My11: The New Twist to Fantasy Football League

Theydon International Limited recently released a new fantasy football league game called My11. According to their website, "My11.com is an exciting online fantasy football games community. We aim to enhance the way football is enjoyed by offering an extensive range of online fantasy football games; live football news and results; and a thrilling live football challenge."

They have this exciting video campaign, also reported by the Keta Sandlanders FC blog, going on:

The My11 package features three free games: My African 11, My Premier 11 and My Champions 11. The unique thing about these manager-based games is their focus on African players based in Europe. The company also has My11 Football Challenge in the pipeline.

This is quite interesting considering the recent release of iWarrior, Africa's first iPhone game. There's also a facebook application called My Ghanaian name. In general, it looks like the number of software applications made by Africans or targeted at Africans is increasing. The continent is becoming more and more tech savvy. I'd give this game a try, I hope you do too. Choose your 11 and lets get down to action!

5 Voices on Climate Change

Today is blog action day, a day on which bloggers from all over the world discuss a key issue of global concern on their blogs. This year's topic is climate change. Wikipedia defines climate change as "a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years."

Controversial Science
The phenomenon of climate has engaged the world's attention over the past decade, provoking debates in science, politics, business and technology. Within the scientific community, there is no consensus on the extent of man's involvement in causing climate change, and its overall effect on the sustainability of our planet earth. It is gratifying that many concerned global citizens are taking steps to counter the possible ravaging effects that climate change could have on the world's future. Below is a summary of views on climate change from five global leaders.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore
"Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming."

Noble Laureate Wangari Maathai
"The world's remaining tropical forests must be protected, because without them not only will the global climate not be stabilized, but the entire world will suffer." "This is particularly true for many in the global south, where protecting forests is not only about conservation but also about economic development. Forests are the source of livelihoods, water and energy, and in most places they host abundant biodiversity that attracts tourism income. Destruction of forests in many places has jeopardized key economic sectors."

US President Barrack Obama
"The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe."

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
"Climate change is the greatest humanitarian challenge facing mankind today. And it is a challenge that has a grave injustice at its heart. It is the major developed economies of the world which contribute the overwhelming majority of global greenhouse emissions. But it is the poorer and least developed nations that are hit hardest by its impact."

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro
"Consumer societies and the squandering of material resources are likewise incompatible with ideas of economic growth and a clean planet. The unlimited waste of non-renewable natural resources, particularly oil and gas, accumulated over hundreds of millions of years and which will be exhausted within barely two centuries at the current rate of consumption, have been the fundamental causes of climate change. Even if contaminating gases are reduced in the industrialized countries, which would be praiseworthy, it is no less certain that 5.200 billion inhabitants of the planet Earth are living in countries still to be developed to a greater or lesser degree, which are going to be demanding a huge consumption of coal, oil, natural gas and other non-renewable resources which, in line with consumer patterns created by the capitalist economy, are incompatible with the objective of saving the human species."

The Debate Continues
What are your views on climate change? Is it for real? Is it a myth? In what ways do you think that the world can use its resources more sustainably? Can developing countries contribute to reversing climate change?

Picture credit: http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/archives/2008/Jan/

Leti Games Leads Africa into Global Games Market With iWarrior

iWarrior, probably the first iPhone game coming out of Africa, made its grand entry into Apple's App Store yesterday, signifying the potential of African gamers to make their mark on the international stage. The game was created by Leti Games, a team of ambitious, talented and motivated young Africans who are determined to make great games for gamers worldwide to enjoy. Leti first came into the limelight when they released a video for bugzvilla, their demo game, on YouTube.

The Game

iWarrior is unique in many ways. The game simulates the challenges of life in an African safari setting. The goal of the player is to protect his village and farm from destruction against various wild animals. I've had a go at it and was impressed by its simplicity and intuitive game play. The game's sounds are great and a lot of effort has been put into making it as realistic as possible. White African and AppShopper have more extensive reviews.

You can download the game from itunes here and try it for yourself.

Team

The brains behind Leti Games are Eyram Tawia of Ghana and Wesley Kirinya of Kenya. Both Eyram and Wesley have experience in making computer games.

They first worked together building a game for the CAN 2008 football tournament. Eyram and his pal Francis Dittoh, used their undergraduate final project, The Sword of Sygos, to win Ghana Think Foundation's invitational programming contest in 2006. Wesley, on the other hand, was hailed in 2007 when he came out with The Adventures of Nyangi. The two trailblazers probably got the idea to start a game company in 2008 when Wesley moved to Ghana to work for the biometric company, Genkey Africa Corp, while Eyram served as a teaching fellow at MEST, a fully funded hands-on training programme for young Ghanaian software entrepreneurs. What's striking about these two fellows is their unrelenting passion for technology and their quest to put Africa on the global gaming map. They are an inspiration for the numerous aspiring game makers and software entrepreneurs living in major cities across sub-Saharan Africa.

The way forward

The folks at Leti Games are optimistic about the success of their foray into Apple's App Store and are mindful of what this means for other African iPhone developers. They've also just finished with a J2ME version of iWarrior for Java-enabled phones called Kijiji. Leti is exploring the possibility of reaching a deal with a phone manufacturer to get Kijiji out there. "There are more great games in the pipeline", Eyram tells me with a smile.