Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health admonishes health officials, educators, philanthropists, universities, policymakers, the games industry and the federal government to get off their butts and start shelling out money for research.

"Despite their reputation as promoters of violence and mayhem, digital games have in fact been shown to help children gain content and vital foundational and 21st-century skills," the study reads. "Digital games are here to stay and offer the country a rare opportunity to leverage children's already established enthusiasm in order to reform education and promote healthy development."

Game Changer proposes research and development funding for video games as well as partnerships between game makers and the government. Dance Dance Revolution and the Wii both get a hearty shout-out as does the Serious Games Initiative and Games for Change. But the biggest point the study seems to make is the need for grownups — particularly parents — to get involved early and often when their kids encounter games.

You can check out the text of the study here and if you missed today's two-hour webcast discussing the study, keep your eyes on this space for the video upload.

Noon Webcast: Using Games to Advance Learning & Health in Kids [GamePolitics]

Step aside, Dante's Inferno and you literary adapters at EA working on 2010's video game version of the Divine Comedy. Walden: The Game is also in the works.

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published the results of what would be one of the most famous experiments of American life. He went to the woods near Walden Pond in Concord Massachusetts to live a life of ascetic purity. He aimed to live alone, with the minimal requirements of life. He would remove himself from society to think and to appreciate life. (Read Thoreau's Walden here.)

That's tough material to adapt into a video game, and not material the most cynical critics and fans of games would expect.

But at the conclusion of a panel about the potential of documentary-style video games yesterday at the Games For Change festival in New York City, USC associate professor and influential video game educator/designer Tracy Fullerton revealed that she was, on the side, working with some colleagues to develop Walden: The Game.

"We were attempting to recreate the tenets of the philosophy," she said. "Within the mechanics of the game, we want to have the player re-enact the experiment of living that Thoreau took on when he went to live at Walden Pond." The game will also recreate the events that occurred while Thoreau was there.

Here's an excerpt from Walden that articulates Thoreau's goals:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

Fullerton told Kotaku that the project is very early. She's worked on it with a small team on and off for about a year and has no idea of when it will come out. One of the chief challenges the developers face, she said, is of player expectation. Gamers expect a reward-based gameplay system. Do this to unlock that. But such material gain — or even simulated material gain — is contrary to Thoreau's experience at Walden, and certainly contradictory to what the writer hoped to achieve during his sojourn from society. "We need to break game player's expectations," Fullerton said.

For those who would be skeptical that a Walden video game is achievable, it's worth noting Fullerton's credentials as an adviser to such celebrated and artistically experimental USC-based game projects as Jenova Chen's Cloud and flow.

If someone can make this work, Fullerton is not a bad candidate at all.

It's no secret that print journalism is a rotting corpse; legitimate new sources are packing up and heading for the web left and right. With new levels of interactivity come new possibilities for the way we create and consume journalism. This article says online gaming is where it's at.

"BlackBerrys, iPods and Kindles are not enough anymore. Let's add a joystick to the expanding repertoire of tools available to news consumers.

Gaming is often overlooked as a tool for disseminating news. Online games are attempting to explain the economy through the politics of oil, educate users on disaster readiness in the context of Hurricane Katrina and, perhaps more in line with traditional video games, some are exploring the various military operations implemented in the Iraq war. In a strange likeness to fantasy sports, one game allowed people to draft their own cabinet picks for Obama's then-new administration."

The article goes on to conclude:

"In order to interest readers and keep them interested, news organizations should come up with ways to incorporate news in video game format without extricating the two."

"It's much more complex than that," Georgia Tech Professor Ian Bogost – whose Journalism and Games Project is sourced several times in the article – said. "The correct question [the article should be asking] is: ‘How can the institution of journalism benefit from video games, and vice versa.' This article is a great example of what's wrong with journalism in general. It assumes simple fixes: take news, add games, stir – profit."

From his perspective, games as journalism is not about keeping readers entertained or replacing traditional reporting with a virtual representation that readers can play around with. It should be about applying journalistic values – accurate information that helps people make decisions about their lives – to video games.

So take a look at some of these examples that the article kicks around both as good and bad applications of games to journalism: Darfur is Dying, Ars Regendi and Class Matters. Ask yourself if "games" like these will take the place of articles like these.

If your answer is yes, then proceed to this line of questioning about fun and games. If your answer is no, keep an eye on Bogost at the next Games For Change conference; we'll see if he can suss out where the games and journalism connection really lies.

Games and Journalism: Now that journalism is in trouble, why not play with it? [Online Journalism Blog]

Microsoft recently showcased the finalists at the 2008 Games For Change event in New York, and Mother Gaia took home the Game Development prize with City Rain, the company announced today. Australia's Team SOAK won the Worldwide Software Design invitational, and Singapore’s Team Trail Blazers won the Embedded Development invitational.

Said Microsoft:

A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions competed in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, “Project Hoshimi” (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to digital media or technology depending on the invitational.

Full announcement and details on the winners after the jump!

Microsoft Announces Imagine Cup 2008 Winners

Students address environmental sustainability with innovative technology; torch passes to Egypt for Imagine Cup 2009.

PARIS — July 8, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2008 at the Musée du Louvre, after a week of intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more than 200,000 students from over 100 countries and regions. Celebrating first place, Australia’s Team SOAK won the worldwide Software Design invitational, Singapore’s Team Trail Blazers won the Embedded Development invitational, and Brazil’s Mother Gaia Studio won the Game Development challenge. Imagine Cup, the world’s premier competition for technology students, gives students the chance to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing society today.

“Imagine Cup provides a forum for students around the world to explore new ways to use the power of software to help address some of the world’s toughest challenges,” said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “The high caliber of the students and their projects is evidence of the high level of innovation seen in the student community today, with a clear potential for real-world impact.”

The software design, embedded development and game development finalist teams created applications, devices and games using the Microsoft platform and Microsoft tools based on the Imagine Cup competition theme “Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.”

