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The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy.


Tiga pushes UK Government for More Investment in labour skills for games and serious games

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

UK based game industry consortium TIGA is pushing a more well developed games education fund. Serious games needs are part of the push according to an article published on the effort "Taking its cue from a recent study by Wolverhampton University titled 'An investigation into the labour market and skills demands of the games and serious games industries..."

Read up on the effort on Develop Mag's web site at:
http://www.developmag.com/news/30787/Tiga-pushes-for-Games-Education-Fund


Disaster Management Game

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

Design magazine Core77 pushes out a store on After Shock promoted as "the world's first massively collaborative disaster simulation, about a major earthquake affecting much of Southern California"

"It turns out - as one could have expected - that there is quite a lot behind this unique serious game. It is actually part of a larger design initiative The Los Angeles Earthquake: Get Ready, led by Designmatters at Art Center College of Design, that has allowed them "to investigate the contributing role of design in disaster mitigation and public awareness"."

Read the piece at: http://www.core77.com/blog/education/when_designers_anticipate_the_next_big_one_11675.asp

See Aftershock at: http://www.aftershock.net/


I/ITSEC PR promotes its serious games coverage

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

I/ITSEC is coming up and as the event's PR pushes out there is an emphasis on its serious games content...

"Another important aspect of I/ITSEC for 2008 will be emphasis on Serious Games. Over the last several years, Serious Games and virtual worlds have emerged as powerful tools for communication, collaboration, training and education in a wide variety of enterprises and organizations. A special event at I/ITSEC will focus on how multiplayer games and associated technologies are being leveraged to help train and educate the existing and future workforce. Participants will include representatives from Qwaq, Inc, Lockheed Martin, Digital Garage, BP America, North Carolina Virtual Public Schools, and PowerU to name a few. In addition, I/ITSEC will feature a "Serious Games" competition, where entries from students and researchers, small firms and large corporations are entered in a number of categories, judged and displayed in the exhibition hall. All applications, from "mods" to mobil, virtual worlds and original development will be included. "

full release at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008_iitsec_conference/modeling_simulation/prweb1573184.htm


Interview with authors of Changing the Game: How Video Games are Transforming the Business World

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

Dave Edery and Ethan Mollick authors of Changing the Game gave an indepth interview with UK Based game development magazine Develop. Catch the entire interview at: http://www.developmag.com/interviews/300/Games-for-everyone

Choice part: "Is there money in all this?

David: We wouldn’t have written the book if there wasn’t. Consider the following: spending on corporate training exceeded $46 billion in 2006 in the U.S. alone. Advertising spending exceeded $270 billion in the U.S. alone. As much as we in the video game industry like to crow about how quickly we’ve grown and how big we’ve become, our numbers don’t hold a candle to these numbers."


Article on Games for Learning Institute Member Chuck Kinzer

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20


Over on Columbia University's site there is an article on Columbia's Teacher College's Chuck Kinzer who is part of the recently launched Games for Learning Center which is jointly funded with Microsoft Research.

Choice quote: "Our goal is not to develop games, but to study why games are effective and how they can best be used to maximize learning,” said Kinzer, who added that the institute will develop “scientifically proven game design principles that maintain the motivational and fun aspects of successful commercial games while providing knowledge about how to make games that can help teachers teach and children learn, specifically in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

According to the article... "Many TC faculty and students are interested in games and their potential for teaching and learning. The Computer, Communication, Technology in Education (CCTE) program offers several courses related to games, game design and learning, and Kinzer teaches a course, “Possibilities of Virtual Worlds.” The CCTE program also houses a games research lab known as EGGPLANT (Educational Games Group: Play, Language, Avatars, Narrative, and Technology), which, through an understanding of play, EGGPLANT seeks to gain knowledge of human cognition, collaboration, media effects, modern culture, creativity, improvisation and other factors within games that have implications for education. Faculty and students involved with the Games Research Lab have broad-ranging interests, and the lab has resources to study of video games, traditional board and card games, role-playing games, games for teaching and learning, "serious" games, media literacy, the psychology of games, and related topics."


Trivial Game Promotes Marcom Careers

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

There are great trivia games (see You Don't Know Jack) and then there are programs that call themselves games, use trivia as the core mechanic and are essentially trivial. One such game was recently launced by The Communications, Advertising and Marketing (CAM) Foundation. The game was launched to help highlight possible careers in marketing and communications. No word on if it highlights the many positions sure to open up for people with better ideas for advertising and PR with games then launching a trivia site. Despite our doubts the game "has been shortlisted for a World of Learning 2008 award in the Serious Games Solution category."

To play the game please visit http://www.camfoundation.com/game.


Game Developer's Conference Registration Opens

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

GDC registration is now open. Get your early bird tickets for GDC and the Serious Games Summit Component ASAP. Hotel space fills up fast as well!

Please visit http://www.gdconf.com for registration information.

The full Serious Games Summit schedule will be ready at the end of the month. A batch of sessions is up now and big batch will launch by end of this week.


AI Conference will cover serious games.

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-11-20

CGAMES'08 which will be held this year in Wolverhampton, England. AI related to serious games is on the agenda. For complete details please see:

http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/gamecentre/CGames08Wton/index.php


PRESS RELEASE: Vision Audio Inc. Announces New EASe Games Designed for Children with Autism

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-10-27

The following press release recently hit on a new game for autistic children:

Vision Audio Inc. has announced the release of EASe Off-Road, the first video game designed to help train children with autism to cope with sensory integration challenges. EASe Off-Road is a fun, non-violent learning experience that enables children to enjoy and more fully participate in their enhanced sound-based therapy, according to Bill Mueller, president of Vision Audio (http://www.easecd.com).

Read the full release here.


PRESS RELEASE : Humana and iTech Fitness Hookup on Exergaming

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-10-27

The following press release recently went out:

Humana and iTech Fitness Promoting Health and Wellness Through New Exergaming System
Humana Games for Health, part of Humana Inc., and iTech Fitness will jointly promote iTech's new XRKade iZone, a fully integrated and mobile exergaming system that can be purchased and easily installed in about 300 square feet of space.

Read the full release here.


Chronicle of Higher Education interviews Games for Learning Institute Member

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-10-27

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interview on their site with Mary Flanagan who is part of the team in NY that makes up the joint-venture with Microsoft Research known as the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI). Read more here.



Gonzo Art Game for Social Change...

Posted by Ben Sawyer on 08-10-23

Art Daily has a piece on a new series of "art games" that are being done by new media artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung.

Choice quote from article...

"The game’s protagonist is the polar bear—that victimized, yet cuddly symbol of global warming. Players embody the polar bear as it progresses through different climate change scenarios: Venice under water, a forest threatened by bulldozers, and an altercation with vicious oil derricks. Celebrities—political and otherwise—flutter through and interact with our hero; Leonardo DiCaprio introduces the bear to Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, while George W. Bush drills for oil in the North Pole and keeps warm by barbecuing the Kyoto protocol. Using solar panels and other renewable energy defenses, the bear narrowly succeeds in fighting off the evil forces that threaten the environment."

I tried the games which feature load times that rival early PS2 and PS3 titles. They are for better or worse unplayable. Perhaps that was part of the plan but this project got some serious funding from major arts supporters include Tribeca Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation.

You can try out any of the four games from Tin-Kin Hung by visiting http://www.gaszappers.com/. An installation of the games will be part of an exhibit at The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.