Urban Ministries of Duram's online serious game, SPENT: Can you make it through the month on $1,000.00? (via Tracy Boyer)

SPENT is an online serious game that is a result of a collaboration between the ad agency McKinney and Urban Ministries of Durham, N.C.    The game was launched this month to help increase community awareness about the needs of people who have been negatively impacted by the on-going economic crisis - people who have lost jobs, the under-employed, and the homeless.   


The factoids provided in the game are based on data (see link below).  One goal for presenting this information is to help players sift through the myths they might be carrying around in their heads about poverty and the realties that many people face every day.   


The game offers players the opportunity to take on different roles, make tough decisions, and see the results of these decisions. 


The game is a call to action.




RELATED
McKinney launches Spent, an interactive game about poverty
Tracy Boyer, Innovative Interactivity, 2/21/11
Play SPENT
Sources for the data/information provided in SPENT (pdf)
Urban Ministries of Durham
McKinney
WhiteNoise | Lab (Sound Design for SPENT)
Emphathize Walt Barron, 5 Words (McKinney Blog)  2/8/11

Online Lego Universe: "Lego tries to construct a new empire with pixels, not plastic" (David Kushner, IEEE Spectrum)

The July issue of IEEE Spectrum is full of articles for techies and the tech-curious. Although the cover article, The Chrystal That Will Change Everything" is intriguing, the article that caught my eye was Building the Lego Universe Online, by David Kushner. 

Photo: Holly Lindem; LEGO Sculpture: Nathan Sawaya, in Building the Lego Universe Online, David Kushner, IEEE Spectrum, July 2010

"...unlike traditional Lego play, the online version will offer unprecedented opportunities for players to share and interact. The sprawling Lego fantasyland will be able to support more than half a million "brick heads" from around the world. Each player will start by assembling a personal Lego miniature figure to serve as his or her avatar. Players can then venture into the live Lego Universe, where forces of chaos and destruction—monsters such as the Darklings—threaten to destroy the Land of Imagination."    -David Kushner

SCREENSHOT: LEGO Universe
Nathan Sawaya, the artist behind the creation in the above picture of a boy and a laptop, is known for his life-size LEGO sculptures, is one of just nine LEGO Certified Professionals. 

The LEGO Universe website has media resource section that includes game screenshots, videos of game-play, pictures of concept art, wallpaper downloads, and information for the press.


Video courtesy of joystiq BETA:
LEGO Universe trailers rebuild our capacity to love. Griffen McElroy, July 23, 2010