Though I’m a little late getting this out, the five-part series started in late November, there’s still time to catch the last two episodes of an informative and well-produced program on the Discovery Channel: Rise of the Video Game.

Episode 4 dealt with the move toward 3D graphics and the wide adoption of video games for training and recruitment, especially (and not surprising) by the U.S. Army. Episode 5, which examines the impact of the internet on gaming to allow for MUDs and MOOS, should be equally of interest to thoe taking my educational gaming course in the spring 2008.

There’s a real good chance I’m going to get a copy of the series to show in class. So, don’t get too disappointed if you can’t catch an episode before the semester ends.

There are multiple writers for this blog, so we have decided we should use a theme that actually displays who wrote which post. Of the three themes that are installed, this is the one that displays the author. Eventually we’ll find one that looks good and does what we need.

I just discovered Passage. It’s a small game. There’s not a lot of content; it only takes 5 minutes to play. In those 5 minutes it presents a simple yet profound message about the nature of life and the choices we make as we go along. What’s more, the player’s actions in exploring the game space are critical to the game’s message. The gameplay is not simply a novel content delivery system; it is the vital component that makes a statement in a way that a book or movie or song could never quite manage.

I just listened to a talk given by Johnathan Blow at the Montreal International Games Summit. While this isn’t directly connected with games in education, it does have a lot to say about the quality of game design in general. He also makes some good points about what games claim to be about, and what they actually are about based on the reality of their gameplay. It’s about an hour long, but if you can manage the time to listen to it it’s well worth it. Here’s a link to his Blog entry where he’s posted the audio of the talk along with the corresponding Powerpoint presentation.