museum's first round of acquisitions? The list starts with classics and continues to more recent hits: Pac-Man, Tetris, Another World, Myst, Sim City 2000, Vib-Ribbon, The Sims, Katamari Damacy, EVE Online, Dwarf Fortress, Portal, flOw, Passage, and Canabalt.

MoMA hopes to add more fan favorites like Pong and Super Mario Bros. over the next several years. While the museum has its criteria for selection, what would yours be? Which games do you think are worthy of a place among the white museum walls?

While the Star Wars/Angry Birds collaboration has been in the works for some time, in light of last week's news that George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney and the mouseketeer company had plans for a Star Wars: Episode 7, the cartoon crossover seems all the more appropriate now.

Available for download Thursday, Nov. 8, on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mac, PC, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8, watch the gameplay trailer below to see the feathered friend versions of Chewie, Han Solo, the droids, and the rest of the original trilogy characters take on treacherous space Darth-pigs.

If you thought your Angry Birds addiction was finally under control, then think again: Housemarque, Rovia, and Activision have partnered up to bring the popular birds to gaming consoles. The Angry Birds Trilogy will include Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio all in one title.

Set to release in time for the 2012 holiday season on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo 3DS, the game will feature impressive HD graphics, new cinematics, and improved environments. It will also support motion control for Microsoft Kinect, Playstation Move, and the Street Pass feature for Nintendo 3DS users.

What do you think? Will you be adding the trilogy to your holiday wish list?