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As hardcore gamers play existing video games, casual gamers are taking over the whole video game console market in the U.S. ahead of the summer season (my dad even has a Wii!). Recently released figures by NPD Group indicate not only increase in the general spending on video entertainment, but also overwhelming advantage of Nintendo gaming platform over the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation.

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Direct from CollegeAtHome:

Video and computer games aren’t always associated with their educational value, but as virtual media grows and develops, educators are finding that games are a great way to get children engaged in learning while still allowing them to have fun in their classes. Not every game is well suited for the classroom, but there are loads out there that have something of value to teach, guide and grow the interest of kids both inside and outside of school. If you’re looking for something educational for your own kids to play or for a game your students can enjoy that applies to their lessons, here are some to consider.

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Forget touchscreen, or uber “green” solar powered coffee tables… Kyle Downes has modded the coffee table into its best version ever: a retro-tastic NES controller. The high quality finish and classy glass top isn’t the end of this awesome mod… it actually works. Don’t believe it? Check out the video after the gallery.

Kyle spent months putting this together, starting with a scanned image of his original NES control. This he then simply scaled up, carefully crafting each piece out of MDF and hacking his own wiring onto a broken old controller board. The glass top was the final touch, to protect those giant buttons, and inside there’s plenty of storage. I guess if you’re up for some giant 8-bit game-controlling action you’d probably need someone else on hand.

A pair of Harvard researchers are saying what everybody who’s grown up with a controller in their hand already knows, violent video games don’t turn children into killers. According to a newly published book, ‘Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do’, psychologists Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson dispel common myths about violent games. In their two-year study, they found that there was no data to support any causation between games and real-life violence.

Kutner and Olson studied 1200 middle-school children in a $1.5 million federally funded study. Instead of studying the children in the laboratory, like other studies, the pair actually sat down and talked to kids after long bouts of game playing – sometimes in excess of 15 hours a week. The lucky kids played a variety of games from the very non-violent The Sims to grandma shooting, pedestrian bashing Grand Theft Auto.

They discovered that children who played violent video games – those rated Mature or above – were just relieving stress. Some children did exhibit some playful fighting after playing games, but this was similar to what children have always done after watching action or Karate-type movies.

51% of male children who played 15 hours or more of violent games per week were involved in fights in the past year compared to 28% who played regular video games. For girls, 40% of the violent game players were in fights compared to 14% of the non-violent players. Despite the figures, Kutner and Olson say this is just a correlation and that the fighting was probably due to an underlying psychological problem that children had before playing the video game.

Perhaps the most startling finding (at least for people the likes of Jack Thompson) is that boys that don’t play any video games at all are now considered to be socially inept. A danger sign for boys is “not playing video games at all, because it looks like for this generation, video games are a measure of social competence,” says Kutner and Olsen.

I wonder if Kutner and Olsen will now do a follow-up study to find out if the children who play GTA4 will have increased carjacking skills?

You can get the book online from Amazon for about $16.