Oregon is the only state that cares? It seems that lotteries are nothing more than a selfish game of rich and poor. Created to promote capitalism and materialism in america. The corporate game of greed and separitism, and fueled sescrimnation.
The idea of a National Lottery for rescuing Medicare and Medicaid is much better then some of the ideas put forth so far—and it is a fact that some changes will have to be made and soon.
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By David Verklin and Bernice Kanner
Authors of Watch This, Listen up, Click Here
Since the last draftee reported for duty in December 1972, Uncle Sam has had to hustle to staff an all-volunteer armed force. In the case of the U.S. Army, that meant recruiting 80,000 new soldiers every year — essentially replacing more than the entire workforce of BellSouth every 12 months.
Advertising did the trick initially. After “Today’s Army Wants to Join You” fizzled, in January 1981, “Be All You Can Be” became the battle cry. For two decades, wrapped around ads that made this branch look as adventurous as an Outward Bound course, it resonated with 17-to-24-year-olds (of whom the Army is the nation’s largest employer). Then, in 2001, that was scuttled for an “Army of One.” (“Even though there are 1,045,690 soldiers just like me, I am my own force . . .”) Critics scoffed that the new tin slogan was misguided (isn’t conformity more valued than individuality in the barracks?); the Army countered that it was effective.
Then Iraq exploded.
Despite adding thousands of additional recruiters, upping the enlistment bonus and funding for college, fattening the ad budget, and ratcheting up the patriotic appeal, the Army could not fill its boots.
So the Army added more marketing weaponry. It hosted town hall meetings where civilians could meet soldiers and hear about their accomplishments. It tried product placement: Army mechanics on the Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage tricked out a Jeep. And it launched a thoroughly engaging computer video game that quickly became a gold standard of “advergames” for its effectiveness and realism. Gamers take such real military roles as Intelligence (18F), Engineer (18C), Communications (18E), and Combat Medic (18D), and fire the same weapons the Army has. And when they fire on the run, their aim is less accurate.
Before it was released on July 4, 2002, many expected the $7.3 million game would join the ranks of the $436 hammer and $640 toilet seat as a study of excess. Few predicted “America’s Army” would become the artillery’s most effective marketing tool, conveying the authentic military experience in a voice that prospective recruits want to hear.
More than seven million users have registered (anonymously so as to squelch any fear of recruiter harangues) with 10,000 to 50,000 new ones downloading the shoot-em-up daily. In a dozen running and gunning missions, players advance through the stages of soldierhood — drilling in basic training, target practicing with an M-16, learning about basic emergency medicine, and, finally, diving into combat. The game has been downloaded more than 16 million times, 20 percent of entering cadets at West Point have played it, and between 20 and 40 percent of new Army recruits have played it as well.
“They seek it out rather than the other way around,” noted Chris Chambers, deputy director of the Army Game Project within the Army’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. At an average cost of 10 cents per hour versus $5 to $10 per hour for a TV commercial, it delivers immersion rather than mere impression.
“America’s Army” has proven to be such powerful weaponry that an official game store does brisk business selling collectible action figures, clothes, coffee mugs, and other doodads emblazoned with the logo. The Army builds parties and tournaments across the country around it. A wireless version and sequels including “America’s Army: Special Forces,” where players try to earn a Green Beret by completing Special Forces missions, have been released. Apple created a knockoff: Boot Camp. And the Army now even uses it extensively in training.
Uncle Sam Wants You . . . to play . . . and he’s not the only one. Everyone is getting in on the virtual action. Some, like the Army, create a whole game that functions as a sales brochure. Just as the Army promoted its pro-military message through gameplay, the United Nations World Food Program aims to educate about its mission to combat hunger worldwide. In “Food Force,” players steer a helicopter over the war-torn island of Sheylan, (a fictional cross between Sri Lanka and Somalia) and drop relief supplies to a population with little shelter and less food. Or they create food rations, schedule shipments, or take a supply truck through hostile terrain.
In the racing game, “Volvo Drive for Life” (playable on Microsoft’s Xbox), players are rewarded not for finishing first, but for avoiding accidents. Wander in for a test drive at a Volvo dealer and you can try it in the showroom. Dealers can bestow game cartridges on select prospects and customers. After its royal mascot tromped through “Fight Night Round 3″ (on Xbox 360), Burger King created action games around its bizarre king and made them available for just $3.99 to customers who bought a value meal. (Most games sell for at least 12 times that). Nike went beyond athletes wearing its shoes in the video game NBA 2K6: Tournament players are given different pairs of virtual footwear and choose which to put on from their Nike shoe locker depending on the task. They can also personalize the shoes with the same customization feature that’s on Nike’s iD web site.
