Brian Neong San and Dan Adijans have been using their free time to create another Flash game called ‘Burney’. “The game play is simply based on burning things to gain points, but in a very non- serious manner”, says Dan. “With a simple idea we also kept the controls simple, using just the space bar to jump. Some of our previous games have been faulted for being difficult or frustrating to control, so I pushed the concept of a single action key that has proved to be successful for a few other games out there.” Brian adds, “There’s also no way to ‘die’ in this game, so it’s accessible for anyone to play and allows them to run right through the level and improve on their score.” Burney has been entered in to the current MochiAds 60 Seconds to Fame contest. Dan and Brian won the prize for best '3D plugin integration' in the Top of the World Flash game contest earlier this year with ‘Haku: Spirit Storm’. CLICK HERE TO PLAY BURNEY Let us know if you beat Dan’s high score of 810!

A team of developer's funded by Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International have come up with a browser-based MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that teaches players how to speak Mandarin Chinese.

“By interacting in the Zon environment you will be exposed to Chinese language and cultural knowledge in a new and exciting way. Everything that you do in the game is another chance to learn new words, phrases and cultural info about China. Never before has learning Chinese been more fun. Once you log in to the Zon Environment server, your avatar will show up in the Beijing International Airport. The airport has everything you need to get acquainted with Zon. As you explore the airport, notice that all interaction is done by clicking on the different pieces of the world. You’ll find a large variety of interactive objects to explore in Zon. You can observe authentic conversation and examine the vocabulary and grammar with the language tools, engage in interactive conversations, solve puzzles, play trivia or just play the games at the arcade for fun.”

If intrigued sign up for the beta

Initiatives like this and social networks such as Live Mocha are proving that you can take some of the advantages of real time interactions and socialisation and deliver them via new and exciting online mediums.

MSNBC have released a NewsWare site, which provides an interesting news spectrum which can also be customised into a widget to embed on your blog, social network profile, or desktop.

The news experience includes this spectrum which is very engaging.

 

There is also a Newsblaster tool which lets you read the news while you are playing an online game.

To promote this feature, MSNBC setup the world's first interactive cinema crowd game.

Cinema goers became human joysticks as the collective crowd body movement controls the functions of a game controller.

 

NBC New's social education iCue site is also mixing news videos with study guides and educational games in what they hope will satisfy Generation Y's shorter attention span.

Mattel and Hasbro who the worldwide rights to the Scrabble game are suing the creators of Scrabulous, one of Facebook’s most popular applications for copyright infringement.

Scrabulous attracts over 600,000 daily users and nets the 20-something Indian brothers who created the application, $25,000 worth of advertising each month. So Hasbro has asked Facebook to take down Scrabulous.

This is where Legal departments don't understand social networks.

• The Scrabulous fans are passionate about the game and are not happy about Hasbro's heavy handedness.
• Already, there are over 55,000 members in a Save Scrabulous Facebook Group that are talking of a boycott of all Mattel and Hasbro products.

So what should Hasbro and Matel do instead ?

• Consider buying Scrabulous and use the passionate fans to evangelise scrabble as a learning game.
• Hire the Scrabulous creators to develop online versions for other social networks.
• Sponsor competitions of the online game.
• Allow fans to create personalised scrabble games which they can design online.