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Ed Webb

With video games, public diplomacy by mobile phone - SmartPlanet - 0 views

  • MetroStar Systems, a 75-employee tech start-up contracted by the State Department to bring a better understanding of the United States to the countries with which it has less-than-amicable relations. The company plans to do so with X-Life Games, an initiative that effectively wraps a U.S. history lesson inside a downloadable video game for a mobile phone.
  • The products of this initiative — so far, “Driven,” a car-racing trivia game, and “Babangar Blues,” a music-based role-playing game — are intended to “demystify” the U.S. to foreign audiences, starting with the Middle East.
  • Ironically, the trivia very much resembles the test administered to new citizens. I asked Manouchehri if it was really fair to expect an Iranian to know who Patrick Henry was. “The hope is that they’ll look them up,” he said.
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  • the State Department gathers and receives behavioral data that helps it track “macro behavioral trends,” particularly among the Generation Y demographic MetroStar is targeting, born between 1981 and 2000.
  • Manouchehri is looking at deploying his mobile games in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in nations with more mature telecom networks, such as Egypt, Indonesia and Lebanon.
Ed Webb

Meedan | Iranian gamers head to Europe to... - 0 views

shared by Ed Webb on 24 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Iran's government-run Press TV says: Titles produced by Iranian videogames companies include an Iran-Iraq war tank shooter, a platform adventure set in Persia, an adventure game where you play the role of a girl called Sara, a young student caught up in events during the early stages of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and a role-playing game based on Iranian mythology called the Age of the Braves.
    • Ed Webb
       
      Heard Vit Sisler talking about some of these at a workshop on Iranian media earlier this year. If they ever do become available in the West, could be a very useful teaching tool, whether for Middle East Studies classes or for analyzing video games as rhetoric.
Bryan Alexander

Marx, Debord, Wells and Duchamp « Pervasive Games: Theory and Design - 0 views

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    A nice brace of thinkers connected, however briefly, with gaming.
Ed Webb

BBC NEWS | Technology | Battling swine flu in cyberspace - 0 views

  • Dubbed "The Great Flu", the game is based on the threat that the emergence of a new flu virus and its rapid spread across the globe would pose to humanity. "The game is based on the need to increase public awareness to the threat posed by a pandemic and the measures in place to contain it," said Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre and one of the experts involved in creating the game.
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    Good catch. Disease games seem to be a standard form for education, now.
Ed Webb

Game Theory: Why World of Warcraft may be the future of the nation-state | Aleks Krotos... - 0 views

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    "These spaces threaten world order" - I've been waiting for the panic to start for a while, now.
Ed Webb

`Champions' to unleash virtual heroes and foes - Yahoo! News - 0 views

  • Launching next month, the new massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Champions Online" will let gamers create their own virtual superheroes.
  • "One of the things I like about having the `Champions' universe to play with is that players don't know what to expect," he said. "So they get to explore. They get to build, and they get to become the important heroes in the world, as opposed to having to live in the shadows of iconic characters that they've known and been reading about forever."
  • the hairy beast organically spawns in the game's Monster Island enclave and can only be taken down with a team of other superheroes.
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  • players can try to stop their adversary solo or invite other players to assist in throwing him in The Stronghold, a supervillain prison located in the game's virtual desert.
Bryan Alexander

Hightower Scholars professor promotes the study of video games - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - 0 views

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    Depauw's Harry Brown works with kids and gaming in Pittsburgh. Go Harry!
Ed Webb

Auditorium - The Online Experience - 0 views

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    That's a fine project, Ed. I like the combination of puzzles with soothing music, a minimalist exploration.
Ed Webb

バンダイ【ツッツキバコ】公式サイト - 0 views

shared by Ed Webb on 04 Aug 09 - Cached
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    Game as prosthetic - stick your finger in to manipulate the virtual finger. See also discussion at http://schulzeandwebb.com/blog/2009/07/30/preparing-us-for-ar-the-value-of-illustrating-of-future-technologies/
Bryan Alexander

Call For Papers: Foundations of Digital Games - 0 views

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    Coming up in June of 2010. Looks like a variety of content and format encourages (workshop, paper, poster, demos).
Shalom Staub

Smart Tools for Smart Power: Simulations and Serious Games for Peacebuilding | United S... - 1 views

  • The event explored how the latest online and scenario-driven simulations and 3D virtual environments can be applied to sharpen decision-making skills and lay the foundation for more effective peace operations, negotiation, and cooperation.
  • Steve York and Ivan Marovic “A Force More Powerful,” York Zimmerman
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    report on the USIP peacemaking and gaming conference
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    Shalom, which academic disciplines were most represented during the event? I would guess political science and history.
Ed Webb

Serious Gaming and Simulations - the Power and Potential for Peacebuilders | United Sta... - 0 views

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    Shalom Staub spotted this - may be of interest to some of the group
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    Ed and I both had the opportunity to listen in to some of the sessions. We agreed that the most interesting and useful information for our community was presented by the developer of A Force More Powerful. A newly designed, open-source, game on conflict resolution will be released in November 2009. The open-source design will allow people to add real or imaginary conflict scenarios as game modules.
Bryan Alexander

Learning Games for Change | Mission to Learn - 0 views

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    Nice catalogue of no-cost, accessible political activism games.
Bryan Alexander

Global Conflicts - 0 views

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