Serious Games Source and Gamasutra have both reposted CEO Sharon Sloane’s recent opinion piece about the current debate over the Columbine RPG.

Recent controversy surrounding this year’s Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition and the Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game incited a debate and raised important questions. The commotion has subsided, but we will see this debate return because games, and more accurately, “serious games” are exploring a much greater range of topics. As a result, a serious game will soon hit a collective nerve again, causing us to ask, does this cross a line, and just what is a serious game anyway?

Read Sharon’s opinion piece here at Serious Games Source and Gamasutra.

Serious Games Source has also written a brief article about our recent grant award from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield:

Hate Comes Home begins with a homecoming dance that is cut short when two students are killed in a hate crime committed by other students. In the game, the player must navigate through a series of decisions to reach a peaceful outcome. INO2, on the other hand, is designed to help 11 - 17-year-olds make educated choices about alcohol and other drugs by placing them in a series of potentially compromising situations.

Read the full article here.

Potomac, MD: WILL Interactive, Inc., the Potomac, MD-based leader in virtual experience behavior modification gaming and recipient of the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) ‘2006 Best Serious Game’ award, in partnership with the Public Charter School Student Support Center (SSC), known for their work in substance abuse and violence prevention in urban schools serving high-risk youth, announced the receipt of a grant from CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield. The grant will be used to address school violence in five Washington, D.C. schools by introducing an education program that will utilize WILL Interactive’s serious games, Hate Comes Home and Interactive Nights Out 2™ (INO2™). Included within the grant will be a license for each school to continue using Hate Comes Home and Interactive Nights Out 2 after the initial education program is completed.

“We are excited to work with CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield to take a decisive step in addressing the important issue of school violence,” said Sharon Sloane, CEO WILL Interactive, Inc. “WILL Interactive’s serious game learning tools, Hate Comes Home and Interactive Nights Out 2, instruct in a unique, highly engaging medium attractive to the video game generation. The software will be instrumental in the success of this program in teaching students how to think rather than what to think.”
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