Overlord II will be released in a couple of weeks for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. Right now you can get a taste of being evil by playing the demo on the various platforms. If you have played the first Overlord, you will like the sequel even better. This time you are a different overlord and must not only become accepted as the new overlord by the minions, but you must also battle against various groups including Scandinavian-like humans, elves, and the Empire which is a group based on the Romans. Not only do you get to control your horde of minions like in the first game, there are also war machines you can take use such as catapults, ballista, and even ships. If you have never played Overlord, be sure to check out the demo. 

Since I am talking about it, this is a good time to mention some of the aspects of the demo. It uses almost all of the second level of the game where you are out in the Hunting Grounds. It begins in a cavern where you get some training with the Yeti. You then leave the cavern and head out into the cold, icy world of Nordberg. One of your quests is to collect 30 lifeforce. Lifeforce are orbs which are released when you kill creatures and enemies. Your first source of lifeforce are little white seals. Send your minions out to bash them. Once they are dead, have your minions pick up the lifeforce orbs. Lifeforce is used to summon more minions from a minion gate. Luckily, one will be provided so you can increase your horde from 10 minions up to the max of 15 for now. (As you progress through the game, you can eventually control a horde of 50 minions.)

You won’t be able to get all 30 lifeforce in the first area, so after the Yeti breaks through an ice barrier, advance to the next part of the map. This land is inhabited by hunters. A dock is located on the edge of the ice. Send you minions to break open the crates, barrels, and chests. Inside they will find gold that they bring back to you as well as weapons they will keep for themselves. Be sure to loot all crates and chests you find to not only become wealthier, but to increase the power of your horde as they find goodies for themselves.

Destroy the igloos in the hunter camps.

As you progress, you will have to attack camps of hunters. In addition to sending your minions to fight the hunters, also attack the igloos as well. More hunters emerge from these dwellings, so the sooner you destroy them, the fewer enemies you will have to face. Another new aspect of Overlord II are mounts for your minions. On this level, you can get wolves for your Brown minions to ride. Wolves not only give your Browns a more powerful attack and faster movement, they can also leap over gaps and get to enemies you can’t get to on foot. By the end of the level, you will have cleared out the hunters and must then face off against some elves.

By the end of the level, you should have a pretty good idea of how to play the game and also know how to control your Brown minions. Browns are the main minions. They are the toughest fighters with the highest melee attacks and defense values. They also like to pick up weapons and armor to make them more powerful and give themselves personality. During upcoming blogs, I will introduce you to the other minions—the Reds, the Greens, and the Blues. Until then, give the demo a shot and practice using those Browns.

There has been a general fear and anxiety that as children play more video games their literacy is decreasing. These children should be doing something more productive than of playing video games. However, recent studies have shown that children from elementary grades through high school are reading more than ever before. Since they are also playing more video games, this recreational activity does not seem to be contributing to the illiteracy of youth. As an author, literacy is important to me. If people don’t read, they won’t buy the books I write.

As a father of six children, four of whom are old enough to read, I know that each child is different and not all of them take to reading equally. While one daughter reads all that she can, another has a hard time getting into a book and enjoying it. I know that I am not alone. In addition to being a Gamer Dad and writing strategy guides for video games, I also teach high school history and work with special education students—most of whom have a disability that affects their ability to read and/or comprehend what they read. Through experience and research, I have discovered that the key to becoming a better reader is to read, read, and then read some more. Just like playing a sport, practice improves performance.

However, if children do not like to read, possibly because it may be difficult for them, how do you get them to practice. The secret is to find something that interests them. One of my students hated reading and scored very low on reading proficiency tests. However, I introduced him to the Alex Rider series about a teenage spy and now he has read them all and is starting the series of seven books again. Girls that have trouble reading and understanding a paragraph in a low level textbook are reading their way through the Twilight series.

