Water Cooler Games

by Ian Bogost July 29, 2009

Cutthroat Capitalism

Educational Games, Political Games

Wired Magazine has published a game about the business of Somali pirating. The game, called Cutthroat Capitalism, accompanies an article published in Wired, An Economic Analysis of the Somali Pirate Business Model. Here's a description: You are a pirate commander staked with $50,000 from local tribal leaders and other investors. ...

by Ian Bogost June 29, 2009

New Journal: The Computer Game Education Review

Educational Games

RIT professor Stephen Jacobs is the editor-in-chief of a new journal, The Computer Game Education Review. Here's the blurb he sent me on the publication: CGER will be a peer-reviewed academic publication addressing issues that concern the teaching of game design and development including, but not limited to, curriculum organization, ...

by Ian Bogost June 21, 2009

You Drive Like an Old Man

Advergames, Educational Games

Insurance company Liberty Mutual has created Driver Seat, which they bill as "the world's first senior driving simulator." The game strives to recreate the perceptual and reaction limitations of drivers aged 65, 75, or 85 through four scenarios (suburban, wilderness, urban, outskirts) each with several missions. It's a nice idea, ...

by Ian Bogost May 19, 2009

1066

Advergames, Educational Games

Wow, another educational game that doesn't suck! Check out 1066, a game produced by Channel 4 in the UK to promote and accompany a television program of the same name, about the Norman conquest. The game is beautiful and quite complex, featuring both single-player and multiplayer battles. If I have ...

by Ian Bogost April 25, 2009

A Pig, a Watercraft, and a Credit Card

Educational Games, Political Games

mtvU, MTV's college network, has held a contest each of the past three years, inviting college students to submit game designs that address a current social issue. The first of these was Darfur is Dying, about the Sudanese conflict, the second Pos or Not, about HIV. This year, the theme ...

by Ian Bogost April 3, 2009

The Writing Program Adminstrators Game

Educational Games

The Council of Writing Program Administrators, the professional organization for programs in college composition, has announced that the 2008 WPA Award for Graduate Writing in WPA Studies has been awarded to a board game. The game, titled simply "The WPA Game," was created by six Purdue University students. Unfortunately I ...

by Ian Bogost April 2, 2009

Reascending the Alps

Educational Games, Social Games

Whew, lots to catch up on! In the meantime, check out the best April Fools item I saw today: Alpine Legend for Xbox 360. Yes! ...

by Ian Bogost February 7, 2009

Guitar Hero Camp

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

Power Chord Academy is a music camp for 12-18 year olds in Los Angeles. This summer, the school has announced a new program, GameROCKERS™. GameROCKERS™ is our exclusive 3-day cutting edge game-musician program for the new age of musicians who play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Loaded with competitions and ...

by Ian Bogost January 9, 2009

Hula Wii

Educational Games, Health & Medicine Games

As usual, things are cooler in Japan. If the hula-hoop minigame in Wii Fit isn't enough for you, why not have a go at Hula Wii, a hula dance trainer "for health and beauty." It features twenty different tunes and supports play with the Wii Balance Board. You can even ...

by Ian Bogost December 28, 2008

Speak & Spell, 30 Years Later

Educational Games

Vintage Computing and Gaming has published an interview with Richard Wiggins, one of the developers of Texas Instruments' 1978 electronic toy Speak & Spell. This device was among the first electronic educational games, and for better or worse it may remain among the best. As the author admits, the interview ...

by Ian Bogost December 22, 2008

An MMORPG for Learning Chinese Characters

Educational Games

From South Korean company Eduflo comes Hanjamaru, an MMORPG designed to teach elementary school children Chinese characters. Characters are depicted on the monsters in the game, and the pronunciation and meaning is said aloud to the player as he attacks. There are rewards for collecting different characters, which are chosen ...

by Ian Bogost November 19, 2008

Missile in the HASTAC

Educational Games, Political Games, Social Games

The HASTAC consortium has just announced a forum hosted by their HASTAC Scholars fellows on digital games, entitled Participatory Play: Digital Games From Spacewar! to Virtual Peace to "explore game innovations that surpass violent first-person shooters and military training simulations." Here's a further description: Beginning with notable exemplars of imaginative ...

