Posts tagged with links in Blog Eaten by a Grue

Coursera, a website that teams up with professors from various universities to offer free online courses to the public, is offering an introductory course on gamification, a concept that is gaining speed quickly. The course begins this week. This is reportedly one of the first courses designed specifically for the concept of gamification, and the course itself is partly designed to explore the meaning and purpose of the concept, as well as to generate ideas on how to apply it in relevant ways. Read more about the course here.

Check out Dave Carter, our fearless leader, describing the archive in a more in-depth glance at what we have to offer via this feature on SlashDot.

An article hit the New York Times earlier this month discussing the prevalence of sexual harassment in virtual game play. In the article, they highlight several examples online, from a Kickstarter devoted to documenting how women are portrayed in video games to a blog devoted to the unpleasant comments that women often encounter while playing online games. Quoted in the article are also several people who recognize the need to do something about it.

A piece appeared in UM's Michigan Today about Sid Meier's Game Design Boot Camp, which took place earlier this Summer. In it, we discover what gave him the idea for the boot camp, which companies were involved, and a bit about how it was structured. We also learn that not only was Sid Meier's son Ryan involved (a UM graduate), but also his mother, who attended the event as well.

A recent Wired article highlights the use of the Kinect as a terrain imaging tool, to capture data for anything from glaciers to asteroids. According to Tedesco, one of the scientists mentioned in the article, the Kinect works as a much more affordable way to capture the kind of data they need. It also helps inspire students to do related research because the Kinect is a tool that they're likely already familiar with, and doesn't seem as imposing as more complicated imaging equipment.

The Fourth International Games Innovation Conference is accepting submissions for their next conference taking place in September 2012.

American Libraries Magazine recently published an article featuring the Video Game Collection at the Library of Congress. According to the article, the collection preserves every game turned in for copyright registration, which works out to be about 10% of the games published each year. They collect the games themselves, along with promotional materials and guides associated with each game.

The Smithsonian's Art of Video Games Exhibition is seeking images of creative projects and paraphernalia inspired by video games. According to their site, they are looking for "photographs that show how video games can inspire creativity! These might include images of video-game-inspired drawings, paintings, sculptures, jewelry, clothing, events, graphics, food, wallpaper... anything, really! We're particularly interested in seeing creative and crazy costumes inspired by your favorite game characters."

Submissions are being accepted for the National STEM Video Game Challenge, an opportunity for students and educators to flex their creative muscles and share their original video game concepts.The competition is divided into four categories: Middle School, High School, Collegiate, and Educators. The general goal of the competition is to motivate interest is Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).Submissions will be accepted anytime between November 15th - March 12.

Ian Bogost, author of several books including How To Do Things With Video Games, spoke to Forbes recently in an interview about video games as a medium. He discusses the strengths of video games as a medium, the power of games in politics, and how the industry is handling adult themes in games. He also mentions the varying answers that people give to the question "what is a video game?" and how that affects whether they consider themselves gamers.