It seems appropriate that “Serious Games” advocate Ian Bogost should take a stab at the corporate food and beverage world, given its recent attempts (ie. McDonalds) to overshadow its own part in the growth (no pun intended) of childhood obesity by pointing fingers at ‘couch potato’ entertainment forms like video games.
Bogost’s Persuasive Games has released a game examining the importance of nutrition, exercise and general good health, all under the happy, squishy name of Fatworld. Bogost describes the game in a January post on Water Cooler Games by saying that:

The game’s goal is not to tell people what to eat …read more

I admit that I loved History class all through school. I’m a nerd like that and I’m comfortable in my nerdiness. Some folks though, just don’t care to learn history, and with the sometimes dry, dull and frankly lifeless details we’re expected to learn and rejoice at remembering, it’s not surprising. Why not then, combine something students struggle with (history) with something they might enjoy (gaming).
2K and Bitcasters have come together to create a professional mod for Sid Meier’s Civilization III sim that allows Canadian students to recreate, rewrite, and in a sense, relive their country’s history. …read more

It’s almost as though we’re asking for it; asking to be loathed and hated and regarded with general distatse by the ‘outsiders’. The gaming industry may not quite deserve the general pasting it has been receiving from lawyers and politicians, but with games like the following being made, it’s easy to tell why accusations of excessive violence and insensitivity are hurled at us with righetous abandon.
What am I rambling about? The Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Now you, from the comfort of your leather manager’s chair, can take on the troubled personas of Columbine gunmen Dylan …read more

While Rockstar is wrestling with hookers and strip joints, and news about the latest in the political tap-dance on video games makes the rounds, this one is kind of a refreshing change of pace.
Serious games, or games that serve purposes in excess of pure entertainment, are garnering a lot of attention for their good guy foil to the darker side of the industry. I personally am all for any game that can a) make non-gamers think differently about video games, b) make gamers themselves think about what they play and what lies outside the scope of that, and c) …read more

Remember the heart-rending sadness when one of your axles broke, causing your children to starve somewhere out in the mid-west and your oxen to keel over from heat exhaustion? Wasn’t that fun? Didn’t you learn things about proper management, the circle of life and how, no matter how hard you try and how well you think you’re doing, that sometimes things just go wrong?
Well think Oregon Trail but with lions, and famines the likes of which even early settlers would be appalled at, and you have 3rd World Farmer. Created as part of a student project at …read more