by Ian Bogost November 6, 2008

Click Archaeology

Advergames, Educational Games

To promote a week of programming about expeditions, from the pyramids to outer space, National Geographic has created an expedition game in which players are tasked to find artifacts which they can exchange for virtual cash. Each night during the week of November 16-23, a different show will air and ...

by Ian Bogost September 27, 2008

Vinylgame

Advergames, Educational Games

Vinylgame is another new title from Molleindustria, this one an advergame for a European PVC industry association. The game was commissioned to explain the organization's 10 year commitment to sustainability. The game is apparently more directed at industry insiders than the general public, and players may find it a bit ...

by Ian Bogost September 18, 2008

US Army Invades Schools

Educational Games, Political Games, Propaganda Games

The US Army has announced a "partnership" with a group called Project Lead The Way to "to enhance student curriculum by using a variety of Army technologies to promote student interest in the engineering and technical fields." Project Lead The Way is a 501(c)(3) focused on science and engineering education ...

by Ian Bogost September 9, 2008

Where are the educational games on consoles?

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

Over at Kotaku, Brian Crecente notes the re-release of Math Blasters for the DS, and then wonders why more console makers don't introduce at least a few good educational games on their systems in order to win over schools, parents, and other groups who might like both entertainment and education. ...

by Ian Bogost August 25, 2008

Gimmickry, or How Exergaming Went Mainstream

Casual Games, Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Health & Medicine Games

I've been thinking about exercise games lately, primarily due to an onslaught of new games, devices, and initiatives. For example, we've got Footgaming, a sort of promotional blog for a student fitness program called Generation Fit. The group hopes to support casual and educational play with a peripheral called FootPOWR. ...

by Ian Bogost August 6, 2008

Suffering under Global Poverty

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Ack. Check out the Race Against Global Poverty Game. According to its sponsors, the game is supposed give "children living in the UK the chance to learn about the developing world in a fun and stimulating way." I wonder what went wrong here. It's a graphically lush simulated board game ...

by Ian Bogost July 17, 2008

Lockdown: A School Shooting Game

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Lockdown is a "serious game for incident responses to school shootings." The game was created at the GamePipe Lab at USC Engineering with sponsorship from Sandia National Laboratories. The game looks very polished, but I couldn't help but notice that Lockdown's apparent approach to "incident response" is: "do whatever you'd ...

by Ian Bogost June 26, 2008

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 Finals

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Microsoft holds an annual student competition called Imagine Cup, with its theme chosen from the UN Millennium Goals. The 2008 theme is the environment, and for the first time there is a special game development, with games created in XNA Game Studio Express. I'll be in Paris next week acting ...

by Ian Bogost June 10, 2008

Spore among "Best Games For the Classroom"

Educational Games

College@Home has published a list of their pics for the 25 Best Sims and Games For the Classroom. The focus is mostly devoted to commercial games of probably interest to kids, which could also feasibly be used in a classroom setting. The list is almost all comprised good games, for ...

by Ian Bogost May 18, 2008

Budget Hero

Educational Games, Political Games

Budget Hero is the new serious game about balancing the federal budget, from American Public Media. I've been out of commission recently, so instead of writing my own thoughts on Budget Hero I want to encourage you to read a thorough review by Georgia Tech Digital Media Ph.D. student Ben ...

by Ian Bogost May 9, 2008

Liz Losh on the NASA MMO Fail

Educational Games

Recently I made some strong remarks about NASA's decision to pull (or "reconfigure") the funding plan for their long-planned educational MMO. Virtualpolitik tracker Liz Losh has since authored a far more sophisticated analysis of the situation. Go read the whole thing, but in brief Losh attributes three main factors to ...

by Ian Bogost April 28, 2008

I am a Gorilla

Activism Games, Educational Games

Clark Boyd interviewed me the other day for a piece on BBC's The World radio program which covered a mobile game supporting gorilla conservation. The game, called Silverback, is a cute, involved J2ME title in the platformer-adventure game genre. It turns out the game was actually created back in 2003 ...

