Digital games are more than conventional games. They are becoming digital media with a wide range of applications. Digital games research need to respond to this new situation. By so doing, digital games research will open up new possibilities. This article is an attempt to fathom such possibilities.

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This thesis locates Japanese game research based on the “frame” concept..

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This paper discusses policy issues “in” cyberworlds, rather than “on” them. Many virtual worlds, online games and other online communities, develop their own value and exchange system, and the virtual economies have become increasingly important to our real lives. But since virtual economies have different characteristics from the real ones, we need to think about how to manage these economies ac- cordingly. In this paper the basic structure of these games and propose policy measures to counter important in-game problems are analyzed. In addition, a growing trend toward interaction among virtual worlds is viewed as emergence of “international economy.”

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Online game market is expanding according to the spread of Internet worldwide. This paper describes online game characteris- tics that differs from traditional stand-alone game software, including business model, technical aspect, and social issues. The paper also covers future trends for online game market.

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The Project “Prescriptions of Videogames” is a industry-university cooperatin with Children’s Media Laboratory, Waseda Uni- versity (Project leader: Prof. Dr. Takashi Kawai, Waseda University). This project conducts research on game’s beneficial effects on people (benefits) as well as how to play games and how to utilize the audiovisual environment (prescriptions) through scientific means. The pur- pose of the project is to obtain knowledge that makes it possible for the games to supplement our daily life. With the participation of front- line scientists and clinicians, experiments and research were conducted during the project’s first term, one year commencing April 2005. As a result, highly unique and effective results were obtained. In July 2006, a symposium was held to announce these results.

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