Make Games with MS Excel
I wrote about games build in and for MS Excel earlier, and now Gamasutra runs a very detailed feature showing some of the hidden powers of the office application:
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Scientists who want to see how a crowd behaves in an emergency can now shout "Fire!" on a city street and watch everyone panic and run thanks to a newly developed computer simulation.
Continue reading "Serious Games Predict Crowd Behavior in Dense Urban Settings" »
by: Scott Goodson

The majority of gamers own American-made cars (24% Ford, 18% Chevrolet). However, 79% are planning to buy an import for their next car (41% Toyota, 41% Honda, 25% Nissan and others).
Continue reading "Online Gamers Leave American Cars for Imports" »
by: Ilya Vedrashko
Gamespot's Dubious Honors Awards for despicable use of in-game advertising:
2004 (Need for Speed Underground)
2005 (SWAT 4, where the dynamic in-game ads made one of the first appearances)
2006 (Fight Night Round 3, a boxing game with the Burger King's King in it)
2007 (Need for Speed ProStreet):
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Dr. Ernie Medina and his partners launched their first XRtainment Zone in California last year. The mission of XRtainment Zone is to provide families and kids of all ages a fitness club of their own "where working out is all play."
Continue reading "G4H 2008: XRtainment Zone - Beyond Serious Games For Workouts " »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
In malls, theaters and other spaces, Reactrix creates highly entertaining branding displays that respond to the physical movements of the audience.
The resulting "brand play" makes Reactrix the highest engagement advertising available today and reaches top-market venues with monthly traffic exceeding 100 million.
Continue reading "Serious Games Creating Entertaining Branding Experiences" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Passively Multiplayer Online Games! We're already playing them; especially as we increasingly hang out with other people on the internets. And as the internets move into our pockets, our cities, our cars and our social lives!
Continue reading "GDC08: Serious Games As Passively Multiplayer Online Games" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
IBM is launching a free multiplayer online game, PowerUp, challenging teenagers to help save the planet "Helios" from ecological disaster.
The game is part of IBM's TryScience initiative and will be launched at Engineer's Week 2008 opening on February 16 in Washington, D.C. The game, which can be played alone or together, features a planet in near ecological ruin where three exciting missions for solar, wind and water power must be solved before sandstorms, floods or SmogGobs thwart the rescue.
Continue reading "Serious Games Challenging Teenagers To Save The Planet" »
Continue reading "How to Homebrew Wii Games: 73 Tips, Tutorials and Resources" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Hilton Garden Inn, the award-winning mid-priced hotel brand with locations throughout North America and Europe, this week unveiled Ultimate Team Play - the first interactive training game to be used in the hospitality industry that utilizes game-based technology.
by: Ilya Vedrashko
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Following my recent posts Serious Games Market Enroll Major Players, $9 Bi: Microsoft's Conservative Estimate For The Serious Games Market and Microsoft Shaping The Serious Games Movement Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Market , I thought it was time to go deeper into the Microsoft ESP Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) platform under a marketability perspective.
Continue reading "Microsoft ESP Leveling The Serious Games Market Playing Field " »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
The revelation that games could be serious has now become conventional wisdom: "we've gone from games representing life to becoming life".
Continue reading "MellaniuM: When Reality Feels Like a Serious Game " »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Blended Learning involves the use of multiple learning environments - usually some combination of physical/face-to-face and online/virtual approaches.
In the strictest sense, blended learning is when an instructor combines two methods of delivery of instruction. However, this term most often applies to the use of technology on instruction.
by: Eliane Alhadeff
On 30th November Visualise was at the Wales Rally for the first public trial of the enhanced Visualise system.
Continue reading "Serious Games Radically Enhancing Spectator Experience At Public Media Events" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Games that provide players with opportunities to learn and understand complex situations or different points of view have emerged as a distinct subset of videogames.
Increasingly, creators are taking the definitions of “play” and “learn” in new directions, often blending the two creatively.
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Following my prior post Microsoft Shaping The Serious Games Movement Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Market, where I state that "by no means would Microsoft join either a current $ 150 million dollar market or a to-be $ 1 billion market only in 2011" (as projected by a few sources), BusinessWeek has published an article this week where David Boker, senior director of the Business Development Group at Microsoft's Aces Studio, one of Microsoft's game studios where ESP was developed, says Microsoft conservatively estimates this market at $9 billion.
Continue reading "$9 Bi: Microsoft's Conservative Estimate for the Serious Games Market" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff (also see Business&Games)
The West Midlands (UK) region is fast becoming recognized as one of the key EU regions with regard to the development of Serious Games.
