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  • 2007 Serious Games Summit GDC: Jane McGonigal On ilovebees, ARGs This latest Serious Games Source feature covers a keynote by alternate reality game creator Jane McGonigal presented during the recent 2007 Serious Games Summit, during which she stated “I design games from the future,” and offered insight into the creation of Halo 2 ARG ilovebees.
  • Serious Game Engine Shootout In the march up to the Serious Games Shootout panel to take place in March during the Serious Games Summit in San Francisco, writer Richard Carey presents a comparative analysis of several prominent engines currently used for developing serious games, as well as quotes from the companies behind the technologies.
  • Playing with Fire: Enemy Dolls In this latest Playing with Fire feature, Powerful Robot Games' Gonzalo Frasca offers his unique insight into the perception of conflict in games, as well as in other media, and notes how looking at events through the eyes of the opposition could lead to better understanding.
Applied Research Associates Acquires Virtual Heroes[04.17.09]

International physical science research and engineering company Applied Research Associates (ARA) has acquired noted serious games developer Virtual Heroes, Inc. Virtual Heroes employees will remain stationed at their offices in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, and will integrate with ARA's Systems and Operations Sector.

Founded in 2004 by a team of simulation industry veterans, Virtual Heroes has developed or helped to develop a number of serious game applications, including Hilton Garden Inn Ultimate Team Play, Pamoja Mtaani, and the America's Army series of U.S. Army recruitment titles. The company was recently approached by NASA to develop the upcoming space exploration game Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond.

ARA plans to expand Virtual Heroes' presence in the medical training field. The developer's portfolio includes applications such as Zero Hour: America's Medic and HumanSim, a product that simulates medical physics and patient reaction to medications.

"Bringing Virtual Heroes’ technical and creative capabilities into ARA represents a solid strategic fit for our business and opens the door to many new opportunities for the combined organization," said ARA CEO Neil Higgins. "ARA will invest in and further mature the Virtual Heroes Advanced Learning Technology (A.L.T.) Platform and Virtual Heroes HumanSim technology for medical training and education."

"We are thrilled to join the world-class team at ARA and look forward to leveraging a wide array of capabilities, developing new products, and achieving our goal of being the global leader in Advanced Learning Technologies," said Virtual Heroes CEO Jerry Heneghan. "Both ARA and Virtual Heroes are expert integrators of complex engineering software solutions and we share a common culture of responsiveness and excellence – we think this is definitely a win-win for both companies."

By Danny Cowan
April 17, 2009 12:56:00 PM PT