.

Through twitter, I have found GamingAngels.  The staff has embraced me as one of their own and in the months I have been working with them, have found a nice little family.  Although we are spread out across the nation, gaming, social media & the internet we are able to stay in touch and run GamingAngels.com as a team.  This has impacted my life in a positive way and given me a new outlook on my life as a gamer.  I used to hide the fact that I played video games, like it was a dirty little secret.  I had a fear that I’d be judged as a non-professional, as immature.  With the help of social media, I’ve seen that there are a great many professionals who enjoy the sport of gaming as much as I do.

Of course, there is the social aspect.  With conventions, tournaments, sites like twitter and facebook, online gaming, online multiplayer and game chats, it’s easy to connect with other gamers, talk about life and have some laughs.  Through these outlets, I’ve also seen a great number of people find jobs in the industry.  It’s good to have connections.  It’s also fun.  The number one reason to play games is for fun.  What better way to end a stressful day at the office than to sit on your comfy couch and play a game of Call of Duty?  Or how about having a family game night?  A lot of games seem to be geared toward families or groups.  Who wouldn’t want their mother to issue them a beat down in a game of The Fight: Lights Out?

Many games for kids prove to be educational as well.  I’ll be honest, my kids love gaming and I feel they learn a great deal from games.  They can teach anything from Colors and ABC’s to logic and problem solving.  Yes, there are games out there that are not for kids but that is a parent’s responsibility to ensure safe and appropriate games for their child as well as to guard them from possible online connections that should not be made.

With the Wii, PS Move and Xbox Kinect, games have taken a hard right.  The fact that sitting on your butt for hours is not very healthy can be countered with the Fitness and Motion games on the market.  These games are fun, educational and many of them can get you to work up a sweat after a while (fitness games or not).  This can get you out of those boring gyms, keep you away from repetitive work out videos and give you a customized program on your personal fitness level with progress tracking and in-game rewards for reaching your goals.  In our GamingAngels forum, we recently finished the “90 Day Challenge: New Years Edition!”, and another challenge will be starting soon.  Through our forum we are able to encourage and support each other in our fitness goals, along with a few rewards along the way.  Some people have turned to good old exercise and healthy food choices, while some of us have combined them with fitness and motion games.  It gives us a whole new way to keep in shape.  I myself have been playing Dance Central lately and I love the workout mode which calculates your workout time as well as estimating your calories burned.  On those days I don’t feel like going for a run or if the weather is bad, I still find myself turning on my Xbox for a few rounds of dancing.  It really seems to take the work out of workout!

So, with all things said and done, I feel there is a good deal of positive that can come from gaming which outweighs the negative.  I think people who oppose gaming altogether should be more open to the possibility that games could bring a positive change in their life.

Oh my, zombies just keep on coming in all shapes and forms. In Zombie Lane, the main objective is to fight zombies and keep them out of the neighborhood… which needs to be continually rebuilt from the damage they do. This game has a lot going on, which I thought initially would discourage me from returning to it, but the hints, easy start, and tutorial aspects help quite a bit without constantly interfering. I love the customizable avatar, for some reason, that is usually pretty important to me. There, of course, could be more clothing and such to choose from, but being able to have one that looks how I want her to look is aces.
Fighting most of the zombies comes easy armed with just a shovel, allowing players to collect helpful items to rebuild their homes, craft stronger weapons, share with friends, and advance through the game. So far, and maybe this is because another of my friends started playing a while before I did and sent me a bunch of donuts, the free aspect of the game is sufficient to be challenged and amused for long enough for the average procrastinator (okay, or zombie killing enthusiast), but having friends to share with and help out helps quite a bit. Plus visiting friends gives both an opportunity to fight without using up energy and yields more helpful goodies.
So, add me and let’s neighbor up and fight the zombies together! Enter strategies below for balancing zombie killing with neighborhood rebuilding… maybe I’ll send you some goodies in the game!

Carmen Sandiego? (I can hear Rockapella singing it now!)

This is a game that I used to play on the computer when I worked in after school care with school age kids and watched on TV even before that. So when I saw it as a Facebook game, I felt that childlike excitement and couldn’t wait to get my mouse on it.

The sentiment is the same, players take an active role as detectives hunting Carmen’s henchmen (and henchwomen) all over the world, testing and expanding geographical and cultural knowledge while putting deductive reasoning and perfect timing to the test putting clues together to get a warrant before actually finding the bad guy. Starting at the ACME headquarters in San Fransisco, players talk to witnesses in order to get information on either the identity of the henchperson or where they are headed next, get a warrant for the right one, and nab ‘em before time runs out.

Not only do I like the challenge of figuring out where to fly to next without looking the clues up on the internet, but I also get just a little more excited when I get to travel in the game to places I have travelled to for real – art imitating life is the best. This game is also a good “free” game, without needing a paid content to advance, or friends to sign up; and spur you along. Just play and enjoy!

Check it out today and share your strategies for getting the warrant before the henchman gets away!