A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions competed in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, “Project Hoshimi” (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to digital media or technology depending on the invitational.

The winners were announced in a gala awards ceremony this afternoon during the Imagine Cup World Festival, a celebration drawing Imagine Cup competitors, mentors and other key attendees. It featured keynote addresses from several dignitaries from around the world. The following are the top three finalists by invitational in finishing order:

Software Design

· First place: Australia — Team SOAK

Team Members: David Burela, Dimaz Pramudya, Ed Hooper, Long Zheng

· Second place: Slovakia — Team Housekeepers

Team Members: Marián Hönsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Šimko, Dušan Zeleník

· Third place: Hungary — Team DigitalMania

Team Members: Ákos Kapui, Laszló Zöld, Bálint Orosz, Gergely Orosz

Embedded Development

· First place: Singapore — Team Trail Blazers

Team Members: Pinto James Dominic, Shi Ben Yong, Hu Shuhan, Denver Lim

· Second place: TIE

Ireland — Team AcidRain

Team Members: Brian Byrne, Aodhan Coffey, Karl O’Dwyer

China — Team Wings

Team Members: Shibiao Xu, Junjie Li, Zhongjie Wang, Lei Yan

· Third place: Poland — Team Aero@PUT

Team Members: Piotr Kryger, Mikołaj Małaczyński, Jakub Pawłowski, Piotr Slęzak

Game Development

· First place: Brazil — Team Mother Gaia Studio

Team Members: Guilherme Campos, Helena Van Kampen, Rafael F. Costa, Túlio Sória

· Second place: Belgium — Team Drunk Puppy Productions

Team Members: Kenny Deriemaeker, Filip Van Bouwel, Timothy Vanherberghen, Jeroen van Raevels

· Third place: Korea — Team GOMZ

Team Members: Kim Dong Hoon, Kim Ki Hwan, Park Min Kyu

“Project Hoshimi” (Programming Battle)

· First place: Russia — Team Red Devils

Team Members: Ilya Grebnov, Sergei Grebnov

· Second place: China — Team Zephyr

Team Members: Peng Guo, Jiaze Huang

· Third place: Ukraine — Team Dream Team

Team Members: Pavlo Liapota, Margaryta Skrypachova

IT Challenge

· First place: France — Jean-Benoit Paux

· Second place: Romania — Cosmin-Viorel Ilie

· Third place: China — Yan Liu

Algorithm

· First place: Ukraine — Roman Koshlyak

· Second place: Hungary — Szilveszter Szebeni

· Third place: Japan — Naohiro Takahashi

Photography

· First place: United States — Team Provisio

Team Members: Jennifer Hui, Melissa Hui

· Second place: Austria — Team Austria

Team Members: Rosa Maria Binder, Benedikt Wurth

· Third place: Croatia — Team Voodoo Delirum

Team Members: Duje Nebojša Pandžić, Martin Štokić

Short Film

· First place: Korea — Team NEIP

Team Members: Il Jin Joung, Seong Ran An, Yeun Jun Choo, Sung Wook Lee

· Second place: Mexico — Team Lava Lamp

Team Members: Grace Montoya, Aldo Murillo

· Third place: Canada — Robotree

Team Members: Drake Birmann, Ryan Morrison, Media Ridha, Dan Tran

Interface Design

· First place: United States — Team IU EcoVis

Team Member: David Roedl, William Odom

· Second place: Canada — TeamGreeNet

Team Members: Jin Fan, Kevin Muise

· Third place: France — Team Edelweiss

Team Members: Johanna Rowe, Steven Muhr

In addition to the category awards, five Achievement Awards were presented.

· The Rural Innovation Achievement Award, sponsored by Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, is designed to recognize the software solution that contributes toward a more sustainable environment and best helps promote the social and economic growth of underserved populations in developing countries and regions and best helps them better meet their basic needs. It was won by Indonesia’s Antarmuka: Arief Widhiyasa, Dimas Yusuf Danurwenda, Ella Madanella Dwi Mustika and Erga Ghaniya.

· The Accessible Technology Achievement Award, designed to recognize the interface design solution that makes it easier for anyone to see, hear and use a computer, and to customize their computing environment according to their own preferences, needs and abilities, was won by Jeffrey Bigham, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science from the University of Washington, United States, for Project WebAnywhere. An additional onsite challenge was won by France’s Team JivAd: Jivane Rajabaly and Adrien Ossorguine.

· The Interoperability Achievement Award, designed to recognize the software solution that best leverages Microsoft technologies to connect people, data or diverse systems to help address real-world customer needs, was won by India’s Team SKAN: Sameet Singh Khajuria, Karun AB, Amith George, Noel Sequeira.

· The Windows Live Achievement Award, designed to recognize the software solution that makes the best use of the Windows Live platform and adds new social dimensions to both new and old Web sites and Web projects, was won by Spain’s Windows Drive: Carlos Junquera Cachero, David Rodriguez, Héctor Juan and Miguel Llopis.

· The Engineering Excellence Achievement Award, sponsored by Microsoft’s Enterprise Engineering Center, is designed to recognize three outstanding teams from the Software Development category that have created solutions that demonstrate the potential to be developed to scale with focused guidance from a Microsoft engineer, was won by the following:

o Bulgaria — Team Atlas

Team Members: Boryana Miloshevska, Dobromira Ivanova, Martin Damyanov, Yordan Pavlov

o USA — Team Sparx

Team Members: Adam Risi, Zachery Shivers, Ziyan Zhou

o Russia — Team Ignition

Team Members: Anatoly Nikitin, Roman Belov, Daria Elkina

Furthermore, six finalist teams will have the opportunity to explore how their software solutions could potentially turn into business realities. The teams will receive intense business and technology training as part of the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program, co-sponsored by Microsoft and British Telecommunications plc (BT).

