Happy Thanksgiving to our US Listeners

Hi, host and co-founder Michael Rowe here, just a quick post to our listeners to explain our up coming two week absence. As you may know, we are all overloaded in our day jobs, to the point that getting all of four of us in a show this year has been near impossible. So given that we have year end work pressures and an opportunity to take some time off this week to be with friends and family, we have decided to take a quick break.

We look forward, to your tweets, emails and comments on the site, to come back charged with more great shows!

In the mean time, while you are enjoying feasts with families, check out this app that co-founder Michael Martine found: Dungeon Runner: Fitness Quest

Episode 101 – Oh Canada, Doh!

We begin this post with a little levity based on the South Park idea that Freemium games were created by the Canadian devil (apologies to our neighbors to the north).

The Michaels go deep on last week’s episode about Freemium games. We also begin an experiment to remove all freemium games from our lives. Are we addicted to these games? Can they be used for good? We look at how to potentially leverage this approach of Freemium games to improving work processes. Tell us what you think. What would you use “premium’ currency for to not have to deal with at work?

Show Links:
Episode 100

What Games are you no longer playing:
Simpson’s Tapped Out
Clash of Clans
Family Guy – The Quest for Stuff
Tiny Towers
Disco Zoo
Dots
Two Dots
Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Holiday Edition
Zen Studio’s Pinball Games
Plants vs. Zombies 2
Draw Something
8 Bit Ninja
Chuzzle

Episode 100 – Malaria-Ebola and Freemium Games


Our 100th episode is extremely special with us all in one room and with two special guests Jonathan Estes and Porter Stowell. Jonathan is the CEO of Smart Games Systems, Inc. SGSYS has been working in subsaharan Africa on games for infant mortality and malaria vectors. The transfer of habits from games to real life can truly be a question of survival around health and safety concerns. Exploring these themes we enjoy an amazing conversation about playing games at work! We discuss how games are being used to extend beyond simulation to real engagement of individuals with replayability and increased effectiveness over time.

Showlinks:
SouthPark avatar creator
Smart Game Systems
Insecticide Resistance Video about digital game
Smart Green Heroes Kickstarter – Preview
Chocolate Sauce and Ebola
Zork
Encase Portable Raspberry Pi Gaming Console
Raspberry Pi Keyboard
Ebola and the Walking Dead
Model UN
Doomsday Clock
Car TalkTom Magliozzi – RIP
Sparx
Let The Games Begin! Game Theory Nov. 13th

What we are playing:
Jonathan – Terra Mystica
Phaedra – Way Too Many, currently judging the serious games challenge
Michael R. – World of Warcraft – Live Blog
Michael M. – Sousaphone Hero
Porter – Bomberman with Time Manipulation

Episode 99 – Free Beer Tomorrow


We celebrate episode 99 with three co-hosts talking about some really cool serious games. An episode so good it is SCAREY!!! Our games cover the gambit of history, geometry, leadership, and DNA. We begin with a game targeting high school students and let them understand what it was like to be a Czech citizen during some very turbulent times. The art style is very film noir. We spend some time on Chocolate Covered Broccoli, and commit a few Word Crimes. We also go back to the idea of, is it right to secretly teach things? Does it have to be a hidden when you teach kids things? Can you teach fluid dynamics with games?

While not quite a review episode, Phaedra takes us through a series of shot outs to a crop of cool, serious, games which are coming down the pipe!

As we come up on Episode 100 next, we want your feedback and ideas, hints, tips, and thoughts!!

Show Links:
Silent Hill 2
Czechoslovakia 38-89
The Prague Spring
Charles University – Prague
DragonBox Elements
The Secret to Chocolate covered Broccoli
Word Crimes Video by Weird Al
Triad Interactive Media’s – Far-Plane
Nanocrafter
Pee Monkey – Toilet TrainerVideo
Netflix and Chaos Monkey
Emotiv
Episode 29 – Simon Says
Spider Pig Video