Venus Redemption is a unique episodic casual game created for 30+ female gamers, with a rich plot written by a noted novelist. Unlike other casual games, it features powerful storylines, deep characters, emotion-based interactive conversations and exciting adventure gameplay. However, like traditional casual games, it’s extremely easy to play, requiring only the ability to move…
Playing a game may teach the player that he can optimize the game only in certain ways (or that the game is impossible to win, like Global Thermonuclear War); but it’s open to question whether the optimal game strategy corresponds to an optimal real-life strategy. As we see more of this kind of thing (and…
Don Woods is acknowledged to have the Right Stuff. With long, stringy black hair and a bearish grin, he looks somewhat older than his twenty-nine years. He works at Xerox and wears a dark GAMES T-shirt that contrasts with his almost chalk-colored skin. Pinned next to the Xerox employee badge on his shirt is a…
The film’s extreme stylization — dark backgrounds, glowing neon colors, polygonal landscapes, geometric vehicles, and an absence of external lighting — was an aesthetic decision that embraced the limitations of computer-generated imagery. “The actual process of making something out of polygons, then shading it, became a design influence,” explains Taylor. “Not only was the film…
Thousands of PhDs are now working in various Google labs, and many of these people were hired from other successful businesses. Google has also acquired a number of smaller companies, many of them for either their technology or their technical talent, and these companies bring yet more entrepreneurial DNA into the mix. The company has…
God forbid we manage to think about the phone as a learning device. I guarantee you that none of the sponsors of the bill have ever typed “define insipid” (or any other word, for that matter) into a text message on their phone and sent it to 46645? (Try it sometime.) I know I mention…
Star Wars. It’s the backbone of geek DNA, even more essential than an intricate knowledge of Linux or the inability to get a date. And now, 30 years after an independent filmmaker blew us away with the exploits of a Cinnabon-coifed princess, a wide-eyed farm boy, a scruffy-looking nerf herder and the baddest throat-crushing villain…
—Poems About Fathers (Poetry Foundation) Having a father and being a father, I found this page interesting. When my own daughter is a teenager, I might not like “Fifteen” as much as I do now. Similar:Essay on meaning of a life grounded in the liberal arts @insidehigheredFor David N. DeVries, the critical think…AcademiaThe Trouble With Online…
Take the role of the FDA inspectors in a world of increasingly numerous food imports and increasingly unmanagable risk. Your charge: try to protect the country from contaminants in foreign food imports using extremely limited resources. The first in Persuasive Games newsgame publication relationship with The New York Times, in which our editorial games are…
Are you a skilled programmer or Web developer? Are you interested in applying your talents to the challenge of creating a better-informed society? Do you want to learn how to find, analyze and present socially relevant information that engages media audiences? Do you see possibilities for applying technology as a way to connect people and…
Tools for Teaching Basic Programming Concepts Alice and Scratch. Filing for future reference. Similar:NASA! Mars!! Panorama!!! Video!!!! Audio!!!!!New video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Persever…AwesomeI can't really articulate why i enjoy crafting #steampunk control panels, but it's been a …AestheticsNewly acquired technology for teaching writing in the age of AI. (Not for high stakes test…AcademiaAirport retro…
Will you, won’t you… Blackwell’s Quadrille (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) “Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?” — Lewis Carroll’s “Lobster Quadrille” I just tried to order an examination copy of a book from Blackwell Publishing, and when I got what looked like an error message on the final screen (or…
—Shakespeare hates your emo poems (Threadless) Interesting cultural phenomenon… sell a T-shirt, then create a website that lets customers upload photos of themselves wearing the T-shirt. The result turns the rebellious and snarky T-shirt designs into the uniforms of conformist consumer zombies. Similar:On this date in 1999 I first added a date to the list of…
—The civil war in four minutes (YouTube) Similar:Melissa Terras Reports Her Success in Making Digital Humanities More InclusiveA pleasant little success story. “TEI” i…AcademiaScrooge Is My BrotherMy daughter delivered the opening “Marle…CultureMy Tween Preps to Program a Lego Hobbit GameAs part of a course I’m teaching on “Dig…CybercultureMurder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The…
Modern interactive fiction, much more than its technically limited earlier counterparts, displays an incredible range of literary influences, tributes and styles. For Sherwin’s part, science fiction is an inspiration, but the greater part of his text adventures’ efficacy comes from the unique and anarchic style of his characters’ dialogue. “I have been greatly influenced by…
Though Ferguson couldn’t figure out how to make his 1938 scenario work, there was a better expert who could: His 13-year-old son, who was a whiz at strategy games. Rather than rush out to attack Germany, his son carefully set up robust trade agreements with France first to make sure the country felt diplomatically obligated…
—Deleted Scenes (StarTrekHistory.com) An awesome collection of painstakingly-restored still shots and script excerpts, from scenes that were filmed but never aired. Similar:Pompeii artifacts at the Carnegie Science Center The lighting was very low, so the phot…AestheticsIf in question, have more GOOD than BAD? University of Georgia Student Journalists Walk Ou…My students and colleagues sometimes won…AcademiaCNN Holds…
—A Fair(y) Use Tale (YouTube) Amazing demonstration of creative repurposing of Disney’s copyrighted material. Similar:The dark future of American space exploration: NASA's golden age is about to come to a thu…I remember, as a kid, being thrilled by …CultureDetails matter in journalism. Get the brand of the beer, the make, m…EthicsGambit Part 1 (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch,…
Open source software makes podcasting easy — too easy. Listening to a playlist of first-timer podcasts can leave your ears ringing from sudden changes in playback volume. The problem is audio mastering. Recording sound is simple, but mastering that sound — compressing volume differences, maintaining a decibel ceiling, and similar operations — is anything but.…
Really, though, Xbox Live is just an online simulacrum of a middle-school cafeteria. The crudeness is coming from the kids, not being inflicted on them. If anything, the over-25s we met were an excellent influence. They tended to be polite and mellow and demonstrated good sportsmanship?like saying “good game” after they’d eviscerated me with various…