“The creativity demonstrated by the competitors this year has shown that tomorrow’s technology leaders are ready to apply their solutions to real-world issues,” said Joe Black, director of Business Development for Emerging Technologies, BT. “The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator is an exceptional opportunity for young developers to explore the entrepreneurial possibilities of their software solutions. We are excited to offer our encouragement, guidance, and support to these talented students through comprehensive training sessions to help students bring their ideas to fruition.”

The six teams chosen to participate in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program are the following:

· Australia — Team SOAK (Smart Operational Agricultural toolKit)

Team members: David Burela, Dimaz Pramudya, Ed Hooper, Long Zheng

· France — Team Well K’Home

Team Members: Regis Hanol, Gauthier Chanliau, Sebastien Warin, Jean-Noel Gauthier

· Germany — Team PoinT-Power in Time

Team Members: Daniel Franke, Jörn Schindler, Vasilios Filippidis, Axel Ernst

· Hungary — Team Digital Mania

Team Members: Ákos Kapui, Laszló Zöld, Bálint Orosz, Gergely Orosz

· Slovakia — Team Housekeepers

Team Members: Marián Hönsch, Michal Kompan, Jakub Šimko, Dušan Zeleník

· South Africa — Team Smile

Team Members: Devin de Vries, Christopher King, Nabeel Nazeer, Nadeem Isaacs

Imagine Cup 2009 will be held in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt. The theme will be “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.” Students will be asked to create software solutions that are aligned to one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs range from halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education. More information about the MDGs can be found at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals.

Registrations for Imagine Cup 2009 open today, July 8, 2008. More information about Imagine Cup can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

At the closing keynote yesterday for the Games For Change event in New York, Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, along with interactive media scholar Dr. James Paul Gee, announced a promising new initiative - if teens are motivated to learn about media, then why not reach them through a computer game?

The project, called Our Courts, will be a game designed to teach civics and encourage teens to become involved in the democratic process. It's being developed with input from teachers and curriculum specialists, and will be designed primarily for classroom use. Initially, the project will emphasize the court system, but will later expand to other areas of government.

"What we hope to do is pioneer a new teaching method designed to respond to the learning styles of this digital generation," said Justice O'Connor in an address on the Our Courts website. "Students today seem to thrive on 3-dimensional, discovery-based learning. They're much less wedded to linear presentations of information, and they prefer to explore around an issue. They seem to learn best by becoming fully engaged in an interesting issue, and they do particularly well when learning in a case study environment."

"Digital students crave a media feedback, and they want convenience. Now, we hope to respond to each of these needs in the Our Courts online environment."

Hit the jump for full details from Our Courts' mission statement:

Our Courts Mission
Introduction
The evidence is clear-and should be profoundly disturbing: we are failing to impart to today's students the information and skills they need to be responsible citizens. A recent national survey conducted by the National Constitution Center (NCC), for example, demonstrated that more American teenagers

1. could name three of the Three Stooges than can name the three branches of government (59% to 41%);
2. know the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air than know the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (94.7% to 2.2%);
3. know which city has the zip code "90210" than the city in which the U.S. Constitution was written (75% to 25%);
4. know the star of the motion picture "Titanic" than know the Vice President of the United States (90% to 74%).

As Philadelphia Mayor and NCC Chair Edward G. Rendell noted, "[t]hese results are alarming for everyone who cares about the future of our democracy. The Constitution doesn't work by itself. It depends on active, informed citizens. And that's who these kids are: our future citizens."

The "Our Courts" Project was created to help those seeking to address the evident crisis in civics education. In doing so, we hope to pioneer a new pedagogic approach designed to respond to the particular learning styles of the "digital" generation. Accordingly, over the next 24 months, we will create an online, interactive, and problem-based civics learning environment, entitled "Our Courts," www.ourcourts.org. This web-based environment will be available, free of charge, to students and teachers nationwide for use in classes, enrichment programs, or extracurricular activities. The environment will be content-driven, but will also be media-rich, visually exciting, and highly interactive. It will be designed to captivate and engage students, while empowering and supporting their teachers. Our target audience, at least as an initial matter, includes students in the seventh through ninth grades, and the technology, visuals, and media used will be appropriate to that age group.

By "civics," we mean that discipline which provides students with the information and skills necessary to promote their effective participation in a representative democracy. We anticipate that our learning environment will 1introduce students to the three branches of the federal government and to the Constitution's distribution of power between the national and state governments (federalism) and among the branches of the national government (separation of powers). Beyond these foundational subjects, we will concentrate primarily, at least as an initial matter, on the judicial branch of the state and federal governments.

In undertaking this project, we have adopted as our own the goals of civic education outlined by a study issued by the Carnegie Corporation and the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement ("CIRCLE"), entitled The Civic Missions of Schools:

Civic education should help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives. Competent and responsible citizens:

1. are informed and thoughtful; have a grasp and an appreciation of history and the fundamental processes of American democracy; have an understanding and awareness of public and community issues; and have the ability to obtain information, think critically, and enter into dialogue among others with different perspectives.
2. participate in their communities through membership in or contributions to organizations working to address an array of cultural, social, political, and religious interests and beliefs.
3. act politically by having the skills, knowledge, and commitment needed to accomplish public purposes, such as group problem solving, public speaking, petitioning and protesting, and voting.
4. have moral and civic virtues such as concern for the rights and welfare of others, social responsibility, tolerance and respect, and belief in the capacity to make a difference.

Our aim is to develop a civics education program that achieves these goals by providing content which is not only informative, but also relevant, thought-provoking, and engaging. We will create problems that will challenge students to think critically, and debate rationally and respectfully, about important issues of the day in light of the lessons of history. We plan to embed our problems in a web-based learning environment that will respond to the unique learning styles of the digital generation and that will demand that they interact-in both the physical and the digital worlds-with the materials. Our ultimate aim is to inform and to inspire students to be active and intelligent participants in our constitutional democracy.

