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The Future Of Web Search
Via: Searchme Blog
Searchme, founded by Randy Adams and John Holland, is a visual search engine that launched into private beta in March 2008.
Continue reading "SearchMe: When Web Search Becomes A Serious Game" »
As usual, too many open browser tabs with interesting stories that don't deserve to languish in the del.icio.us obscurity:
Anti-social bot invades Second Lifers' personal space (Nov 2007)
"A software bot that masquerades as an ill-mannered human user within the popular virtual world Second Life is being used by UK researchers to investigate the psychology of its inhabitants. The bot starts a conversation with human users and deliberately invades their personal space to see how they will react."
Serious Games for critical thinking skills
Spy Museum - Your Mission: Learn the Craft of Espionage Through Top-Secret, Interactive Exhibits. In an age of Google, YouTube and Sony's PlayStation, museums have to work a lot harder to make subject matter culturally relevant to young people. The International Spy Museum is the only museum in the United States dedicated to the world of espionage, where you can learn how a spy operates.
Continue reading "Spy Tech: from Interactive Museums to Serious Games" »
Pretty original and great fun, this one. Make sure you watch the whole thing, not just scroll through. It's in French but you can easily figure what's going on even if you don't speak the language. Enjoy :)
Update: HD, subtitled version available here, requires Quicktime plugin.
Sources: Serious Games Source - NASA Learning Technologies Cuts Educational MMO Budget
Keynote Speech by Adam Singer at The London Games Festival: on Tuesday 23 October 2007 -The Changing Economics Of Mass Media
Good Cash Flows – At the Early Stages…
At the early stages of the movement, Serious Games development, sponsored almost exclusively by the military and other government agencies, tended to have good cash flows: the government pays up front and easy DRM (Digital Rights Management), as the government usually lets the developer keep all rights.
Continue reading "Serious Games Large Scale Buy-In Requires New Revenue Models" »
A while back, we ran a post on using Doom as a tool for system administration. Now, I found a similar project based on Quake 3. It's called L3DGEWorld and I can imagine how it'd make a nostalgic admin's job more fun. Wonder what they'll come up with next?! To go on a stretch here, imagine using Grim Fandango's engine to see your website's stats, each visitor represented by a grinning calaca. Damn, that'd be weird.
Serious Games challenging us to play cybersafety education
Via: Hector's World
Hector’s World™ (HW) is an innovative initiative that uses high-quality web-based animation and interactive educational activities to help build children’s online safety skills.
This education is aimed at young children (ages 2-10), their families, early childhood centres, schools and social welfare organizations in the global community.
Continue reading "Serious Games To Help Build Children's Online Safety Skills" »
Serious Games challenging us to make games that matter
Via: Straylight Studios
Straylight Studios have been specialists in interactive training and simulation since 2004.Based in Dunedin, New Zealand, with a growing global presence, Straylight aim to be a key proponent of the revolution which is bringing the magic of interactive entertainment to the masses.
Continue reading "Serious Games: Bringing Meaningful Play To The Masses" »
Serious Games for thinking beyond the browser
PicLens and ExitView Transforming Viewing Images and Social Networking Into Full 3D Experiences
PicLens, by Cooliris, instantly transforms your browser into a stunning 3D environment where you can effortlessly search, drag, and zoom around thousands of images and videos across the web.
Continue reading "Serious Gaming With Immersive Views Across The Web" »
Now here's something I only recently came across, while looking for something completely different (doh). The effectiveness of product placement in video games, from the Journal of Interactive Advertising. It's basically a study meant to determine the effect of product placement on brand attitudes. Note that it starts from the idea that players should, in the short run, view a brand more favorably after seeing it in a game, which is somewhat questionable.
Pros: well documented procedures
Cons: very hermetic approach, no conclusive evidence in the long run.
- "In a nod to the ascendancy of video games, rock 'n' roll bad boys Motley Crue will become the first group to release a new single through Rock Band, the developer of the wildly popular game said on Monday." (Reuters)
- Music from Amazon is coming to Liberty City and will be available via in-game cell phone downloads in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV:
If you have a Second Life account, go buy yourself an entire McDonald's restaurant for $2. Creative possibilities abound. Live in it. Organize protests in it. Or order a photorealistic avatar of your favorite president and put him to work.
Original post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/04/your-own-mcdonalds-in-second-life.html
Spielberg and the Serious Games Industry: A Perfect Match!
In my prior post Serious Games Expanding The Creative Art Of Story Telling, I addressed the Film2Game initiative, through which Extreme AI is working with film makers and entertainment industry professionals to design and develop film-based games. Their vision is to create a medium that extends the reach of film productions and expand the creative story telling art to a broad array of viewers/players.
Continue reading "Spielberg Takes Serious Games To A New Level Of Magic" »
IBM Virtual World Guidelines (does your company have one?): "In general, your digital persona’s appearance is up to you. When you are using your avatar or persona in association with IBM, however, your judgment in these matters should be shaped by the same general guidelines that apply to IBMers in physical environments – i.e., that your appearance be appropriate to the context of your activities. You need to be especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or persona’s appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business."
-- via a comment on Second Thoughts
It was written up in USA Today last year, too.
Original post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/04/ibms-code-of-conduct-for-virtual-worlds.html
Via: WebConf3D - Powerful 3D real-time technology serving all your multimedia communication needs
Following my prior post Serious Games As 3D Workspaces, I-MAGINER is pleased to introduce its new WebConf3D service for on demand virtual meetings!
Webconf3D solution is a collaborative work environment in 3D. It brings together 8 people in a remote virtual meeting room to communicate and work together around multimedia documents.
Continue reading "Serious Gaming With WebConf3D Service On Demand" »
Serious Games changing how the world learns
Via: Becta’s Emerging Technologies for Learning, Volume 3 (2008) - Growing up with Google - What It Means To Education
The ‘Emerging Technologies for Learning’ series aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education and learners in the medium term.
Continue reading "Google And Serious Games Moving Students Beyond Text" »
Serious Games Market Size ranging between $ 1 - 11 billion in 2008?
I've been receiving quite a few inquiries regarding the apparently conflicting figures for the Serious Games market size short term.
The recurring issues would be: a) Could you advice me on the components of this calculation? b) Do you know the criteria utilized for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report? c) Even if I feel that the article on your website is the closer to reality : $ 1 - 2 billion in 2008, recent reports circulating in US and Europe are talking about $ 9 -11 billion.
Continue reading "Reconciling Serious Games Market Size Different Estimates" »
So it looks like NCSoft will work with Double Fusion to get advertising into their MMO, City of Heroes, starting from around this summer on. The cool part is, according to NCSoft, there will be a 'free' option to turn ads off.
Found this great article at Gamasutra, reporting on an ICE08 panel done by Ian Bogost and Jim McNiven. Can advergaming spur creativity? McNiven says advertisers are still doing it wrong, by treating advergames as animated bundles of pop-ups and logos.
