http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson RSS Feed for Inq Col Rob Watson en-us Tue, 13 May 2008 19:15:56 GMT 2008-05-13T19:15:56Z en-us http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson/5951142.html Tue, 13 May 2008 19:15:56 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson/5951142.html 2008-05-13T19:15:56Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson/20070126_Bare_Knuckles____Wow__sales_for_WoW_add-on_.html In what can be viewed only as a storm of epic proportions, game developer Blizzard announced that 2.4 million members of its eight-million-strong World of Warcraft user base put up their rubies, gold coins, and other means of purchase to buy the new Burning Crusade expansion pack. In the first day! Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:38:05 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson/20070126_Bare_Knuckles____Wow__sales_for_WoW_add-on_.html 2007-01-26T14:38:05Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson/20070112_inq_weekend_WK-BARE.html Sony PlayStations in the classroom? What a novel idea. The game consoles would not be added to schoolrooms so kids could show off their latest Mortal Kombat moves; they can do that in the schoolyard. But to, gasp, learn stuff! Actually, this isn't so novel. The History Channel is using game engines to supplement programs, the armed forces use video games to teach tactics, and many schools use PC games to trick kids into actually retaining something. Sneaky. This is worth mentioning because British developer Relentless Software fine-tuned its popular quiz game, Buzz, in a collaboration with the Department for Education and Skills in Britain. The result is a 5,000-question game based on school curriculum. Think kids won't want to post the highest score on this game, too? Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:58:31 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/rob_watson/20070112_inq_weekend_WK-BARE.html 2007-01-12T19:58:31Z