Powerup - A serious game out in the wild
Powerup the game recently went live created by our colleagues here in IBM using the Torque games engine.
It is a scenario based game, with a multiplayer online team approach to help students understand the role of science in saving a planet.
This fits into the growing usage and acceptance of game based technology and finding ways to engage people in serious subjects but in a more entertaining way.
The game is a downloadable windows client, that then connects to the main servers.

I captured a little video of some of the elements, the frame rate is much better live of course.
You get to select a first and second name from a list. This is to avoid any risky names I believe. So for once I am not epredator, but I did log on as Ian Hughes, imagine that! Though I did manage to only select the female avatar.
The rest of the communication is via menu systems, not freeform chat, again this is a protection mechanism given the target audience for the game.
Players can join missions, that are typically sharded ones and tasks are designed for more than one person to help complete.
The official website has much more information for parents and teachers. We here at eightbar cannot claim to have built any of this, though we have known about the development as its obviously closely related to our Torque based internal metaverse and is another spin off of bringing IBM into virtual worlds and games in general (which I think we can rightly claim to have set the ball rolling on :-) )

February 26th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Out of curiosity, did you use a Torque content creator pack or purchase things on sites like Turbosquid?
February 27th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I think, though I would have to ask, that its a mix of purchased and licensed content and self created content.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:19 am
[...] Leo en Eghtbar Powerup - A serious game out in the wild, un juego donde se combinan conocimientos de ciencia con la misión de salvar el planeta. La primera sorpresa al ir al sitio oficial donde se descarga es que existe una versión con opciones de accesibilidad. El juego es on line. multijugador desarrollado en un entorno de 3d. La historia comienza con “Hace cientos de años las naciones de nuestro planeta se dieron cuenta de que los efectos secundarios de la combustión de combustibles fósiles por energía fueron dañando la atmósfera y cambiaron el clima…” [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
hola ?nesecito sader como se descarga el juego de la ibm el juego power up? me disen xfa pliz sime ayidan les digo una Grasias!!!!!!!!!!!1
May 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Out of curiosity, did you use a Torque content creator pack or purchase things on sites like Turbosquid?
May 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I think, though I would have to ask, that its a mix of purchased and licensed content and self created content.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Out of curiosity, did you use a Torque content creator pack or purchase things on sites like Turbosquid?
May 4th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I think this will be a pretty cool online game. The video is great and graphics look fine.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
thanks so much
May 19th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
thanks nice images
May 21st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
we could all use some fun.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
thanks so much good information
June 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Finally a game respecting science, thanks i saw it in my life time.
Keep it up duds.
Ciao
kfgd63-sphinx
June 25th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Looks very interesting. I think i will give it a try.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I think this will be a pretty cool online game. The video is great and graphics look fine.:)
July 1st, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Mesajiniz icin tesekkurler bana cok faydali bir bilgi oldu saolun :)
July 13th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Looks very interesting. I think i will give it a try.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
thank you very goood
July 18th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Nice works, thanks…
August 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
thanks nice images!!
August 31st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
thanks you very nice site
September 7th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I think, though I would have to ask, that its a mix of purchased and licensed content and self created content.
Thank You!
September 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Thank you It’s very beautifully
September 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
thank you
September 21st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
thanks
September 21st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Thank you It’s very beautifully good