In 2002, I was fortunate to be able to visit the Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. The exhibiters published a book titled “Cultures of Creativity” that explored the various creative strands of the achievements of Nobel Laureates from diverse fields. The books introduction states that the concept of creativity has deep [...]

Quia is a educational game site that makes creating games easy. I used it a few years ago. At that time I had 15 computers in my classroom. As students finished working on their classwork, they had the option of going to Quia and playing a game I created. Creating the games was easy, I [...]

There is good new for game developers! Interest in games and their use in training has spread to the US military. According to an article in the November 23, 2008, online Stars and Stripes magazine the Army has received approval to invest $50 million in a “games for training” program starting in 2010. These games [...]

Third World Farmer Game A female peasant interviewed on Mexican radio news that shocked me proved to be the inspiration for me to explore the “Third World Farmer Game” among the “Games for Change” selection. In the interview the woman explained why she chose to rent some of her land to “Narcos” (drugs dealers). She [...]

Hi all, I found a few educational eGames this weekend that I wanted to share with you. They are all related to science/physics, which seems to lend itself well to eGames. Using simulation software makes it possible to play with lasers, put bowling balls on levers, and launch counterweight trebuchets- experiments that wouldn’t be possible [...]

When a child discovers and completely comprehends the horror of nuclear weapons on their own, it is a difficult matter for any parent to address. My seven year old daughter saw the nuclear explosion scene in the new Indiana Jones movie and instantly became terrified of nuclear weapons. I have been distracting her from it [...]

I learned all about how to build a successful ant colony by playing the Ant War Game.  This game has you first pick which type of ant colony you would like to develop. It gives you a brief description of your ant species to choose from (leaf cutter, harvester, weaver, carpenter or fire).   From [...]

INNOV8 is an interactive, 3-D business simulator designed to teach the fundamentals of business process management and bridge the gap in understanding between business leaders and IT teams in an organization. This type of serious gaming – simulations which have the look and feel of a game but correspond to non-game events or processes such [...]

In the Garbage Game, http://www.gothamgazette.com/games/garbage.php, you decide what to do with the garbage of New York City. The purpose of the game is to showcase how decisions made by both individuals and city officials will affect the overall garbage situation. Each decision made by an individual to throw something in the trash or recycle it [...]

Reason: While perusing the site, www.gamesforchange.org, I encountered the title of an online game that I had seen people playing on Facebook (or at least a very similar game). The name caught my attention, which is why I decided to review it for this assignment. Game: FreeRice at http://freerice.com/ Premise/Cause: The premise and cause behind [...]

*Click to enlarge images!* Stop Disasters is a free online single player game that teaches disaster prevention awareness and is aimed towards 9-16 year old children. It is a Sim City-esque game that focuses on saving lives and reducing the financial impact that natural hazards cause when they turn into disasters. There are five scenarios [...]

Dimension X: Evolver Pre-Algebra is a game that definitely deserves a look. It’s designed to have the feel of a first person shooter and an RPG in one. It’s storyline and graphics will hold a student’s attention, while the math is incorporated into the game in a subtle puzzle solving nature. The game begins with us [...]

Against All Odds is an online game created to increase players’ awareness and knowledge about refugee situations by putting players in the position of a refugee. The game was created by the UNHCR, A United Nations Refugee Agency and is accessible to players in multiple languages. The game starts out informing you that you are [...]

Game URL: http://www2.seattle.gov/util/waterbusters/ Game Synopsis: Phil’s water bills are high. The player is tasked with manuvering Phil Dumpster around the house to locate water pollution and resolve the issue with tools and wit. Game Overview: The player uses the arrow keys to move Phil around the house: a kitchen, 2bathrooms, a backyard, and a utitliy [...]

Free Rice is an educational quiz-type game. Players answer multiple choice questions. Immediate feedback is provided in the form of 20 grains of rice for correct answers. Incorrect answers are corrected and repeated later until answered correctly. This shows the player that they are learning something. The player can select among categories to be quizzed [...]

