The NY Times web site has a great video of children playing videogames from photographer and video artist, Robbie Cooper (you can watch a higher quality original plus stills on his site).
In 2009 he will be teaming up with the Media Centre at Bournemouth University as part of their ‘War and Liesure’ project. They will then analyse the footage using Paul Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System (FACS). (I didn’t realise that Ekman had published so many books
I don’t get the feeling that Cooper is judging gamers or videogames either way, more that he is fascinated children as they play them, particularly war games because war is outside (most) children’s daily experience.
His blog is also worth having a look through, there are some great finds there including his responses to the comments about Immersion.
Should you feel the need for the antidote, I can recommend Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
