Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Best Outdoor Games For Children

If you're like most parents, you probably remember that much of your youth was spent outside. While there are exceptions, most parents today grew up playing outside at parks, in their backyards, or elsewhere. Today's kids are too often glued to the television, but you can help them get some fresh air, exercise, and even learn a few things by helping show them cool games to play outside. There are a variety of different fun outdoor games for kids, whether you've only got a single child or an entire classroom full of them. And they're normally inexpensive or outright free to play, which is a major consideration in today's world.

Schools often rely on cool games for kids to play outside. Something as simple as educational field trips can help them stay active and learn, but games on the playground can be great choices too. Kids outdoor relay games offer a way for kids to get active, challenge themselves, and learn to work together. They'll teach teamwork, good sportsmanship, and much more. They're essentially little more than stick games, too, since they let kids use little more than a stick as a baton. This is a far cry from online stick games, which are simply stick figure flash games.

At home, learning a few dog games for kids is a great way to get the family pet involved. Fetch and Frisbee are common, but you may be able to convince your kid - and your dog - to run a race with one another. There are plenty of other options as well, so don't overlook your pets when you try to figure out cool games to play outside. Fun outdoor games for kids can range from complicated to simple, so be sure that you take the time to figure out some that your whole family will be able to take part in.

You can also play hunting games with your kids as well. Hid and go seek is a good example, but hiding a variety of items for them to find is also a fun way to help them problem solve and enjoy the outdoors. And of course, camp games for kids are among the best on which to base your own outdoor pursuits. Review some of the more popular games played at camp and apply them at home or in your classroom. You'll have no shortage of great ideas when you use cool games from camps as your model.

Educational field trips are a great way to fascilitate outside play. There are plenty of fun games that can be played while on these trips. This brings learning and fun together in a fun-filled environment.


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Friday, September 14, 2012

Marketing Video Games - Get Help To Maximize Your Revenues

As an indie manufacturer of video games, you will have a great time using your creativity. However, you'll find it quite difficult to earn money out of your passion because the market for these games is quite saturated. Besides, it is quite difficult to compete against large production houses that have immense budgets at their disposal for marketing video games. You'll need to find a solution to this problem or else you will find it very difficult to stay in business.

The most popular way of marketing video games is to go through an agent. Agents generally have lots of contacts with game portals and will work towards ensuring that your games are featured there. A new development in the industry is the insistence of many game portals of only dealing with agents and not with games developers. You do have to pay money to the agent in lieu of his or her services but the results are generally worth it because you won't have to worry about earning revenues.

An important aspect of marketing video games is building interest for them on the internet through websites and blogs. You'll need to work on search engine optimization in order to ensure that the game is highly visible on the internet. You'll also need to advertise your product in sites where your target market will see them. Marketing is not always an easy job, especially if you prefer to focus on the production aspect of your business. In fact, you probably will miss out on business opportunities if you decide to handle marketing on your own.

It is sometimes a good idea to tie up with companies that take on the entire responsibility of marketing the video game for you. These companies generally offer you comprehensive marketing services on a profit share basis. If you feel that you can handle certain markets on your own but require help for certain types of portals or entire geographic areas then you can opt for limited assistance. Some of these companies will also offer you training and consultancy for a fee so that you can handle marketing on your own.

As you can see, there are many marketing options available to your video game production house. You will be able to choose one that suits your needs the best. Your revenues will get maximized and you will have plenty of time to develop a great many more games.

Get help for marketing video games so that you earn plenty of revenue for your business. You'll then be able to expand your business further.


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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Strategies That Can Help You When Playing Ping-Pong Games

Many people love playing ping-pong. It is a game that requires one to be physically fit and agile. The strategies outline below can help someone who wants to win in ping-pong games:

- A player should always be ready. A player must try as possible to always be in a balanced stance. It is in this position that your body can move in any direction when need be. This is usually a fast-paced game. A player must always be ready and alert.

- A player must be comfortable with the racket that he/she is playing with. You will notice that many of the people who play ping-pong attend tournaments and games with their own rackets. If you are an amateur, try out a number of rackets to find out the best one. It will take time before you identify one that is beneficial and easy to use. Once you have identified a particular racket, avoid changing it because you will not improve. In ping-pong, your best friend happens to be your racket. It is for this reason that sometimes you will find some ping-pong players not lending their friends their racket. Invest in a good racket.

- One famous proverb says, 'practice makes perfect.' In order to be good in playing this game, you have to practice. Play with as many people as possible. Play with both amateurs and professionals. Register with various tournaments and see how good you are. You should view all these games and tournaments as avenues of practice and improvement. It is only by practicing a certain skill that you become good in it. Get to master various skills such as ball spins and slice shots. If possible, get a coach who can train you. Also, talk to people on how they acquired certain skills.

- Endeavour to play offensively. When you do this, you will force your opponent play defensively. The reason this is advantageous is that your opponent will be focusing on returning hits. It is by playing on the offence that you can be able to earn points.

- As a player, you should be physically fit. You should have great balance and wonderful reflexes. You reaction time has to be really fast. You also have to have great coordination skills.