In other advergames, marketers hitch a ride. In “CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder,” Visa’s fraud-monitoring capabilities shine when a suspicious charge on a victim’s credit card triggers investigation by a forensic-sciences team. In Tom Clancy’s “Splinter Cell Chaos Theory,” the protagonist, secret agent Sam Fisher, scales a bright neon sign for Axe deodorant and quietly enters a lunchroom inhabited by a Diet Sprite Zero vending machine. (Axe also created Mojo Master, an online game about picking up women.) In “Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow,” Fisher retrieves a message from a Sony Ericsson smart phone to learn who the villain is. In “Burnout Revenge,” players drive and crash a Carl’s Jr. delivery-truck. And players in Activision’s ‘True Crime” titles take a break from fighting gangs to recover stolen Puma sneakers.
Some marketers install games on corporate web sites or designated URLs, like “Life Saver Candy Stand,” or FiletoFish.com, the web site where a division of McDonald’s posted “Shark Bait” (in English and Spanish). Players must protect the filet-of-fish sandwich from attacking sharks. For Wachovia, Carat’s Fusion recreated the tricky 17th-hole par 3 at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Players evaluate distance and wind conditions on this 217-yard hole to pick a club: Crowd noise lets them know if they’ve made a good virtual swing. Wachovia has sponsored the annual PGA championship since 2002: The game was fashioned to promote that, sell tickets, and create viral buzz. H&R Block’s “Deduct-A-Buck” game at the deductabuck.com web site is tax-time seasonal. Players who correctly answer questions about what they can legally write off in this Seventies-TV-quiz-show-style game win prizes.
Hollywood and Nashville hardly launch a movie or song anymore without serving up a side of game. And despite hefty royalty rates for movie titles, an action hit will almost certainly be reincarnated on a console. Turner’s “Witchblade” promoted the TV series, and games built around Men in Black II, Spider-Man, and Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course were meant to promote the new releases. Along with ads for Sprite, the sci-fi game “Planetside” featured ads for the movie Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, and in the free version of “Anarchy Online” a 15-second trailer for V For Vendetta played in a continual loop. Ads for Batman Begins in “Splinter Cell” were timed to its release in local markets.
The Da Vinci Code got its own PS2 game. Paramount Pictures crafted a Mission: Impossible III game for cell phones while Miami Vice had an accompanying game to play on Sony’s handheld PSP.
This is about more than fun and games. Yankee Group estimates that by 2007 a serious gamer will lurk in every fourth home in America. Nielsen says three out of four residences with guys under age 34 have a game system. More people slay orcs in the medieval-style quest for virtual gold and power, “World of Warcraft,” than live in Denmark. In 2006, gamers across the globe owned more than 100 million PlayStation2s and 40 million Xboxes. In the United States, video games already raked in more money than the movie box offices, and Yankee Group says the industry will top $8.3 billion by 2008. PricewaterhouseCoopers says globally it will reach $55 billion by 2009. That explains why a cottage industry in Los Angeles builds game consoles into the backs of Lincoln Navigators.
Collectively, interactive ads embedded in quizzes and games made up more than $1 billion of the $12.5 billion in online ad revenue in 2005, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Nielsen (which now measures the industry) expects advertising spending within games will jump from $75 million in 2006 to $1 billon by 2010. Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive, thinks it could be almost twice that — and account for about 3 percent of all media spending, just shy of what advertisers spend on the Internet.
Copyright © 2007 Carat North America, Inc. from the book Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here by David Verklin and Bernice Kanner Published by John Wiley & Sons Inc.; April 2007;$24.95US/$29.99CAN; 978-0-470-05643-1
David Verklin And Bernice Kanner
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/why-a-killer-video-game-is-the-us-armys-best-recruitment-tool-138054.html
As adults, we sometimes forget that it’s still “ok to play” when we are taking our corporate training classes. I know some of them are just plain annoying, but some are quite fun or they are good at bringing home a point.
What is the best game/activity you did in a corporate training class?
Tongue kiss the person to your right. Is was a good ice breaker, but we all realized quickly the game sucks becasue we were all dudes.
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irely around corporate and personal consumptive greed? Or do you feel that making money is a true moral value? it seems to me people have been brainwashed and only care about materialism, that is the number one value in america.
What are you all working for? What does a better quality of life truly mean? is it having more things-is that why we are on the planet? Is that what you want to gain form your experience here on Earth? Are you stuck in the capitalistic consumerist matrix? I'd like to know.
