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Denver, 11:31 PM
Sun Nov 22
16 posts in the last 24 hours
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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/07/09
[www.youtube.com]
EDIT: the start of the doc is a bit misleading, keep with it though.
10/07/09
07/07/09
07/07/09
As long as you get to be a nazi.
07/07/09
Sounds like you think Anti-Semitism is funny.
07/07/09
I'm not looking down on your opinion, but if someone doesn't try, how can we know what video games can or cannot do. This subject obviously is on shaky grounds so I definitely understand where some people might draw that line as to what and what they don't want done in a form of a game.
Also there was a Holocaust game that was supposed to be in development for the DS in a form of a storybook gameplay style, but that too got put into the bin and to my knowledge never made it past the Nintendo heads.
07/07/09
Fiction can be biased and warped, but history is set in stone. This is practically history. I am white, but I took an African American history class. There is no race but one race, and that is the human race. If you had Fallout 3, did you enslave people on your "evil" playthrough, or saved them on your "good" playthough. This is just that with escaping as the main subject.
Also, please refrain using Godwin's Law from this from now on.
07/07/09
[kotaku.com]
Found it.
07/07/09
Damn.
07/07/09
I still disagree and my post wasn't made jokingly. I personally believe that some games do not need to be made.
Also, please don't accuse me of being humorous with the Holocaust. If you posted on Kotaku long enough you would know I take this stuff seriously.
07/07/09
07/07/09
07/07/09
07/07/09
When I referred to the extermination of the Native Americans as "the American holocaust" I ended up suspended for a month, because god forbid anyone simply accept that, like damn near every single county to ever exist, we took the land we have by slaughtering the people who were here before us.
07/07/09
So true, so true.
07/07/09
Where in America ignores that part of history? That's really really odd.
07/07/09
07/07/09
If the game here is done with respect to history, and is not politically motivated in the end, it could be a useful tool. I usually have doubts about how things claiming to have "the whole story" turn out though.
07/07/09
05/29/09
A few notes:
* 60% of the scoring is based on "educational" value so you should definitely see a bias toward the educational aspect of Teen Dating Violence in the winning games
* we saw a 40% increase in the number of entries this year!
* we also received entries and requests for info from several different countries representing four continents - and one of the winning entries is from Mexico!
Thanks again to Brian and the Kotaku community for the tremendous support that Jennifer Ann's Group has received.
I'm currently in Europe for law school and am spreading the word about teen dating violence here. Today I was fortunate enough to meet with a Supreme Court Justice of Austria while in Vienna and briefly spoke with him about our efforts and the need to educate teens / young adults about this very real issue.
And... for those of you wondering about the "luscious hair and sparkling smile" I can only say that we *do* share the smile. Check out our website if you wanna see the hair!
Again, thanks!
Drew Crecente
Executive Director, Jennifer Ann's Group
(and proud father of Jennifer)
05/28/09
Thanks for the update on where this contest went. I'm excited to see what kind of creativity will come out here.
03/13/09
03/13/09
03/13/09
-1 or 2 real ones who do.
-10 trolls
-10 people who realize that this IS useful and not only teachers are looking at it, but colleges currently training people
-3 people who can't pull their head out of their ass.
Numbers subject to change.
03/13/09
03/13/09
03/13/09
Teach them how to play music, not waggle a remote in a pedo-bear suggestive fashion.
03/13/09
03/13/09
Excepting that I had to buy my own recorder in grade school, I actually doubt that stocking a classroom with instruments like you mentioned, even inexpensive ones is cheaper than a Wii Music station.
What is it, however, is more inclusive, since Wii Music is limited to four people at a time, and far less tempting to steal.
If you were talking replacement costs, though, you'd surely be correct. Replacing one tambourine is definitely cheaper than replacing one 23 inch LCD panel.
03/13/09
03/13/09
Those things aren't going away. Wii Music is just a supplemental tool.
