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Verbosity Online, LLC announces the launch of its Kickstarter project. The purpose of the project is to raise the money that will allow the completion of its landmark gaming platform: Verbosity Online.
Our nation needs help remembering how to have fun while learning, especially where facts are concerned. And software engineer Rudy Mathieu has designs on delivering a top-notch tool. Introducing: Verbosity Online. From personal computers to mobile devices, Verbosity Online makes learning fun for everyone. And with the help of Kickstarter, the finishing touches will be put on this landmark product.
Imagine this scenario: Four people play the same game together in different cities.
One is learning English vocabulary on an iPhone in Cincinnati;
Another the Japanese language on an Android phone is Pittsburgh;
A third is learning Physics on an iPad in Detroit; and
The fourth is learning about plants and animals on a PC in Anaheim.
They range in age from 8 to 80. Everybody sees what the other is learning. Oh, and by the way, they’re having a heck of a good time! Impossible? Not with Verbosity Online!
Verbosity Online is an Internet-based learning platform built around a fun, gaming delivery system. The platform is designed on the same concept as the cable networking system: there is a basic channel with the capacity to add more channels that contain different information and content.
This basic channel is based on the English language. It includes progress reports so that the players can gauge the amount of information they’ve seen compared to the actual information they have retained. Learning should be fun and infectious. Infectious learning usually happens through games. So Verbosely Online LLC was formed as a vehicle to bring awareness that a return to learning while having fun is in need today.
The foundation for Verbosity Online was born in 1991, the result of Mr. Mathieu’s desire to learn the Japanese language. Its adolescent years (2000-2003) saw it emerge as a CD-ROM based game in schools, computer labs and at after-school youth facilities. Its versatility was featured in numerous gaming tournaments. Over the last 10 years, the product has been reinvented to become an online learning platform.
As a child growing up in Compton, CA and later in the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, LA, Mathieu experienced a very, let’s say,“unique” education experience. “I loved math but had a great deal of difficulty with English classes,” he said. “Looking back, it’s a wonder I finished high school at all. The sheer number of distractions I endured in a day is probably more than most students endured in a week!” And though the teachers were there and the building was there, learning was a solitary, isolated adventure. In his words,“The only place I finally got a handle on grasping the rules of managing the English language was in video games.”
And that’s where the love and the passion for all things gaming began. Mathieu spent hours in arcades playing games. His gaming skill and strategy genius were only made more impressive by the fact the he would enter the arcade with only a quarter. “I had no money so I had to become good fast!”
Mathieu eventually was able to transfer his gaming acumen to the PC from the arcade with the advent of personal computers. When Mathieu’s father bought a PC and a programming language, he decided to learn how to write software for the one passion he realized that he had: learning.
Fast forward to Mathieu being sent to Japan for 2 years while in the U.S. Navy. So he embraced the opportunity by setting a goal to learn 50 Japanese words and their meanings every day! Tall order, especially given that there was no Rosetta Stone in 1991. What to do? So Mathieu decided to write a program that would help him learn those words.
Mathieu returned to the States and started a family. In 1999 he had an epiphany: create a supplemental learning tool that would help create a level playing field. And not only for his children, but for children worldwide as well. And Verbosity Online was born.
Verbosity Online, the game, is a combination of an Easter egg hunt and the game Mother May I that children play, except with coins. The player must locate and collect the 5 hidden coins and return them to the redemption area. Now the twist… For each coin collected, that player is assigned a fact to remember. In order for a player to gain ACCESS to the SPINNER and take his or her turn, the player must answer a permission query associated with the coin fact. Correctly answering the permission query earns the player an Energy ring. The more Energy rings a player has, the greater the choice of spaces to which a player can move in a single turn. Sometimes the player must recall a second fact from a previous game called a review query If the player answers the query correctly, the number of Energy rings the player will receive doubles. Next the player Spins the Spinner, Moves the selected game Token (up to the maximum spaces the Energy ring(s) allow), Finds all the coins, and goes to the Redemption cell to win the game!
Verbosity Online is beyond the prototype level, but is on the verge of being a full featured, ready for release product. The platform structure is ready; however, the game is missing certain fundamental elements that make games acceptable by most casual and social game players.
The Kickstarter campaign can remedy this dilemma, completing this release stage of the product. Consider donating as little as $1 to help this project come to life. Meeting our donation and stretch goals will allow us to finish in months with a full time staff what it would take years to finish part time. If you decide to donate more, you might be among the few that will have a game level named after them. Follow our project and progress, then spread the word throughout your social media networks.
Mathieu offers,“I think we should remove some of the focus off changing the educational system. If we instead focus on adding learning tools that create and share fun gaming experiences, we will begin to see people realize success in every type of learning endeavor.”
The Kickstarter project launches June 24, 2013.
About Verbosity Online
Verbosity Online (verbosityonline.com) is designed to be a simple casual game on the surface, but underneath, an experience where people play together and learn anything.
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rudy[.]verbosityonline.com 
