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Showing posts from July, 2010

Serious Games Educating On Teen Dating Violence

Via: Jennifer Ann’s Group – Teen Violence Contest Winner 2010: Grace’s Diary Grace's Diary is a "Serious Game" created by Hima in Bangkok, Thailand, in the form of a visual novel adventure, which was named the winner for the 2010 Life. Love. Game Design Challenge , an annual competition sponsored by the Jennifer Ann's Group to spread awareness about the dangers of teen dating violence. The story is about a student named Grace and her best friend Natalie, whom she thinks might be involved in an abusive relationship. In the game you must search for clues that convince Natalie to review her situation and seek professional help for her troubles before it is too late to act. Grace's Diary manages to seamlessly integrate the theme of relationship abuse into a sensitive and moving visual novel. In the first part of the game, in classic point and click style, you click on various objects in Grace's bedroom to trigger memories about her friend Natalie.

Serious Games Design Competition Sponsored by Disney Research

Via: SIGGRAPH 2010 – Disney Research Learning Challenge The Walt Disney Company has a history of blending revolutionary creative content and superb storytelling with groundbreaking technology. Now Disney Research in conjunction with SIGGRAPH is sponsoring a Serious Games Design competition - the Disney Learning Challenge . Disney Research sponsors the Learning Challenge, based on the principle that fun and learning shouldn't be contradictory. The Learning Challenge is designed to show that sophisticated concepts can be conveyed via entertaining interactions on computers that will impart Active Knowledge of Learning Concepts. The challenge is to develop an engaging Learning Application that will delight, inspire, and reveal key learning concepts for children ages 7-11. The learning application must be a layered activity that moves a child from minimal knowledge to active knowledge in one or more learning concepts via entertaining interactions on computers. The subject

EpicWin: Serious Games And Real Life Colliding In Unique Ways

My prior post Anecdotal Evidence: Serious Games As Persuasive Game-Life Integration , was built around some reflections on Jesse Schell’s Superb Presentation at DICE 2010: Design Outside The Box. Despite the skepticism when Jesse Schell explored hypothetical scenarios such as teeth brushing earning sponsored awards from Crest, his talk did represent a “stake in the ground” for game designers getting sensitive to the rising of new core values for game creation, amongst them the value of "realness", the value of rewarding game-life achievements and the value of embedding games in our everyday lives. Here is brand new evidence: EpicWin Rewards Real Life Work EpicWin is an upcoming iPhone game by Rexbox and MrFungFung , to note down all your everyday tasks, but with a role-playing spin. Rather than ticking off your chores, completing each one improves and develops your character in an ongoing quest to level-up your in-game avatar. Described on the ga

GK Supports Teachers to Incorporate Serious Games in Education

Via: Global Kids' Online Leadership Program Six New York City high school teachers, coordinated by the National Writing Project , sought assistance from Global Kids to bring their own designs for Serious Games into their classrooms. The teachers have worked with Barry Joseph, Rafi Santo and other consultants from Global Kids this spring to develop and test a gaming curriculum. They created and documented a curriculum that has modules that can fit into different types of classes, including four core subject areas: * Computer Arts * English * Technology and * Art. Paul Allison, technology liaison at the New York City Writing Project, who coordinated the demo project, says “We created a pilot curriculum and brought it to our classes two times a week this spring. Our study group met with Barry Joseph and his colleagues at Global Kids in Manhattan to learn more about gaming on March 24, April 22 and May 5.” “At our first session, Barry Joseph and Rafi Santo presented an over

HSE: Serious Games For Team-Based Lifting Operations

Using role playing training, even elements like wind, changing sea-states and shifting loads can be factored in and crews can learn to work through these challenges. Via: Drilling Contractor Drilling Contractor has posted a most interesting article on the use of Serious Games and Simulations for the challenges of non-routine engineered lifts. According to Arnold Free, CMLabs Simulations, over the past 10 years, most fatal work accidents on offshore oil & gas structures have involved the use of lifting equipment. The central causal factors are human error. In particular, the common factors are related to poor work planning and supervision. Mistakes are made during operations because workers are not always properly prepared for real work conditions. This safety message is not new, and offshore industry groups such as API, NORSOK, OMHEC and the UK’s HSE have been working toward building training standards that define requirements for the entire lift team. “B

