Congress Slashes Funding for Peaceful Conflict Resolution Game 84
In a departure from the usual video game setting a recent educational video game called "Cool School" was designed to teach kids peaceful conflict resolution. Unfortunately Congress has decided to slash the funding of this program that has been receiving rave reviews from the testers at schools in Illinois. "Cool School focuses on taking players through a school where just about everything (desks, books, and other objects) are alive and have their own personality. Over the course of ten levels and over 50 different situations designed by Professor Melanie Killen and then-doctoral student Nancy Margie (both of the University of Maryland). The primary goal of the game is to teach students how to solve social conflict through skills like negotiation and cooperation. During the title's development, Killen and Margie were able to work with some talented members of the video game industry, including independent developer F.J. Lennon and animator Dave Warhol." The game is now available as a free download and will play on both Mac OS X and Windows XP.
Funding slashed for a finished game (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks slashdot, for providing no link to the article where the funding is being slashed, just two links to a game and people's reviews of it.
Re:Funding slashed for a finished game (Score:5, Informative)
That's also what's holding back Duke Nukem Forever, I suppose.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Although TFA [arstechnica.com] is somewhat vague on the point, it seems the problem is not quite that trivial.
(emphasis mine)
Re:Funding slashed for a finished game (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the problem is as trivial as he said; it's just that the original plan seems to have been much more grandiose. Come to think of it, if they *had* gotten the funding to send a DVD to every school in the country, wouldn't we be getting a story long the lines of "Congress Doesn't Know Internet Exists!!!", with pages of moronic comments about "tubes"?
I don't get the GGP's complaint about Ars Technica, though. It's not the article's fault that it's not mostly about the one sentence the editor fixated on.
Re: (Score:1)
Those headlines would be as cluelessly inflammatory as a typical kdawson post.
Making something available to everyone != Delivering it to everyone. One approach results in a much, much higher rate of ado
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Funding slashed for a finished game (Score:4, Funny)
Really? I heard that Peaceful Conflict Resolution accelerators simply weren't fast enough for Duke's "Resolutions."
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't copy that floppy! (Score:1)
Re:Funding slashed for a finished game (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
You didn't think all the advert stories have been posted for free, now did you? Slashvertisement was all they could afford now!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
To 'sell' it to schools, you need to a) make them aware of it, usually by presenting at state teacher's fairs and putting notices in periodicals, b) indicate how it supports curricula standards by providing support material and metrics, c) get it into existing channels so the (usual sole) IT person at the school (typically a resource/library person) is allowed to install it, d) support
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Damn! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, of course. (Score:2, Flamebait)
Mission Accomplished!
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, you're saying the People should not be involved with education for the people. Morality != religion, and especially in the United States people seem to be really keen on legislating the former. Perhaps we not teach in public schools anything remotely related to morality?
Re: (Score:1)
There is a difference. Funding for education is acceptable because an educated populous is necessary to have a decently working democracy. Democracy requires educated citizens to have the ability to understand how the system works and ability to understand the issues (whether they actually understand them is a different thing, but at least we try to equip them with the ability). Education is great. But to fund a video game to understand how to resolve conflicts? This in a different realm.
Funding for ed
Re:Well, of course. So, is this yet another case (Score:1)
Or, do we blame it on the "mil", or on the US govt/"leadership" "expeditionary/surrender no options" mentality?
Does it matter? (Score:2)
1. First of all, the game seems to be about conflict resolution on a small interpersonal scale. You know, better try to make friends with Joe, instead of punching him in the nose.
I'd say that whatever _external_ policy a military-industrial government may pursue, _internally_ they need a certain social order and people following orders. They don't want their own society to break down into anarchy, even if just because that's bad for business and bad for politics.
Plus, sta
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, I feel like I'm so out of touch that my sense of humor is becoming completely random. Soon I'll become a Python, doomed to never again be understood by mortal men.
Answers!
1. Probably the relative ease with which a population can be led around by the nose is mostly independent of which morality they've been brought up to accept. "Look, they're different and scary!" "Look, something happened to the Maine/Maddox/WTC!"
2.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But teaching people to play nice internally isn't really bad for any government, from Bush to China to whatever else.
Sorry, I strongly disagree for a broad number of reasons.
The first and most obvious reason is economic. Let's face it, how many cordless drills do you need on your block? Most people could share with a large number of neighbors and nearly never have a usage collision. How many washers and dryers? I bet your neighborhood could cut that in half if you just shared. See how this works? The reduction in economic activity is potentially serious.
