Month: September 2011

Valve, the video game company that created the popular Portal series, recently launched a campaign promoting Portal as an educational tool in classrooms. The game features portals that allow players to travel through each stage and solve a series of puzzles. As part of the promotion, Portal was available for free on PC and Mac for a short period of time.

However, in order to play Portal, users must be part of Valve’s Steam platform. Although Steam itself is free, users must pay to play most of the games on Steam. By downloading Steam to play Portal, Valve may be able to gain more users to purchase their other games.

In addition, by promoting Portal as an educational game, Valve gives parents and educators a positive view towards their game, not to mention that classrooms purchase in larger quantities than individuals.

Portal, released in 2007, was immensely popular, gaining a sequel, Portal 2, which was released earlier this year. Although Valve may lose some sales in Portal, the excitement generated from this short promotion will travel. I believe that as interest for the Portal series grows, so will sales of Portal 2.

After the devastating BP oil spill and the horrifying effects it had on the environment became ever so evident, offshore drilling has been heavily scrutinized by officials. Recently, several companies focussed their attentions in the oil available in Canadian Arctic waters and held a conference in Inuvik, a small town in the Northwest Territories located in an area that could possibly be affected by the drilling.

source: theglobeandmail.com

Representatives from several oil companies reassured both the locals and officials from the National Energy Board that they would prevent and take care of any accidents. However, the local area agreements are unclear on the degree of liability they are able to hold these companies under.

Despite their promises to take responsibility for any incidents that may occur, oil companies such as Imperial Oil Ltd. are against giving any financial guarantee for spill-related costs.

Should oil companies take responsibility for the risks the industry poses to the environment and the surrounding communities? Especially after the BP spill, oil companies must weigh the importance of both money and environment before any decisions are made.

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