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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

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