Get a roku and any broadband, tons of free stuff on it. We use huluplus and amazon prime instead of netflix, cheaper and there's lots of stuff. Plus what's on basic cable like History and food channel.
I have one and just WUV it. Screen is great. All emulators run fine. No bloatware. I got the 32 gb and loaded it up with 100's of apps... 47+45 games currently installed, and anything runs smooth as butter. I use Folder organizer to organize apps by category, and put folder shortcuts on home screen. I did root it (and turned off updates, to avoid screwing up all my precious games, and keep stuff backed up). Using stock ROM and nvidia is friendly, they just dont want overclocking. This thing runs like greased lightning with its K1 so who needs overclocking. Great all around tablet. Very comfy. I play music on it too, and sounds great, and a good flac file with free HF Onkyo app and headphones blows me away. (Bandcamp site is great, lookup Holmquist's Smash Hit OST). Runs any game, looks great. Has its own keymapper for its controller and I also use Tincore and sixaxus for other controllers, but mostly I'm a lazy touch tablet gamer with games and emulators. I haven't done anything yet with pc gamestreaming or tv console mode, but others love them.
F1r3inth3HOL3 - I hate WASD & other heavily keyboard controls... I found easiest keymapper was by Pinnacle. Made things a lot easier. They have good support, use any controller, and different premapped profiles for games optionally available. Inexpensive, small independent shop. Playing Bastion with favorite controller, yeah!
Plus, unrelated to healing: gaming is cross-generational & cross-cultural topic of great variety & depth.
PS everyone, on this topic, I remember reading or YouTube posts about how gaming helped other people in many ways - getting past different types of real bad times, healing physically, etc. Some did a series on YouTube, & people posted other places. To find them just Google these phrases: "how gaming saved my life" and "what gaming means to me"
Moth man, yes, you have nuts helped it perfectly. A little break at the end of the day where positive progress (helping people, figuring stuff out, & smashing bad Fuglies with a team) all in a beautiful varied world. Even though its always just a game, somehow it DOES feel encouraging when dealing with really hard reality times. Bonus: gets your mind off physical pain & limits as well. And in the game, you can just run everywhere & get stronger as the game progresses. Also apart from story, character development, & saving the world, just overcoming Fuglie challenges is rewarding. Yes real life is learning learning, puzzles, & some fuglies to deal with or go around. That can be a mostly fun challenge, its how we enjoy careers, if we are lucky & persistent. When Ill health or personal events make ordinary life really difficult or limited, then gaming gives an encouraging, distractive little respite. Better than a good movie. Helps return to the real fray.
Julian, you did great by writing this article. Shows you've got guts and an instinct to know you're on to something. YES - Gaming has been used therapeutically in many settings and situations. It is NO JOKE. There have been numerous psychological and medical studies on gaming, including the healing and helpful aspects. Assuming one is not gaming 24x7, here are some examples:
A). Gaming can help post traumatic stress victims including war veterans in two ways: 1) distracts the front of the mind so the back of the mind has a little breathing room to digest the traumatic event, and to gradually relax from its stress response. (Long after the stress is over, the mind both awake and asleep hasn't stopped reacting to the traumatic event, trying to emotionally assimilate it. Emotional processing is done with a more primitive portion of our brain compared to the rational cognition - that's why emotional healing of any type takes a long time, and bad trauma takes longer). And, 2) (safely) catharting out some things may be part of the emotional processing. There's a charity started by war veterans specifically to help war veterans with games as part of the help needed in healing from war. War in real life has a very deep psychological effect on people, no matter who you are; combat stress is no joke. By the way, the Pentagon wised up recently and has been actively working with games specifically to help PTSD as well as ongoing stress. They also use gaming as tools for education and training.
B). Gaming has been proven to aid fighting cancer (and other serious illnesses) with both patient compliance with treatment, and psychological attitude. In these situations, kicking ass and getting stronger in a virtual world, as well as causing or aiding positive outcomes in the game story, have a positive effect on many cases - this is not anecdotal, these were looking at large and small groups of people. Games specifically designed for cancer patients and malaria patients for example, have been created (look 'em up!). Also it is very helpful when huge disease or other recovery challenges occur, to have a virtual world which is a little break from reality - in the same way that a good immersive movie or book is a break during our ordinary lives... except, a video game is both interactive and participative, so it is MUCH more of a "break" than a movie is. Because of this immersion and participation aspect, gaming has helped distract people from pain and suffering, to a degree that is comparable to some painkillers.
C). Gaming has also helped people recovering from injury to work on their mind-body coordination, without tedium. And older people that play video games regularly have a higher chance of maintaining mental flexibility and capabilities, because of how gaming uses your intellect and mind-body wiring (in plain language) - yes, various studies were done across all age groups.
D). Gaming has been studied with cognitive disabilities such as various types of autism. It has generally been recognized as highly beneficial in developing abilities that need strengthening, in developing social skills in the game and in the real world, and in developing certain cognitive skills that may be needed. (Regular and specially developed games are used.) Both kids and adults have been helped cognitively with games.
I can tell you that personally, from the experience of having had a serious illness after losing both parents, that Xenoblade Chronicles helped save my ass. It was better than all my other games, and I wondered WHY is this one so great? So then I began learning all about gaming; it's quite amazing technically, artistically and creatively; and, also, the above positive aspects. I read a lot of studies on it; some good books too. By the way, I'm an old fart. I was already in the workforce in the 80's, yes played a game on a mainframe once, & have collected a lot of different kinds of games over the decades, but I always use discussion forums, faqs & walkthroughs becuz I'm just not gifted to figure 'em out on my own :)
