Lori and I are having a bit of a backchannel
discussion.  In the course of responding to her, I
have just come up with an idea and thought I'd throw
it out to the group.

Let me predicate this idea by saying I spent TONS of
time working with young people as my children were
growing up.  I will never forget the time we Girl
Scout Leaders took our Troop to the now defunct
Marineland.  We were so excited about giving the girls
the opportunity to see the marine life.

So what did the girls want to do, and what did they
remember about the day?

Well, besides the memory of watching all four leaders
"bombed" by the seagulls (ewww), their biggest memory
was of all the really cool video games they got to
play with.

We take them to see whales, sharks, and such; they're
more excited about Ms. Pac Man and Donkey Kong (ok, so
it's been a while).

My son, his girlfriend, and my nephew are all
23--oops, my neff turned 24 today--and you know what
they love to do?  You got it.  Play video games.

The aforementioned grandkids are even into it.  A
coworker gave me his son's hand-me-down Sega system
for the 5-year old, and he and his parents often can
be found playing with it.

Me, on the other hand, I've refused to do the hands on
thing with video games because I know, for a fact, I'd
get addicted.

So, with that as the predicate, and given our concern
about adding to the customer base (as a way of
increasing salaries) and teaching others to love what
we love . . .

HAS ANYBODY HERE THOUGHT about putting together a
video game that is interactive, fast-paced,
multiplayer, participatory, that involves a child or
other lead character getting through multiple museums?

The way I see this, it would be a collaborative
effort.  Pictures of what can be found at the museums
could be included in the video game (could be for one
of the big brands and/or it could be for PC/Mac
whatever).

The lead character--and they should be able to pick
between a male or female icon depending upon their own
gender--would have some sort of a mission that
involves rescuing treasures from different types of
musuems (natural history, art, science,
archaeological, you name it).  They should have to
visit at least three types and earn bonus points for
the items they preserve (maybe even a little
information about what that takes).

They could create their own archive so that their
score is saved (enter their first name).  Each time
they retrieve an artifact, it is added to their
collection.

You would need to have many different museums
(different cities, countries, etc.) to keep it going
and fresh for the kids, and, with the archiving
process, they could trade items for what they need in
their collection.  Some sort of a goal.

Copies of the game could be distributed free to
schools, with coupons available for printing for kids
who wanted to purchase it for home use.

If my grandbrats and their parents are playing video
games together, what's to stop other parent/child
teams from getting involved?  I'm thinking of
something almost like a Laura Croft, Tomb Raider,
adventure could be employed for parts of this.

Once the children are given exposure to these museums
in something that is fun, it is liable to spur
familial curiousity.  Families looking for a place to
vacation MAY be willing to include Museums in the
itineraries--and these should not be just the majors,
though clearly some of them should be included as
options.

I'm thinking a resourceful collaborative effort could
pull this off with the help of some sort of a Museums
whiz kid--like uh, let's just hypothetically say ROY
HEMMAT of http://www.museumstuff.com

I'm guessing you could get a grant or grants to fund
this because of the educational involvement. Example:
If you included museums that are integral for school
curricula (like fourth graders in CA study California
Missions, so throw one of those in there, and fifth
graders study US History, so an historical museum that
recreates America's story would work.  For science,
maybe a planetarium or Cape Kennedy/Canaveral or
whatever).

Now, what are YOUR thoughts about this idea?  Anybody
want to run with it?

What are the motives here?  Increase awareness, bring
museums back into or at least into the lives of a lot
of Americans, and possibly increase funding, which
could equate to salaries.

Are there any potential losses?



=====
Indigo Nights
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