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Category: entertainment – Page 9

Open-World Games’ Affordance of Cognitive Escapism, Relaxation, and Mental Well-Being Among Postgraduate Students: Mixed Methods Study

Background: Open-world games, characterized by their expansive and interactive environments, may offer unique cognitive escapism opportunities, potentially leading to relaxation and enhanced well-being. These games, such as “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” allow players to experience a sense of freedom and autonomy, which can reduce stress and improve mental health. While previous research has examined the general impact of video games on mental well-being, specific studies on the effects of open-world games among postgraduate students are limited.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationships between cognitive escapism provided by open-world games and their effects on relaxation and well-being. The goal was to understand how the immersive nature of these games contributes to stress reduction and overall mental health improvement among postgraduate students.

Methods: A mixed methods approach was used, which involved in-depth exploratory qualitative interviews and a survey of 609 players of popular open-world games. Quantitative data were collected using standardized questionnaires to measure open-world games’ affordance of cognitive escapism, relaxation, and well-being. Qualitative data were obtained through 32 in-depth interviews that explored players’ experiences and perceptions of cognitive escapism, relaxation, and mental well-being.

Inter-Galactic Static

Track 6 from the Album: Uncharted Reality.

“Sir Karland, you imply this project is secret, that not even the Brinian Royal Council, or R.B.R.D.C. knows of its existence, is this true?”

Composer: Henry Triason.
Artist: Chkylis.
Track: Inter-Galactic Static.
Album: Uncharted Reality.
Creation Year: 2018

New Xreal glasses: virtual screens compatible with nearly all devices

Xreal is making waves in the world of mixed reality technology, offering a unique approach with its lightweight, almost portable glasses that project virtual screens directly in front of users’ eyes. The latest models, Xreal One and One Pro, come with a game-changing feature that enhances their usability—plug-and-play compatibility with nearly any device equipped with a USB-C video output.

Unlike previous models like the Air 2 Ultra, the Xreal One and One Pro are focused purely on screen mirroring. The glasses can seamlessly display content from an extensive range of devices, including iPhones, Android smartphones, Macs, PCs, and even the Steam Deck. All it takes is a quick connection via USB-C, and you’ll have a massive virtual screen in front of you—perfect for work, gaming, or watching a movie.

The technology behind these glasses relies on micro-OLED displays made by Sony, offering a resolution of 1920 × 1080 per eye. While this doesn’t quite match the ultra-high resolution of Apple’s Vision Pro, it’s worth noting that Xreal’s glasses come at a fraction of the cost—nearly ten times cheaper, in fact.

Gambling in Space: The Future of Entertainment Beyond Earth

Conquering space is among the main challenges humanity now has — and the huge number of discoveries made in recent decades suggests that nothing is impossible. Tourism beyond Earth is already gaining popularity, and this sector will evolve soon. However, simply enjoying the space views may become boring shortly, and travellers will search for alternative entertainment options. It’s now pretty early to ask whether people will be able to build a land-based casino on the Moon, but some experiences may become available in the near future. The iGaming sector is rapidly evolving, leaving offline settings behind. We can predict that space gambling will begin from top-rated slot games not on GamStop, which are widely accessible globally. Casino platforms have a vast growth potential nowadays, so what would prevent people from using them when enjoying space tourism?

The first bet beyond the Earth has already been placed — this significant event happened in 2021 when Jared Isaacman, the Inspiration 4x commander, wagered on the NFL. Although it may take a while for such betting experiences to become more widespread, the beginning has already been made.

The Thesis that Killed Academia?

Brilliant is a great place to improve your problem solving skills! First 30 days are free and 20% off the annual premium subscription when you use our link ➜ https://brilliant.org/sabine.

This is a brief comment on the recent social media episode in which a young woman attracted a lot of attention by graduating with a thesis on olfactory suppression in English prose. In this video, I try to put these events into context. I find it difficult to wrap my head around the sudden outrage. Let me know what you think about this.

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#science #sciencenews #academia

Ubisoft fixes Windows 11 24H2 conflicts causing game crashes

Microsoft has now partially lifted a compatibility hold blocking the Windows 24H2 update on systems with some Ubisoft games after the French video game publisher has fixed bugs causing crashes, freezes, and audio issues.

The company blocked Windows 24H2 upgrades on PCs with Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora games more than two weeks ago, following a stream of user reports on Reddit [1, 2] and the Microsoft Answers forums [1, 2, 3] that these games were no longer working correctly.

Windows users affected by this known issue were particularly frustrated as they reported these issues in the Windows Insider Feedback Hub, on Reddit, and other online platforms since Windows 11 24H2 was still in preview.

A single algorithm can help robots make good decisions in real time

In 2018, Google DeepMind’s AlphaZero program taught itself the games of chess, shogi, and Go using machine learning and a special algorithm to determine the best moves to win a game within a defined grid. Now, a team of Caltech researchers has developed an analogous algorithm for autonomous robots—a planning and decision-making control system that helps freely moving robots determine the best movements to make as they navigate the real world.

“Our algorithm actually strategizes and then explores all the possible and important motions and chooses the best one through dynamic simulation, like playing many simulated games involving moving robots,” says Soon-Jo Chung, Caltech’s Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and a senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. “The breakthrough innovation here is that we have derived a very efficient way of finding that optimal safe motion that typical optimization-based methods would never find.”

The team describes the technique, which they call Spectral Expansion Tree Search (SETS), in the December cover article of the journal Science Robotics.

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