A blog turning into a game

The Pew Internet project, an initiative of the non-profit think-tank Pew Center today released the results of a nationwide U.S. survey on youth and gaming, called “Teens, Video Games, and Civics.” The authors interviewed over 1,000 youth.  For those of us in the space, the broad conclusions are not surprising.  The study found that 97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games.  But more detailed cuts of the data highlight some interesting facts:

For example, 65% of game-playing teens play with other people who are in the room with them.  Also, 27% play games with people who they connect with through the Internet.  Clearly, gaming is increasingly becoming a social experience for youth, a way to transplant offline relationships online, or to form ones entirely.

Also, the survey found that the game play characteristics in which teens play games are correlated to their interest and engagement in civic and political activities.  We’ve often talked about the importance of serious games, which serve some underlying purpose other than pure entertainment.  The writers of the report, note,

“Longitudinal and quasi-experimental studies have identified a set of civic learning opportunities (such as simulations of civic or political activities, helping others, and debating ethical issues) that promote civic outcomes among youth. Many of these civic learning opportunities parallel particular elements of video game play.”

The offline-online dynamics of serious game play are fascinating in terms of thinking about games that we can build that reflect the real world, but that also carry meaning past the game itself, into the real world.  This includes building context for kids and teens in important areas like political activism, charity, and social awareness.

Much has been written about the poor knowledge of geography of Americans.  For example, in a survey, 63% of respondents could not identify Iraq on a map.  Fewer than half could identify New York and Ohio.  If we really believe in the flattening of the world, then it is more important than over to ensure we (and our kids) are global citizens.

Today, at RamoGames.com we’re releasing a bunch of games to help improve our knowledge about geography.  They include games covering, Africa, Asia, India (we had to do this one given the origins of our name!), Europe, North America, and South America.  They are suitable for all ages, and we even predict that kids will do better than adults in some of them.

Let us know your high score in the comments and we look forward to hearing your feedback!

Hi -

Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of one of the most comprehensive directories of kids educational games at RamoGames.com.

We’ve cataloged hundreds of games on the Internet and placed them into categories like geography, math, logic, and word. We’ve added useful metadata about each game and given users a chance to comment and rate them.

We’ve even built some of our own games including the especially fun geography map game, Asia GeoQuest (can you get 10/10 countries right?).

When talking to teachers and parents the past few months, we realized that there is no good resource for finding good quality educational games on the Internet. So we decided to put one together.

We’re still going to be forging ahead with developing our own games for kids, but RamoGames.com is a taste of what’s ahead.

Of course, the site is in beta, so we’d appreciate any feedback you have, including suggestions on games that we are missing.