Whack-A-Mole turns out to be social engineering
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-30This has been floating around the net for awhile, I most recently ran across it on the Guardian Unlimited Games Blog, and they got it from Watercooler Games (both of these sites are superb). Incase you haven’t seen it yet Stanford and The Washington Post ran a study that involved people playing Whack-A-Mole, only the target were Dictators, Celebrities, and Political Figures. Interestingly they found that after whacking on dictators you would favor George Bush more than you did before. This is really cool psychology telling us that if we want people to favor a position we can have them wail on the counterpoint for a few minutes with a small plush hammer connected to a chain, or in this case just click on pictures of their opposites with a mouse. The guardian suggests that because speed of reaction can be a predictor of unconscious attitudes, games could be used in the future by pollsters trying to determine an accurate measure of person’s political views. I say we embrace this idea and determine the next presidential election with a huge Quake 3 death match.
Reinventing public diplomacy through games award ceremony during E3 week
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-26I just received the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's Newsletter for the first time. It is well done, and the major thrust is about the "Reinventing Public Diplomacy through Games Competition," It's a mouthful, but its also a superb idea that I wish I came up with first (I also wish I had grant funds). The competition is grant funded and designed as a place for people to showcase their talents by deigning a prototype or mod incorporating fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy. The finalists have been announced and the award ceremony will be May 8th at 3pm. You can follow this up with the Games for Health Day also at USC on May 9th and then wrap it all up with a three day E3 Expo Floor extravaganza. I am going to make every effort to be there and so should you, if unfortunately you can’t make it because your attending another conference or can’t convince your boss that E3 is totally an educational experience, you can participate in the award ceremony inside virtual world Second Life. Still not convinced one of the finalists is Global Kids Island, created by Global Kids, Inc. One of the founding organizations behind our sister site Games for Change. Read about all the finalists after the jump.
The finalists ranged from virtual cultural exchange programs to strategy games about the Israel and Palestinian conflict or international water rights. Listed below, in alphabetical order.
Exchanging Cultures Exchanging Cultures, a diplomatic game built inside “Second Life,” was created to facilitate the creating virtual communities and relationships based on the exchange of cultural items like: dances, art crafts, food receipts, architectural models, clothing, cultural routes and images of real original places for travelers and explorers. http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jmfernandez/2006/02/exchanging_cultures_ec_game.html.
Global Kids Island: Fostering Public Diplomacy Through Second Life Global Kids, Inc. envisioned a Public Diplomacy program within Second Life where the youth in the after-school program will spend the month learning about a global issue, experience an interactive and experiential workshop designed to educate about the issue. Their demonstration will be shown at the awards ceremony. For more information on the organization: http://www.globalkids.org/olp/index.jsp.
Hydro Hijinks Hydro Hyjinks is a class project designed to promote discussion about international water issues and to educate players from around the world about sources of international conflict over water rights. Watch the video tour of the game at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS2JT9IV3CM .
Peacemaker PeaceMaker is a cross-cultural political video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which can be used to promote a peaceful resolution among Israelis, Palestinians and young adults worldwide. More information, please visit their website: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/peacemaker/ .
Edmonton based firm brings serious games to oil wells
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-25Yesterday's Edmonton Journal ran a piece called 'Serious Games' for rig hands. It describes a serious game being designed for rig hands to train them in something called being crowned. In this case you don’t get to be king. According to the journal, "It’s a bad mistake that’s easy to make. Just push a lever too far on one of the 1,001 portable, truck-mounted service rigs in use to maintain western Canadian 183,000 producing oil and gas wells. A big diesel engine roars. Tonnes of machinery and steel pipe rush upwards and smash into the crown of the derrick…At worst a lethal hail of metal crashes down." A 23 employee firm, Terris Hill Productions, is fielding the new serious game and is already supported by one third of the western Canadian service rig fleet. With big guns like Imperial Oil and Talisman Energy supporting the project as well as open invitations to show the finished project in both the US and China, Terris Hill Productions could have a hit on its hands, and at the same time they could save lives. Read the full article here.
English English Revolution
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-20
I’ve actually been playing a lot of Dance Dance Revolution lately, and for those of you who know me that is probably pretty funny. On top of that I’m really bad at it. Luckily for me Konami is coming out with a new game for me to be bad at where I don’t have to make sure my blinds are closed to play. Konami is planning a game in conjunction with Japan’s biggest English School, Nova, to create a game for teaching English. It will be called Study Abroad By Gaming, and will have players solving English questions by what appears to be hitting words with a hammer. Amazingly Kotaku reports that this game will not be the next DS Brain Game style master piece (or nongame depending on what side of the fence you are on). It will be an arcade smash hit. Even more interestingly Konami is also planning to follow up with Kanji and Mathematics based games. Now I just need to figure out what to do with my dance pad.
Games for Health Day :: May 9, 2006 :: E3 Expo Week - Los Angeles, California
Posted by Ben Sawyer on 06-04-06Games for Health Day
May 9, 2006 :: E3 Expo Week :: Los Angeles, California
Davidson Executive Conference Center
3415 South Figueroa Street :: Los Angeles, California 90089
The Games for Health Project, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TATRC, and USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Institute for Creative Technologies invite you to join us on May 9 for a full-day event devoted to the use of games and game technologies in health and healthcare, including an evening reception.
For full details visit: http://www.gamesforhealth.org/archives/000132.html
Game Institute Creates Games in Education Course
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-04
The Game Institute and Muzzy Lane Software announced today the creation of a new course, Using Games in Education. The course will span four weeks and cover the practical aspects of using games in classrooms. Topics covered begin with what is a game and continue through planning a game-based learning experience from integration of learning objectives to assessment of players. The course is designed with teachers in mind, and aim to help them integrate games into their classes. The course in being offered for an introductory price of $150.00. If you are interested in enrolling follow the link.
Warlords Competition 2006
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-03
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The 6th annual Warlords Competition took place this weekend in the sleepy town of Huntsville Alabama, at the University of Alabama at Hunstville. You are probably asking yourself right now, "What is Warlords?" I was asking the same question myself about a week ago. Warlords is a gaming competition held between the service academies each year. With the Navy, Air Force and Army all fielding a team of militarily trained gamers the action was intense, or as intense as it could be at what amounted to a military version of a lan party. Each team played the other two teams in one round of three games each, using Battlefield 2, Command and Conquer Generals, and America's Army. The most interesting part of the event was watching the team mechanics that occurred during the event. The Army, which uses many games in their training, worked as a more cohesive team. They were in constant communication with each other, they had plans for each map, and the executed the plans flawlessly. The other teams put up a good fight but in the end the Army remained undefeated.
Serious Games Featured in Wired
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-04-02
This months Wired Magazine has a huge feature on games. The section is comprised of lots of articles cover many of the topics we love at the Serious Games Initiative including Virtual Pets, Sports Simulations, Advergaming, Gaming Politics, and even Serious Games (my favorite). Particularly interesting is the article Fighting for Their Lives, written by the President of HopeLab, Pat Christen. It covers the who what and where of HopeLab and their seminal title Re-Mission. Re-Mission was released today, and you can read all about it on our sister site, GamesForHealth.org at this link.