Guardian Newspaper's guide to Copenhagen

The Guardian newspaper has a good piece on a beginner's guide to the Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations, and they want to get you involved on helping translate the jargon-heavy bits! http://bit.ly/4buUqe

Blog Action Day

We have signed up with Blog Action Day (http://bit.ly/n7jpJ). This year the theme of the day is climate change, which is obviously a theme close to our own hearts.

It is great to see grass-roots action like this and the whole team at Red Redemption support the day and wish it the best of luck.

Blog Action Day is vital in helping to spread awareness of the vital importance of climate change to everyone. Climate change is happening, right now, to you and you need to know about it.

And you can quote me on that :)

Serious Games Book Recommendations

Following on to our short list of good books on climate change, we wanted to give a couple about the topic of games, and serious games.

1. Power Up by Rebecca Mileham
An excellent introduction to the topic of serious games, this book examines the latest evidence into how computer games affect our health, thinking, learning, identity, beliefs, and propensity for violence or addiction. Features an interview with Gobion and Hannah from Red Redemption.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Powering-Up-Computer-Changing-TechKnow/dp/0470723106

You can see Rebecca's blog here http://www.rebecca.mileham.net/

2. Digital Game-Based Learning by Marc Prensky
An explanation of what serious games are and might be, by serious games advocate, Marc Prensky

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Game-based-Learning-Marc-Prensky/dp/0071363440

Check out his blog at http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/

Relaunching the blog

So now we are getting up to full speed with things on the "telling people about what we do" front it was time to relaunch the blog and do a proper job :)

So I hope you like the new design. The little fella in the banner is Nahual, a character we made for one of our games based on pre-Hispanic Mexican mythology.

So who, or what is a nahual? To quote the fascinating Pantheon.org "A nahual, also called nagual, is a spirit being or animistic entity closely associated with a human being. Among some groups, each person has his or her own nahual which acts a double, a shadow, or as a protective spirit. They are often animals such as dogs, jaguars, or opossums, but they can also be natural forces such as lightning or meteors.

"If one harms another person's nahual, one may harm the person who belongs to that nahual. During sleep, the nahual can go wondering, something that can be seen in the dream. Nahuals can also be sent out to perform tasks, use it as an adviser, or a person can change his shape to that of the nahual.

"The origin of the nahuals lies far back in pre-Hispanic times. Many patron deities of towns have their own nahuals to help them guard their towns, just like their pre-Hispanic forebears. These nahuallies make nocturnal patrols, giving off evil airs to ward off rival nahuallies. In ancient times, each day sign of the divinatory calender had its own personal nahual or deity, which corresponds to the present-day beliefs that each sign of the zodiac has its own nahual. Among the Quiché Maya (K'iche') the day a child is born determines its nahual, but the child is only told when it has reached a responsible age so that they may not blame bad deeds on the nahual."

"Nahual." Encyclopedia Mythica from Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
<http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/nahual.html>
[Accessed September 17, 2009].

... so there you go.

Consider him the guide to what we get up to! :)

Good climate change books

A regular question we get asked is if we can recommend some good books to get to grips with climate change without being too technical. So I asked Hannah in our team to list her favourites.

I've given the links to buy the books from Amazon.co.uk, but they should be available through all good online retailers and in your local library.

1. The Hot Topic by Gabrielle Walker & Sir David King
A very good introduction to the subject, covering the science and the policy options available. Sir David King was the former chief scientific advisor to the UK government and is the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Topic-Tackle-Global-Warming/dp/0747593957

2. Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air by David Mackay
A no-nonsense look at the numbers behind renewable energy - can we make an energy policy that adds up?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sustainable-Energy-Without-Hot-Air/dp/0954452933

3. A Blueprint for a Safer Planet by Nicholas Stern
Written by Nicholas Stern of the Stern Review into the Economics of Climate Change, this is an update of his conclusions from that report, without the constraints of being a government report. Sir Nicholas Stern was commissioned by Gordon Brown to produce a report on the economics of climate change - his findings were instrumental in underlining the economic case for tackling climate change.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blueprint-Safer-Planet-Progress-Prosperity/dp/1847920373

4. Six Degrees by Mark Lynas
A well-researched look at what climate change might really mean for the world, degree by degree - gets quite scary towards the end! Also winner of the prestigious Royal Society Science Books Prize 2009.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Six-Degrees-Future-Hotter-Planet/dp/0007209045

5. Global Warming by John Houghton
An introduction to the science of climate change by the lead editor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's first 3 reports.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Global-Warming-Complete-John-Houghton/dp/0521528747

6. The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
An interesting introduction to climate change by renowned Australian zoologist, Tim Flannery
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weather-Makers-History-Future-Climate/dp/0713999217

I will follow this up with a selection of good books on socially positive games plating. If there are some books on the subject that have been inspiring and/or helpful to you, tell us about them :)

Our Advisory Board

Dear readers,

It has been a very busy couple of months and thigns are going well. I will be writing lots of updates over the next few months, and wanted to start with our Advisory Board, who they are and what their role is within the overall plan for Climate Challenge 2010.

Our Advisory Board is:
• Professor Diana Liverman: Director of the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences committee on Americas Climate Choices
• Dr Cameron Hepburn: A leading environmental economist.
• John Kroeger: Former co-head of the UK Government team of Business Relations Managers to the Computer Games Industry.
• Suzanne Seggerman: President of Games For Change.
• Dr Pamela Hartigan: Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University’s Said Business School

Full biographies for each of the Advisory Board can be found below:
http://red-redemption.com/team/#advisory_board

Each member has been very carefully selected to bring unique skills, experience and contacts to the company and all have been important in helping Red Redemption achieve our objectives for Climate Challenge 2010.

Why is this important?
There are four main reasons:
1. Credibility: The credibility of the game and the team is important to ensure the game reaches more people in the market. Our Advisory Board helps build credibility for the game and team.
2. Marketing: Further press and marketing opportunities open up for us through our mutual association.
3. Advice: We benefit from their advice about the game.
4. Thanks: The people we have involved in our advisory board have been extremely supportive and helpful over the last few years and we want to recognise that.

To follow our progress more closely check out our Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Climate-Challenge-2010/125222552491
and a Twitter feed for the development of the game at http://twitter.com/cc2010game

Best,
Gobion

*EDITED: 25-Sept-2009: Corrected Professor Diana Liverman's role at the National Academy of Sciences.