by Ian Bogost April 23, 2008

NASA MMO Update: Brains Pulled, not Funding

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

Earlier this week I reported that NASA had pulled the $3m worth of funding previously committed to an educational MMO project. Other reliable sources ran the same story (1, 2, 3). Sean Hollister wrote a new story on the topic, including some interview material from Daniel Laughlin, one of the ...

by Ian Bogost April 21, 2008

NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

(Updated here, 23 April) A while back, NASA started talking about a large-scale, well-funded MMO they wanted to make for educational purposes. The organization published a Request for Information (RFI) that claimed "A high quality synthetic gaming environment is a vital element of Nasa's educational cyberstructure." The goals of the ...

by Ian Bogost April 14, 2008

The UN Shoots an Air Ball

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

The UN Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign provides low-cost bed nets in an effort to reduce malaria-related deaths in Africa in particular. As a part of the campaign, they have created a game, Deliver the Net. If you play the game and sign up at the end, the organization will ...

by Ian Bogost March 21, 2008

Knowledge is Nothing. Tenure is Everything.

Educational Games, Political Games, Social Games

Thanks to David Wessman on the IGDA Education SIG mailing list for pointing out Survival of the Witless, a card game about the academic tenure process. The title above was the game's tagline. It’s a brutal game, where the most common card is "ass-kissing" (to simulate the most common action ...

by Ian Bogost February 18, 2008

GDC 2008: Out of the Box, EA Fuels New Ideas with Madden and Sims Titles

Educational Games, Game Design, Political Games

Presentation by Rob Moore, Steve Seabolt (EA) at the Serious Games Summit, Game Developers Conference 2008. Moore got stuck in bad weather but sent along some materials about A number of EA Sports titles are used by athletes, including by NASCAR drivers to get used to tracks, by pro basketball ...

by Ian Bogost January 28, 2008

Audience Response System for games in schools

Educational Games

The New York Times published an article today about using audience response systems -- those handheld devices used to poll gameshow audiences -- for classroom games. One school district in southern California spent half a million bucks on them, and others have followed suit. In a typical system, the clickers ...

by Ian Bogost December 19, 2007

Scholastic Defiles Self, World with Game-Book Tie-ins

Educational Games

Scholastic, the textbook publisher Kaiser Permanente paid off to publish their craptastic nutrition game, is back with more cross-media garbage for you and your tween. Now that the Harry Potter series is complete, Scholastic is eager to get a new franchise out. According to a story in the New York ...

by Ian Bogost November 6, 2007

Science Museum Physics Games

Educational Games

Remember playing The Incredible Machine? It was one of the only good educational games of the early 90s -- maybe all of the 90s. The UK Science Museum has created a set of online games to support their Launchpad installation of physics topics. The games, dubbed Launchball, play like a ...

by Ian Bogost October 14, 2007

Library Games at CMU

Casual Games, Educational Games

The Carnegie Mellon University Libraries have a couple of library games (yes, i said library games) in their new Library Arcade . The first game is Within Range, and it's an LC call number shelving game. Seriously. The second game is I'll Get It, and it's more complex. The player ...

by Ian Bogost October 11, 2007

Hungarian Freedom Fighters Graphic Novel

Educational Games

Lauer Learning has announced a new version of their Freedom Fighter '56 game, a bundle that includes a graphic novel based on the game's story. It's a nice idea, and the production value looks very high. We should see more combined products like this in serious games, games with additional ...

by Ian Bogost September 24, 2007

Alternate Reality Games Seminar

Advergames, Educational Games, Social Games

Despite their interesting features, Alternate Reality Games like The Beast and ilovebees really got their start as marketing campaigns. Since World Without Oil, there has been growing interest in using ARGs for serious purposes. Game community Unfiction is sponsoring a one-day event, Embrace the Chaos, to help people understand how ...

by Ian Bogost September 1, 2007

An Instructional Alternate Reality Game

Educational Games

Exceptional Software Strategies and Media Edge offer Never Rest Game, a new counter-terrorism ARG in which players must "thwart terrorism by using their own methods against them when they least expect it." The unusual thing about this ARG is that it bills itself as explicitly educational, and even tries to ...

