This free article from The Wall Street Journal Online discusses free web games based on current political or news events. Some are spoofs, but others are meant to educate people about current events.

I was wondering to myself when I saw my sister reading my neice a religious childrens book if that was actually a popular fad. I was so surprised to see when I looked up spiritual and religious board games that there is NO shortage of them, and in every kind of topic. For instance, check [...]

A piggyback to Marci’s comments I found this article on the SD Union-Tribune site talking about Japan’s influence on American pop culture. It refers to kids who grew up playing “Final Fantasy” and “Pokemon” have paved the way for more games with a greater Japanese influence. One game in particular “Okami” uses the ink-and-watercolor art [...]

Donald Clark Plan B

Cooking Mama is an educational Nintendo game created by Majesco. I read some posts at the Serious Games Initiative website about this much anticipated game and its mini cultural controversy. It is evident that the game has an international audience; however, there is skepticism surrounding how popular this game will become in the United States [...]

Over the summer, a friend turned me onto these little ditties. Pattern recognition puzzles.daily set gamesI found them challenging and fun. Easy to get into flow with and easy to get out and onto to something like work. After getting the hang of it, I noticed my brain shifting and going into some other mode. [...]

This is a summary of a presentation given at the 2006 Toronto Independent Games Conference (August 31-September 2). It is an interesting list of ten points which independent educational game developers should consider when marketing and planning a game directed at a K-12 client.

I read an article about Luis von Ahn, a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University who just won a MacArthur Fellowship. Dr. von Ahn is credited with inventing a new field in computer science known as “human computation,” which uses novel techniques, including games, to harness computational abilities of humans to solve large-scale problems [...]

I thought this was interesting. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,69580,00.html The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is funding a series of computer games to help prepare health workers and other first responders facing bioterror attacks, nuclear accidents and pandemics. A multiplayer prototype is being developed to train teams of health specialists to work together. They are also looking [...]

Just came across a very nice list of Game Mechanics on the Board Game Designers Forum. What’s a game mechanic, you may well ask? It’s an element of game structure that describes, for example, how cards are drawn, or how the abilities of pieces differ from each other. The referenced page is part of a [...]

While browsing through the internet on games, I found this great article on cooperative games. The idea is that too many games depend on aggression and competition dividing the world into winner and losers, and yet we know that with the information explosion of the last decades, collaboration and cooperation become necessary in our working [...]

Microsoft has been brewing up the XNA for a bit. It’s a free software download that allows users to create their own video games, specifically for the XBOX 360. Some universities will be using it to teach game design classes (according to Microsoft). Game software typically uses rarely-used or completely customized platforms that cost obnoxious [...]

I recently posted about this BBC article.

I hope so. Today’s mail brought word about Motley Fool Caps, a game that gets smarter about stocks as more people play it. How does it work? You get yourself a free account and pick a stock. Predict what direction the stock’s price is going and when. Your prediction is stored away and evaluated on [...]

Get ready for a fresh round of debate about violence in video games. News is out today that the sociopath in Montreal who shot 20 people listed an online game about Columbine as his favorite. Who knew there was such a game? What kind of heartless dope would take the time to design such a [...]

I came across this article the other day about Second Life. Normally I would have never looked twice but after discussing Second Life in our first class session it definitely caught my eye! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14783327/

I found this article “Would You Like Fries With That Monopoly Game?” and I thought it was very interesting since the idea of curb appeal had been brought up in class as another factor to consider. Basically, it’s an article about the new Monopoly Here and Now Edition. They have replaced some of the old [...]

I wish I read David Warlick’s blog entry on Games in Classrooms? or Classrooms in Games? before class yesterday. He comments that younger teachers grew up with video games as part of their culture, so their comfort level with games is leading to greater integration of games in the classroom. Warlick’s concern is that games [...]

I ran across this article from the New York Times which provides some great examples and links to socially responsible and educational video games. While the article doesn’t go into detail about instructional design theories it does provide an interesting perspective on creating games that elicit decisions about complex political situations.

ComputerEdge’s current issue (Sept 8, 2006) shows the article “Internet Gameplay of MMORPGS and Multiverses” in its cover. I read the article and found it interesting to get a perspective of how video games are developing (i dont know much about this topic). http://webserver.computoredge.com/editorial/prg/online.mv?zone=SD&article=toc&session=4507406E000DE95200006FE600000000

Now that the semester has started and a new round of EDTEC 670 is underway, it’s time to rev up this blog again. What better place to start than this Reuter’s article summarizing a recently published study. The key quote: “‘By providing spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have [...]