Notre Dame Is Exploring The Use Of Serious Games In Higher Education

Via: Serious Games Learning Community Blog During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Serious Games Learning Community at the University of Notre Dame is exploring the use of games in higher education. Their goal is to find or create games designed to improve learning – and implement those games in courses at Notre Dame. Members of this learning community can be Notre Dame faculty, staff, or students interested in computer games, role-plays, board games, and related pastimes. The first meeting of the Serious Games Learning Community will take place Thursday, July 29, 2010 — 11:00 am to 1:00 pm in the Dooley Room of LaFortune Student Center.

GameCareerGuide New Post: A Look At Serious Games

Game Career Guide  has just posted Liam Morrow's 3-page must read piece: A Look At "Serious Games". The article's opening statement " Video games will change the way we learn ", gives us a taste of its across the board assertiveness. Here are a few highlights: "Video games will change the way we learn and learning from video games occurs in a variety of ways: Video games develop a wide range of skills vital to other areas of learning including multitasking and analytical thinking. This occurs especially in open-ended games such as SimCity where in order to succeed players must manage several channels of information while assessing past mistakes simultaneously." "When we play games we inhabit the lives of characters in completely different social groups and therefore experience ideologies and values different to our own.  By experiencing new cultures, games teach us to understand the world from new perspectives." " Vid

Serious Games In Education Bill Passed in NC in July

Via: Savvan's Blog - State Legislators pass economic development bill for the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Design & Development Industry in North Carolina Savvan's Blog reports today that NC State Legislators worked to pass an economic development bill providing a tax credit for Interactive Digital Media (IDM) that hire programmers within North Carolina. Industries likely to benefit most from this bill are education, military, government, and corporate training. “The RTP ( Research Triangle Park ) area is a hub for development of entertainment games and advanced learning technologies, and this bill will help keep it that way,” said Linda Savanauskas, a Raleigh digital education specialist and owner of Savvan Consulting. Savanauskas said that the entertainment industry generates revenue in RTP/NC, with 5 of the 10 leading global game engine companies located here. She added, “North Carolina is also a leader in the education industry’s immersive technologies, know

SGI Newest Serious Game Wins Best Learning Game Award

Via: Serious Games Interactive Serious Games Interactive newest educational game Playing History has just won the 1st European Best Learning Game competition in the category Best Professional Game with a Budget over 40.000 Euros. While in their Global Conflicts game series SGI wanted to give the players an authentic experience and made the product closer to a simulation than to an actual game, in their new game series Playing History , their main focus is to allow the players to learn through exploratory discovery, and the adventure-game elements are therefore very strong. The Playing History game series places you in historically significant and interesting time periods, where you will get the chance to meet major historical personalities and experience history in the making. The game series is expected to be launched later this year: • Episode I: "The Plague" (Autumn 2010) • Episode II: "The Slave Trade" (Winter 2010) Playing History: Th

2010 Serious Games Showcase & Challenge - Call for Serious Games Entries

Via: The Fifth Annual I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase & Challenge - Call for Serious Games Entries November 29 - December 2, 2010, Orlando, Florida, USA Serious Game developers are invited to submit their original PC-based serious game to the Fifth Annual I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase & Challenge. The goal of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge is to promote innovative game-based solutions to training problems. Finalists in the Serious Game Showcase & Challenge will be selected by a panel of Serious Games leaders in the military, industry, and academic fields, and will be invited to showcase their serious game at I/ITSEC 2010, where over 18,000 attendees will view and vote on each of the finalists. The Challenge is open to a wide range of contestants; categories include student, government, and business. Awards will be provided to top contestants in those categories. Entered games can address any training objective pertinent to High School