by Ian Bogost June 26, 2007

World of Borecraft

Educational Games

Slate just published an article by Justin Peters about games that teach, cleverly titled World of Borecraft. It's a thoughtful article that basically calls the whole concept of educational games out on the carpet, from Mavis Beacon through Serious Games. Persuasive Games' work is called out along with the others, ...

by Ian Bogost April 16, 2007

Art does not take exit surveys

Educational Games, Political Games

I should be frank: I'm actually a bit tired of hearing about Super Columbine Massacre RPG. That's not because I don't support the game -- I was one of its earliest supporters, and I remain impressed and intrigued by the way the game attempts to put the player in the ...

by Ian Bogost April 10, 2007

Advertising and Ecology: Planet Green Game

Advergames, Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Starbucks Coffee and Global Green USA have created Planet Green Game, a game about energy conservation and consumption. The game is set in a hypothetical town called Evergreen. The player chooses a character and transportation mode (foot, skateboard, bicycle, and three types of automobiles, each with different emissions). A ...

by Ian Bogost March 26, 2007

Stop Disasters Game

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

PlayerThree, creators of Food Force among other great titles, have a new game sponsored by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The game is appropriately called Stop Disasters!, and it's a fantastic, simple, rich little strategy game. It's also a rich game, covering five disaster scenarios in great ...

by Ian Bogost February 27, 2007

Serious Games book for Japan

Educational Games, Political Games, Social Games

Toru Fujimoto let me know that his new book Serious Games: Transforming Education and Society Through Digital Games has just been published by Tokyo Denki University Press. If you don't know Toru already, he's the source for serious games related material in Japan. So it's not surprising that he wrote ...

by Ian Bogost December 20, 2006

Seymour Papert in a coma after traffic accident

Educational Games

Seymour Papert, constructionist learning pioneer and inventor of the Logo programming language is in a coma after being struck by a motorcycle in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Boston Globe has a more detailed story. I'm not sure why I haven't seen broader coverage of this story, but I hadn't seen it ...

by Ian Bogost December 11, 2006

Preview Bogost's New Book, Persuasive Games

Advergames, Educational Games, Political Games

My new book, Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, which will be published in spring 2007, now has an official page up at the MIT Press site. This is the major research project I've been working on for the last couple years, and I'm really excited about getting it ...

by Ian Bogost November 22, 2006

BASIC games on the web

Educational Games

One of the things we're often grousing about in the computing education and games education communities is programming literacy (some people call this procedural literacy, but I reserve that phrase for a more general concept of literacy, more on this another time). Raph Koster points us to Quite Basic, a ...

by Ian Bogost October 26, 2006

Freedom Fighter 56

Educational Games

Lauer Learning has announced the availability of Freedom Fighter 56, an interactive graphic novel and game about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. From the description: Learn through this immersive story as it literally drops you into the streets of Budapest to struggle alongside the heroic characters that fought for Hungary’s freedom, ...

by Ian Bogost September 30, 2006

Iran releases state-funded oil disruption game

Educational Games, Newsgames, Political Games

According to the NY Times, the Iranian government has funded a videogame that illustrates how to disrupt world oil supplies by blowing up a U.S. tanker in strait of Hormuz. This recalls Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's warning that oil exports might be put in jeopardy if the U.S. doesn't back off ...

by Ian Bogost September 6, 2006

Contest for Yourth Work Games

Educational Games

Computer Space 2006 announces a contest for online and mobile games created for youth work. From the announcement: The aim of the proposed games should be to provide modern training tools and examples for youth trainers and organizers of youth events and to provocative exploration of important topics in the ...

by Ian Bogost August 28, 2006

Native Dancer - Virtual Powwows for Health

Educational Games, Game Design, Health & Medicine Games

Here's a rare example of an game that simultaneously attempts to educate, preserve an at-risk culture, improve health, and tackle an interesting game design problem. The Native Dancer Diabetes Education Game is a project in development at North Dakota State University and supported by the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council. ...

by Ian Bogost July 14, 2006

Mobile game teaches emergency first aid

Educational Games, Health & Medicine Games

Spanish developer Exelweiss has created Emergency 112 (or Emergency 911, if you prefer, in English), a mobile game to teach first aid techniques for medical emergencies. The game was apparently created for emergency response company Area de Intervención, but it looks like it's generally available too; a demo is available ...

by Ian Bogost June 16, 2006

Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, but train it for what?

