How board game helped free POWs

Along with the standard thimble, car, and Scotty dog, the POW version included additional “playing” pieces, such as a metal file, a magnetic compass, and of course, a regional silk escape map, complete with marked safe-houses along the way — all neatly concealed in the game’s box.

Even better, some of the Monopoly money was real. Actual German, Italian, and French currency was placed underneath the play money for escapees to use for bribes.

Also, because of its collaboration with the International Red Cross, Waddington could track which sets would be delivered to which camps, meaning escape maps specific to the area could be hidden in each game set. Allied soldiers and pilots headed to the front lines were told to look for the special edition game if they were captured. The identifying mark to check for? A red dot in the corner of the Free Parking space.

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BioShock: A Defence

In other words, a BioShock backlash was inevitable as it’s new. People bought it on the strength of the reviews (and the hype - always, the hype) and then, when this random selection of gamers played it and compared their response to the ejaculate-smeared reviews, a larger proportion went “I don’t think so” and pointed at the flaws.
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But a game having flaws doesn’t mean the emperor has no clothes, and the prevalent forum attitude to BioShock has wandered so far away from its merits to require a stern riposte. That I haven’t done so yet saddens me a little.

Bioshock definitely gets my vote for game of the year.

State Dems take presidential-primary dispute to court

The state’s top congressional Democrats will make one final attempt today to breathe life into the party’s all-but-ignored Florida presidential primary by pressing a federal lawsuit against national party leaders.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, chairman of Florida’s congressional delegation, accuse the Democratic National Committee and its chairman, Howard Dean, of violating the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by stripping the state of all 210 delegates to next year’s national convention.

If the DNC doesn’t want my primary vote to count, they won’t get my general election vote either.

A few months ago it looked like Hillary Clinton could easily beat any of the Republicans in FL. Not so much any more. Giuliani definitely has a shot here and his chances keep getting better the longer the Dems refuse to campaign here.

FIEA Students Win MTV Contest

A group of students from UCF’s video game graduate program have won an MTV gaming contest centered around the 19th annual World AIDS DAY.

MTVU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation sponsored the competition, which asked college students to propose a Web-based video game concept to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among 15-24 year olds.

Created at UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) as a fourth-semester project in March 2007, “The Face of AIDS” game was developed within one month by a team of five FIEA students (designers Brendan McLeod and Matthew Laurence, programmers Chris Camilleri and Gabriel Montagne, and artist Chip Lundell).

The game is a fast-paced puzzle game designed to raise AIDS awareness while remaining fun and engaging. In it, players must help communities of ever-increasing size stop the spread of AIDS as well as quell the fear and ignorance that rises with it.

The students get a $5,000 first place prize, and the game will be released in early 2008.

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