03/13/09
[\sarc]
03/13/09
Okay, then, assuming your inventory of recorders, tambourines, and percussion sticks (and ignoring your 'other basic instruments' addition), your price point of $10 and your class size of 30, let's say you need:
-30 recorders (which would be a recurring cost, since those aren't passed child to child)
-30 tambourines
-30 percussion sticks
At $10.00 each (a figure which I'm assuming means you've never had a government purchasing job before), that would come out to $900.00.
For the Wii music station, you'd need:
-Wii Console
-Wii Music Game
-Three additional controllers with nunchucks
-Television (assuming the schools AV department was woefully lacking)
-stand (assuming the school has no tables or walls)
The console, game, and controllers should run you about $450, leaving you an additional $450 with which to get a small television and stand.
I think the start up costs for both would be fairly comparable, not to mention a television on a rolling cart would be applicable to other areas of the school.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for Wii Music in the classroom. I really have no opinion on that, but I think it's misleading to suggest it would be dramatically more expensive.
03/13/09
More proof idiots going "lol the real thing would be cheaper!1!1" don't know what they are talking about.
03/13/09
Paying $700 or so more for a game setup only playable by four students to get them to play fake instruments over real ones is not good for a classroom environment nor conducive to the rest of the group. Good luck getting that approved by schools strapped for cash as well. I'm all for music education, but stocking a class room with Wii Music as part of a mandate for schools to hire music educators is terribly wasteful and inappropriate in my opinion given budget concerns.
@Foxstar Sixtail: There are discounts and grants for the real stuff as well, you know, but I guess us "idiots" are only aware of that. Again, that $450 figure is way too low and would be lucky to cover the cost of the display case alone.
03/13/09
03/13/09
I don't recall ever arguing Wii Sports would be "conducive to" the "classroom environment." I think I pretty clearly said that I didn't have an opinion on that. I actually espoused a similar thought earlier that it would be limiting since only four students could participate at once.
Let me be frank, though, no school is paying $10.00 for their instruments. You also didn't include the prices of the sheet music, the music stands, or the "additional instruments" you mentioned earlier, like xylophones, which would be far more than $10.00. And yes, because all the students are learning the instruments at the same time, it's very likely that, beyond some of the simple percussive instruments, every child would have access to each instrument.
Instruments purchased by elementary schools are not bottom grade; They're meant to take years of abuse. It's ludicrous that you think a music classroom of 30 students could be stocked with standard instruments for $300.00.
03/13/09
I think younger children will definetly benefit from this, going from a 'fake' instrument to the real thing would definetly get kids interested. Imagine children playing saxaphones on Wii music and then getting to play the real thing, slowly taught how to play the notes properly
03/13/09
03/13/09
03/13/09
@MikeF**kingBison: Yeah I know what you mean. I never really got that arguement. I mean Guitar Hero and Rock Band are games created for fun mere simulations intended to entertain the player, not simulations intended to teach people who to play guitar!
@EmeraldDragon: Too late :P
03/13/09
03/13/09
"WII MUSIC SUCKS, LIKE THE WII"
"NINTENDO STOP MAKING THIS CRAP AND GIVE US REAL GAMES"
"ROCK BAND IS MUCH BETTER THAN THIS SHIT"
There, all the comments of this article are resumed there, just saved you some time.
03/13/09
03/13/09
Yup, you pretty much summed up this article.@illiniphase4: @Fallible: @monkeybeach:
You guys are totally missing the point. Wii music isn't meant in any way to mimic what it's like paying a real instrument. All it's meant to do is expose you to the various ways each instrument can be used in an ensemble. I'm sure if you asked most kids, they wouldn't even know what a bassoon was before playing Wii music.
In the end, it's just a good way to pique their interest in playing a musical instrument and expose them to their various sounds. I just don't understand why close-minded people like you feel so against this...oh wait, I just answered my own question.
01/21/09
Why isn't this a standard in all games by now?
01/21/09
Intersting sounding game, but since I lack an iPhone I don't think I can pick this one up.
01/21/09
01/21/09
01/21/09