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Health & Medicine Games

Author's note: Nintendo has created a community at Gather.com to facilitate discussion of their "Touch Generations" series of games. I have cross-posted this article there, and readers may want to view the other articles in that series. I know the game isn't new, but we never covered it properly here, ...

by Ian Bogost June 12, 2006

Review of Cyber-Budget, the French Budget Game

Educational Games, Political Games

I mentioned the French Cyber Budget game a week or so ago, but I couldn't find the actual game until Mark Nelson sent me the link this week. You can play Cyber-Budget online, but keep in mind that it's in French only, and pretty language-heavy. Budgets are comprised of multiple ...

by Ian Bogost March 17, 2006

SimSchool, a classroom simulator

Educational Games

Now available, SimSchool, a "classroom simulation for educators." The game is free to play online. SimSchool puts the player in control of a classroom. The player is challenged to teach the entire class, while taking into account each student's specific learning style and behavioral quirks. I played a prerelease version ...

by Gonzalo Frasca February 15, 2006

Food Force on Wired

Educational Games

It's been a while since Food Force has been launched but people are still talking about it. Now it's the turn of Wired to discuss the game. I must say that when I first saw the description of the article on the news aggregator "Food Force[...] tops the game download ...

by Ian Bogost February 8, 2006

All Things Africa

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Political Games

A few bits of Africa-related videogame news to report. First, you can now play and vote for the four finalists in the MTV crisis in Darfur student game design contest, which we mentioned last year. The contest asked student teams to design a videogame to build awareness about genocide in ...

by Ian Bogost February 6, 2006

LeapFrog Leapster Update: L-Max and Third Party Development

Educational Games

I've been pretty hard on LeapFrog and their Leapster handheld "learning game system." During its and our first year, 2003, I wrote a review of the Leapster, which I followed up a year later. LeapFrog was a major sponsor of Henry Jenkins's first Education Arcade conference, which I covered here ...

by Gonzalo Frasca February 1, 2006

Divorce, videogame-style

Educational Games

"Earthquake in Zipland" is a PC game for children with divorced parents. It's an adventure game, where the main character is torn between the King and Queen of the island, which split apart after an earthquake. The game will be out soon but meanwhile you can download a demo and ...

by Ian Bogost November 14, 2005

Volvo Drive for Life

Advergames, Console & PC Games, Educational Games

The NY Times reports that Volvo and Microsoft have collaborated on a game for Xbox called Volvo Drive for Life, "a showcase for the Volvo nameplate, three Volvo models and the longtime Volvo brand identity as the car designed with safety foremost." Clearly, this won't be a Burnout clone -- ...

by Ian Bogost August 29, 2005

The Fight for Energy

Educational Games

Energien.dk is a Danish educational site for junior high kids, specifically about electricity, gas and energy. It was created for use in Danish schools, and appears to have been commissioned by for an association of Danish energy companies and providers.   If you click on the link Kampen om Energien ...

by Ian Bogost August 2, 2005

Farming, Gender, Narcotics, and other related things

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Social Games, Women and Games

Last week Natsume released new versions of Harvest Moon: Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life for GameCube and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town for GBA. I hesitate to say that I'm a "big fan" of Harvest Moon, but like Animal Crossing it's a game that charms and allures me, ...

by Ian Bogost July 28, 2005

Islam games, Christian games, ...