The Our Courts Learning Platform
Develop-Create-Provide a pathway for understanding the role and importance of the Judicial Branch of our Democracy

Philosophy of Design
Our Courts promotes the importance of the Judiciary for today's students by utilizing the technologies they are already used to and excited about. Ultimately the instructional modules will be portable to a variety of distribution approaches—a teacher may present videos on his classroom projector or plug her computer in to a TV monitor for group viewing and discussion. Students may download material to their portable game device, or may listen to audio or view video on a laptop computer or iPod. In this way the Our Courts learning environment brings relevance, accuracy and organization while intentionally breaking the mold of traditional 'on-line instruction'. The development teams enjoy the ability to design with this objective in mind—rather than fitting their 'materials' into a lock-step format, educators are afforded the advantage of truly guiding the design and delivery process. This by no means implies a free-form, discovery-learning experience—to the contrary, the Our Courts environment represents a rigorous and credible academic resource...keyed to state and national standards, designed by the nations foremost experts in the Judiciary and in K12 education, working in partnership with leaders in media and technical design. Our Courts reflects the next generation of instructional delivery—today.

Development
June 2007, expert teachers will gather in Tempe, Arizona on the Arizona State University Campus and again in August, in Washington, D.C. to engage in planning, visioning, and development of resources and storyboards utilizing a collaborative Course Development Team (CDT) model. Five development teams comprised of Expert Teachers, Content Area Experts (state representatives from Department of Education), Instructional Designers will work hand-in-hand with media specialists to guide the construction and refinement of engaging and effective materials. A framework for gathering materials, writing curriculum, and associating instructional objectives with educational experiences will be provided via a web-based course design environment. This environment, built upon an existing SAKAI platform, will enable teachers to collaborate and to write and construct instructional materials, building a database of learning objects which will include: Text, Video, Flash Animation, and Audio assets.

This learning engine will automatically link each module to state and national standards as well as embedded assessment tools to measure student outcomes. This online CDT environment will enable a smooth transition of materials in-development to the live, Our Courts learning platform.

Teams will be assembled as determined appropriate by the Expert Teacher / CDT specifications. ASU technical staff will be leveraged to enable rapid response to production needs. This approach will ensure that project resources are maximized, eliminating developer/expert 'down-time'. By drawing from an existing core staff, the Project is able to best utilize funding—in essence drawing from a pool of resources 'as needed'.

Content Creation
Our Courts provides a student and teacher experience that is content rich and interest engaging. Teachers will commission the creation of material and resources—driving the design process in ways rarely available to an individual teacher. Through the CDT model, Expert Teachers and content experts drive the ongoing creation and refinement of learning objects—customizing both the materials, such as videos, animations, discussions, and games—influencing and personalizing the navigation pathways of the student experience.

Delivery
As essential as the development and content creation, the Delivery phase of the Project ensures a dynamic, vibrant, and effective experience for teachers and students. Our Courts provides educators with a set of resources at-their-fingertips (enabling them to assemble an engaging experience for their students) a set of tools to help teachers and students integrate new resources into their classroom experience as well as access online from school, home, or the community. For educators who chose to deliver instruction directly from the environment, a curriculum scope and sequence tailored for a two week instructional delivery timeframe is provided. The delivery environment facilitates and encourages community and collaboration among educators. Recognizing teaching as a relatively isolated profession—with time constraints of lesson planning, professional development, and instructional delivery itself, Our Courts serves as an online community through which educators share resources and approaches and guide the ongoing development of materials and resources. In this way, Our Courts is a constantly evolving resource, guided by the expertise of the board of directors and ensuring quality, accuracy, and alignment with state and national standards, the Our Courts environment enables the participation of educators and students in a way rarely experienced in the academic community.

AMD also sponsored the Games For Change event, where it announced that its AMD Foundation will offer grants to non-profits that teach social game development to kids, including Girlstart, GlobalKids, Institute for Urban Game Design and Science Buddies. AMD also told us at the event that beyond donations, its employees will do volunteer work supporting these efforts.

Part of AMD's support for Games For Change includes "Let the Games Begin," a workshop co-sponsored with the MacArthur Foundation that aims to teach nonprofits how to build games around social issues, and the company will also create a how-to toolkit for Games For Change that includes information and guidance on building these projects.

Full details follow the jump:

- New Initiative Designed to Enhance Education through Game Development -

New York — June 2, 2008 —AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the launch of AMD Changing the Game, the first initiative of the newly formed AMD Foundation. The AMD Changing the Game program is intended to improve critical technical and life skills by teaching kids to develop digital games with social content. The program is rooted in AMD’s commitment and experience in supporting education with the company’s passion and expertise in the gaming industry. The program’s launch accompanies AMD’s sponsorship and participation at the Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival to be held June 3 - 4 at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.

AMD Changing the Game is a natural fit for AMD, which features products powering the visual experience of the two most popular gaming consoles in the world today1 and which recently launched AMD GAME!, a program designed to help consumers select perfectly suited PCs for high-definition gaming.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to harness the passion that kids have for gaming while teaching the skills they need to be successful in our 21st Century digital economy,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and chief operating officer.

In addition to technical skills such as science, technology, engineering and math, digital games can be used to help teach youth how to be more engaged citizens, to see conflict from another’s viewpoint and find positive ways to respond to challenging social issues such as poverty, hunger, disease, energy conservation, water use and global warming.

“Today’s youth are highly concerned about social issues and the current generation of youth gamers is among the most socially conscious in history,” said Suzanne Seggerman, co-founder and president of Games for Change. “The movement toward educating and engaging youth through digital games for change not only raises awareness of the importance of social issues, but gives youth an opportunity to make a difference. As this movement continues to build momentum, we believe that partnerships and grant support from leading technology companies like AMD will be critical to its success.”