So what does this have to do with video games you may be asking yourself. The answer is that since many children are interested in video games, use that interest to promote reading. When our family got Viva Piñata, I also got the Primagames strategy guide for it. My oldest son, who was 7 at the time, could not put the guide down. There were several nights I found him asleep in bed with it. He marked it with Post-It page markers so he could quickly find the information on the piñata he wanted to attract or create.

At school, my students often ask me how to beat a level in a game or for some other information. Rather than telling them the answer, I hand them a copy of a strategy guide, showing them the page or even paragraph where they can find the answer and let them read it themselves. I then ask them to explain it to me when they are done. This helps teach them that reading is a powerful tool for finding answers.

In addition to strategy guides, children can read gaming magazines or even novels based on video games. I have one student who reads previews and reviews in magazines and then tells me about them. Another is reading the novels based on Halo. As they read these, their abilities improve and they actually learn to like reading. Then they are more willing to try other books and continue to progress.

Finally, video games can also serve as a reward for reading. Friends of ours give their children tickets for every 30 minutes they read at home. These tickets can then be traded in for video game time or other rewards. To really get the kids reading, they buy a new video game that they really want to play. It is amazing how much reading takes place in that home as children read to earn time to play the new game.

I would love to hear from readers how they use video games to encourage reading or if they have suggestions for good books which engage children in reading. I am always looking for new titles both for my children at home as well as my students at school. Thanks for reading!

The Matterhorn Bobsled Derby Car

Gamer Dads don’t only play video games with their family. They are also involved in other activities such as little league or soccer. In addition to coaching my kids’ sports teams, I am also the Cub Master for my oldest son’s Cub Scout pack. This month we had the annual pinewood derby. If you have never experienced one of these either as a child or an adult, you are missing out. 

For this race, cub scouts and their parents take a 7-½ inch block of wood and create a racing car out of it. In addition to the block, the kit comes with four nails (axles) and four plastic wheels. The finished cars are then raced down a wooden track approximately 35 feet in length which is elevated four feet high at one end. Gravity supplies all of the power as these cars accelerate down the track.

While the cub scouts are supposed to take an active role in creating the car, parents tend to get involved—some quite a bit more than others. As our son began planning out what he wanted to do for his car, my wife took the lead in design. She is much more creative than me. We wanted to do something different, so my son chose to make his car look like a Matterhorn bobsled from Disneyland. The two of them worked on cutting, shaping, sanding, and painting the body of the car and ended up with a good looking final product.

While they made the car look good, I concentrated on making it fast. Since gravity is the only source of power for the car, there are two main factors to increase the speed of one of these cars—increase weight and decrease friction. The weight is limited to a maximum of five ounces—so it is important to have the final race weight right at five ounces. Since the cars do not travel that fast, wind resistance is not that big of a factor. However, the friction with the wheels is where a race is won or lost.

For the race, you have to use the axles and wheels that came with the car kit. Graphite can be used for lubrication—but nothing else. You can’t add bearings, bushings or washers. After doing some research, I learned that it is important to make the wheels and axles as smooth as possible. I sanded off the molding imperfections on the surface of the wheels and also filed off the burrs on the axles before polishing them to a smooth shine. Finally as we were attaching the wheels to the car, we made sure that one of the front wheels was a bit higher than the rest so that the car ran on only three wheels, further reducing friction.

While the three of us had a good time building the car, the entire family enjoyed the race. As my son raced and I was the official starter, the rest of the family cheered on. My son was in the finals and in one race, had to go three times against another car since it was too close to call for the eyeballs of the judges. (Video tape reviewed at home showed that my son won the first two times). He ended up coming in 4^th place. It was a lot of fun. Some fathers really get into this race. The car that won cost the father (who is an engineer) about $300 in research and parts—but I am not bitter. We had a good time working together on the car and watching my son race.

Now that the derby is over for the year, we have some more time to get back to video games.