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Political Games, Religious Games

We recently reported on the 4th Christian Game Developers Conference, happening this week in Portland. On a related and unrelated note, I recently came upon this op-ed (thanks to Andrew), by NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Friedman cites a WCJ report that the Iqra Learning Center, a site investigated after ...

by Ian Bogost July 5, 2005

Urine: The Game

Educational Games, Health & Medicine Games

We went to the Grossology exhibit at the local museum this weekend (The Fernbank here in Atlanta). The latest trend in museums seems to be these traveling exhibits. I guess its a way for museums to bank on past visit figures from other venues without spending their own money on ...

by Ian Bogost June 15, 2005

Japanese Finance Games

Advergames, Business Games, Educational Games

Thanks to Serious Games Japan maven Toru Fujimoto for tipping us off to My Dream and Bank, a Japanese Flash-based advergame intended to teach high school students about the basics of finance and starting a business. The game was produced by the Japanese Bankers Association, and according to Toru 100,000 ...

by Ian Bogost June 6, 2005

Public School FPS

Educational Games

We talk a lot about educational games here. Education and games often raises questions about violence in games, such as the one Richard Bartle posed recently over at Terra Nova "On the one hand, we're saying that no no no, games don't teach people all those bad things, but on ...

by Ian Bogost June 3, 2005

Power Politics free for Educators

Educational Games, Political Games, Religious Games

WCG regular Randy Chase has just announced that his prexy election sim Power Politics III (on WCG: 1, 2) is now free for use in the classroom. The new version will also have likely '08 candidates. Click through for the full press release. ...

by Ian Bogost June 2, 2005

Playtime in the Classroom

Educational Games

The Guardian has a nice article out today about videogames and learning, featuring Jim Gee, Persuasive Games, and this humble website. The article mentions Project:Connect, the educational game suite that Ben Sawyer and I have been working on for Telecom Pioneers for some time. It's releasing publicly this week. ...

by Ian Bogost May 26, 2005

DS Brain Training

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

A few weeks back I wrote about the similarities between Lumines and performance intelligence tests, and then I fell upon some rumors of mental workout applications for Nintendo DS. No sign of them at E3 this year, so I wasn't sure if it was for real. Now comes word of ...

by Ian Bogost May 19, 2005

E3: The Bible Game

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Religious Games, Social Games

I'm running a bit behind with E3 coverage, but I'm going to try to catch up today. While everyone else covers the predictable stuff, I'm going to try to share my impressions of the more unique games on the floor this year. I knew about The Bible Game from Crave ...

by Ian Bogost May 19, 2005

E3: Education Arcade, year 2 in brief

Educational Games

E3 is busy this year. It took literally an hour to park even at the very start of the day. I ran a workshop on in-game advertising on Tuesday (which I'll post about later), so I couldn't attend the Education Arcade this year. Last year I covered the conference extensively. ...

by Ian Bogost April 18, 2005

Ride an esuvee

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

The Attorney General and Consumer Protection Agencies have created Esuvee Challenge Course, a game that teaches players about key factors in SUV rollovers. The game has high production value and great complexity, and it's funny too: the "Esuvee" is a sort of wooly monster beast. You can also watch the ...

by Gonzalo Frasca April 15, 2005

Food Force

Educational Games, Featured

Finally! An educational game that rocks! Informative, well produced and very enjoyable to play with. Go United Nations! Food Force was just launched and it is definitively worth the 200 meg download (full versions available for free for Windows and Mac). The game consists of several different missions, with animated ...

by Ian Bogost April 1, 2005

Mental Exercise with Nintendo DS

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

Wow, talk about timing. Following on the heels of my musings about Lumines on PSP and performance intelligence, Spong News reports that Nintendo has announced a set of non-gaming applications for DS, including "a mental workout application featuring mathematical and linguistic problems, a logic-driven selection of puzzles and perhaps most ...

by Ian Bogost March 27, 2005

PSP and Performance Intelligence

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Featured

So, I admit it, I bought a PSP. I hadn't planned to, but there were tons at Target yesterday, and I figured it was either now or later so might as well make it now. I had and continue to have doubts about the device. Again and again Sony tries ...

by Gonzalo Frasca February 5, 2005

NYTimes on games with agendas

Educational Games

I am glad to see more mainstream interest in games that go beyond entertainment. Seriously, I am. But this NY Times article leaves me a bit puzzled. Partly in the right way, because it makes me think of the very thin line separating propaganda, advertising and educational games (the author ...