Enormous what is my question ha! I'll save that or myself. No I am educated; I don't need to try to sound that way as you probably need to do on a daily basis. Cheers!
Enormous-*****. My question is grammatically correct unfortunately due to your pathetically large ego and small, intellect you fail to realize this and you cannot grasp the question clearly, hence the attack. Enjoy surfing but do read a little you need it since you don't understand intelligent grammatically correct questions. best of luck-you are going to need it:) I am sure you are really educated enjoying women's volleyball.;)
infernal disaster-I am not a socialist. Just because i do not like the manipulative version of unfair trade and non-sustainability in capitalism today. No I am not a socialist I believe in capitalism but not this form. There are other capitalist nations who have not been consumed by money-many in Europe.
YES, I can't stand the way our Government and Corporate America have become addicted to each other.
You should Read, Nemesis The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson.
Chalmers used to be a CIA consultant, and he wrote a series of three books explaining how the American Government has been using the United States Military to strong-arm other countries into submission so as to force our economy to grow.
Chalmers also explains in detail about the Military Industrial Complex (the M.I.C. ) which was coined by Pres Eisenhower.
The MIC is the union between Corporate America and the Department of Defense, the DoD. The DoD depends on private companies (contractors) to build weapons and provide supplies. Such things as the Rail Road, Air Craft manufacturers, tank and military vehicle manufacturers, lumber companies, computer companies such as DELL and IBM, and the list is sooooo freaking enormous, I would spend days trying to exhaust it.
As a result of all these companies depending on Military and DoD contracts, there is always a war approximately every ten years. Which is the time period needed to recover from the last war, and establish necessary contracts with Congress. and it is the length of time that a two term Presidential administration needs to come and go. There is NO coincidence that we have a major conflict spaced out nearly every Ten Years.
WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq
It's all about the economics of the MIC !
What's more, the MIC was the real force behind Bush Getting Elected over Al Gore. There MIC is like a secret demon that controls the freaking world! and i hate it.
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I liked steve stone then harry carry then jack brickhouse then chip carry then maybe the two new guys( they are so boring i almost want to shoot myself after five minutes plus they kiss corporate but so much i swear i see dung on their tongue. what do you all think?
Not that I hate Len Kasper and Bob Brenly, they are a good pair, but there can't be anything better then listing to a Chicago Cubs game on the Radio with Pat Hughes and Ron Santo. And when you have those 2 in the booth together, who knows what you will hear. And plus they are in thier 13th season together, and Len and Bob are only are in thier 4th season together. Plus Ron Santo has more expierence broadcasting Chicago Cubs game, more then Pat Hughes, Len Kasper and Bob Brenly. And plus Ron Santo used to work with Thom Brennaman, before Pat Hughes, and Bob Brenly used to work on radio with them for 2 seasons. I wouldn't list Len and Bob done as boring, but maybe not as good as Pat Hughes and Ron Santo, and remember Len doesn't really have to do as much play-by-play as Pat Hughes as to do, since Len is on TV, and Pat Hughes is on the radio, but they do have to try to keep thier audience in.
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They say the worst days golf is still better than the best days work yet yesterday i was almost wishing i was back in the office… I played my worst game of golf ever!!
anyway what are your tips to fucus and concentrate on the finer points of golf…
Oh! a question after my own heart! Just got back from a game today.
I've been 'playing' golf for a few years now and will share with you what I've learned:
1. Never let lack of skill or natural aptitude to the game interfere with enjoying being out on the course (especially in our great climate).
2. Understand that your definition of 'playing golf' and the definition of someone who really can 'play golf' are different. That doesn't matter.
3. Learn to laugh at yourself. Let it go. It really is only a game. I played with a Pro on the Ladies tour who taught me: if you can't rely on yourself to be nice to you, who can you rely on?
4. Don't ever give up- you never know when it'll suddenly (inexplicably) start working again.
5. Focus/visualise what you want the ball to do. Banish negative thoughts from your mind. Picture the ball landing on the fairway- not splashing into the water!
6. Turn your brain OFF! JUST HIT IT!
7. Never bet outside your handicap.
8. If you are really serious: get some lessons and play regularly. If you're not doing this then don't expect yourself to pull off an awesome shot when you need it.
9. When you play in a team- IT IS A NO SORRY ZONE. Everyone stuffs up, just live with it- even if it you who does it.
10. One shot at a time. A couple of years ago I had an awesome round in a 'medal of medals'- except the 9th where I had a 12- OUCH! Would you believe that I tied and ended up in a play off- which I lost. If only I'd had an 11 on that par 4!!!