The above tips can help both potential and current ping-pong players to improve their game. However, if you think the above strategies are too hard, you can play ping-pong games online. You can play these online games just to have fun. You don't need to develop all those skills to play the online version of the game.

Playing ping pong can be so much fun especially when played online.


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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Worst Case Scenario Game

The Worst Case Scenario Game is a really fun game that I enjoy playing, and it's something that people of all ages can play.

It is created by University Games, a company that creates board games in both the US and Europe.

The Worst Case Scenario game was released in 2002, and features hundreds of survival scenarios. Players take turns reading survival scenario questions. First, the player whos turn it is rolls a die. Each question gives multiple-choice answers. The player whose turn it is listens to the question and tries to guess the answer. If the player gets the answer correct, that player moves forward the number of spaces he or she rolled. If the player gets the answer wrong, the reader gets to move that many spaces forward. The first player to the end wins!

The game sounds quite simple, but it is actually really entertaining. My wife and I play lots of board games, and this one has stuck around for quite a while even as we have quit playing many others out of boredom.

We usually play several times in a row, as the games can sometimes be quite short. Here are some example questions from the game:

How to survive a tornado when in a carHow to survive a kidnappingHow to proceed if your car breaks down in heavy fogHow to detect a letter bombHow to consume moldy food

As you can see, there are some really useful questions, and some that are a bit loopy or funny. I must admit, it can at times get a bit repetitive if you play many games in a row. If you take depend on this for example on a camping trip, be sure to bring other games as well to break things up.

This game was published around 2002 by University Games. University games sells board games in both the US and Europe, and has been around since the 80's. Here's a sample of the instructions, showing how to play the game:

Playing The Game

1. The youngest player's team goes first. Roll the die but do not move the playing piece.

2. The other team (Team 2) to the right of the youngest player's team (Team 1) picks a Worst-Case Scenario Survival Question Card from the Card Box and reads the question and the multiple choice answers to Team 1.

If Team 1 answers correctly, they move their playing piece ahead the number of footprints shown on the die.If Team 1 does not answer correctly, they do not move their playing piece and Team 2 moves their playing piece ahead the number of footprints shown on the die.

3. Play passes to the left.

(NOTE: Many Worst-Case Scenario Survival situations have more than one correct answer, but only one possible correct answer is presented on each card.)

-I have much more information on the game at my website, The Worst Case Scenario Game, including instructions, example questions, pictures, and more!


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Monday, September 10, 2012

Are You A Sports Gamer?

Do you play sports video games? For a lot of us sports fans the answer is yes, and we don't even have to hide the fact that we do. We all have our own little man cave area where we play, or should I say waste, untold hours with that game pad in our hands. Whether it be PS3, XBOX,Wii, or Nintendo we all have our favorite games, some of which we have played since childhood. Some would say we never left stage to begin with.

According to Wiki Answers, 65% of all males say they have played at least 1 video game in the last 3 years. I don't know how scientific that survey is but it sounds about right.

My top 5 favorite sports video games franchises of all time are:

1) Madden NFL Football. Wow what a shock, right? It's not that I have liked each release but as a whole Madden pretty much set the standard for sports gaming. I am not a guy who can just stick a game in the machine and play it. I have to fiddle with sliders and gameplay to make it as close to the real thing as I can. No cheese!! Anyway, Madden comes as close tot he real thing as possible.

2) EA's NCCA Football. Ok, it's really Maddens little bother because they are made by the same company and all the controls are about the same but that's where it ends because the NCAA series captures College Football right down to the mascots and fight songs. I love being able to run the option in a game and you can even recruit players and build your own dynasty! I have played this game and piled up 15 and 20 seasons as a coach. Love it!

3) MLB The Show. Must have some baseball in my video diet and while I think it's the most difficult sport to have accuracy in from a video game there is still nothing like crushing a ball 450 feet off the bat of Josh Hamilton or another slugger. Of course, baseball is a purist sport and the stats are what the game is all about. Baseball video games have a hard time with reality especially with things likes walks, errors and other numbers.

4) The Baseball Mogul. You may not have heard of this one but it's so addictive to play. Baseball Mogul is a complete statistically based game where you are basically the GM of a baseball team (the real teams) and you are in charge of everything from a financial standpoint like player and TV contracts all the way down to the price of a hot dog. It's very deep micro managing and you have to kind of be a numbers nut to appreciate it and you must have an understanding of how to run a baseball team. If you have a star player on the rise do you sign him long term or trade him at just the right time? Pretty cool stuff!

5) Tecmo Bowl. This game came out in 1988 and is still being played! I must have spent weeks in hibernation playing this quirky little football game on my Nintendo with the corny music. In some respects it was better than madden because the game itself was pretty smart and you had to to be really good to have any fun with it. But the downside is this game only had 3 or 4 plays per team and not all the NFL teams were in the game. Still, my fingers are still sore from playing it.

There are some other that deserve mention. The NBA2K series, Fight Night, and Front Page Sports Football Pro to name a few. What are your all time greats?


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