WFP Food Force Game Description: The Games for Change website describes Food Force as ” is an educational action computer game that teaches kids about the problem of global hunger and the importance of humanitarian aid work. ” The game was developed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and is available in many [...]

The JASON projct website offers numerous simulations and e-games to increase student understanding. A nonprofit subsidiary of the National Geographic Society, JASON connects young students with great explorers and great events to inspire and motivate them to learn science. Its core curriculum units are designed for 5th – 8th grade classrooms but are flexible enough [...]

In Harpooned, players control the Japanese Cetacean Research boats, conducting “research” on whales. Players are rewarded for shooting whales and collecting the whale meat. The whale meat is then brought back to the research station where the meat is sold for pet food and whale burgers. Players must avoid icebergs, the protestor boats, and the [...]

I looked at McDonald’s Video Game by Molleindustria. Molleindustria “Radical games against the dictatorship of entertainment.” Molleindustria aims to re appropriate video games as a popular form of mass communication. Their objective is to investigate the persuasive potentials of the medium by subverting mainstream video gaming cliche (and possibly have fun in the process). In [...]

The game, Mission: Migration, by the National Audubon Society is a game intended for young audiences although I have to admit I was entertained for a bit trying to perfect my score. In this game, the player chooses a bird to lead the flock in their migration. It begins with an easy flight over a [...]

Peter Packet is a game from NetAid and Cisco, that is geared toward children in an effort to bring them to social awareness. Peter Packet is an action figure that gives the players data about social challenges around the world. Players are given information about clean water problems in Haiti, education in India and creating [...]

Peter Packet is a game for children to become aware of world poverty. It is an entertaining game that has great visuals and music that kids would enjoy. You go with Peter on missions around the world, you may for example go to Haiti to help build a water filtration system. Along the way you [...]

There are missions such as helping Haiti get clean drinking water. http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/edu/peterpacket/

http://gamelab.com/game/ayiti The game I played and will review here is called Ayiti: The Cost of Life. The game was created to give players an opportunity to manage the survival of a family of five in Haiti. The game takes place over four years, divided into sixcteen seasons. During the course of each season, the characters [...]

This a review of “Homeless: It’s No Game”, from www.gamesforchange.org/. In the game, the player takes on the role of a homeless person and must survive on the streets for “24″ hours while trying to increase self-esteem. To do so, players must do the following: Earn money by begging, foraging for and selling items from [...]

This a review of “Homeless: It’s No Game”, from www.gamesforchange.org/. In the game, the player takes on the role of a homeless person and must do the following:

The game I chose to review is “Darfur is Dying,” found at http://www.darfurisdying.com/. The game is meant to give insight to the plight of refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan, an area decimated by genocide and civil strife. The player’s job is to contribute to the survival of a refuge camp. There is a [...]

Summary Third World Farmer is a game that simulates the life of a poor African subsistence farmer. It Begins by giving the farmer a healthy family of four, a hut, farm land, and fifty dollars. The farmer must survive year after, making decisions on whether or purchase crops. farm animals, equipment, buildings, or medical care. [...]

PLAN YOUR FUTURE PARK! I have new found appreciation for the intense time and effort it takes to plan public recreation projects.  I stumbled across the “Play Your Future Park” game while exploring Social Impact Games.  Before you can even begin playing, the participant is asked to ask a question about a current par k [...]

Ben’s Game was the culmination from the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Ben Duskin, at the time a 9-year old Leukemia patient. Ben was an avid video/computer game player and wished to have a game designed for kids with cancer to relieve some of the stresses with chemotherapy. However the idea was was put into a quandary [...]

I browsed and briefly played quite a few games from the Games For Change and Social Impact Games sites, but will describe only two here in this post. As I explored those sites, it became very clear what was meant by Serious Games. These are certainly not fun topics. Those that are well-made are certainly [...]

