From my story at MTVNews.com:
"Debt Ski" was conceived by Brian Haveri, a 25-year-old graduate of Lehigh University. Players control the pig on the jet ski, racing to the right of their screen, "Super Mario Bros."-style. Any coins they collect are savings, but the computers, coffee cups and other lifestyle items that drop from the sky are expenses. Running into those can rack up credit-card debt. Finishing a level in debt prompts the player to pay off some of that debt with savings. No savings left? That leads to a game over.
Full story: mtvU Video Game Teaches Students About Debt -- With A Jet-Skiing Pig
XNA isn't just for up-and-coming game developers hoping to make the next "Halo."
Microsoft wants its free development toolkit to be used by people to create socially conscious games.
I spoke with XNA General Manager Chris Satchell at Microsoft's Expo Night at the 2008 Games for Change festival. The event, held earlier this week at Parsons School of Design in New York, showcased the work of students who used XNA to create games about global warming, malaria prevention and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, among other social causes.
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Microsoft wants to help you change the world. And the company wants you to do it with XNA.
"Imagine a world where we have no ability to influence the people that are going to lead and shape thought for tomorrow," said Chris Satchell, Microsoft's general manager of XNA.
"We have social causes we care about, but we don't have the media to connect with the people who can do something about them," he said. "We're not there, but its a world that's possible to see unless activities like we're doing here today really gain some momentum."
Yesterday afternoon, Satchell spoke at the 2008 Games for Change festival about how Microsoft's development platform XNA, a free toolset for independent developers, can help people create serious, socially responsible games. He said that young people are moving away from traditional forms of media and heading towards gaming, and they're also passionate about social themes.
"People will base their lives around gaming experiences, but equally gaming experiences will permeate their lives... everything's a game," Satchell said. He argued that the biggest game in the world isn't "World of Warcraft" or "Grand Theft Auto" -- it's "American Idol." Read more...
(Below is the beginning of my latest GameFile column. For the full thing, check out MTVNews.com)
There were times in the last two years that Heidi Boisvert wasn't sure if the game she was teaching herself to make should be fun. It's a game about immigration that puts players in the virtual bodies of one of four fictional people not born in the United States. The player's goal in "ICED"? To not get deported.
The player runs through a fictional city, dashing through icons that represent acts of civic good like planting trees, donating blood or volunteering at a soup kitchen, and answering questions about immigration in America. But if they give wrong answers, a "Grand Theft Auto"-style "wanted" system is activated, sending government agents who are determined to detain and deport. Boisvert said that she and her colleague wanted to be sure that there was "not necessarily a pleasure component, but ... engagement with the game as a game at the same time we're educating people about these ideas."
Should people enjoy the game? Not really.
"ICED," which stands for both the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department and "I Can End Deportation," launched on Monday, Presidents Day. It was produced by Breakthrough, a group that hopes the game will raise awareness of what it sees as severe flaws in the United States' immigration program that has resulted in the detention or deportation of hundreds of thousands — possibly millions — of people in the last decade.
Check out the rest of this column at MTVNews.com
When I first heard that the Nintendo DS' new "Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol" title was going Wal-Mart exclusive, I assumed that meant the game stunk.
Why would Nintendo limit the game's sales potential by blocking it from the store shelves by all but one retailer? Even if they're limiting it the the nation's biggest?
I really liked the first "Chibi-Robo" on GameCube -- the only cutesy Nintendo-published game I've encountered that involves keeping two parents from getting divorced -- so I was concerned.
Plus, I live in New York city, where we have no Wal-Marts.
So I contacted Nintendo to see what was up... and I played the game to see if it stunk.
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