Kotaku
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history
Underground Railroad Video Game Tells The Whole Story
After what she says was ages of misrepresentation in books, films, and television, Norfolk University history professor Cassandra Newby-Alexander wants to tell the true story of the slave-liberating Underground Railroad using a video game. More »
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By Mike FaheyComment by DigitalHero: As an African-American person, I don't want this game. What next, a Holocaust game? 45 Responses | Other threads
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serious games
2009 Life. Love. Game Design Challenge Winners Unveiled
Is it possible to educate about teen dating violence through a violence-free video game? More »
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Comment by Teancum: Did I miss something? The winning entry was just the ability to direct a bird around with your mouse. weeeee..... 4 Responses | Other threads
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clips
Wii Music As Teacher Shown in Action
A Washington, D.C. school is one of the first in the nation to get Wii Music in their school. More »
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Comment by excel_excel: Sadly the majority of commenters will ignore the good this can do and engage WII BASHING MODE I think younger children... 18 Responses | Other threads
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iphone
Take Airport Security Game Through Airport Security
We first wrote about newsgame Airport Security back in 2006, today Ian Bogost reports that an iPhone version of the game is now available in the App Store. More »
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Comment by KamikazeSim: I am gonna sell my ATT Tilt to get an iPhone in July when my contract is up. It is ridiculous... 7 Responses | Other threads
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news
Serious Games Competition Is Serious Business
Whosegame is right in the middle of their first annual Serious Games competition which runs from Dec. 8, 2008 to Mar 31, 2009. More »
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By AJ GlasserComment by killah101: Ws t rlly ncssry t s "srs". Tm t hr mr crtv ppl rckn. 3 Responses | Other threads
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culture
'A Game Has Never Made You Cry'
Chris Bateman (of Only a Game) has a thought provoking article on his new, games only blog on whether or not a game has ever made you cry.
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Comment by tehflyingwombat: *The following post contains MGS4 massive spoilers* I seriously teared up during that part where you had to guide Snake through... 30 Responses | Other threads
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call for papers
Games+Learning+Society 5.0 CFP
Another weekend, another call for papers! This time around it's the Games+Learning+Society 5.0 conference, June 10-12 in Madison, WI. More »
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Comment by Mr.Awesomerific: We need a HMGF conference. How to Make Games Fun Again conference. Who care's about games being educational, or having them make... 11 Responses | Other threads
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journalism
Considering the BusinessWeek Arcade
We mentioned the somewhat odd BusinessWeek Arcade back when it launched; now Ian Bogost has taken up the whys and wherefores over at the Journalism & Games Project blog. More »
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Comment by Sensai-N: I feel the need to voice a humble criticism: while I do enjoy some of the information Ian Bogost has... more » | Other threads
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game design
Outgrowing Games: The Rebuttal and Challenge
A few weeks ago, designer Brice Morrison talked about how a game designer outgrew games; since kicking off a flurry of discussion, he's returned to GameSetWatch with some in-depth answers to common questions and a challenge.
