- Educational games at the forefront this week:
- Whyville (dubbed a “MUVE”, or “multiplayer virtual environment“) has 1.6M members and offers instruction in multiple subjects, including pathology (i.e. players can catch a virus from other players, which they then must learn to cure.) Unclear how many members are actually active users.
- Sonica Spanish is being used in the UK to teach Spanish to primary school kids; it includes 240 activities, such as dance and karaoke games, matching games, memory games, and target shooting.
- Google Earth is being enhanced with higher res graphics, which has more people than ever buzzing about its video game-related potential.
- The DS Lite is expected to sell 500K units in its first ten days on the market.
- Another excellent Lost Garden article; this time on the subject of reducing development costs and avoiding the uncanny valley by focusing on evocative images, rather than across-the-board realism. Just one of many good quotes: What is more erotic? The half glimpsed form in the flickering firelight or the full on frontal nudity of a Playboy / Playgirl photo shoot? …for most casual situations, the former is quite effective.
