You are probably familiar with the exceptional benefits of playing a game. Regardless of one's age and physical ability, games such as golf , billiards, board games, etc. are considered to be those types of recreational activities that people select to try in order to increase their mental and/or physical skills while enjoying the excitement. But since games are played primarily for the mere enjoyment they offer, some people tend to consider them unnecessary and a waste of time. Nothing could further away from the truth. Games increase a person's capabilities and assist in developing a better understanding of ourselves. Games should be fun for one to want to continue practicing them, but they can also have an educational nature. Most importantly, games can affect a person's psychological state leading to excitement and the feeling of one being proud for an accomplishment. Games are not a waste of free time. Actually free time is the time one should devote in exploring his or her abilities through games and have fun in educating and exercising his or her body and mind.

Generally, a game consists of a goal that its players try to reach and usually has a set of rules within which a person has to succeed accomplishing the desired objective. These commonly agreed boundaries exist so as to test peoples' skills and invite them to develop new ways in managing the obstacles that might hinder them from attaining the game's goal. But, due to the vast variety of known games all around the world, agreeing on a single definition has been rather challenging. People in different time periods, countries, and contexts, have tried to capture the essence of games and come up with a classification that could serve all games' purposes. Upon examining some etymological

Ensemble closure due to crunch culture
Microsoft not to blame, says former employee.
A former employee at defunct RTS developer Ensemble Studios has blamed its closure on the developer's crunch culture and work addiction.

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MS celebrates "biggest" February ever
Company boasts about 422k Xbox 360 sales achieved last month.
Following the NPD Group putting total February Xbox 360 sales at 422,000 units, Microsoft has hailed the results as the best for the month "in Xbox 360 history".

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UMD "alive and well", says Sony
PSP sees 60 million sales worldwide.
Sony has said that its UMD format for the PlayStation Portable is far from dead, describing it as "alive and well".

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Insomniac Games turns multi-platform?
Report from "trusted source" says former-PS3 dev will work on Xbox 360.
Insomniac Games, best known for its PlayStation exclusive franchises Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, has decided to become a multi-platform developer.

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BioWare: 700 Mass Effect choices altered sequel
Cinematic's designer reveals how many decisions impacted on Mass Effect 2.
BioWare's lead cinematic designer Armando Troisi has revealed that Mass Effect had over 700 plot hooks that carried over into the Mass Effect 2.

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Ex-Infinity Ward bosses join A-list Talent Agency
Pair to be given representation by top hollywood agents.
Vince Zampella and Jason West have signed up to be represented by top Hollywood talent agency, Creative Artists Agency.

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PS Home has 12 million users
Growth of 2 million in just three months.
Sony's PlayStation Home director Jack Buser has said the much maligned online social space has 12 million users signed up for its service worldwide.

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Splash Damage: Brink is "platform agnostic"
CEO Paul Wedgwood says no one platform is superior or inferior.
Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood has said that the studio has been working on its upcoming FPS Brink from a "platform agnostic" perspective.

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StarCraft 2 Mac Beta this April?
Blizzard has "ways to go" before the game is finished.
Blizzard has said it hopes to have a working beta for its upcoming RTS StarCraft 2 for Mac users in April.

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Gran Turismo 5 works with PS3 Move?
Official listing suggests compatibility.
Sony's official US PlayStation Move site may have suggested that Gran Turismo 5 will work with the motion sensing device.

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The best DS game ever is...
ONM readers pick their favourite.
Mario Kart DS is the best DS game of all time according to ONM readers.

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Wii HD not of interest, says Nintendo
Firm would be 'embarrassed' to be Sony or Microsoft, says Reggie Fils-Aime.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has rubbished suggestions that the firm will release an HD version of Wii.

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Nintendo 'flattered' by PS3 Move
Reggies Fils-Aime says Nintendo will innovate beyond today's peripherals.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has said he is "flattered" by Sony's PlayStation Move.

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PS3 Move can control Starcraft - Sony
Device is precise enough to work with fiddly RTS, says creator.
Sony has used its new PlayStation Move controller with StarCraft on PC to test how precise it is. And guess what? According to the platform holder, it works a dream.

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Video games 'ruining marriages'
Internet age damaging matrimony, says Catholic group.
Video games have been blamed as a cause of the breakdown of modern marriages - as spouses become distracted by the 'always on' internet age.

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Parents should be stricter with games - Children's Commissioner
Maggie Atkinson in 'Government official speaks sense' shock.
Children's Commissioner Dr. Maggie Atkinson has told parents to be stricter with the types of computer games they show to their kids.

