Edutainment

Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh

In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight... He also roars, scratches, paws the ground, stalks prey, and kills other members of the animal kingdom, and you can snap pictures of it all with Wild Earth: African Safari for the Nintendo Wii. Released in 2006 as Safari Photo Africa: Wild Earth for the PC, the family-friendly nature and innovative controls of the Wii made the edutainment title a prime candidate for a port. You step into the shoes of a photojournalist taking pictures for a nature magazine in Africa's Serengeti National Park, getting up close and personal with all sorts of exotic plants, animals, and their feces.

Yes, within the first few minutes of the game you'll find yourself tasked with taking a photo of a giant pile of elephant dung. Does it get better from there? Read on, brave adventurer.

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1:00 PM on Fri May 2 2008
By Mike Fahey
10,716 views, 46 comments

Latest by Fatass of Kickassness: @mistersneak: "a lot of the Wii games that look really nice have you in little corridors (Metroid), or they don't render full 360 degree environments (Smash Bros), etc. So maybe cut the Wii port a little slack for some low-res more »

gc07

Pink Panther To Maul Children's Minds

The Pink Panther has never struck me as a particularly educational franchise. If anything French police detective Jacques Clouseau has the potential to make children even dumber, and my memories of the cartoon character always bring to mind Owens Corning insulation, but apparently Compedia sees things differently. The edutainment game company have partnered with MGM to create a series of educational titles featuring the cartoon cat. Compedia CEO Shai Newman is confident.

With millions of CD ROMs sold in over 40 markets, we are confident that we will have good sales results with the new Pink Panther line of products. The games will allow kids in many countries to play our user friendly, high quality games and enjoy the fun of learning with the Pink Panther

The Pink Panther was once voiced by Matt Frewer of Max Headroom fame. Your child will never learn anything from something associated with Matt Frewer. Look for the first titles to be previewed at Leipzig next week. More »

9:20 AM on Thu Aug 16 2007
By Mike Fahey
1,121 views, 15 comments

Latest by joelface: you know what.. childhood cartoons should grow up with their target audience. kids these days dont know pink panther and they also dont care. but i bet if they made a darker pink panther movie or game, designed for the people who more »

so what if it's boring?

Ian Bogost Doesn't (Really) Care About Industry Criticism

Ian Bogost is the guy behind a lot of newsgames and training games - and has managed to attract enough attention thanks to some high profile partnerships that he'll be appearing on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report this coming Tuesday. He's also come under some hefty criticism from people both inside and outside the gaming industry - most recently, in a Slate article titled (in part) World of Borecraft. Bogost has already responded to the Slate article, but he digs a little deeper in a new Gamasutra piece that explains his reasoning for just not really caring what the more traditional forces in industry think. Namely, games aren't some monolithic construct that are either/or: either fun or educational, either fun or a total snoozefest, and dammit, there's room for all of them. More »

12:30 PM on Sun Aug 5 2007
By mgreene
1,583 views, 16 comments

Latest by ibogost: @Kyouryuu First, thanks for reading. I'm glad you found some thoughts of interest in the piece. Your question about games vs. simulations is a good one. I don't make a theoretical distinction between the two, in terms of how they function as more »

edutainment

Games as Teaching Tools

Futurelab, a UK company seemingly devoted to studying the potential usage of video games on education, has recently concluded a study on just this subject, and declares that the future looks bright. More »

7:40 PM on Mon Oct 2 2006
By egauger
1,247 views, 27 comments

mmo

MMO Documentary Casting Call

MMO intellectual blog the Daedalus Project reports that New York-based documentary makers, Pure West Docs, are making a film about MMOs called Second Skin, and they need YOU. More »

5:20 PM on Tue Aug 22 2006
By egauger
244 views, 6 comments

darfur is dying

A New Kind of Survival Horror

Reuters reports that edutainment has more going for it these days than Reader Rabbit and Beavis, er, Mavis Beacon. More »

8:20 PM on Wed Jun 28 2006
By egauger
245 views, 5 comments

police

UK Police Produce Pedagogic Flash Game

The West Yorkshire Police Department has joined forces with UK-based flash games developer Dubit to produce a socially-conscious online children's game. "City Zone" is a simplistic, RPG-style game in which you complete various good deeds such as finding an old lady's cat with "fish perfume", or delivering tax credit documents to a goth. Occasionally during play, dialog boxes pop up that have a civic problem, such as litter in the streets, and a list of possible solutions (making prisoners clean it up, starting an ad campaign, ignoring it, etc) and their associated costs. The player's decision is followed by a News Alert dialog that reports on the success or failure of the choice. The bland graphics and tinny sound are offputting, but overall this has a bit more tooth than the average edutainment monstrosity. Eliza Gauger

City Zone aims to encourage good behaviour [GamesIndustry.biz]

12:02 PM on Thu May 25 2006
By egauger
250 views, 1 comment

Latest by jrghoull: hehehe...i duno why, but i really like this, and could see it as being very good physcologically for kids... more »

Kotaku

ESA, Game Critics' Awards Debate "Best Of E3" Eligibility

Gawker Media Network