Peaceful videogames?!

Yup. The New York Times reports that the focus of videogame makers around the world is shifting away from “violent killer videogames” to the sort of game that promotes exercise, vocabulary-building, and nutrition. “The strategic shifts in the game industry come as critics and government authorities are growing impatient with violence in video games,” according to the Times. “The justice ministers of the European Union vowed last week to press for stricter regulations on the sale of ‘killer games’ to children.” Game manufacturers aren’t just responding to regulators, though, they’re trying to broaden their market, as Nintendo did by introducing the Wii console. Examples are Ubisoft’s My Life Coach with nutrition advice and Electronic Arts’s Sommelier wine guide for the DS and Boogie for the Wii, with which users “sing and dance along with cartoon characters,” the Times reports. Other even more high-minded examples are Food Force, developed by the UN Food Programme, and PeaceMaker about finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (see “Gaming for peace!”).