Group items tagged

mentions several games used for teaching global cultures

Shell turns to sims to power its scenarios.

"Dr. Keller: I designed the simulation with two main goals in mind. First, it had to be an effective teaching tool. I wanted to take abstract concepts and theories that my students often had difficulty grasping, and make these vivid and clearly understandable. I wanted students to personally experience the challenges and complexities of world politics-to get off the sidelines and become players. Although the countries, domestic factions, and global issues in Statecraft are fictional, they have been carefully designed to provide maximum insight into parallel real-world dilemmas: as students grapple with the Orion slavery issue, the threat posed by the melting Ice Mountain, and the temptation to seize Sapphire Island's vast resources they come to understand the security dilemma, the collective action problem, two-level games, the challenges of cooperation under anarchy, and many other constructs not as theoretical concepts but as visceral truths that permeate their conversations with classmates, friends, and parents, and may even keep them up at night."

I like the concept of Statecraft, and took an early look at them. But boy, I wish they would stop spamming up my inbox with invitations to lunch etc. Quite pushy.

That's weird. Are they aggressively courting players for other purposes, or pushing ads?

"The Madingley Model simulates how the structure and function of ecosystems at global scales emerges from the underlying ecology of individual organisms."

Several educational games, role-playing, based on the perspective of being an investigative journalist. One concerns Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, the other Latin American politics.

Student blog - note seamlessness of experience between movie and game story lines.

Say more, Ed. Do you think that seamlessness is part of the global imaginary now?

I think it is becoming less remarkable to treat game worlds and storylines as similar to/comparable to/continuous with longer-established media such as movies, novels etc. I don't know whether it's generational, or just longevity of the medium. Maybe the technology has grown to allow more complex/complete world depictions.

Very cool idea. I need to snag a copy of the article, now.

I'm an ISA member and will have a paper copy quite soon - I'll scan it for you.

To engage international relations and area studies professionals in virtual and real games of domestic and international relations taking place during a global information age with rapid change, turmoil and instability.

Good point. I wonder why FB. Easy tool for adding and accessing content, if it's that widespread among their population.

I've seen lots of DH projects that attempted to build their own independent social networks. It's an incredibly steep uphill battle.