Gates Foundation Kicks in $20 Million Towards Game Projects

[vansau]

Gates Foundation Kicks in $20 Million Towards Game Projects

Apparently the folks over at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation believe that games can help a lot with education, and throwing some serious money towards these projects.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invests a <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Activities>lot of money with a number of worthy causes, but the organization's latest announced investment is probably raising a few eyebrows: It's putting $20 million towards developing games, as well as "tools that are designed to bring improvements in education."

The money is going to be divvied up amongst a variety of groups, particularly three game-oriented projects: iRemix, the Institute of Play, and Quest Atlantis:

The organization invested $2.6 million in the Digital Youth Network's iRemix, an application that teaches children about skills such as creative writing, awarding them with badges as they progress though a range of difficulty levels.

$2.5 million dollars went to the Institute of Play, which will build game-based teaching tools and game design curricula for a variety of teaching environments.

Finally, the Gates Foundation gave $2.6 million to Quest Atlantis for creating video games that help children become more proficient in math, reading and science.

Money from the Foundation is also going to be used for other education-based projects, including student courses, multimedia teaching techniques, and interactive software, as well as social and print media.

Source: <a href=http://www.seriousgamessource.com/item.php?story=34327>Serious Games Source via <a href=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2011/04/28/bill-amp-melinda-gates-foundation-give-20-million-game-related-endeavors>GamePolitics

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

Goddamit Bill, things were so much easier when we could just hate you for being rich.

Now if we say bad things about the atrocious things you did with Microsoft, we're looked on as nay-sayers.

Fair's fair though - that is a pretty awesome thing to do.

 

[Arcanist]

Wow, 20 million dollars!

... About £16 then?

/rimline

In any case, good for them. Microsoft may not care about PC gaming anymore, but at least Gates hasn't lost sight of where popular media is heading.

 

[Cavan]

I fail to see why that would raise eyebrows really.

Only reasons I could come up with is because people like to think of the rich as cartoonishly evil or that people like to think that all games are stupid and cause rape/murder/desensitisation.

Anyway, hope the educational gaming market takes off maybe this'll be more of a push.

Would be awesome to have mainstream games just for learning, have seen a few like 'brain training' but they all come across as shallow and gimmicky over intellectual.

 

[rickynumber24]

Goddamit Bill, things were so much easier when we could just hate you for being rich.

Now if we say bad things about the atrocious things you did with Microsoft, we're looked on as nay-sayers.

Fair's fair though - that is a pretty awesome thing to do.

The fun thing about people like Bill Gates back before when he was running Microsoft is that I'm pretty sure, from his investments, he was literally making money faster than he could spend it.

 

[Andronicus]

About time too. I've often thought that there's a great big gaping hole in the educational videogames market, just asking to be filled with money.

RTS featuring Antigens vs Antibodies? Racing game with nervous impulses travelling to and from the brain? MMORPG with enzymes in various cells in the body? There's so many different concepts that can be used, and I'm just thinking about those in physiology and anatomy!

 

[Pilkingtube]

Just waiting for another scathing LA Times article skewering them for making charitable donations to gaming, just like they spent a very, very long time bitching about the foundation donating millions to AIDS clinics in Africa. It'll come, just you wait.

Until it does however, it's nice to see these sorts of investments into the medium, I hope great things come from it.

 

[thiosk]

Yea? Well I want to merge Spore with Warhammer 40k to create an open ended procedural warhammer simulation.

BILL. SEND ME MY MILLIONS. FOR THE EMPEROR.

 

[Arcanist]

Yea? Well I want to merge Spore with Warhammer 40k to create an open ended procedural warhammer simulation.

BILL. SEND ME MY MILLIONS. FOR THE EMPEROR.

MONEY FOR THE MONEY GOD! GAMES FOR THE GAME THRONE!

 

[Cenequus]

$20 million huh?

Bill, you do know that $20 million isn't enough to make a quarter of a AAA game right?

I guess you skipped reading the article and see towards what they give the money.

It's funny how "the evil" Bill Gates invests money into gaming education while "the good" Steve Jobs still thinks that games are the worse thing that ever happened.

 

[Saluki_princess]

I hope some really good, innovative things come out of this. Video games have so much untapped potential when it comes to teaching.

 

[Glerken]

$20 million huh?

Bill, you do know that $20 million isn't enough to make a quarter of a AAA game right?

I guess you skipped reading the article and see towards what they give the money.

It's funny how "the evil" Bill Gates invests money into gaming education while "the good" Steve Jobs still thinks that games are the worse thing that ever happened.

Are you implying that i like Steve Jobs and Apple?

FUCK NO!

I despise both with the flaming passion of a billion suns.

What i'm saying is that this money is a fucking pittance to Bill Gates.

And...?
He donated 20 million dollars. That's still a fucking lot of money.
Bill Gates has donated over $28 billion to charity, not sure how that warrants a hate "with the flaming passion of a billion suns."

In all reality, he's probably done more good than you or I ever will.

 

[Chaoswin1]

This is fantastic news. Really hope this kind of investing pays off and I would love to see the end result whatever it may be.

 

[sooperman]

This is some of the best news we've brought in all week. I don't see Sony donating any money

I do have a problem, though: one of the projects that is slated to receive money is called "iRemix". The trend of putting a lowercase "i" in front of things really needs to die about three years ago. Every other player on any MMO that is even slightly anime-style has "i" in front of their name for no reason, and it's becoming an epidemic.

Otherwise, good for Gates. This on top of the 10B$ he's donating to get vaccines to kids in need puts him in a very positive light. Kudos.

 

[Low Key]

$2.6m + $2.5m + $2.6m = $7.7million. Where is the rest going?

 

[Sentox6]

Goddamit Bill, things were so much easier when we could just hate you for being rich.

Now if we say bad things about the atrocious things you did with Microsoft, we're looked on as nay-sayers.

Calling Microsoft's practices "atrocious" is getting pretty far into the realm of hyperbole.

The fun thing about people like Bill Gates back before when he was running Microsoft is that I'm pretty sure, from his investments, he was literally making money faster than he could spend it.

Someone once calculated that pausing to bend down and pick up a $100 bill would be a waste of Bill Gates' time