How hard is it to create a "speed of processing" video game
August 1, 2016 11:14 AM Subscribe
Game used in study covered everywhere seems way overpriced. Alternatives?
Just heard the claim that a study shows significant improvement in staving off dementia by playing a "speed of processing" challenging video game. The game used in the study is owned by BrainHQ and playing the free sample, ( "your at the 74th percentile" (of what exactly? of people who have played the game on the site i guess,)) it struck me as a stone simple little thing that can't justify a 14 dollar a month subscription fee. The game is here. Any chance there is a shareware or free version made by somebody with altruistic motives?
Just heard the claim that a study shows significant improvement in staving off dementia by playing a "speed of processing" challenging video game. The game used in the study is owned by BrainHQ and playing the free sample, ( "your at the 74th percentile" (of what exactly? of people who have played the game on the site i guess,)) it struck me as a stone simple little thing that can't justify a 14 dollar a month subscription fee. The game is here. Any chance there is a shareware or free version made by somebody with altruistic motives?
Percentile scores for any kind of test or competition are comparing you to other participants in the study/game/testing pool. It just means that you scored better than 74% of other players. 99% is the maximum possible score; such is the nature of Percentiles.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:41 AM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Sunburnt at 11:41 AM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
Read more books with difficult language
Do crossword and other word puzzles
Maybe take daily folic acid
Try not to have any strokes, even small ones
These things are actual things that correlate with less incidence of alzheimer's and dementia later in life and cost little to nothing to do.
posted by phunniemee at 11:55 AM on August 1, 2016
Do crossword and other word puzzles
Maybe take daily folic acid
Try not to have any strokes, even small ones
These things are actual things that correlate with less incidence of alzheimer's and dementia later in life and cost little to nothing to do.
posted by phunniemee at 11:55 AM on August 1, 2016
Tetris and similar speed games? SimCity and similar highly visual environments?
Let's posit that their claims are not pure rubbish. Their game is unlikely to be offering anything bizarrely unique (except, perhaps, subliminal messages to buy more of their products.)
posted by Michele in California at 12:49 PM on August 1, 2016
Let's posit that their claims are not pure rubbish. Their game is unlikely to be offering anything bizarrely unique (except, perhaps, subliminal messages to buy more of their products.)
posted by Michele in California at 12:49 PM on August 1, 2016
I heard this story on Here and Now today at lunch that tried to compare this specific brain game to earlier brain training games.
posted by tayknight at 1:47 PM on August 1, 2016
posted by tayknight at 1:47 PM on August 1, 2016
nthing what has been said about whether or not there is any science behind "brain training" games, but given that...
Lumosity has the same business model as BrainHQ, but their they let you access a fair number of games and things for "free." If you pay, they promise more customization, better tracking, etc. So, if you wanted to play brain training games similar to this one, that make the same sorts of claims, you could sign up for a free account there.
This particular "Double Decision" game gave me the same kind of twitchy feeling that I get when playing any kind of fast paced game (especially multi-player games). So, arcade type games that increase in speed as you go up in level might hit the spot for you. Tetris was already mentioned, my current "favorite" i-want-to-get-frustrated-at-my-phone twitchy game is Gyro, two games that I had to actually uninstall because I almost threw my phone while playing were: Wave Wave Wave and Super Hexagon. You might even consider going classic - like Donkey Kong or Frogger.
Twitchy multi-player games that might do it for you include: Overwatch (still spendy), Counterstrike (cheap-to-free), Team Fortress 2 (never played that, but it is very popular).
Given the state of the science behind whether any of this stuff really works, my overall advice is to do something if you think it's fun (the Lumosity games were pretty fun for me, for a while), but don't assume that because you're doing that you can slack off in other areas of keeping yourself mentally stimulating.
posted by sparklemotion at 2:25 PM on August 1, 2016
Lumosity has the same business model as BrainHQ, but their they let you access a fair number of games and things for "free." If you pay, they promise more customization, better tracking, etc. So, if you wanted to play brain training games similar to this one, that make the same sorts of claims, you could sign up for a free account there.
This particular "Double Decision" game gave me the same kind of twitchy feeling that I get when playing any kind of fast paced game (especially multi-player games). So, arcade type games that increase in speed as you go up in level might hit the spot for you. Tetris was already mentioned, my current "favorite" i-want-to-get-frustrated-at-my-phone twitchy game is Gyro, two games that I had to actually uninstall because I almost threw my phone while playing were: Wave Wave Wave and Super Hexagon. You might even consider going classic - like Donkey Kong or Frogger.
Twitchy multi-player games that might do it for you include: Overwatch (still spendy), Counterstrike (cheap-to-free), Team Fortress 2 (never played that, but it is very popular).
Given the state of the science behind whether any of this stuff really works, my overall advice is to do something if you think it's fun (the Lumosity games were pretty fun for me, for a while), but don't assume that because you're doing that you can slack off in other areas of keeping yourself mentally stimulating.
posted by sparklemotion at 2:25 PM on August 1, 2016
it struck me as a stone simple little thing that can't justify a 14 dollar a month subscription fee.
I think their big expense will be marketing rather than game dev. (I haven't looked, but I'd check out the Android store for games like this that are either free (with ads) or a one-time-payment deal.)
If there is a benefit to having a lot of other people playing the game (leaderboards, stats, etc), then paying for marketing has some value, but if you just want some games...
(I don't want to slander anyone's work, but I probably wouldn't register much shock if part of the marketing expenses turned out to be funding the study that caught your attention. And the full explanation as you no doubt suspect probably also involves selling to people who don't have a lot of experience with what kinds of games are available and for how much)
posted by -harlequin- at 7:09 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think their big expense will be marketing rather than game dev. (I haven't looked, but I'd check out the Android store for games like this that are either free (with ads) or a one-time-payment deal.)
If there is a benefit to having a lot of other people playing the game (leaderboards, stats, etc), then paying for marketing has some value, but if you just want some games...
(I don't want to slander anyone's work, but I probably wouldn't register much shock if part of the marketing expenses turned out to be funding the study that caught your attention. And the full explanation as you no doubt suspect probably also involves selling to people who don't have a lot of experience with what kinds of games are available and for how much)
posted by -harlequin- at 7:09 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
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