ImpactGames, creator of PeaceMaker, recently launched a new interactive news gaming platform at playthenewsgame.com. The concept is that short interactive games are published often to the site, based on the latest major news events. Anyone can register for the site and “play” any of these news items by suggesting appropriate actions to be taken and predicting outcomes. Players interact with each other via game rankings and statistics, and discussions of the games.

Games can also be syndicated and embedded on your own web site or blog. Here’s the game that’s currently featured:

So far, we’ve just consulted with ImpactGames on specific aspects of the web site and user interface, but we hope to be more involved in future improvements to the platform.

Play the News is another innovative and gutsy project from the ImpactGames folks… Try it out!

[EDIT: changed the syndicated game to the one that's currently featured...]

Last fall we mentioned that there were some geographic changes on the way, and here they are… As of this summer, I’ll be heading to the east coast and joining Rhys in Brooklyn!

For our Seattle-based coworkers, colleagues, and clients, I’m sorry we won’t be able to meet face to face too often anymore, but we don’t anticipate any other changes to our working relationship. If you have any concerns or questions about this move, please get in touch.

I’m excited to be joining physical forces with Rhys again after many years of living and working 2000 miles apart. It’ll be great to be geographically closer to some of our clients in New York, too.

This will mean some down time for me this summer — mostly during the month of June. We’ve already been discussing this with clients we’re actively working with. For anyone else who knows they’ll need work completed around that time, please let us know.

Wish me luck!

Standardista and web development community leader Molly Holzschlag pointed me to the “very awesome iJustine”, who posted this hilarious rap by m0serious about standards-based web design. User interface tips, semantics, accessibility — it’s all there! Perfect for nerds and gangsters alike… Molly and iJustine’s posts are complete with transcript, so educate yourself