Handigo The Game – Ubisoft 3 mini-games, placing the player in a situation of disability: motor impairment, sensory impairment and learning difficulties. Play a part! Emergency! An earthquake has just taken place. Put yourself in the shoes of a doctor or a volunteer and help the victims as quickly as possible! Play a part! Learn [...]

Discovering a variety of serious games on the web was an easy task, playing some of the games was the difficult part, especially if you aren’t a gamer! I unearthed the Gameland site created by Shockwave, I played several of the online games.http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding Oil God Gamehttp://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/oilgod.jsp This online game is a strategic puzzle game developed [...]

Karma Tycoon is game in which players choose a city’s population to serve and the type of non-profit organization to open within it. Players earn Karma points by attracting their target population to the site. How can you improve your site to attract a larger number of individuals? Should you pay cash or use your [...]

Free Rice is a vocabulary game I found through the Games for Change website. FreeRice is a sister site of Poverty.com and their partners are the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program. FreeRice has two goals: To provide education to everyone for free and to [...]

As a newbie, still trying to find out what’s so serious about “serious games”, I ran across a helpful site offering a Serious Games Taxonomy. Ben Sawyer & Peter Smith (U of Central FL Retro Lab) developed the slide pres for the Serious Games Summit in Feb 08. Ben is also the author of Serious [...]

Gum Beat purports to be about a teenage girl who stands up against the oppressive government. In the game, bubble gum is illegal, which is seen through many postings plastered across the city. So, naturally, your character chews bubble gum, which is used to attract followers, inspire happiness in others and derail police efforts. Even [...]

The Peace Doves is a nuclear disarmament game, developed by the United Nations and can be found on Nobelprize.orghttp://nobelprize.org/educational_games/peace/nuclear_weapons/index.html(Originally found on the web site Games for Change listed under “Global Conflicts”) The object of the game is to send peace doves (that have magical powers) down from outer space to countries that have nuclear weapons [...]

Darfur is Dying is a human-rights based simulation game where players must negotiate threats by the Janjaweed militias to live. Players must forage for water and risk death. Players must try to live for at least seven days in a refugee camp. The game is not fun, just like life in the Sudan, and I [...]

Global Conflicts: Latin America is a 3D simulation game that sends you to Latin America to explore internal conflicts within key Latin American countries. In the online demo, players take on the role of an american reporter inestigating pollution and birth-defects/illnesses resulting from chemicals being dumped into the local river. Along with pollution and health [...]

The Garbage Gamehttp://www.gothamgazette.com/games/garbage.php My mentality about garbage really doesn’t go beyond putting my recyclables in the be blue can and my ‘garbage’ in the gray can. After I put the cans out on the curb each Thursday night, my role in the process stops (except for paying my bill every other month…) This game, although [...]

Mission Migrationhttp://ny.audubon.org/game.html Mission Migration is a game created by the Audubon Society. The object of the game is to migrate your flock safely through three regions, the country, the suburbs, and the city.The game became an entertaining challenge in-flight because the flock has to dodge aircraft and storms, which diminish the life of your flock. [...]

As a teacher of World History I have found myself particularly interested with the waning days of the Cold War and the plight of former Soviet republics. I found the “Orange Revolution” off of the Games For Change website. The game’s tries to recreate the key events that took place during Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution [...]

On Election Night, 2008, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the Anti-Bush Game , a video game for the truly virulent Bush-basher. It seemed appropriate to explore “serious game” of this nature as a historic election took place in this country. Somehow, the phrase “from the ridiculous to the sublime” kept running through my [...]

I found this serious game, Ayiti: The Cost of Life, on the Games for Change website. After playing Heifer Village Nepal, I found this game to be more interesting, entertaining and easier to follow. Ayiti can be played at your computer using this link: http://ayiti.newsfrew.org/globalkids/ The developers and designers of this game used youths as [...]

While surfing the Social Impact Games website, I came across a number of interesting learning games on Health and Wellness. Since I work for a company that deals with Diabetes drugs and people who have Diabetes, I was drawn to a particular game – Escape the Diab. This game is due to be released in [...]