The second reason, which ought to be obvious to anyone, is that i
The Article... (Score:2, Informative)
...is on ars technica [arstechnica.com].
Really.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They shouldn't have to give away the source code, and it shouldn't "have" to be inter-operable with linux. It is made for schools, and over 95% of schools run windows. Optimizing it so it runs in wine (which it probably does, its not a graphically-complex game) would have cost money, and had very little in returns.
Now get off your linux soapbox and learn that the real world doesn't revolve around your chosen operating system.
Re: (Score:2)
A) The price of the OS which is around $50-$200
B) Tax money not going to the schools but to the makers of the game
C) The price of more expensive hardware to run Windows or OS X
While it is true that most schools run Windows, many are looking
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It may work great as a game, but be a horrible vector for anyone who wants to exploit a schools computer systems. And if distribution met its goal, practically every school would have this somewhere. This is one case where keeping the source closed makes sense.
Why, so that only nefarious individuals with a debugger and too much time on their hands will know where the code can be exploited?
There is no such thing as security through obscurity. Sorry.
The thing that really makes sense is just to do every damned thing on the web. Schools get cheap bandwidth so this doesn't hurt them any and it lets you stay updated.
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt much time, if any at all, was put into security considerations for the code.
I doubt much should.
Honestly, what is the attack vector here? This isn't a web browser. It's not even a multiplayer game. I very much doubt it needs to talk to the network at all.
I can imagine that parts of it would be "insecure", but only in the sense that someone who already has access to the system could exploit the game to... get access to the system. Horrors!
Imagine someone finding a bug, and somehow through magic there is a whole trusted system of which this patch will get reviewed and distributed back to the schools, and have them actually update all copies.
I know! We'll call it a package manager! In fact, it could even manage more than one "package", and one package could depend on another... Man,
Re: (Score:1)
Now get off your linux soapbox and learn that the real world doesn't revolve around your chosen operating system.
Oh the irony of that statement.....
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
While I understand your sentiment, I respectfully disagree. I agree that over 95% of the US, and probably the world, use Windows directly. However, indirectly, everyone uses Unix or Linux.
Today the world revolves around the internet. Something like 65%-70% of internet servers run on Linux and 15%-20% run on some non-Linux version of Unix. (These numbers may have changed since I last checked.) In fact, the root of the internet, some 13 root name servers, all run on Unix/Linux.
Since the internet revolves
Re: (Score:2)
Unix is an important server platform, and it's starting t
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the whole thing is a big Flash application. It should be a piece of cake to build it for linux.
What the GP is trying to say (or should be) is that they should release the code because the FOSS community can rally around it and provide support and greater release options (linux, future versions of OSX and Windoze)...
Also, I'd like a citation saying that 95% of schools are running Windows. Personally, I think there is a 95% chance that that statement is false [yahoo.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Give me one good reason the source code shouldn't be released.
According to the site (Score:2)
http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Coll_FJLennon/CoolCurriki/CoolCurriki.zip/CoolCurriki.html [curriki.org]
the software was developed by these folks:
http://www.fmcs.gov/ [fmcs.gov]
If I'm not mistaken, anything the government develops is public domain - but that's been obscured a lot by the government contracting outsiders to do things.
sorry - further... (Score:2)
Re:Really.... (Score:4, Funny)
Wow.
Also in true /. style, I didn't read your whole comment, but I saw something in there about "governed" and "WINE" and you made no mention of "legalized". Frankly I think the US Government has no right to prohibit alcohol sales.
Re:Really.... (Score:4, Funny)
Obviously, someone running Linux or other F/OSS OS doesn't need a game to understand the advantages of cooperation or peaceful conflict resolution. Kernel, license or editor conflicts almost never devolve into physical violence.
How fun would an appropriate game be?
"Mark doesn't agree with your indentation style. What do you do?"
a) Create my own fork
b) Develop software that will display the code in the viewers indent style
c) I demonstrate my indentation preference by indenting Marks face with my fist
d) I write my own new software with a new license allowing only derivative works with the same indentation style
Re:Really.... (Score:4, Funny)
Well, 'Hitman' was a game too, you know.
Re: (Score:2)
Tell that to the vim and emacs fanbois...
Re: (Score:2)
Congress funds whatever it believes constituents want or need. The primary value of educational software is in what it teaches. If closed source achieves that end, so be it. The world doesn't revolve around the geek.
