Course on Gamification via Coursera

Coursera, a website that teams up with professors from various universities to offer free online courses to the public, is offering an introductory course on gamification, a concept that is gaining speed quickly. The course begins this week.

This is reportedly one of the first courses designed specifically for the concept of gamification, and the course itself is partly designed to explore the meaning and purpose of the concept, as well as to generate ideas on how to apply it in relevant ways.

Read more about the course here.

CVGA Featured on SlashDot

Check out Dave Carter, our fearless leader, describing the archive in a more in-depth glance at what we have to offer via this feature on SlashDot.

See the video here.

Family Computing: A Dictionary of Computer Terms Made Simple

One of the fun things about getting donations of really old computer equipment is that sometimes we find random bits of entertainment to go along with it. Here is a really old dictionary of computer terms that has helpful (and hilarious) pictures to describe each term.

A Collection of Game Ads

The archive recently got its very own vertical file, which has inspired a discussion about what we want to highlight and set aside for research purposes. One thing we've decided to set aside are the game ads that come in game cases, and the product catalogs (especially the really old ones) that are donated to us over time. Having them all in one place could make it easier for someone studying game marketing over time to access what they need. Here are some examples of what this mini-collection contains:

And, the vertical file cabinet itself.

Sexual Harassment in the Gaming Community

An article hit the New York Times earlier this month discussing the prevalence of sexual harassment in virtual game play.

In the article, they highlight several examples online, from a Kickstarter devoted to documenting how women are portrayed in video games to a blog devoted to the unpleasant comments that women often encounter while playing online games. Quoted in the article are also several people who recognize the need to do something about it.

Read the article here.

Top Games for the Month of July

Here is the top 10 of our most popular games in the archive for the month of July. A combination of a lot of kids in the archive, as well as a number of individual users dedicated to playing a specific game everyday has given us a list that looks a little different from normal. Personally, it's been refreshing to see more unconventional games being played.

1. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
2. Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast)
3. Grand Slam Tennis 2 (Xbox 360)
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
5. FIFA Soccer 12 (Xbox 360)
6. (tie) Super Smash Bros. Melee (Gamecube)
6. (tie) Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
8. (tie) Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
8. (tie) Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3)
8. (tie) Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360)

Displaying Game Ephemera

We've been working on sorting through some of the game ephemera that we've collected over the years and finding a good way to display it. Some of this stuff is just too good not to have out there for people to see.

A lot of our games come with little graphic novels that add to the plot.

We've already gotten a lot of comments on the glove from the Michael Jackson Experience (Wii), including a kid wondering if it was Michael Jackson's actual glove.

Card sets with some great art.

And our new black bookcases, for housing strategy guides and displaying our ephemera.