My colleague Scott Traylor of 360 Kid regularly writes thoughtful and timely pieces about kids, toys and digital media, and his latest article for the May 2009 issue of Playthings Magazine is no exception. What Works For Virtual Play? – Questions to Ask About Web-enabled Toys takes a deep dive into play patterns of toys […]
Serious Games Showcase
Serious games and simulations embrace subjects as diverse as health care, emergency preparedness, world history, algebra, ethics, emotional intelligence, team building. Thanks to Eliane Alhadeff for showcasing some of this diversity in these slides.
The Future of Learning
Beginning this September New York City will be home to Quest to Learn, one of the most innovative 6-12th grade public schools in the country, that will use game design and game-inspired methods to teach critical 21st century skills and literacies. Created in collaboration with New Visions for Public Schools and the Institute of Play, […]
Is There a Downside to the Upside of Social Media?
Between the Susan Boyle phenomenon, participating in a panel discussion on the importance of social media in business as part of NYC Entrepreneur Week and watching clients eyes cross when I urge them to Twitter, I’ve been thinking a lot about social media lately. Is it only today’s flavor? Is there a downside we’re not […]
Being There: the Game as Narrative
Narrative story telling has been part of the the human experience since we told tales of the days hunt around the fire, about what it was like to “be there” when this or that event happened. From that oral tradition, we learned to write them in pictures, then glyphs, and a succession of written languages and media […]
Spy vs. Spy
As a cold-war baby one of my favorite cartoon strips was Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy. That all flashed back to me a few years ago at the second Serious Games Summit in Crystal City, VA, just across the highway from the Pentagon. There, it didn’t take long to realize — with equal measures of […]
Making Games That Don’t Suck
How could you go wrong choosing William Shakespeare’s plays and characters to be the centerpiece of a massively multiplayer online game? Just ask Ted Castronova who received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation to create Arden: The World of William Shakespeare, then discovered genius alone isn’t enough. As Chris Baker reports in WIRED this […]