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TEDtalk: Gaming

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference and TEDGlobal -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

Meaghan Daly, president of Forward Vision Games, is utilizing online games to teach financial skills to students. She creates cloud-based financial strategy games geared to teaching concepts such a budgeting, risk management and aspects of personal finance.

“They get to see how they have more financial choices as they make better financial decisions,” Daly said.

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Recruitment Award for Doctoral Candidates in Digital Game Studies at Concordia University, Montreal

ICF International has recently published a report: "Gaming to Engage the Healthcare Consumer." The trend toward value-based care, the increasing role of the patient as consumer, and the millennial generation as desirable health insurance customers and the increased proliferation of smartphones and tablets were the four factors driving gamification in healthcare. The projetions for 2015 and 2016 were remarkable, read more about this report at:

SSHRC will look to identify future challenge areas for Canada in an evolving global context that are likely to emerge in five, 10 and 20 years, and to which the social sciences and humanities research community could contribute its knowledge, talent and expertise.  Steve Wilcox, University of Waterloo, is amongst one of the panel members in a discussion at CIGI  series of presentations on the six future challenge areas at universities across the country.

It's Halloween again meaning the scary costumes and video games come out. Get your scare on with a top 5 list of the scariest video games that you may enjoy on Halloween this year!

1. Slenderman

2. Silent Hill 2 

3. F.E.A.R series

4. DOOM

5. Resident Evil

Let us know what you think should/shouldn't be on the list by tweeting us @GamesInstitute

A two-month assignment to produce a story in written or visual ways about a collection of data was given to senior English major students this fall term. “Storytellers can come from many different backgrounds if they learn the specifics of understanding data and interpreting and transforming it into something valuable,” says Neil Randall.

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (http://theesa.ca/) has provided a booklet that provides an overview of key stats and information regarding the size, growth and economic contribution of the Canadian video game industry to our economy. Find out what types of video games are made in Canada, learn more about those who work in the video game industry and read stats about Canadian gamers. 

Essential Facts English (PDF)

Volunteer Game Programmer Wanted

David Sonnenschein, author of “Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema” is developing a prototype of the music game 3 DEAF MICE with interns from Berklee College of Music, and seeking a volunteer who has the skill to program the interactive interface. (We will have paid positions in the future once the funding is in place.) Unity 2D seems the most likely program that we'll be using for the final game, although other programming languages might be useful for the prototype stage.

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