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Comment by Altersparck: Games can be outgrown if games don't grow up with its audience. The problem I see with games is that storytelling... 8 Responses | Other threads
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competition
Entries Announced for IGF '09
A couple of Kotakuites have written to underline what I'd already noticed — the lists of the 2009 Independent Games Festival entrants are finally up. More »
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Comment by shan6: "you are a female mime artist in Paris, who must earn as much as possible, by miming your way through... 5 Responses | Other threads
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game design
Tale of Tales' 'Graveyard' Postmortem
Gamasutra has a fabulous postmortem up — easily one of the best I've read — on Tale of Tales' The Graveyard. More »
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Comment by SuperCracker: Video GAME. GAME damn it, game! Yeah, I'm sure that I'd have a blast running around a black and white... 20 Responses | Other threads
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super columbine massacre rpg
Talking About Super Columbine Massacre RPG (Exclamation Point)
If you happen to be in Denver tomorrow, around noonish, and have nothing to do, you might want to swing by the Denver Film Festival. More »
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Comment by abort_user: i should make a game with rpg maker about something controversial and real then i will be important too. ive played... 2 Responses | Other threads
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language
Games as Language
L.B. Jeffries has a nice essay up on the idea of 'games as languages' — a combination of coercing players to take certain actions and encouraging certain responses, creating a dialogue of sorts. As Jeffries says, "It’s not exactly talking to another person…but it’s not just rolling dice or pressing shoot either." As games get more complex, so does the 'language' aspect — choices are expressive elements, and the more choices one has, the more opportunities for unique combinations. Even the simplest of games involves communication — 'go here, do that.' With the influx of more diverse and user-created building blocks, it seems reasonable that the 'languages' would begin to emerge more clearly: More »
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Comment by ZinkO: high-performance lubrication: I gotta wonder. How would you disemvowel a blind person? 9 Responses | Other threads
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war games
UK Soldiers to Train on Game That Stinks ... Literally
Well, militaries across the world may soon have a new war game to their arsenal, and it could have a trickle down effect to retail games — British researchers have come up with a game system that incorporates a 'smell box,' in an attempt to see if they can make training stick better. In what sounds like an unpleasant experience, various smells are triggered as users 'take an authentic walk' around hostile areas. If it's determined this is making training more useful, it could be rolled out next year and be used in training actual soldiers: More » -
serious games
How a Game Designer Outgrew Games
In an interesting opinion piece over at GameSetWatch, designer Brice Morrison expounds on why it is that he 'outgrew' games — even though he's a designer. It's not exactly treading any new ground (any 'why is gaming an immature medium?' essay traverses the same ground), but it's an interesting perspective from someone who has built a career on designing games — games that he says he's outgrown. What do we need more of? Boring games (sort of): More »
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Comment by mixmastermind: Did he just call Passage boring? I think he did. I will not stand for this, not at all. Mister Morrison, you... 7 Responses | Other threads
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serious games
On Relevant Settings in Games
L.B. Jeffries has a nice piece up arguing for more relevant and provocative settings in games in order to raise awareness and perhaps do something a little greater for disastrous (real world) situations. He points out that violence isn't incompatible with this, thus many classic genres would probably be quite at home dealing with nasty current day situations (as he points out, film has already done this — though not always through violent means — though Jeffries uses Rambo 4 as a cinematic touchstone). Of course, this comes with some problems: More »
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Comment by imikedaman: If you guys are going to skip the article and assume it's a hit-piece on gaming (which it is not),... 6 Responses | Other threads
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hot flashes
Artistic Saturday Timewaster: Estamos Pensando
Kotakuite Daniel Novais sent me an email this past week, asking me to take a look at his "little short artsy game" called Estamos Pensando (Portuguese for 'We Are Thinking'). Inspired in part by Jason Rohrer's Passage, Estamos Pensando is a sweet, sad, and polished little game. Daniel said that he's now trying to work on something a little happier, since one comment on Rohrer's Gravitation noted that these 'artsy' games are usually depressing. There are Portuguese and English versions of the game, and gameplay is quite simple. The game has apparently gotten some nice initial reviews since its submission to the Brazilian symposium SBGames 2008 festival, and it's worth a little bit of your time. More »
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Comment by Demonioum: Estamos pensando aint portuguese? its Spanish..even though they are kinda similar. 5 Responses | Other threads
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political games
On the 'Birth and Death of the Political Game'
Ian Bogost has a timely piece up on the issue of political-themed games, and their use — or lack thereof. Bogost draws a clear demarcation between politicking (which he feels most of these games do) versus politics — games have the potential to really speak towards politics, but wind up being more or less meaningless tools for politicking: More »
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Comment by ZinkO: high-performance lubrication: Maybe if gamers were more politically diverse we'd have some good games. Right now it's like 85:15 liberal:conservative. 14 Responses | Other threads
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education