Through AMD Changing the Game, AMD Foundation grants will go to nonprofit organizations that inspire young people learn while creating games with social content. Employees will also support the initiative through volunteer opportunities. In its pilot year, the following organizations will be funded:

* Girlstart, is an Austin, TX-based nonprofit organization created to empower middle and high school girls to excel in math, science, and technology. In the summer of 2008, the AMD Foundation’s grant will enable 60 Girlstart participants to attend a program focused on games with social content. As a capstone project, girls will be creating a social awareness event in Teen Second Life, a virtual gathering place for teens 13-17 all over the world to make friends, play, learn and create. The Girlstart team will identify a social issue of importance to them and create an event in Teen Second Life that will help raise awareness and inspire action around the issue.
* Global Kids, is a Brooklyn, NY-based nonprofit organization that seeks to transform urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders. Through its grant to Global Kids’ Playing for Keeps program, AMD has joined The Microsoft Corporation in enabling 20 young people from underserved communities to work with game developers to develop, create and distribute a game about the heroic role of residents following Hurricane Katrina. Last year, young people worked with developers in the Playing for Keeps program to create the game Ayiti: The Cost of Life which allows players to assume the role of impoverished people living in rural Haiti with the goal of meeting some key health, education and quality of life challenges.
* Institute for Urban Game Design, is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through the hands-on creation of digital games. Beginning in the summer of 2008, the AMD Foundation’s grant will enable IUGD participants to apply their learning in 3-D modeling, animation and computer programming to the development of a game focused on the issue of energy usage. Students will learn about and explore the social issues associated with different types of energy.
* Science Buddies is a national, non-profit organization based in California's Silicon Valley offering a variety of web-based tools that help K-12 students explore science through research-based projects often done at Science Fairs and other school and community events. AMD Foundation’s grant will enable Science Buddies to launch a Video and Computer Games Interest Area on its site aimed at helping students understand and practice what is required to design digital games. AMD volunteers will work with Science Buddies staff scientists to develop project ideas to spark student interest in exploring topics such as human behavior in games, ergonomics, game design and programming and the incorporation of social or educational content in games.

As part of launching the Games for Change Festival, the AMD Foundation, in partnership with the John G. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is sponsoring “Let the Games Begin,” a day-long workshop for nonprofit organizations focusing on how to create social issue games. The workshop will feature interactive lectures by some of the nation’s leading authorities on social issue game development and cover fundamentals such as game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution and press strategies.

Following the Festival, the AMD Foundation and Games for Change plan to co-produce a how-to digital toolkit for nonprofits that includes examples of games with social content, interviews with key experts and additional guidance for nonprofits creating social issue games for the first time.

AMD is also working with PETLab, a joint project of Games for Change and Parsons The News School, to create a social issue game development curriculum for youth. The curriculum is expected to be piloted in the fall of 2008.

For more information about AMD Changing the Game, including a video and other materials, visit www.amd.com/changingthegame. Also visit AMD Unprocessed on Facebook for additional information and regular updates.

About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide.

About the AMD Foundation
The AMD Foundation connects and empowers individuals with knowledge, thereby opening doors to opportunity.

Foundation assets are specifically invested in: Initiatives that inspire and facilitate science, technology, engineering and math learning for current and future generations (STEM skills); Support of employees’ community interests by matching their personal donations of time and money to local organizations and schools (AMD Employee Giving Program); Contributions of aid when disaster strikes the communities where we operate (Disaster Relief).

About Games for Change
Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change, giving special assistance to non-profits and foundations entering the field. G4C was formed in 2004 as a sub-group of the Serious Games Initiative. Today, G4C acts as a national hub to help organizations network and develop videogame projects beyond their traditional expertise. Its members represent hundreds of organizations and include partners in the games industry, academia, nonprofits, local and state governments, foundations, the UN and artists.

Last night, an expo was held at the 2008 Games For Change event in New York City, to showcase the six finalists in Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition. Students from around the world were challenged to build games around the theme of environmental sustainability, using Microsoft's XNA community tools

The winner will be chosen at an upcoming Finals event in Paris next month.

"This is just our small part we're playing," Microsoft XNA general manager Chris Satchell told us. "It's really a broader challenge to the industry."

Microsoft can provide tools and a platform to support the development of socially-conscious games and to help them reach an audience where they're already playing, Satchell said. "But no magic happens without the creators... it's the stars that really produce."

You can see a compilation video of the six "star" finalists above, and hit the jump to see video of the games, along with more info about the concepts and the teams behind them.

2008 Imagine Cup Finalists

Team 1
BAMM! Studios
Team Members: FlorianMaetschke, Jens JochenIsensee, Martin Wahnschaffe
Country: Germany
Game Name: Image Earth
Game Description: Single player earth simulation game. Your central goal is to build up a strong, growing population and healthy environment •To achieve this you can build cities, power plants, farms and industry areas and place them on a 3D earth which is segmented into many fields. •In the course of the game pollution will become a big problem. Some of your buildings pollute the surrounding ground, others pollute the air. •Research opportunities come up along the way to help develop new technologies that reduce this pollution.

Team 2
Drunk Puppy
Team Members: Kenny Deriemaeker, JeroenVan Raevels, FilipVan Bouwel, Timothy Vanherberghen
Country: Belgium
Game Name: Future Flow
Game Description: Single player 2D and 3D arcade puzzle game that teaches players about environmental sustainability and ecological issues •Transform existing (unsustainable) cities into sustainable ones by upgrading or creating buildings with environmentally friendly features. •Use 3D views to build and upgrade your city. Use the 2D view to manage the connections between buildings that will help improve your city’s environment.

Team 3
ECOThink
Team Members: Frédéric Pedro, Nicolas Gryman, Anthony Chen, Maximilien Paitel
Country: France
Game Name: ECOThink
Game Description: Single player 2D campaign of an over polluted universe that needs to be rebuilt. •Rebuild the universe one city at a time by making smart choices for power that won’t pollute your community. •Tools throughout the game help you make the right eco friendly choices for power. Choose the wrong source and your community will not flourish. •Succeed by rebuilding each community by increasing population and decreasing pollution.