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Boss Media, a software development company, was founded in 1996. Its first interactive casino, Gold Club, was launched in 1997 and became an instant success. Its initial aim was to operate Gold Club Casino, but soon after the online casino version was launched, the company received many requests from companies interested in purchasing Boss Media’s software, apparently unrivalled for its tasteful game graphics astonishingly realistic casino ambience.
Boss Media’s corporate focus since shifted to the creation of customised e-gaming systems for several of the world’s largest gaming corporations like St Minver Ltd who operate the VIP Poker Club amongst many others. Their solutions are tailored to the unique needs of each client and based on innovative casino, poker, bingo and lottery applications for multiple digital distribution channels. Boss Media sold its own Internet casino in February 2004 to focus entirely on perfecting the e-gaming solutions it develops for clients.
One of those developments has been the release of its new flash based poker game which can be seen on sites like Yahoo Poker. The flash version does not require download, and thus has opened up the door to attract many casual poker players, who were perhaps turned off previously by the thought of downloading unknown software to their PC.
The web based product will allow people to play in shorter bursts, perhaps during their lunch break or for a quick evening session.
Most companies do not allow their staff to download software or play games at work on company time and on company PCs. However, because there is no requirement for download with the new flash web-based poker, companies will have to move swiftly to block poker site URLs, in order to prevent its staff playing the new web based poker software during spare moments online at work.
Flash based poker games have been around for a while but Boss Mediaâs release will allow poker players to log directly into its network via one of the many white label solutions provided by networks such as St Minver Ltd. This provides immediate player liquidity for brands such as Yahoo and VIP Poker to tap directly into the network and offers players larger tournaments and greater variation of payment methods. At any given moment in the day, there are over 1000 people on playing online on the St Minver network and its network has become one of the largest in Europe.
Yahoo Poker, has already seen great response to its poker release and it has yet to undergo hard launch. The software, behind web based poker is also very easy to implement and manage, so we could yet be witnessing another poker revolution as operators can reduce their costs by launching a web based poker game as opposed to a download version?
Only time will tell if Boss Mediaâs new software will cause a stir amongst online poker players. However, one thing is for sure, poker and the technology driving the games has not slowed down and neither has the number of sites being launched and players signing up each month. MSN reported recently that over 2 million people play poker online each month. Although that figure has taken a hit recently with the prohibition order in American preventing online gambling transactions, the numbers are thought to be much the same as the focus for poker sites shifts to Europe.
Perhaps now the focus will also shift towards web based poker, as users are becoming more internet savvy and increasing their need for a quick online fix. Certainly web based poker allows operators like Yahoo the opportunity to offer a poker game that fits into the busy daily routines of many internet users.
Morgan Collins
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/poker-games-the-flash-option-220191.html
We’re been run by Corporate America for so long and now they’re all crying bankruptcy! Are they just trying to help from the government too? Or is Corporate America finally gonna see their day? No more power games!
Thanks Gem for that web page…votethebumsout08
Unless we quit voting the same (rich & powerful) people back into Washington, then no.
Unless we quit allowing the government to protect us from everything, then no.
Unless we demand reform by firing the politicians in office now, then no.
Corporate America isn’t bankrupt, just a few banks.
And no, even in socialized & communist countries, the mega-corporations have bought & paid for the government.
http://www.VoteTheBumsOut08.com
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was invited to the sunday playoff game by a law firm.. we are generally jeans and t-shirts people and have no sense of fashion. We don't want to embarrass ourselves but don't know the proper etiquette… Help!
What's the best? KG suit!
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We have a golf outing every year and at one of the holes where our president sits we like to have something fun for the golfers to do.
Last year we had a contest to see who could hit a marshmallow the farthest. Please let me know if anyone has any good games to play!
Thanks!
Ive played a game once at a corporate day which was cool. I cant remember the name but on the way to the 1st tee we stopped at the bar (as you do) and grabbed a few paper coasters. On one coaster they wrote 'desert' on another 'water' on another '3-putt' and I think there was a 4th with maybe 'rough' on it. They actualy used other words to represent these things, but anyway…the idea is that the first player to put a ball in the bunker gets the 'desert' card and he keeps it on him until he gives it to the next guy to land in a bunker. The water card goes to the first one to get the ball wet and he passes it on and so on. Same with the 3-putt card and the rough card. At the end of the round you buy a round of drinks for your foursome for each card in your possession. Its fun because getting to the end of the round you are really trying to avoid a shot that is going to leave you with a card. The only downside is that it is a little unfair on the weaker players, but golf is like that….
Have fun…
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