Continue reading "Mapping The Serious Games Industry Within The UK " »
by: Eliane Alhadeff (also see Business & Games)
By 2010, says Gartner, 20% of global Tier 1 retailers will have some kind of marketing presence in online games and virtual worlds.
Continue reading "NPD Report 63% of Americans Playing Video Games" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff (via Business & Games)
Via: Richard Carey - Digital Media Solutions, Serious Games & Learning Smiluations
As anticipated on my prior posts focused on Serious Games Market Size, funding has started to become available from foundations, governmental agencies, non-profits and venture capitalists.
Continue reading "Venture Capitalist Sees Growing Investment Opportunities in Serious Games" »
Continue reading "Second Slice: Serious Games Embed Ambitious Marketing" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Via: NanoMission - 3 Games Modules Available For Download!
Following my prior post Serious Games To Understand Nanotech, PlayGen has made 3 game modules available for download:NanoMedicine, NanoScaling and Nano Imaging.
Continue reading "Serious Games To Understand Nanothech Available For Download" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff (via Business & Games)
For most people, video games mean entertainment, like TV or the movies. But their true meaning may be much bigger, impacting every aspect of our world, from education to business, society and culture.
IBM explores how video games may impact every aspect of our world, from education to business, society and culture.
Continue reading "Serious Games Pioneering How We Will Learn & Work In The Future" »
by: Alex Eperjessy (via Business & Games)
They call themselves a hot new advergaming company. Blogger opinions are already split on this, with some calling it a great idea and others arguing that it’s nothing but a fishy scheme. Last week, Moola’s CEO, Arlen Ritchie, gave me a presentation that stretched slightly over one hour. He gave the demo, I asked the questions. The result is below, God help us all.
Continue reading "Interview with Arlen Ritchie, Moola's CEO" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
A web based virtual shopping mall launched in New Zealand, allows users to navigate a three dimensional space to browse and buy products, bringing what the company says is the same shopping experience as in the real world. http://www.themallplus.com/ is not a portal that redirects consumers to third party websites, instead creating an online virtual shopping mall.
Continue reading "Serious Games Bring the Mall to Web Browsers" »
by: Alain Thys
It took us a while, yet we finally found an angle from which Business & Games: The Blog could add some value to your daily RSS-fix. From now on, Alex Eperjessy (aka. our guy in Romania) will provide daily updates on the ways businesses like your own include games and virtual worlds in their marketing, HR and operations. This while our contributing bloggers Ilya, Eliane and C.Sven will continue to give deeper insights on what's really going on in advergaming, serious games and the various virtual realities.
by: Alain Thys
In America, brands experiment in Second Life and There, hang out on Laguna Beach or even set up their own not-so-little universe. Korea has Cyworld and China is building one of the most ambitious virtual worlds on the planet (or should I call it an e-commerce enabled mass-customisation system with virtual world storefront ?)
And meanwhile, Europe sleeps.
Continue reading "Call for Interest: It's Time European Brands Got Serious about Virtual Worlds" »
Continue reading " Screenshots: Kinset 3D Shopping Browser" »
by: Karl Long
Guinness has added a little twist to its latest advertising campaign and have hidden it online somewhere for someone to find. In good old ARG (alternate reality game) tradition they have started this game off with a couple of clues, in this case a fictional Mayor called Juan Ramon has put a video on youtube and created a pdf letter to share.
by: Ilya Vedrashko (via Business & Games)
A couple of announcements indicating that Sony's upcoming PlayStationHome (site, wiki) virtual world will have plenty of ad inventory:
by: David Wigder
Electronic Arts (EA)’s SimCity, the popular simulation game that challenges users to build and run a metropolis, is set to release its latest version in mid-November - SimCity Societies - and is generating a lot of buzz in the process.
Continue reading "Greener SimCity Virtual World as Channel to Influence Real World Behaviors" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff (via Business & Games)
Architectural Wonders Allowing Anyone to Create a Working Virtual World. Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.
Continue reading "Serious Games Set In Your Favorite Google Earth Locations" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff (see: Business & Games)
On the October 24 episode of CBS' hit drama CSI: NY, the crime procedural will feature a murder investigation that meanders into the virtual world of Second Life. Gary Sinise's detective will track a real-life killer all the way into the popular world of Second Life.
Continue reading "OnRez Second Life Viewer: Serious Games Embrace New Way To Watch Entertainment " »