Negotiators? (Score:2)
Ha ha (Score:3, Insightful)
Good... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
So there are two things that economists say:
One: Debt is funny money, so long as we pay the principle, we can borrow all we want and not worry, because more investments now will bring bigger returns than the interest will cost us.
Two: OMFG! We're all going to 'splode when people come to collect the debt! (and thus, it doesn'
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
The US Army is a non-essential, non-core service. Iraq has nothing to do with you. Neither does Afghanistan. Oh yeah, the Taliban may be resurgent, but if you left they wouldn't bother you. Osama is long gone. Biggest best funded military in the world with massive spy agencies, and they can't get this guy. (Yes, they may read this post and log it, but pro-tip guys: Osama doesn't post to Slashdot).
no funding? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
I'm just waiting... (Score:2)
Gangbanger: "Give me your money, holmes..."
Peacenik: "How much do you need? I'd be happy to help buy you a burger."
Gangbanger: *blows peacenik's brains out, takes his wallet*
Re:I'm just waiting...Well, that depends if Cuz (Score:1)
http://www.myspace.com/justkiddingfilms [myspace.com]
But, teach the kids Tai Chi and conflict resolution might turn the US in Pussy Nbr 1. ThAT is some the US elite/investors/domestic and international owners won't want to be #1 in... They don't want to be "Uncle Same Gets Jacked"... it would be soo sad... so sad...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ0xmEPBCJE [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Someone got all their gangsta dialog from San Andreas.
Counterexample (Score:2)
However, for the sake of argument, here's a scenario [boingboing.net] that actually happened which demonstrates the value of skillful non-violent conflict resolution.
I tried it out (Score:5, Informative)
Game-wise, it's nothing special. It's a flash based game with limited user interaction, less than exceptional graphical content, and it plays at 800x600 regardless of your resolution - no full screen capability. In their defense, most games targetting my kids show the same properties.
In the five minutes I played, I was able to click maybe 4 times, with the remainder of the time spent listening to the characters walk me through the game. The general idea they are trying to get across - building conflict resolution skills - is very apparent. I think my child will enjoy this game - although I think she won't choose it very often over other games that she has available such as Dora or Care Bears titles. Frankly, I think the commercial titles offer a much more clear educational experience, but that's not to say I don't like the game at all.
Personally - I think community developed games like those built with Scratch [mit.edu] have a much brighter future. Lord knows how many tax dollars were spent on this game, and if you had 5 involved parents working together for a month and a half, you could have something much better and more open to derivative updates.
Scratch is still flash, but at least you have the ability to update games developed with it - and tailor them to your specific needs/target audience.
Question (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the
Re: (Score:1)
The common defense and the general welfare are to accomplished using the powers expressly granted to the legislative branch of the Federal government.
Don't get me wrong, this is not how it actually works. The constitution never did recover from FDR.
Re: (Score:2)
That is not a grant of power. The "common defense and general welfare of the United States" is a limit on the purposes to which Congress may use the money gotten by taxes, duties, imposts and excises.
Okay, fine, I'll give you this. I'd then argue that they are spending the money gotten by taxes or whatever on this project, which is intended to provide for general welfare.
The common defense and the general welfare are to accomplished using the powers expressly granted to the legislative branch of the Federal government.
Huh? How are you getting that from
Re: (Score:2)
Both you and the sibling poster are missing the point. This is a trivial issue of sentence decomposition:
This is what Congress is granted the power to do.
This is why Congress is granted said power.
Finally, here is a limitation on the manne
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Additionally, if this line was to mean congress could do anything not explicitly forbidden by the first 9 amendments, there would be no need for the 10th amendment whi
Let's not pretend it's because of the warmongers (Score:1, Informative)
It's because it's arguably the most dull, uninteresting pointless idea for a game ever
GOOD. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Congress isn't using war/oil money to fund video games. And in any case it's taxpayer money.
It's all "taxpayer money". So what? That's what a tax is - they take your money. It's not yours anymore.
Video games are a medium, like anything else. The point of this project was to try to use that medium to teach - now, there may be numerous reasons this is not a great idea (the fact that kids play games because they're fun, for instance, combined with a game whose primary goal is not to entertain but to teach - the fact that technology changes so fast that the game may have a short practical lifespa
Too bad... (Score:2)
Substance, please.
Playing it now... (Score:2)
And it's making me violent...
actually - it's not bad, but very patronizing. I'll give it a B+ and positive remarks on the report card.