Team 4
GomZ
Team Members: Dong HoonKim, KiHwan Kim, Min My Park
Country: Korea
Game Name: Clean Up
Game Description: Single player 3D campaign to create and maintain your own cube (living space) with the help of cleaners, nanomachines that have the ability to turn pollutants into energy. •Protect your cube by removing pollution and turning it into useful energy so your cube can sustain itself. •3rdperson view lets you control your character as you use your cleaners to remove pollutants in your cube •Gather the appropriate cleaners from Earth, Air, Water and Energy to help you clean a particular pollutant.

Team 5
Mother Gaia Studios
Team Members: Rafael Costa, Guilhermr Campos, Helena Van Kampen, Tulio Marques Soria
Country: Brazil
Game Name: City Rain
Game Description: In this single player 3D “SimCity meets Tetris” learn about Urbanism, Ecology, and maintaining a Sustainable Environment. •As buildings drop from the sky, strategically place them on the grid so the community can grow while still being ecologically mindful. •Encounter challenges throughout the campaign that will help your community thrive.

Team 6
Siss
Team Members: Florian Leckebusch, Frank Goetz, Ingo Koster
Country: Germany
Game Name: Megalopolis
Game Description: Single player game takes control of a robot who has control over the ecological and economical growth of an island. •The player tries to get the highest score by managing an island for 10 virtual years •Build power plants and the most efficient living conditions for the human inhabitants. •Keep a good balance between quick expansion, income and environmental sustainability. In the end the number of people living on his island and the carbon dioxide emission are the keys to beat the highscore.

You may remember World Without Oil, which invited people to visit a website to share fictional stories that imagined their lives in the event of a severe oil shortage. Player ideas were incorporated as part of the ongoing narrative on the site, and players could add photos or mail letters to the game operators. It's considered groundbreaking, because it was one of the first ARGs that attempted to address a real world issue.

So how much does it cost to make a game like that? Sounds easy, right?

According to World Without Oil writer Ken Eklund, the cost of developing the game was $88,000. That's a lot for a game that ran on user-generated content!

It was funded by ITVS, who normally works with documentary filmmakers who produce PBS specials. They wanted to move into the interactive and online space, and had allotted $100,000 for the internet game proposal they liked best — and that was Eklund's.

Incidentally, World Without Oil's began only a year ago today - and the first stage of its fictional fuel crisis scenario was gas prices over $4 a gallon, a number many analysts have suggested we might see as soon as this summer. Yikes.

"We have social causes we care about, but we don't have the means to connect with people who can do something about them. We're not there, but its a world that's possible to see unless actvities like we're doing here today really gain some momentum."

Satchell was at the 2008 annual Games For Change festival, discussing the ways Microsoft hopes its XNA development platform will help provide creative activists and educators the tools and opportunities to connect with the young, energetic audience passionate about new media and world issues.

"People will base their lives around gaming experiences; gaming experiences will permeate their lives," he said, stressing just how important it was for the culture to recognize games as agents of genuine social impact.

So what is Microsoft doing?

"We can't solve everything, and won't even try. But what Microsoft can do is can help with a couple of key issues," Satchell said. Creativity struggles to reach the masses, he said, because it takes a long time for a single idea to make it all the way to the top of the industry.

Instead, he said, "We took everything we knew about professional tools and put it in a free product, and made it easy to use."

Social change games need to be built on the same console that people are playing games on already, he said. XNA is "not a silver bullet by any means - it's just one tool they have now to teach sciences or to teach the science of gaming."

Last year Microsoft announced its Imagine Cup competition, challenging users to submit XNA-built games around the theme of environmental sustainability. Over100 submissions were received from 60 different countries, and the winner will be chosen during the finals in Paris later this year.

And at Microsoft's XNA Creators' Club, people can submit new creations or mod existing ones, and then the community moderates and reviews the material.

"You can have a great game that is fun but says something social," said Satchell.

The bus, the woman told Gasperini, had been provided by the Nicaraguan government, and she had relied on it as her only means of visiting her sister. The Contras - anti-government guerillas funded by the U.S. - had destroyed the bus. The woman, passionate about American democracy, told Gasperini that if he could just tell everyone back in the States about what had happened to her bus, Americans would vote to help, the Contras would cease their attacks, and she could travel to her sister's again.

Touched by her plight and by her faith, Gasperini wondered what he could do to disseminate information about the Contra situation. In the end, he decided to do what he did best: Make a game.

That game, a 1989 mouse-and-keyboard HyperCard adventure on an 800k floppy disk, was titled Hidden Agenda, and it was a huge critical success, discussed on All Things Considered and in Newsweek, among others. Incidentally, the face of the man in the screenshot was modeled on Gasperini's apartment doorman.

Games For Change is an organization developed to support academics, activist groups, educators and the non-profit sector in creating games that act as agents of social change. At the organization's 2008 event in New York, panel moderator Celia Pearce introduced Gasperini, as well as another of the first social game designers, Balance of Power creator Chris Crawford, who's also credited with instigating an informal event in his living room in 1987 that would grow to become the Game Developers' Conference we know today.

The idea of developing games for other audiences than the core gamer, and with other goals than simple entertainment, is often hailed as a "new" phenomenon, as is the idea that games will "one day" be treated in the mainstream as a serious and valuable pursuit. But Gasperini and Crawford are notable for beginning this work long before there was a game console in every home.

"In digital culture, people always assume that they're doing something for the first time when in fact that is very seldom the case," said Pearce.

In fact, back in 1985, Gasperini met Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, still leading the company in its earlier days, and received some advice from him on being successful in the industry: Make a game that your dad would want to play.

Gasperini's Dad loved Face The Nation and 60 Minutes, so at the time, Hidden Agenda definitely fit the bill. Years later, though, Gasperini met up with Hawkins again during the time when EA was specializing in sports sims. They had just released a volleyball game titled Lords of the Beach, and so Gasperini asked him: whatever happened to making games for Dad?

"Well," laughed Hawkins, "My Dad likes watching girls in bikinis playing beach volleyball."

