Michelle Obama Looking for Games that Promote Healthy Children

Austin MacKenzie

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Jan 26, 2010
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Michelle Obama Looking for Games that Promote Healthy Children



First Lady Michelle Obama is hosting a competition to submit games that will encourage children to lead healthier, more active lives.

Apps for Healthy Kids is a program spearheaded by the First Lady that begins accepting submissions today. There are two categories, tools and games, and and a combined reward of $40,000 to the top submissions. The White House has assembled a team of judges including Entertainment Software Association President Michael Gallagher, LucasArts Engineer Eric Johnson, Zynga's Mark Pincus and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to determine the winners of the competition, which will end on July 14.

The submissions must all conform to the USDA Nutritional Dataset to qualify, and need to function on "any software platform broadly available to the public." The top applications in each category will earn $10,000, and the public choice of each category will earn $4,500.

Apps for Healthy Kids has offered a number of suggestions for content material such as "teaching kids to eat more whole grains" and "being more physically active," but so long as the application falls within the healthy lifestyle criteria it is acceptable. The submission deadline is June 30, after which the judging will begin. It's good to see the White House taking such a positive approach to gaming and gaming's potential. It'll be interesting to see what people come up with over the next few months.

Source: <a href=http://gamepolitics.com/2010/03/11/first-lady-launches-app-competition>GamePolitics


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RheynbowDash

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Jan 26, 2009
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My god Michelle Obama is one attractive lady. And I dont mean that in a sarcastic way either.
 

Cherry Cola

Your daddy, your Rock'n'Rolla
Jun 26, 2009
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Modern Warfare 2 perhaps?

It teaches you not to speak Russian on airports!

[sub]Was that a terrible joke? I'm sorry, it was the first thing that popped into my mind[/sub]
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
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Look at the Wii. It reeks of healthy-ness... And thats one reason we hate it.

Calumon: Wow, she's pretty! I wonder if she's healthy?
 

JEBWrench

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Apr 23, 2009
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Wait, look at the judges. Mark Pincus is going to decide what game is healthy for kids?
 

Armored Prayer

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Mar 10, 2009
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Well there is Wii Fit and those old fitness Eyetoy games.

At least this for the good of the children and some game designers.
 

Mr Companion

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Jul 27, 2009
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The games industry does not need to justify it's existence, since the movie industry did not.
 

More Fun To Compute

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Nov 18, 2008
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GTA San Andreas teaches kids that if you eat fast food you get fat but you can get better at mugging people, punching women to death and running from the police if you work out. That sounds exactly like what she is looking for.
 

DTWolfwood

Better than Vash!
Oct 20, 2009
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make a game that crashes their game consoles :p that would get them active! whether it be rage or looking for an alternative form of activity/entertainment that'll get them off their butts XD
 

skeanthu

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My draft proposal:

Insert cd into Xbox
Game comes up
Screen Flashes "GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!"
 

Fniff

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Apr 15, 2009
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OK then.

I'll just make an magnum opus that explores humanity's need for violence and how people can rise above it-- Oh.

You want them to be that kind of healthy. Sigh...I'll just make a mario clone with the enemies as burgers.
 

Cliff_m85

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Feb 6, 2009
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Maybe instead of the healthy game crap she can slap some sense into her husband?

Hint: Government controlled health care isn't going to happen.
 

Niracas

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Dec 3, 2009
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Isnt this why the Wii was made? You know.. games like WiiFIT. No? Im wrong? Clearly thats played for the fun.

This just seems like a waste of time and money for any developer, it'll probably end up like those Burger King 360 games you could get when the Xbox 360 came out.
 

JEBWrench

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Apr 23, 2009
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Niracas said:
Isnt this why the Wii was made? You know.. games like WiiFIT. No? Im wrong? Clearly thats played for the fun.

This just seems like a waste of time and money for any developer, it'll probably end up like those Burger King 360 games you could get when the Xbox 360 came out.
No, see, what they want is electronic media that encourage, through sitting down in front of a monitor, active, healthy living. Not actually having kids be active and healthy. But encouraging it.

Seeing as Captain Zynga is one of the judges, I'm assuming the winner will be full of pop-ups saying, "Give a salad to three of your friends to get a free artichoke!"