FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES

Second Life has been seeing a change in its growth. While the initial adopters were United States users and United States brands, it is becoming more and more of a global platform. Justin Bovington of Rivers Run Red offered his perspective on what those changes mean, and how marketers can react, at the SLCC (Second Life Community Convention), last Saturday: "Arguably, Second Life is now a European product. There’s a massive shift in active users and there’s a difference in branding. We’ve done some research on why virtual worlds are catching fire. One of the most important reasons is that people are generally seeking richer experiences. We all know it, the challenge is how we deliver it. The old model of market entry has shifted to the new model of sustainable evolution: we think 60% of our business in the next year will be in the collaboration space." Rivers Run Red was the world's first agency to establish a working presence in the virtual worlds

Via: Caspian Learning - Serious Games As A Highly Engaging Learning Solution For A Dispersed Workforce Caspian Learning designs and delivers 3D game-based learning solutions for the Education and Corporate setting. Caspian's authoring engine, Thinking Worlds™, is an incredibly versatile and globally unique technology that allows Caspian, its partners and clients to rapidly and cost-effectively build highly interactive and engaging learning solutions. Thinking Worlds™ was object of my prior posting Where Serious Games in Education Is Heading , which gives us “a taste of” its extremely worthwhile results in the sphere of Education. This time I would like to focus on Caspian’s impressive Training Portfolio . VOLVO INCORPORATES PLAY INTO WORK Car salespeople not only need to be experts on their products, they need to be well versed in legislation such as the Trade Description Act and Data Protection. Learning the intricacies of data protection, consumer credit and trade d

Via: Riverdeep Interactive Learning Founded in Dublin in 1995, Riverdeep Interactive Learning has offices in Ireland, the UK and the US. Their Web-based and CD-ROM solutions can be found in more than 45,000 schools in over 20 countries worldwide. In April 2003, Riverdeep became a private entity. Riverdeep in the UK Riverdeep UK Limited is the operational and sales UK business based in Manchester. Riverdeep UK provides bespoke educational products developed specifically for The National Curriculum and UK schools, including training and technical support. The Riverdeep Family Destination Success from Riverdeep Interactive Learning is a series of comprehensive curriculum courseware modules that cover key elements of the national Numeracy and Literacy curriculum. Destination Success is also fully referenced to the Maths and Language Scottish 5-14 curriculum, the Northern Ireland and Welsh curriculum. Resources are available from Foundation Stage through to Ke

Via: Future Feeder The da Vinci Surgical System , manufactured by Intuitive Surgical , has been successfully used for surgery with more precision, less pain, quicker recovery, and fewer complications. The da Vinci Surgical System consists of an ergonomically designed surgeon’s console, a patient-side cart with four interactive robotic arms, the high-performance Vision System and proprietary EndoWrist Instruments. The Vision System, with high-resolution 3-D endoscope and image processing equipment, provides the true-to-life 3-D images of the operative field. Operating images are enhanced, refined and optimized using image synchronizers, high-intensity illuminators and camera control units. In robotic-assisted surgery, the da Vinci robot is an extension of the surgeon’s hands in a way not previously possible with minimally invasive surgery via laparoscopy. The robot takes a big step beyond traditional laparoscopy: it allows to operate more naturally, the way i

ElectroCity was developed to increase public awareness – particularly among students – about energy usage, its cost, and its effect on the environment. That is, the general terms and concepts of the industry and the dilemmas that go along with them. The sponsor of the game, Genesis Energy , is an energy provider and retailer in New Zealand. The goal is not to provide students with a sophisticated understanding of the controversies in the various energy debates. Rather, it's to spark an interest and lay an unbiased foundation for later learning. The sponsor of the game, Genesis Energy, is an energy provider and retailer in New Zealand. Like a mini-version of SimCity, the Flash-based Web game ElectroCity lets you develop your own metropolis from the ground up. ElectroCity is a fairly simple, turn-based strategy game. You get 150 turns to create your masterpiece, but the challenge is to allocate resources wisely as you build. One-hundred and fifty turns may seem like an e

Anshul Samar Via: Elementeo - Injecting Fun Into Education Business and Games Blog report "they only recently came across Elementeo, a project that combines chemistry and board games. Besides, the kid is priceless". Mobilized by the latter, I've decided to further explore the subject. For Anshul Samar, fun is thinking up an idea, creating a product based on it and selling it to the world. Probably the youngest founder-CEO in the history of business, 13-year-old Samar is a seventh grader from Cupertino, California. He wants to “inject fun into education” by combining the elements of a fantasy wizard world with the textbook world, where fun and learning come together without clashing. How did Samar get inspired to start the company? “Well, here I am, sitting in Silicon Valley where I constantly see all these adults going about and creating products. I didn't want the adults to have all the fun. :).” Samar argues that textbooks are boring and kid

Via: Morphonix - Neuromatrix Game and HealthData Management The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced the inaugural winners of its Games for Health Competition launched last fall. Under the annual program, the Princeton, N.J.-based foundation awarded three prizes totaling $30,000 for development of computer and video games that promote improved health. A $20,000 award for the open prototype/health game competition went to Sausalito, California-based Morphonix LLC, which develops educational video games for children. Its Neuromatrix is a game designed to teach and keep adolescents ages 11-14 interested in learning about the brain. The game serves to show adolescents that the brain is not an abstract topic, and aims at inspiring more students to enter the field of neuroscience. Neuromatrix was funded by research grants from the National Institute of Health’s Small Business Innovation Program. The game takes players through a series of short movies and ga

Via: Fit Brains - Guilt Free Fun! Michael Cole, an experienced business executive who has been involved in the start-up of innovative consumer, media and technology companies in the US, Europe and Japan, in partnership with Dr. Paul Nussbaum, one of the top Neuropsychologists in the US, has launched a website called Fit Brains, which is combining science and entertainment in a very unique way. Fit Brains aims to provide a web experience that is appealing to adults of all ages and elevates the concept and acceptance of brain fitness to the mainstream. Created by Vivity Labs, Fit Brains is a website consisting of fun, engaging interactive games, personalized tools and community features. Michael Cole - Founder and CEO of Vivity Labs, Inc., has become a leading expert in the brain fitness market in the last five years, when he first started building the brain fitness business. Dr. Paul Nussbaum - Chief Scientific Officer, is a clinical neuropsychologist and national leader in