Top 10 Educational Games of the 1980s
It's a bit of a nostalgic day today at Kotaku (or maybe I've just done a poor job of getting out of the historian mindset this weekend), but a post over at Educational Games Research brought back memories of childhood and elementary school — Oregon Trail, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (I vaguely remember a PBS television show that we were required to watch once a week), typing teachers (though we used PAWS in the 3rd grade, not the Mavis Beacon mentioned). Ah, memories: More »
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Comment by Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.: OMG Number Munchers!! Those little dudes frigging ruled! Oh wow that was a 1980s game? lol they were still using it... 10 Responses | Other threads
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art
A Few Approaches to 'Games as Art'
'Matthew Wasteland' of Magical Wasteland has a thought provoking essay up over at GameSetWatch on how we think of games as art — and why it may not work, or what our current limitations are. His opinion is the more we think about this stuff, the more we can work on overcoming current problems — certainly not an unreasonable point of view. My favorite section was on the problem of 'systems as art' (his example is a little gem called The Marriage, which is lacking in context to say the least) — a pretty nice critique of some of the intentionally 'artistic' games that seek to 'rise above' the entertaining masses: More »
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Comment by Ashurahori: Some games try to be art, some don't. Is EPIC MOVIE art? I don't think that while games have to be... 6 Responses | Other threads
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clips
'Educational' Meets 'Fun': Tangential Learning
I sort of hope the Zero Punctuation knock-off dies a quick death, but reader Nathan M. sent us this video, which is based off an article by designer James Portnow. There's nothing ground breaking here — the idea that educational games simply try too hard, while regular 'fun' titles can inspire learning without having to try and teach themselves is nothing new, but the video is certainly a lot more fun than the average essay. Nathan said, "I'm a 5th grade social studies teacher. I still like to play games as much as I can but I've always been disappointed with state of educational games. This gives the best explanation of this phenomena and the best approach to correcting it I've seen." More »
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Comment by Orionsaint: Sephirot [or "enumerations", Sephiroth, Sefiroth (סְפִירוֹת), singular: Sephirah, also Sefirah (סְפִירָה "enumeration" in Hebrew)], in the Kabbalah of Judaism, are... 7 Responses | Other threads
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serious games
The Failings of 'Serious Games': Packaging Man
Ian Bogost has a short little note on a 'serious game' called Packaging Man, which was apparently intended 'to raise awareness about the destructive impact fast food paper packaging has on Southern forests.' Unfortunately for Dogwood Alliance, the creator, the game is a slightly retooled version of Pac-man, and the 'environmental message' seems confined to the (skippable) intro. Ian wasn't terribly impressed: More »
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Comment by D00mM4r1n3: Firstly, the rainforest is being chopped down to create open land for agriculture, secondly trees are a renewable resource. Whoever... more » | Other threads
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serious games
The Wide World of Gaming: 'The End of Gamers'
Ian Bogost has an interesting editorial over at Edge Online entitled 'The End of Gamers,' a title which he admits doesn't really capture the main argument: "["The End of Gamers"] is lurid but might not capture the main argument of the piece, which is more like "Things People Do with Games." Much of his point is that other media has a wide variety of applications, and isn't shoehorned into a few limited types of uses ('entertainment' vs. 'serious' and so on). Bogost isn't arguing for 'games as art' or 'games as useful' or anything else, just pointing out that some perceptions about the industry start to break down when one considers the wide range of applications current games can have: More »
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Comment by adrenalinq: People need to get adrenaline. Some go climbing mountains, others go fishing, watching sports live, snowboarding. I take my portion... more » | Other threads
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pandemic 2
Saturday Timewaster: Pandemic 2
Ever wanted to decimate the world's population or see if you could develop a super-bug that would leave the globe in utter pandemonium? If the answer is yes, browser-based Pandemic 2 is your game; even if the answer is 'uh, no,' it's an interesting way to while away some time. Watch as your customized disease of choice is let loose on the world, then use your 'evolution points' to mutate the perfect delivery method for a global pandemic — the goal is to have a trail of devastation (and bodies) left in your wake. There are two different modes, 'realistic' and 'relaxed,' so if you're not sure you're ready for a realistic onslaught, you can try your hand with the easier mode. More »
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Comment by issalar: hello....... looks like the planet is dead yay i win more » | Other threads
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Comment by cshakarian: Hi There, Thank's for your interest in our report. The next report is actually on in-game advertising - we use our... more » | Other threads
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serious games
'Performative Play': Games and the 'Real World'
Ian Bogost has an interesting essay up on Gamasutra, this one on the performative aspects of video games. The beloved word of anthropologists and linguists the world over, the concept of something being 'performative' is when something has the ability to do something itself when it is thrown out in the big bad world. So, what does this have to do with games?: More »
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Comment by Izkariot iz watchin u masterbait: Oh geez, that article sounds like something I'd written in college, to be perused by a professor and then given... more » | Other threads
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serious games
What Gaming Needs: More 'World' Games?