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Yakuza 3 review - 6/10 in EDGE
Mag rates European version of Sega's game.
Edge has awarded Sega's European version of Yakuza 3 6/10.

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GT5 trailer speeds in
We wish a release date would speed in, too...
Want a Gran Turismo 5 release date? Tough. Sony's not giving you one. But if you want to see more new footage of cars going around race tracks, you've come to the right place.

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Aaron Greenberg responds to PS3 Move
'Controller-free experiences are the future' says MS exec.
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has responded to the announcement of Sony's PS3 Move - saying that "controller-free experiences are the future of gaming".

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Doctor Who game coming to Wii
The Sun reveals title will be out for Christmas after £10m deal.
A Doctor Who game will hit DS and Wii before Christmas after Nintendo agreed a contract said to be worth £10m.

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Guitar Hero 6 confirmed
Kiss's Gene Simmons says he'll be the voice of the game.
Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has let the cat out of the bag: Guitar Hero 6 is on its way.

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Aliens Vs Predator review - 5/10 in EDGE
Harsh dealing for Rebellion's hit from multiformat mag.
Edge has hit Sega's Aliens Vs Predator with a 5/10 review - saying the game is 'a hastily assembled three-in-one anachronism which proves just one thing - that terrifying and terrible are not mutually exclusive'. Ouch.

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CVG's weekly digest
Another look at the week's highlights...
The big news this week was the unveiling of the PlayStation Move - but we had plenty more to go at as well.

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CVG: The week's best comments
Stuff you said that made us titter.
With the PlayStation Move looking like... erm, like it does... and that God of War III sex scene cropping up, there was a good chance that the comments would turn a little blue this week. You lot didn't disappoint.

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US PS3 Video store gets HUGE update
Over a hundred new titles his US video downloads service.
Get the popcorn in. Sony's lobbed an absolute truck-load of new movies and shows onto the US PS3 video store this week.

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Silent Hunter 5 recalled in Germany
Ubi pulls sub sim over WWII symbol inclusion.
Publisher Ubisoft has recalled the collector's edition of Silent Hunter 5: Battle Of The Atlantic in Germany, reportedly over the game's inclusion of "WWII symbols".

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Japan: PSP dominance continues
Almost doubles all other hardware.
The Japanese are still going mental over Sony's portable. PSP increased its lead at the top of the Japanese hardware chart during the week ended March 7, which has been boosted by the release of a "blossom pink" model.

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Exclusive: Red Steel 2 video featuring CVG's Andy
Or "CGV", if you're Ubisoft's still-drunk-from-the-night-before video editor.
We're usually the ones shoving dictaphones into people's faces, but the tables were turned when we were probed by Boobisoft at a recent Red Steel 2 event.

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Chaos Rising launch trailer arrives
The Dawn of War II expansion is available now.
THQ's released a trailer for the Dawn of War 2 expansion Chaos Rising following its launch today.

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PS Move won't compromise core development - Sony
Peripheral won't affect focus on hardcore games, says format holder.
Sony says its use of resources to make games for the PlayStation Move motion controller won't compromise the development of 'core' PS3 games.

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dictionaries, one can conclude that games are a creative expression of the human spirit through the creation of an activity that has an entertaining, instructive and competing element. Regardless if a game is played by a single individual or requires competing teams, involves physical as well as mental activity, has a concrete or loose set of rules and structure, needs some or all of the available resources, it always leads to an outcome. There is usually a winner and a looser and whether a participant belongs to the one or to the other side of this simple distinction makes all the difference in the world.

With the plethora of existing games for different target groups like kids, teenagers, adults or seniors, anthropologists have proposed their classification under three major clusters. One can decide to play a game of skill, which can be mental or physical. Checkers for example use their mental skills to successfully complete a game of chess, while runners use their body's capacity to overcome natural obstacles like that of wind and gravity, or their own bodies' ability to outrun itself. The second game category is that of strategy games, like the Monopoly board game that requires from participants to reach a particular outcome over a specific time frame based on their available resources. Third, there are games of chance that base their popularity on economic insecurity and are associated with cultures that place a high value on personal responsibility. Finally, people tend to play mixed games. These games, like soccer (football) and basketball, involve both physical skill and strategic thinking and in many cases their outcome is based on chance.

Now that you know how important is for you to play games, next time someone invites you to participate in another friendly baseball match do not try to avoid the invitation because you think it is a waste of time. Games, despite their character can help you clear your mind and can change your mood. Thus, tomorrow get up, pick your favorite game, find your opponents, make it your new hobby, and experience the tremendous effect a game's round can have in your life.