It is a day
to remember, February 11, 2011, a day of joy for the Egyptian people, and one that already had it’s own significance with the 21th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela, another great victory for peace and equality.

What is most amazing to me
I’ve bolded in this excerpt from the CBC site:
“It was the biggest day of protests yet in the upheaval that began Jan. 25, growing from youth activists working on the internet into a mass movement that tapped into widespread discontent with Mubarak’s authoritarian lock on power, corruption, economic woes and widespread disparities between rich and poor.”
(http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/02/11/egypt-mubarak-future.html)

Don’t ever think
that the games we make here will not bring change for the good in the world so that others may have a better life.

Don’t ever forget
just how lucky we are that we have that opportunity to connect and join the growing voice of many causes for the goodness in life for all.

Happyful
is how I’m feeling today, and I wish the same for you.

~*

I was reflecting today
on how lucky I am after turning on the hot water tap to do my dishes, and then especially a few hours later.  My friend, Javie Ssoze from Uganda sent me a link to his new video. 

It also ties in
to an early thought I had for a game, “Fetching Water” so good timing for Javie to send me his new work.

I met Javie
while playing http://www.urgentevoke.com and our friendship is a testimony that a lot of the connections I made in Urgent Evoke, I will keep for life.  Nice!  I am convinced that is going to happen here in Gameful.  I think I have to stop saying I’m not a gamer

Never forget how lucky we are.  Oh, and I borrowed this style of a crisp opener for a paragraph from @vinnietheterrible, ty vtt I like it

Here’s Javie’s video:  Water, Women and the Economy, Uganda Africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3KBjiZPCI

~*

Lots of talk about Jane’s book since it was released, a few reviews I’ve found bring up some interesting points.  I say, at least it got people talking about it, there has been a surge in online games these past few years, for instance here’s a great chart, fairly recent, from KZero showing the number of virtual worlds/MMOs either active, underdevelopment or not active.  Boggles my mind.  http://www.kzero.co.uk/radar.php  Games are here to stay that is for certain.

So, will keep this short now that there’s more people posting, wouldn’t want to bore you  Game On as one of my friends said.

~*

Today was a beautiful day for me and I hope for you too.  I was excited that it was Jane McGonigal’s book launching day, excited for Jane.  What a thrill that must be.

I first decided Jane would be my mentor last year when I saw her on TED speaking with such passion about something that made complete sense to me.  Harness the energy of the games and funnel it to make change in the world for the better.  What a vision.

But first, I had joined Jane’s Urgent Evoke when a friend of mine, InK was so excited about this new game.  InK is another mentor of mine, a techo whizcat who looks like a very very tall winged green martian in Second Life, I think if I was in my right mind I should have been afraid of InK when we first met, since I’m not a gamer.

Then, I saw Jane’s TED video.  It inspired me to work hard in Urgent Evoke, to learn, connect and to set an example for other players.  Do my part to make the game successful.  It changed my life, and that of many others so it is a huge roaring success in my mind.

And now, we have Gameful, another step in Jane’s vision.  A brand new way of gaming, so new that I vote we start calling them JaneGames then we can all be WeGotJaneGamers

We have such an opportunity here, as I said to the Evokers.  This is a free gift to help us help everyone to make change for the better happen.

Don’t ever think that one person can’t make a difference, even if you don’t have a lot of time just drop in and say hi.  For the rest of us, those can make or do have the time, work hard at making this site a success.  Imagine, our leader Jane wants each of us WeGotJaneGamers to win a Nobel Prize!  Such aspirations, and I believe someone here will.  There are so many good ideas, so many connections and Gameful is continuing to grow.  Right now we’re just fostering growth and watering it plenty.

For the new monsters, if you get stuck send me a friend request and a message, and we can muddle around together.

Here’s an interview from Games for Change with Jane, inspires me all over again and I hope you feel as proud as I do to be a little monster earning bling who is going to roar.

Here we go off into the wild blue yonder and it’s looking very sparklie to me.

~*