Chris Plante has posted a plea over at GameSetWatch — one for bringing more global entertainment to the West (well, America specifically). His idea? Some sort of portal that will be able to showcase games from all over the world, dragging American gamers kicking and screaming into acknowledging foreign countries that are outside of East Asia. Interesting concept, and one that could theoretically be implemented right now: More »
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Comment by Ryodestined: People will try anything once if they like the price. That's really the only foreseeable hold-up in my judgment. more » | Other threads
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ucsd
UCSD's SoftWhere 2008 — Now With Videos
Missed UCSD's SoftWhere 2008 conference and curious what went on? Well, video of the public portion of the conference is now popping up on the SoftWhere 2008 page in QuickTime and YouTube. A lot of big names (like Ian Bogost, above) had some very interesting presentations on a variety of topics — even my Japanese historiography professor showed up and had a lot to say about history, time, and software. It was a pretty diverse group, and owing to the zippy format, you can get a good feel for a lot of the research and ideas without spending half an hour or more listening to one presentation. Confining academics to such a short period of time? Sheer brilliance. More »
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Comment by Maggie Greene: @Macungah: I posted about it before it actually happened - I didn't get to go to the whole thing,... more » | Other threads
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takayoshi sato
Takayoshi Sato on Silent Hill, Serious Games, and Art
Tale of Tales has an interesting little interview up with Takayoshi Sato, who was responsible for the art and CGI direction of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2; after relocating to the US, Sato did art for some big titles, then made the switch to 'serious games.' On making the switch, he has this to say: More »
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Comment by SG79: @TheurerDiciple: You're right. The awards and recognition he got because of solo work on the SH1 CGI. If what you said... more » | Other threads
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jason rohrer
Weird Artistic Timewaster of the Day: Immortality
We've mentioned Jason Rohrer's weird little works before, in the form of Passage and Gravitation; now with his 'Game Design Sketchbook' column at the Escapist, he puts up new little games monthly. This month features the theme of life, death, and immortality (appropriately called Immortality): More »
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Comment by KicktheCAN: @TheOnionKnight: I thought the next logical step was to build the tallest tower I could, and so I did (Until... more » | Other threads
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softwhere 2008
UCSD's Softwhere 2008: A Few Roundups
I poked my head in to the public 'pecha kucha' session for UCSD's SoftWhere 2008, but couldn't stay for the whole thing since I had a paper to write and was feeling really under the weather; I did get a chance later to talk with one of my professors, who participated in the event, and have been checking out the roundups floating around the internet at this point. I've got my own opinions on the '___ Studies' ghetto, being part of it myself — though an attempt to create a field of 'software studies' is, at the very least, not burdened with Cold War politics. Anyways, there are some concise (and not so concise) appraisals of the event floating around. Anne Helmond, who presented on the relationship between search engines and the blogosphere, had this to say: More »
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Comment by phinehas: Pechakucha, for those unaware, is a method of presenting a powerpoint within 6 (or so) minutes where pictures are displayed... more » | Other threads
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Games For Change 08
In "Creatively Dead" Industry, Change Comes From The Outside
In mid-1980s Nicaragua, a woman stood beside a burnt out bus in a tiny, remote town. Game designer Jim Gasperini was in the region to visit his brother, a journalist covering Contra issues during the Reagan administration.
