Category Archives: General

Changes at ImpactGames

Posted on by

I wanted to write to our community to update you all about a significant event for ImpactGames.

We have recently sold our award-winning PeaceMaker and Play the News platforms to Hybrid Learning Systems.  They have also taken over the ImpactGames brand so that our products could enjoy a seamless transition into their company.

This is a bitter-sweet moment for us as a company as we were not able to maintain the necessary resources to see our vision through.  However, on the positive side we believe we created products with meaning and value that found a good home for their future.

Hybrid Learning Systems has both the resources to carry on where we left off and new skills that will take them beyond.  They share our vision and mission for the possibilities that our work represents and are committed to taking them to new places.

While ImpactGames in its current form is not moving on, as many of you know our co-founder Asi Burak has since become the Co-President of Games4Change, I am happy to announce that I have accepted a position with Hybrid Learning Systems.

Feel free to visit this link for the formal announcement about the acquisition: Press Release

And with that I would like to introduce to you Kris Rockwell CEO of Hybrid Learning Systems who wanted to add a few words to this post.  I am sure you will be seeing more from him in the future.

Eric Brown
CVO, ImpactGames

Kris Rockwell’s words:

“The acquisition of the ImpactGames assets was unexpected but very welcome.  Peacemaker alone is an important game covering a very delicate issue and both Eric and Asi have created an amazing work that more that speaks for itself.

Undoubtedly we have some very big shoes to fill. It is our intention to continue to grow the Peacemaker platform and continue to support its existing user base. We are very honored and excited to be a part of this process.

We are very pleased that Eric has agreed to join us as Chief Visionary Officer of ImpactGames. His vision, experience and remarkable talent will help us continue to grow and keep on the path that he has set with his work.

I am very pleased to be working with Eric and look forward to growing ImpactGames while continuing to keep it on the path of socially responsible gaming. It’s very exciting to keep such an important effort in the Pittsburgh area and I look forward to talking with the existing user community over the next few months.”

Sincerely,

Kris Rockwell
CEO, ImpactGames

PeaceMaker: Launching the Educator Community

Posted on by

I am writing to announce the launch of a PeaceMaker Educator Forum.  We have now had over 2 years of teachers and students playing PeaceMaker.  Over these 2 years we have had many inquiries from teachers, researchers, and even prestigious press organizations as to how the use of PeaceMaker has contributed to classroom and out of classroom learning.  Who better to answer these questions then those of you who are teachers and students.

We would be very grateful if you could quickly answer the following relevant survey.  I promise you that it is a very short survey and will only take a couple moments of your time.

Educator Survey

Student Survey

The goal of this outreach is to create a central repository and community where you can share with each other all of the different ways that PeaceMaker can be used to enrich learning and community initiatives, provide testimonials to promote the use of PeaceMaker in and out of the classroom, and create a list of individuals that are willing to be contacted by peers and press.  We would love for you to visit the Forum at forum(dot)impactgames(dot)com (sorry for not hyperlinking it but it has started to be apammed), and even better to contribute your own testimonials and lesson plans for others to learn from.

We greatly appreciate your continued support.

Play the News – Call for Partners

Posted on by

We have recently outlined two new projects that ImpactGames would love to pursue.  Based on multiple discussions we have had with leaders in the educational space and our own internal experience with creating content for both ourselves and clients we feel there is a timely and genuine potential for the use of our Play the News Platform as a teaching and training tool.  We welcome you to review the following proposals:

(1) Play the News in the classroom (K-12) – A proposal that focuses on the creation of educational modules for a range of subjects: 

Download Educational Proposal Here

(2) Play the News to teach new media journalism – A proposal that focuses on teaching new forms of journalism and discussing the future of interactive journalism:

Download Journalism Education Proposal Here

As always we are continuing our discussions with media outlets and content providers that are looking to broaden their digital and community offerings.  You can view our media partner presentation here:

Download Media Partner Proposal Here

We are also open to other creative applications and ideas on how our work can be integrated with other efforts.  We hope that these proposals will serve as a starting point for discussions.

PeaceMaker: An Index Award Finalist

Posted on by

We are excited to announce that PeaceMaker, our first game, was selected as a finalist in the prestigious contest INDEX: Design to Improve Life.  

The INDEX organization was founded by the Danish Government under the patronage of HRH The Crown Prince and is regarded as one of the biggest design awards in the world. Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX: explains, “INDEX:’s mission is to ensure more Design to Improve Life of higher quality in the world. Therefore we inspire, collect, advocate, communicate, evaluate, connect and discuss Design to Improve Life globally.”

The finalist’s works will be presented in a touring exhibition that premieres in August 2009 in Copenhagen and travels throughout Denmark and Internationally.  The award is given to winners in five categories – Body, Home, Work, Play and Community (all to be announced August 28).  Among other finalists in the Play category are Nike Trash Talk, City Invader and the Recycle Factory.  You can view all of the finalists here.

PTN Wins the Knight Foundation Award for News Gaming

Posted on by

We are very honored that Play The News won the First Knight News Game Award.  The winner was announced at the Games for Change Annual Festival last week.  According to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation the award “honors the best of this exciting new genre: games which are journalistic and strengthen people’s ability to make decisions in a democracy.”  You can read the full press release here.

We really hope that this great recognition will support our current effort in finding new educational partners and venues for the use of the platform.  The other finalists who were honored at the event are the Budget Maze by the Gotham Gazette, Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City by Global Kids and September 12th, the iconic news game created by Gonzalo Frasca and his team that many attribute to coining the phrase “newsgaming”.

PeaceMaker: Deactivation and Reactivation Functionality

Posted on by

In answer to many people’s comments and support issues we are pleased to provide our customers with this new functionality. The patch below will work for anyone purchasing a copy of PeaceMaker that does not already have integrated this new functionality. We understand everyones desire to be able to have flexibility with software they purchase and we are glad to finally provide that. This should also make it easier for educational institutions that are continuously re-imaging their computer labs.

New Patch: Deactivation and Reactivation Functionality
We have recently added new functionality to allow our users to deactivate and reactivate copies of PeaceMaker in order to move them from computer to computer. Please be sure to use the deactivation tool before uninstalling. If you own the online version (v1.068 and earlier) or the CD version (physical copy) feel free to install this patch for PC or Mac. You do not need this patch if you own a later version of PeaceMaker. DO NOT use this patch if you have the Peres Center version.

Haaretz.com

Posted on by

Exciting news: Ha’aretz (the Israeli newspaper) is featuring the game “Livni’s Coalition” on their site. It is the first in a series of games we will launch with them. The game is embedded on their pages: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025853.html and linked to from their homepage as one of today’s top “stories.”

It is great to see “Play the News” integrated into traditional and respected media sources like Ha’aretz and we hope to announce more partners soon.

New Partner: World Net Daily

Posted on by

We are happy to announce that World Net Daily has made our First Debate game available to its online readers.  The game, which is going to be resolved on September 26th, allows players to express their opinion and cast their prediction around the winner of the debate and the issues presented (foreign affairs focus).  We already saw great traction, and are hoping to launch some more news games with WND around the US election and other topics in the following weeks.  Stay tuned.