by Gonzalo Frasca January 20, 2005

SimGenocide

Educational Games

A few years ago I wondered, following Adorno, if it was barbaric to design games after Auschwitz (pdf). I still believe that the answer is no. And I mean games, videogames, with pixelated or 3D graphics, preferably controlled with gamepads. We should make games about anything and everything, including the ...

by Ian Bogost January 4, 2005

Studieren une langue étrangère con The Sims

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

The Journal of Language Learning and Technology has published an article in this month's issue about learning a foreign language through a modded version of The Sims, written by MIT Comparative Media masters student Ravi Purushotma. (via Slashdot) ...

by Ian Bogost December 16, 2004

Education Arcade Conference 2.0

Educational Games

The MIT Comparative Media Program and the ESA have announced that a second Games in Education conference will be held at next year's E3. The event will be held May 15th to 17th prior to the E3 expo in Los Angeles, CA, and will be open to the pre-registered public. ...

by Ian Bogost December 1, 2004

The LeapFrog Leapster, one year later

Educational Games

A year ago I wrote a review of the Leapster, LeapFrog's handheld educational/gaming device for kids 4 - 8. Given that many readers may consider Leapster as a gift this holiday season, I wanted to follow up on the review and update it. The review has proven an immensely popular ...

by Ian Bogost October 18, 2004

Live from the Serious Games Summit DC

Activism Games, Business Games, Educational Games, Public Policy Games

I am back from our London show opening (pictures soon) and here in DC for the Serious Games Summit. The conference has a very "official" feel, thanks to CMP, which is an important step. Oddly, no badge lanyards tho, only pins. Aren't lanyards the sign of officialness? Anyway, I'll do ...

by Ian Bogost September 10, 2004

Hyrule Music School now open

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

I'm now officially the world's biggest geek. I just got my Ocarina of Time from Songbird Ocarinas. If you had a Nintendo 64, you probably remember it from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Those of you who were under a ...

by Ian Bogost July 7, 2004

Military game teaches Arabic

Educational Games

The NY Times reports on a game developed by my alma matter, the University of Southern California, specifically their Center for Research in Technology for Education, in conjunction with the Army's Special Operations Command, intended to teach Arabic language and customs to soldiers. The interesting thing about the game is ...

by Ian Bogost June 1, 2004

IT Manager Game, now featuring Women!

Advergames, Business Games, Educational Games

Well, the ruckus about Intel's failure to include women in their first go at the IT Management game seems to have inspired them to correct the problem! The new version of the game features female IT managers, staff, and other employees. Welcome to the 20th century. Since I finally got ...

by Ian Bogost May 25, 2004

The Truth about Third Party Development on the LeapFrog Leapster

Educational Games

Back in December, I wrote a review of the Leapster, LeapFrog's handheld device for interactive books and games. It's become a popular read, consistently ranking in the top few links in applicable Google searches. In that article, the main critique I offer is LeapFrog's failure to offer third party development ...

by Ian Bogost May 22, 2004

International Debt Relief Game

Educational Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Baltimore agency The Berndt Group created Bridging the Divide, a game meant to teach players about International debt relief, for an unnamed international institution. Here's the blurb from their website: We designed this interactive, educational Flash 5 game for an international institutional client to serve as a teaching tool for ...

by Ian Bogost May 19, 2004

The 'Games for Learning Seal': L is for LeapFrog?

Educational Games

One of the controversies uncovered at the E3 Education Arcade (summarized here and here) was the so-called "Games for Learning Seal." it's a big "L" that looks a lot like an ESRB Rating, intended to be applied to the packaging of educational games. Henry Jenkins's Comparative Media Program at MIT ...

by Ian Bogost May 13, 2004

Gaming lemurs not so dumb after all

Educational Games

I have no idea what to make of this. A new study shows that lemurs, previously thought to be "cute but basically stupid" are actually quite bright when they are allowed to play videogames. ...