Serious Games Improving Training and Performance Metrics

How a Serious Game Improved Trainee Performance by 60% Via: Thinking Worlds - Improving Navy Recruits‟ Performance: A Serious Games Study Following my prior post Serious Games Help New Recruits On The Ship where I addressed the "Serious Game" conception, here is the story of how the Royal Navy used this "Serious Game" to transform training effectiveness on a crucial operational area on board ship – Engineering Safety Rounds Inspection. Historically, this was the Maritime Warfare School’s worst performing course. Compared to classroom training, the immersive learning experience of Serious Games improved trainee capability, cut failure rates by 54% and reduced the needs for additional resource requirements. A Performance Problem What would you do if 13% of all new recruits were failing one of their most critical courses? How would you cope with a failure rate that was 200%-300% higher than most of your other core training subjects and the cost to retrai

Exploding Places: Serious Games Played Live On the Streets

A new outdoor mobile phone game set in Woolwich Via: Active Ingredient - Exploding Places Going Live 24/07/10 A new outdoor mobile phone game is to be piloted in London on Saturday July 24th 2010: Exploding Places - a prototype of a new outdoor mobile phone game set in Woolwich, created by Active Ingredient in collaboration with Horizon Digital Economy Research, University of Nottingham and commissioned by Stream. Exploding Places takes you on a journey through time and space. You arrive in a fictional Woolwich in South East London, create your own community and place them in the real world Woolwich. Over the space of an hour you and your community travel through 120 years of local and global history. The First World War passes in just a few minutes as you play the game to ensure your survival. Exploding Places is a "Serious Game" played live on the streets of Woolwich. You play on the phone screen and through headphones, as you walk the town’s real streets. Y

mygameIQ: THE Distribution System For The Serious Games Industry

Via: mygameIQ – New Channel Based, Digital Distribution And Content Management Platform Westlake Village, Calif., July 11, 2010 – Pragmatic Solutions, Inc. announced earlier this week the launch of its new channel based, digital distribution and content management platform for gaming - mygameIQ™. mygameIQ will provide a platform for AAA browser-based and downloadable game titles, emphasizing the world of Educational, Serious and Independent games. “By celebrating the unique world of gaming, we will create a new community of Serious Games users” said Robert Brown, COO of Pragmatic Solutions, Inc., the creators of mygameIQ . Pragmatic has been working as one of the America’s Army Development teams since 2004, being accountable for the middleware that includes Authentication, Matchmaking, Statistics and Dynamic Content Delivery, as well as for the Honor Program that supports America’s Army growth and positioning as a worldwide leader. With 11 million registered users, A

Serious Games Getting More Students Into Stem Fields Of Study

Via: NASA Moonbase Alpha Last week, NASA launched a free online 3D Serious Game on Steam that allows players to step into the role of an exploration team member in a futuristic 3D lunar settlement. Moonbase Alpha is a NASA-funded game using the Unreal engine, where up to six players can team up in order to save a near-future lunar base crippled by a meteor strike: you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement. Team coordination along with the proper use and allocation of your available resources (player controlled robots, rovers, repair tools, etc.) are key to your overall success. There are several ways in which you can successfully restore the life support system of the lunar base, but since you are scored on the time spent to complete the task, you have to work effectively as a team, learn from decisions made in previous gaming sessions, and make intelligence decisions in order to top th

Adam Gerson’s Superb Presentation: Serious Games In Construction

Adam Gerson, CIH CSP, is the Occupational Safety and Health Manager at the U.S. Department of Labor, who believes that collaborative Serious Games can be useful for OSHA related health & safety training. Adam has just created a superb PPT presentation - Virtual Simulators as Alternate Training Techniques for Construction Equipment Operators & Generation X and Y , intended primarily for safety & health professionals in the Pacific NW. Adam’s upcoming talks are listed below by date and group: • August 13th – Residential Construction Safety Group at the Mechanical Builders Association (MBA) • September 16th – Professional Development Conference for the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) • October 7th (tentative) – Monthly Safety Meeting at the Washington Association of General Contractors (AGC) • November 10th – Puget Sound Area Safety Summit (PSASS) The Case for Action According to the Construction Industry Institute , CII’s October 2009