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The i-Gov folks showed me some of their clever online educational games when I was in Brussels the other month. Many of them are commissioned by governments. They now have a game out in multiple languages related to the European Parliament elections: http://www.EuropaQuiz.org Oh, in the U.S., we can shoot things out of our President's head to defeat tax increases. :-| See: http://www.gop.com/taxinvaders/ In Stockholm, you can become mayor as leader of the Pirate party: http://www2.stockholm.se/stockholmsspelet/ Steven Clift Democracies Online Newswire http://www.dowire.org P.S. Does anyone know of a good multi-country index of European parliamentary election related web sites? Want to build something simple via E-Democracy.Org? Let me know: [EMAIL PROTECTED] See: http://www.EuropaQuiz.org PRESS RELEASE Leuven, 15 April 2004 http://www.EuropaQuiz.org promotes European elections Today, Thursday 15 April, Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament (EP), became the first person to play the EuropaQuiz game online. Test your knowledge of Europe and become 'virtual speaker of the European Parliament'. This is the essence of www.EuropaQuiz.org, the online game that i-Gov was commissioned by the European Parliament (EP) to develop, following a European tendering procedure. i-Gov (http://www.i-gov.be) is the division of the Leuven-based online communications agency i-Merge* (http://www.i-merge.net) that specialises in government communications. This game is one of a number of campaigns being initiated by the EP to promote European awareness in the run-up to the European elections due to be held on 13 June. And the EP is also achieving a 'first' - this is the first time that the techniques of 'gamevertising' (game- based advertising) have been employed in any political context, let alone a European-level one. The online game will actually be available to all the inhabitants of the enlarged EU, with 25 Member States and 20 official languages. Aims The EP aims to use the game to arouse the interest of European net surfers in the European elections, to disseminate information about Europe, and to stimulate shared European awareness. Concept In the EuropaQuiz, players are virtual parliamentary candidates. Naturally parliamentary candidates need to know what they're talking about. So on a journey through the 25 EU Member States, they demonstrate what they know about Europe, the various Member States, and world news. They travel from country to country by throwing a die, and can determine their route by this means. Correct answers win them virtual votes. Players can earn extra votes by inviting friends and acquaintances to play. Obviously chance also plays a part in determining the course of this journey, all kinds of surprises await players, and the whole game is overlaid with a touch of humour. The person who wins the game can appoint himself virtual speaker of the European Parliament. The 25 players with the highest scores will be invited to Strasbourg to sit in on the opening session of the newly elected European Parliament. Practical details The game will run from Monday 19 April up to and including Sunday 13 June, and can be accessed at www.EuropaQuiz.org. There will also be links from the European Union's official website, the EP and European Commission websites, etc. The political families in the EP, such as the European People's Party and the Party of European Socialists, are also promoting the game through their own channels. Local EP representative offices in the various Member States have concluded agreements with local website administrators to create links to the game. Maximum use is also being made of offline promotional channels, with large-scale printing of posters and postcards. European agencies are responsible for distributing the materials. The EuropaQuiz can be played in the 20 official languages of the enlarged EU of 25 Member States. The European Parliament's offices have drawn up over 700 multiple-choice questions in three subject areas: Europe, the Member States and the world. The degree of difficulty of the questions varies in all three areas, and they cover a wide range of topics, including sport and music. The virtual votes to be earned vary accordingly. The EP has a module available for adding, amending or removing questions in the course of the game, in order to keep up with events in the news. Participants will also be invited to sign up to a mailing list so that in future they can be kept up to date with the European Parliament's activities. More information For more information on this press release, please contact Wouter Vermeulen, [EMAIL PROTECTED], +32 (0)477/95.95.68 (M), +32 (0)16/30.86.06. *About i-Merge i-Merge specialises in creative online marketing & communications and develops interactive communications projects for private companies and institutions. i-Gov is the division of i-Merge that concentrates on institutional communications. i-Merge made its name with creative online campaigns, including many online games, for clients including Rabobank.be, Stella Artois, Volvo, NIVEA, Johnnie Walker, Tiense Suiker, Kleurrijk Vlaanderen and RSQ/BIVV. i-Merge was set up in 1999. In 2003, i-Merge had a consolidated turnover of 3.5 million euro. It has a staff of 35. For more information on i-Merge, go to http://www.i-merge.net, http://www.i-gov.be or www.cordaxis.be ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org EDem's Election 2004 Links: http://e-democracy.org/us *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***