Computer games are easy to get hooked on. But if you spend too much time playing.....you can become a little bit unproductive. Or maybe not.
With FreeRice.com, you have a vocabulary game that actually feeds the hungry. You take on vocabulary questions and for every correct answer, you earn ten grains of rice. The rice is then donated through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and paid for by advertisers. WFP can then distribute the rice as part of its relief operations in Pakistan or other countries in crisis.
Now, Free Rice is releasing its 2.0 version with new features including online scoring. Players will be able to post their score on Facebook or Twitter. Competitions can ensue at the workplace or school over who has the best Free Rice scores.
Schools who play each other in football one day could hold a Free Rice challenge the next. The opportunities for Free Rice competition spread as far as the mind can see.
Besides vocabulary, Free Rice games include Art, Geography, Chemistry, and Math. You can also test yourself with vocabulary in French, Spanish, Italian or German. WFP says the game has so far raised enough rice to feed more than 4.2 million people for a day. They plan to use the game to raise funds for the Pakistan flood relief operation. Worldwide over 1 billion people suffer from hunger, the highest number in history. The Internet culture needs to be more in tune with the food shortage crisis at hand.
So with the new Free Rice game, you can learn and fight hunger at the same time. The new interactive appeal should increase the number of players worldwide, which already is about 1.2 million per month.
This may just be the beginning of the potential distribution of the game. For instance, Maria Santamarina of WFP in Yemen mentioned an idea about airlines adding Free Rice as a game on the TV screens that are installed on many planes now. As a writer for the History News Service and History News Network, I am also hoping for a section dedicated to my subject.
For now, let the games begin...and fight hunger at the same time. Visit Freerice.com.
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