Crawford's 1985 game Balance of Power, a geopolitical simulator where the object was to prevent a war, actually preceded (and helped inspire) Hidden Agenda. But Crawford said that if it wasn't for massive economic losses in a game industry that looked to be about to tank, no one would ever have published his title, which decades later still inspires activist groups to develop social games.

"People only change when they're in pain," said Crawford, explaining why MindScape, a startup publisher, was willing to pick up his game after Atari's collapse left the industry "at death's door." EA, Broderbund and the era's other market leaders took a pass, he said.

Crawford and Gasperini both have faith, though, that a new game industry can be built alongside the existing one, to build games that provoke thought on world issues, that educate and encourage activism. It'll take time, though.

"It's a slow, steady process," said Crawford. "No industry develops suddenly. You have to develop public awareness of it. I figure it'll take at least five years for this to get off the ground, maybe 10 years before we have a real industry."

And unless the game industry ever finds itself in such dire straits again, Crawford said it's still unlikely that social games will ever reach success through commercial channels. "The games industry is creatively dead," said Crawford. "It is 'marketingly mature'. They know exactly who they're selling and the people they're selling to... You're not going to wreak any major changes in this industry."

[You can see the games discussed at the links provided in this article.]

If you were former Bungie designer François Boucher-Genesse, you'd have picked none of the above. Boucher-Genesse decided to leave top-shelf game design behind for the world of learning, academia and social change.

At the 2008 Games For Change conference in New York, where he'd come to learn more about the field of social and educational games, I asked him, flat out, if he was nuts. But Boucher-Genesse told me that Halo 3's massive success prompted more soul-searching than ego boosting, and he explained to me the reasons behind his decision and what he hopes to accomplish next.

"It is hard to figure out what is the impact that Halo makes in the world," said Boucher-Genesse, who is originally from Quebec. He acknowledged having heard stories of people who claim Halo helped them make an easier time of life's trials and travails, but in general, despite the commercial proliferation of Master Chief, Boucher-Genesse felt unsure of what effect Halo and games of its ilk were actually having on people.

"I don't have a clear sense for that... that's why I'm going in a field where the impact is going to be smaller, but at least I'll know that I'm probably educating some people. So I'm going to do educational games... where the impact is clearer," he said.

His primary goal, now, is to play whatever part he can in helping show the world that games are capable of teaching. For Boucher-Genesse, it's less about making a totally new kind of game and more about how to use the game design philosophy that already compels game fans in a broader way.

"I do believe that gamers could be interested in more subjects. I think that games already teach them something, it's just not being recognized as effective learning," he said.

For example, he said that playing real-time strategy games teaches quite a lot about resource management and coordinating various elements at once, but most gamers don't think about their play as being a useful skill - and most games don't offer learning experiences that gamers can apply when they're not playing.

He'd like to see more academics recognize the teaching power of games, firstly, and secondly, he'd like the gaming audience to be a little more open-minded as to possible wider context for the things they play. With that in mind, he's currently working with the University of Quebec in Montreal to research games for learning, and he's also going back to school this fall for a Masters in Education. With more academic research and more quantifiable results, he said, it'll be easier to get funding for future projects.

Boucher-Genesse said his former colleagues at Bungie were supportive of his dreams. Negative or inaccurate perceptions of games on the part of the broader culture, he said, make it very challenging for this kind of socially-oriented learning work to come from within the industry - but that doesn't mean developers aren't interested in creating games aimed at educating and empowering people, and hopeful that such efforts will find success. Microsoft, who owned Bungie until recently, is one of Games For Change's sponsors.

"When I quit Bungie, I spoke with a lot of people... who want to make something that's really good in the world, and they were like 'Yeah!'" He said. "They were really enthusiastic about me going there... the state of the industry right now isn't like 'developers want to make something, therefore they're going to make it.'" Every game has a publisher, after all, and every publisher has to make money.

Many in the non-profit sector, academics and education fields have just begun to consider games as a teaching tool. Now, it looks as if they'll have the benefit of experience from Boucher-Genesse and hopefully other accomplished game professionals as they aim to change the world.

This year, Games For Change kicks off the event with a MacArthur Foundation-funded one-day workshop aimed at non-profit professionals, to teach them how to make games about social issues. On June 3, Microsoft will host the event's Expo Night, which showcases serious games from designers around the world competing for recognition in the Microsoft-sponsored Imagine Cup, which the company announced last year. The challenge to designers asks them to develop games themed around supporting a sustainable environment.

The United Nations will also present games it created, including games about malaria prevention, water conservation and global poverty, and various other non-profit organizations are set to offer demonstrations as well.

Full announcement follows the jump. I'll be covering portions of the event next week, and I can't wait to play the Malaria Game! — In sincerity, I attended Games For Change last year and am looking forward to this year's, which looks much bigger than before!

Games for Change Fifth Annual Festival ­ June 2-4, 2008 Hosted by PARSONS The New School for design

Keynote Addresses by The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor and Leading Game Scholars Dr. James Paul Gee and Henry Jenkins

New One-Day Workshop Funded by the MacArthur Foundation Teaches Non-Profit Professionals How to Make Social Issue Games, With a Major New Announcement From the AMD Foundation

Expo Night To Feature Microsoft Environmental Games Contest Finalists From Around the World

NEW YORK, May 20, 2008 ­ The nonprofit organization Games for Change presents its fifth annual festival in New York City, June 2-4, 2008 hosted by Parsons The New School for Design. The festival brings together leading non-profit organizations, game scholars, and industry experts to explore and expand the role of digital games as agents of social change and showcases some of the hottest new games in development during a special game expo. Highlights of the festival include a closing keynote by the Honorable Justice Sandra Day O¹Connor, and a one-day workshop funded by the MacArthur Foundation designed to teach non-profit professionals how to use games to fulfill their social issue missions. The AMD Foundation will also be making a major announcement on this day about a new education initiative involving social issue games.

