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New Sites and Projects

We’re excited to begin the year with two web site launches and two game projects in development…

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$20 Million in 7 Minutes

Founded in 2004, Games for Change is the leading global advocate for supporting and making games for social impact, including for learning (serious games). The 8th annual Games for Change Festival just wrapped up in New York. Al Gore’s keynote on Monday opened the three-day festival with strong acknowledgement for games and social media’s ability [...]

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Using Social Media and Game Mechanics Improve Learning

Do you hear what I hear? After reading Social Networking in Schools on the Huffington Post today, I recognized that nearly every project I’ve worked on over the past year has pointed towards a new round of convergence — a mash-up of social media, mobile media, game mechanics, assessment, and various forms of blended or self-directed study in [...]

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Gamification is Coming. Are You Ready?

The debate about the use of game mechanics in digital media — lately known as gamification — hardly started  before being overtaken by tools, workshops and service providers all too willing to use game techniques to tart up your latest digital masterpiece. But many in the gaming world are complaining “Not so fast!” and The [...]

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Whyville, AMD and PBS Join Forces

It’s gratifying when your clients and friends do well so I’m happy to pass along the news that Whyville, the subversively educational virtual world for tweens launched in 1999, has partnered with AMD Foundation and PBS to offer game development tools. From the press release: AMD today announced that the AMD Foundation, in support of [...]

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Avatars in Whyville.net

The Future of Video Games: The Kids Are Alright

What a long strange trip it’s been. First, video games were seen as nothing more than a waste of time, then they were said to be a scourge that was turning young, impressionable players into zombified serial killers or worse. More recently, thanks to the work of people like Jim Gee, the conversation has shifted [...]

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Using Game Mechanics to Power Your Business

There’s a post by Shane Snow and Phin Barnes on Mashable called How to Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business that’s an excellent primer on a topic many first-time game design clients struggle to understand. Whether you’re looking to leverage game mechanics to drive business or to make a product more compelling, this is [...]

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Gamestar Mechanic in the South Bronx

[Scroll down for update.]  When I heard about eLine Media‘s planned beta test of Gamestar Mechanic I thought it would be a perfect match for the outreach programs organized by New York based NGO The LAMP to teach media literacy in under-served communities. It took less than an hour to reach a meeting of the [...]

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UC Berkeley Study: Gameplay Shown to Raise Kids IQ

UC Berkeley Study: Gameplay Shown to Raise Kids IQ

Dr. Silvia Bunge, director of the Bunge Cognitive Control and Development Laboratory at UC Berkeley, uses behavioral and brain imaging techniques to examine how we control our thoughts and actions to make them consistent with our internal goals. In a recent study reported by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in their Newsweek blog NurtureShock, kids [...]

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Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

First clue: it’s not a summer movie. As the annual techno-temple of E3 winds down, reports are starting to filter in about what’s going to be hot in the next year. Personally I’m going to wait for our friend Warren Buckleitner to weigh in.  If you’re not so patient and have to be the first [...]

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The Sims Takes iPhone Games to New Level, 12-14 Hrs. of Play

The Sims Takes iPhone Games to New Level, 12-14 Hrs. of Play

Levi Buchanan writes in The Sims 3 Review, “This is not some port, this is the real deal Sims for the iPhone. Sims 3 for the iPhone starts with a Sim creator where you choose the gender and general appearance of your Sim. However, the true customization of your Sims takes place when you craft [...]

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Metaplace Finally in Open Beta

Metaplace Finally in Open Beta

I’ve been following the development of Metaplace and been an early beta tester since meeting Raph Koster at the Game Developer’s Conference several years ago. His vision was audacious, yet simplicity itself: allow anyone to create and share their own massively multiplayer virtual world or game using drag-and-drop tools. As Raph wrote in his blog [...]

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