Some days, items in my aggregator come together and beg to be posted here.

#1 - The Video Game Librarian has been circulating games for about a year and has a report. His write up is valuable because it details the positive aspects and the negative (some broken items, some stolen items).

#2 - Libraries aren’t the only educational institution getting hip to DDR. See W.Va. Schools Get Game to Fight Obesity. As usual, the comments on Digg are pretty entertaining.

#3 - The most popular video game in Japan isn’t really a game at all, but rather a Brain Training tool for the Nintendo DS handheld. From Cabel’s Blog LOL:

And what does Brain Training do? Well, you hold your Nintendo DS like a book (with left and right screens), and you basically use the touchscreen to undergo a wide variety of simple, cleanly-designed, interesting exercises intended to make you smarter. Or, at least, keep your brain sharp and fresh and delicious. At the end of your “fun”, the game eventually calculates and reports your “mental age” — often with painful/comedic effect — and tracks your progress over the weeks and months of self-education. And that’s about it.

It sounds quite simple and very addictive. Another interesting fact about the “game” is that it is being played by men, women, boys, girl, and even grandmothers. The funniest thing about this is that, at the end of your session, it grades you. It calculates your mental age. Hmm, people are voluntarily participating in learning type activities to get better grades…oh, sorry, I can’t type any more, I have to print out a bibliography for some students. They’ll read it, right?