Part of the fun of being a Gamer Dad is playing with the family. The more people that can participate in a game, the better. Our family received Rock Band 2 as a gift from my brother. The kids had played it before at his house and really enjoyed it. So they were really thrilled that they could now play it at home.

The nice feature about Rock Band is that four people can play at once with each person having their own unique role in the band—lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals. While one person can enjoy the game by his or herself, Rock Band really rocks when you have a full band of four players. Guitar Hero World Tour is another band game for up to four players.

In our family, the drums are popular and the kids usually take turns playing them. (Gamer Dad is not as good at the drums since he does not get a chance to practice) They also enjoy playing the guitars; however, the vocal parts are more popular with my daughters.

One of the fun features of Rock Band is creating a band. We came up with the name for our band as a group and then my oldest daughter designed our logo. Once the band was created, our family began the tour. In Rock Band, you begin in one city and can play at a single venue. As you play different songs and song sets, you can unlock other venues as well as other cities. The songs in the early cities are fairly easy, with songs in cities farther away from your home city getting more difficult.

While many may think that Rock Band only offers heavy metal songs, in reality it actually offers a wide variety of music. In addition to metal, punk, and contemporary rock, the game includes some softer and older hits as well. Plus, you can purchase and download songs from several different genre. Recently a country pack was released with five songs by some of the hottest country singers and groups. Despite initial conceptions, these songs can be challenging with one by the Dixie Chicks actually quite difficult. More oldies are also appearing such as Roy Orbison and even Jimmy Buffet. Gamer Dads should have no trouble finding some songs from when they were younger and hipper which they can share with their family.

From first hand experience, Rock Band or other musical games which let several family members play together can provide some great family entertainment and together time. It looks like the future will offer even more songs of all different types including the Beatles and who knows what else since every week new songs are available.

If your family has a music game they like to play, chime in and share with us.

I have a friend who used to work for one of the major ice cream companies that distribute to stores around the country. He told me that ice cream sales are a great indicator of the state of the economy. During a good economy, ice cream sales go down. However, as people become concerned about recessions or downturns in the economy, ice cream sales go up. His theory was that when people have money to spend, they tend to eat out more and have either healthier or more expensive treats for dessert. However, as the economy heads south, people stay at home and eat more ice cream either because it is a cheaper form of treat or in order to cheer themselves up. Nothing helps raise a person out of mental depression than a big spoon and a half-gallon of rocky road (which by the way given its name during the Great Depression to help cheer people up).

During economic hard times, people want to be able to escape from their daily troubles and worries. U.S. history provides great examples of this. During the Great Depression (1929-1939), Americans flocked to the cinemas to watch movies on a regular basis. Sporting events also remained popular such as baseball games and boxing matches. People want to be able to immerse themselves in something and forget about their real lives—even if for only a few hours. Many movie classics were released during this period including Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and the first full-length animated feature—Walt Disney’s Snow White. It was during this time that Shirley Temple captured the heart of America and actors such as Clark Cable and Katherine Hepburn became larger than life stars.

As the United States, and likely the rest of the world, enter a current recession or depression (depending on which economists you listen to), Americans are spending less money. Some businesses are going under. However, video games sales for November 2008 were up 10% from the same period in 2007. For many this was unexpected news. However, video games are the new escape for people. As adults continue to make up a considerable fraction of video game players, especially those with the money to purchase systems and games, video games provide a cost effective form of entertainment. For the price of six movie tickets, a person can buy the latest and greatest game which will provide many more hours of interactive, immersive escape from reality. People facing cutbacks or at least not receiving year end bonuses or raises can take out their aggression against zombies that might look similar to their bosses or by defeating other players online.

Now back to the title of this blog. Are video games a good bellwether of the economy? Probably not. Video games will continue to sell well during both good and bad financial times as long as the industry puts out quality products. However, it is interesting that while Americans are cutting back on their spending in other areas, video games remain an area where they continue to exercise their somewhat diminished purchasing power.

So cheer up and get lost in a video game. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!