A few months ago, I wrote about Indiana University’s exciting new alternate reality gaming research project, Skeleton Chase. The game was a collaboration between professors Anne Massey (Kelley School of Business), Jeanne Johnston (Kinesiology Department), and Lee Sheldon (Telecommunications De...

I've seen plenty of edumacational games and I'm always delighted to explore how they surreptitiously teach people as they play a game. But this is the first time I've played a edu-pinbal game. Early on in the touring Grossology exhibit there are two Gas Attack Pinball machines. The game appears to b...

If you weren’t sick of this debate already, here’s more. So this, really, is the problem with World of Warcraft’s torture sequence. It does not model any consequences. You torture the sorcerer, but nothing particularly comes of it. You just move on to the next quest. This would be ...

Another weekend, another call for papers! This time around it's the Games+Learning+Society 5.0 conference, June 10-12 in Madison, WI. I'm putting the finishing touches on my proposal for FDG '09 and kind of wish the timing worked out better for this conference, too (damn quarter system). Last year s...

…please explain to me again why killing NPCs in games is fine but sticking them with a cattle prod is evil. Here’s your explanation, from my theory-of-fun/game-grammar point of view. In killing NPCs (or popping any other sort of experience balloon), we are definitely seeing a “kill...

I was dreaming of a world where kids fought with their parents in order to spend more time learning physics. Only it's not a dream.  It's here today and it is called "Little Big Planet" (only for PS3). Little Big Planet is a most amazing experience.  There are no guns, wars or sh...

Wil je zelf aan de slag met de ontwikkeling van educatieve games (seroius games), en ben je op zoek naar geschikte tools? Check dan The Top 5 Platforms for Creating Educational Video Games. John Rice becommentarieert hier vijf platforms waarmee......

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 sa...

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 t...

I haven't written about serious games in quite a while, but that doesn't mean the topic hasn't been on my mind in the interim. The Feb 2008 ACM Communications issue has a cover article entitled "Alternate Reality Gaming", by Jeff Kim of UWash, Jon Allen of UCSF, and Elan Lee, creative dire...