Playing the news...or news gaming....or....

Many thanks to Influential Marketing blogger Rohit Bhargava for this heads up on the new MSNBC Game NewsBreaker.

He points out that MSNBC is trying a new way to engage their audience around the news, bringing back a sense of discovery at a time when many (myself included) are using RSS to weed out anything we don't care about or have interest in (sports and entertainment, for example).

I of course had to check it out. Playing a game that requires me to make sure I get the ball to bounce back up (pong fans raise your hands) at the same time I try to catch the news headline as it falls towards the bottom of the screen. Hmmm....and you know what my reward is when I run out of shots? I get to read the news items I caught!

Changes the whole meaning of gaming the news, doesn't it? What do I think? You know, I really don't know what I think. I like the news. I read the news. I don't need a gimmick to get me to read the news and frankly I like RSS which allows me to get the news I care about without being inundated with stupid news about Anna Nichole and Paris Hilton or people standing in lines for the iPhone.

The results of my game? See for yourself!


Yeah...I know...it's a tiny screen shot.

Anyway as the ball moves about the screen hitting different colored tiles, news items begin to drop, and as I "catch" them you can see that the right hand column saves them for reading later.
Wow! I sure do have a lot of news captured!

Now, I know that the images are really too small for everyone to read, so I recreated the captured list so everyone can see the myriad of wonderful news items I have won the right to read.

Ok, so this is pretty small too. So here's the list:

Scientific smorgasbord on the web
Iraqi PM blasts U.S. after raid kills 26
Video: NBC: Poison ivy boom tied to warming
Experts: Docs need to call fat kids 'obese'
Quiz: How well do you know the princes?
NYPD: Bombs meant to inflict 'mass casualties'
Clement: Breakdown of unresricted free agents
Motorola selling RAZR2 phone in S. Korea
iPhone: Smartphone for the rest of us?
Fun Paula, Diva Paula co-star on Abdul's show
Jet engine flies at 10 times speed of sound
Israeli forces kill 11 in Gaza
Some still can't get their hands on Wii
Squash grown 10,000 years ago in Peru
Bloomberg had heart surgery in 2000
Rover may R.I.P. on Mars after its next descent
Bush, Putin all smiles as summit starts
Homicides soar in East Coast cities

Ok then. I was wrong. I forgot about Paula Abdul as a news item. *sigh* You know, I don't know what I would have done had I not found out that I could take a quiz to find out what I know about the princes and that there are poor people out there who can't get their hands on a Wii and that there is a breakdown of unrestricted free agents (whatever those are).

Sorry...I waxed sarcastic there for a minute.

I give MSNBC credit for having fun and trying to come up with unique ways of getting people to engage with the news. It's certainly different.

Of course...writing news stories that are actually news might help too (*cough*).

Well then, there you have it...I'll keep my RSS but will certainly see how Newsbreaker plays with my students. Perhaps I'm just not the target audience.

Oh...by the way, anyone notice the change in the CNN design for the website? Looks pretty good and certainly easier on my eyes.