by Ian Bogost May 13, 2004

Education Arcade Summaries

Educational Games

This is just a meta-entry to point to my summaries of the Education Arcade conference at this year's E3. I figured it would be useful to let this rise to the top of our content for a few days at least. Education Arcade, day 1 Education Arcade, day 2 Update: ...

by Ian Bogost May 11, 2004

Education Arcade, day 2

Educational Games

Today the Education Arcade conference continued. As I did yesterday, I'll try to summarize the day as best I can. Once again, I am only going to cover the presentations here; I will offer my own comments on the conference and the issues it raised later. Today's session ended with ...

by Ian Bogost May 10, 2004

Education Arcade, day 1

Educational Games

Today witnessed Day 1 of the Education Arcade, organized by Henry Jenkins and the cool cats from MIT Comparative Media Studies. A couple hundred people filled the upstairs theater at the LA Convention Center. It's great to see so many people from many backgrounds -- including academics, teachers, administrators, game ...

by Ian Bogost April 21, 2004

Interactive Design & Children Conference

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Game Design

The 3rd Annual International Conference for Interaction Design and Children (whew, call it IDC) takes place June 1 - 3 at the University of Maryland. Keynote rockstars include: Marvin Minsky (MIT), Alan Kay (HP), Seymour Papert (MIT/U. of Maine), Alice Cahn (Cartoon Network), Henry Jenkins (MIT), and Alice Wilder (Blue's ...

by Ian Bogost April 14, 2004

Real Life 2004

Educational Games, Political Games, Social Games

Educational Simulations has released Real Life 2004, "the life simulation that gives you the opportunity to learn how people really live in other countries." From the USA Today review: This software creates a powerful learning opportunity for teens to experience other cultures. By allowing them to live another's life, the ...

by Ian Bogost April 13, 2004

Leapster: Third Party Development after all?

Educational Games

I've complained before on WCG (1, 2) about the fact that LeapFrog hasn't opened the Leapster platform to third party developers. Instead, LF apparently develops the titles in-house. But I just discovered that game studio The Diversion Group out of California appears to have created the Math Baseball Leapster title ...

by Ian Bogost February 26, 2004

CreditSafe, the Credit Card Management Game

Educational Games

The State of Illinois has developed a game called CreditSafe to teach kids how to manage credit cards. You choose or create a player, pick one or more credit cards, and then do "credit-safe shopping." The latter entails taking on projects like building a darkroom, setting up a home theater, ...

by Ian Bogost February 18, 2004

Some Notes on Educational Games

Educational Games

Middle-school kids in Boston have been playing an educational multi-user virtual environment developed by Harvard under a nice $760,000 NSF grant. This article about the game conveys a lot of the common ideas about kids being more engaged in games, but here is an appealing takeaway: But video games and ...

by Ian Bogost January 3, 2004

Serious Games, Rhetorical Speech

Educational Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

There's a nice article in the Baltimore Sun about Serious Games, specifically focusing on Maryland's many local game studios and their work on games for military training. Registration is required to read the article. I am encouraged by and highly respectful of the idea of games for training and education. ...

by Ian Bogost December 1, 2003

A Review of the Leapster

Educational Games, Featured

I finally got a chance to play a Leapster today. As I mentioned before, I think the product is positioned in the marketplace like no other -- a handheld educational/game device for kids 4 - 8. Update (12/1/2004): After you read this review, read my updated comments one year later. ...

by Ian Bogost November 24, 2003

Hacking the Leapster, plus Squeak and procedural literacy

Educational Games

From the Design Experience, Some interesting and helpful news on LeapFrog's new educational handheld, the Leapster. First, and most interesting to me, the device apparently runs on Macromedia Flash. I don't know why I found this surprising, but I did. Flash is becoming more and more popular in embedded devices ...

by Ian Bogost November 1, 2003

Leapster, the educational handheld gaming device

Console & PC Games, Educational Games

Educational electronics manufacturer LeapFrog announced the availability of their new Leapster educational gaming handheld, calling it an alternative to Nintendo's GameBoy system, offering "educational alternative for portable game playing." Slashdot also reports on a LeapFrog spokesperson's comments on the launch: ...