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Comment by ronsf: Great to see this... For the record, that's not Jim's doorman in the screenshot. That's me, Ron Martinez, game producer and... more » | Other threads
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academia
MSU Offering New Chinese Language/Culture MMO
In an effort to make learning Chinese less painful (and ostensibly to capitalize on the 'MMO as language learning tool' trend that's been talked about a bit in the past few months), Michigan State University's Zhao Yong (professor of education technology and educational psychology) has designed Zon!, where players can graduate from tourist to resident to citizen of this little virtual slice of China: More »
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Comment by Sensai-N: Holy wow, Batman! An edutainment use for gaming that might actually be worthwhile as far as language- and culture-learning is... more » | Other threads
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games for change
Sandra Day O'Connor, Henry Jenkins Back Socially-Conscious Gaming At Games For Change
Games For Change, a nonprofit organization that addresses games as "agents of social change," will be holding its fifth annual festival in New York City next week, June 2-4 at Parsons The New School For Design. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will give a keynote, as will MIT's Dr. Henry Jenkins and Arizona State University's Dr. James Paul Gee. More »
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Comment by (Zombie) Goldwings: We already have games like these, it's just not the big picture sometimes - FF7 did it fine with the... more » | Other threads
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Health Games Research
Grants Awarded For Inspiring Health Games Research
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has revealed 12 universities that will receive grants to research the use of video games as healthcare tools. Games have shown clear potential to serve healthcare, from helping stroke victims rehabilitate, encouraging seniors to exercise and teaching behavior for therapy. Exhaustive research and hard data will further drive the growth of games as healthcare tools for people of all ages, and the grant recipients aim to support this goal.
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Comment by Dyslexic_Alucard: The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation has been a huge support for all walks of research. It's not surprising to see... more » | Other threads
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serious games
Winners Named for Teen Dating Violence Prevention Game Design Contest
The Life Love Game Design Challenge named its winners today. The Flash game design challenge sponsored by Jennifer Ann's Group asked developers to come up with games about teen dating violence prevention without using violent content or a violent theme.
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Comment by ChatwinAluminoid: jsf49 said: "After thinking this game over though, I wonder if this abusive boyfriend is really less "abusive boyfriend" and more... more » | Other threads
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academia
MSU's 'Meaningful Play' Call for Papers
Michigan State University is hosting an interdisciplinary conference from October 9-11 called Meaningful Play, exploring "the potential of games to entertain, inform, educate, and persuade in meaningful ways." They're seeking submissions from a pretty wide swath of people: "Submissions are sought from both researchers and practitioners in academia and industry. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students are also encouraged to submit either jointly with an academic/member of industry or alone." If you've got a paper you've been sitting on, or something that will be ready by 1 July (the submission deadline), full details are below the jump [via Water Cooler Games]: More »
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Comment by portugue: @Phroby: @Phroby: I am all for people making observations on the other benefits of the medium or researching... more » | Other threads
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serious games
Play Game, Combat Malaria In Africa
While Ethan Allen makes mosquito nets look romantic, living in a country where mosquito nets are purely utilitarian and totally necessary (mine was a hideous blue color with an ugly flower pattern in the netting, and was rigged up to the ceiling with fishing line - no four poster beds to be found) will dash any romantic ideas post-haste. April 25th is World Malaria Day, and as part of the 'Nothing But Net' campaign to get mosquito nets to parts of Africa where malaria is a very real and very deadly problem, the UN has commissioned an easy little came called 'Deliver the Net': More »
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Comment by SpinWing: Some of these comments are very interesting as well as some being way off. There is another program (and game),... more » | Other threads
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timewasters
Weird Artistic Timewaster of the Day: Gravitation
Back in December, I mentioned a little game called Passage. Well, Jonathan Blow clued me in to the fact that Jason Rohrer is back with yet another weird, artistic little game, this one called Gravitation: More »
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Comment by CravatBrute: Gravitation is the best game I've ever played, entertainment games included. Download it and try it for yourself first (it's... more » | Other threads
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serious games
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