³Now in our fifth year, the Games for Change festival is proud to have brought attention to games as a means to promote social impact initiatives,² said Suzanne Seggerman, President and Co-founder of Games for Change. ³This year¹s festival continues to showcase the best practices of social issue game design while increasing the accessibility of games among educators, non-profit leaders, philanthropic entities and others through new programs like the one-day workshop.²

This year¹s festival will feature two keynote addresses focusing on the vision and future of the public interest game community, beginning with a joint address by Dr. James Paul Gee of Arizona State University and Henry Jenkins of MIT on June 3. Both Gee and Jenkins are the leading scholars on learning and interactive media and joint advisors to MIT¹s Education Arcade, a consortium of educators and business leaders working to promote the educational use of computer and video games. On June 4, the Honorable Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will speak about a new interactive civics education project she is developing in partnership with Dr. Gee.

Now in its third year hosting the Games for Change Festival, The New School recently deepened its relationship with the organization through the launch of PETLab, the first public interest game design and research laboratory for interactive media. Supported by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the lab connects the work of the public and private sector with educators and designers to build an overall framework for design as a learning activity. MORE ³Through the development of PETLab, Parsons and Games for Change are supporting the next generation of social impact game designers while encouraging the real-world application of these games,² said New School President Bob Kerrey, who will deliver opening remarks at the keynote speech by Justice Sandra Day O¹Connor. ³This incubator fulfills the university¹s mission to strengthen the connections between design and the social sciences.²

The June 3 Expo Night, hosted by Microsoft, will showcase the latest social issues games in development. Microsoft will present games designed by finalists in the ³Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge². The designers, flown in from around the world, will present their games. As part of Microsoft¹s Imagine Cup Competition, this nationwide, socially responsible game initiative was launched at last year¹s Expo to challenge game designers to use technology to support a sustainable environment. There will also be a showcase of games created by the United Nations, including games about malaria prevention, water conservation, and global poverty. Other non-profits will display games on immigration, Hurricane Katrina and ³playing the news.² PETLab will also participate in the Expo.

This year¹s festival features the addition of a full day of programming on June 2nd dedicated to helping non-profits utilize gaming technology to fulfill their mission of social service. Titled ŒLet the Games Begin: A 101 Workshop on Making Social Issue Games,¹ the workshop is one of 17 winners out of more than 1000 applicants of the MacArthur Foundation¹s DML (Digital Media and Learning) Competition. This workshop provides hands-on sessions by notable figures in the field on the fundamentals of social issue games featuring leading experts on topics including game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution, and press strategies. 101 Workshop is sponsored by the AMD Foundation, a leading technology corporation which is announcing a major new philanthropic initiative on this day.

Throughout the festival, panels will address hot-button topics as such as impact assessment, games and journalism, funding challenges and public media initiatives. Featured panelists including: game designers Jim Gasperini (Hidden Agenda), Chris Crawford (Balance of Power and Balance of the Planet), and Ken Eklund (creator of World Without Oil); Dr. Michael Levine, director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center; Shelley Pasnick, director of the Center for Children and Technology; Mary Flanagan, director of the Tiltfactor Lab; Tracy Fullerton, director of the USC Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab; and representatives from Participant Productions, the MacArthur and Knight Foundations, PBS, and Electronic Arts, among many others. The full festival agenda is available at http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/program.php.

Games for Change (http://www.gamesforchange.org) provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change, with special assistance to non-profits and foundations entering the field. Called ³the Sundance of Videogames² for ³socially-responsible game-makers², G4C acts as the international nexus and primary community of practice for public interest games, and includes hundreds of organizations and individuals in the nonprofit sector, industry, academia, government, and the arts.

PETLab (Protyping, Evaluating, Teaching and Learning Laboratory) a joint project of Games for Change and Parsons The New School for Design, was launched in December 2007 through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation's digital media and learning initiative. PETLab develops new games, simulations, and play experiences which encourage experimental learning and investigation into social and global issues. It is a place for testing prototyping methods and the process of collaborative design with organizations interested in using games as a form of public interest engagement.

The New School (www.newschool.edu ) is a leading progressive university comprising eight schools all poised to prepare undergraduate and graduate students to effect lasting change in the world. Part of the university, Parsons The New School for Design is one of the premier degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Its graduates and faculty appear on the shortlist of outstanding practitioners in every realm of art and design.

The 2008 Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival is sponsored by the AMD Foundation, Games for Windows, Microsoft, Parsons the New School for Design, and Xbox 360.

It is heartening to see that the concept of corporate responsibility can, at time, ooze over into the gaming industry.

At today's 2007 Games for Change Festival Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge, a year-long game design competition for college students around the world aimed at tackling important issues through gaming.

For this first competition student developer groups will work on creating a game based on global warming using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express software. The competition's three finalists will receive "financial compensation for education" and the winners of the competition will land an internship at Microsoft Game Studios, Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, told me in a recent interview. He added that the final games could end up appearing on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, Games for Windows Live Arcade or MSN Arcade, but that a final decision had yet to be made.

Bell said Microsoft officials had originally debating having several categories for this competition, ones that could explore such diverse topics as social conflict, world hunger and other global issues, but felt that the recent successes of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth had made the topic of global warming particularly timely and one that often spurs passionate debate.

"We have no forgone conclusions about the approach or conclusions (the games) will make," he said. "What we really want to do is to use the vehicle of games as a way to increase education and information and engagement on the part of all different constituents."

While the competition will include more than 100 universities worldwide, Bell said they did not yet know how many teams from each university would participate. The competition will kick off in August and run through next spring, with the winners being announced at an event in Paris in August, 2008, he said.

Bell said Microsoft decided to create this competition in part out of a sense of being a good corporate citizen.

"The gaming industry is clearly a large and profitable industry," he said. "We also want to try and promote the exploration of new genres and titles."

I hope Nintendo and Sony take that as a challenge. Brian Crecente