We’re planning on releasing this game for free – with the ability to purchase expansion decks as we continue to build out our game world. Free?!? I happen to love Free! Anyhow, since we’ve seemingly caught the free bug, we’ve decided to also give away our medical mnemonics app for the iPhone away for free, too. (that smacking sound you’re hearing is the sound of our accountant facepalming – repeatedly). Anyhow, we’ll keep on keeping on with the Apothecary Healer / Lord of Pestilence profile updates on this blog and stay tuned for more news about the upcoming digital version of the game. In the mean time, to further whet your appetites, here’s a trailer of the awesome ‘Shadow Era’ from Wulven. Why not check it out, too?! After it’s also Free to play! (smack! smack! smack!)

Here are a few suggestions for  individuals that we included in our current list:

a)Yesteyear: Hippocrates, Galen, Al-Kindi, Rogerius Salernitanus, Andreas Vesalius, Louis Pasteur, Ignaz Semmelwies, Joseph Lister, Robert Koch, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, William Osler, Henry Dakin, Ernst Roentgeon

b) The Now: Watson/Crick, Craig Venter, Peter Pronovost, Atul Gawande, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Mansfield/Laterbur, Albert Schweitzer, Paul Farmer, Francis Collins, etc.

You folks are businessfolks, right? You’re interested in selling as much stuff as possible, right? I read about Healingblade in The Scientist, immediately thought of how much fun it would be to play this game with my kids, but one look at the artwork snuffed that ambition right out. Any chance of making an edition without the T and A, or maybe just cranking it down a degree? Seriously, why flip the bird to an entire market? I’m sure there are many others out there who’d buy it for kids except that all the breasts and buttucks make them uncomfortable.

All valid points, sir.  Let’s start off with the obvious.  We are businessfolks, but, really, just barely.  I mean, seriously, who waits until their stock is about depleted and then drops a story onto the intertubes only to have hundreds of potential customers bump up against a ‘sold out’ sign? Uuhhh, that would be us.  We’re more a bunch of guy and gal docs that happen to have a little too much free time on their hands, that happen to be excited about learning in new ways.  As for the T&A?  There’s no way you could have known this, but on the box we clearly state that the lower limit of ages that we feel comfortable handling this stuff is 13.  Yes there’s T&A, but no less than your average Lady Gaga or Rihanna video.  Perhaps most importantly though, two of the most sexed up characters happen to be abstract representations of sexually transmitted diseases – T. pallidum and N. gonorrhea.  At what age should kids start learning about these particular conditions?  Well, I’ll defer to my public health colleagues on that one.

But we’re not completely absolved here, as Carlso Hernandez magnificently iterates:

N.B. I do worry, slightly, about the male-subtext here: what, only male and lesbian warriors get the pox? A small detail, but the semiotics of the game seem to me important beyond just political correctness; they might create misleading subtexts for the diseases and treatments they characterize. So be careful with your text and art, fellas!

This was something that we completely overlooked and are supremely glad that it was brought to our attention.  You’re absolutely right, Carlos – our art would suggest that only sultry women act as honeytraps pertaining to the transmission of STD’s.  This of course is ludicrous.  There is gender equality with regards to STD’s and our art, by a glaring oversight, does not accurately reflect this.  We will be working to balance this in future editions of THB, and appreciate your bringing this to our attention, sirs.  If you feel strongly about this either way, consider heading over to the Healing Blade FB group and commenting on this issue.

Also – in random news, I’m pleased to report that the NCL Clinical Mnemonics app (see the banner ad above) was downloaded over 700 times yesterday! We can’t thank you enough for giving it a look, and sincerely hope it is as useful as we find it to be. As for updates – yes, look for an EPIC update of the app with sharing features and, ultimately, compatibility with something top secret that rhymes with iMad.

Like this, only with MRSA.

For those of you who met us at the last AMSA conference in DC, you might have heard bits and pieces of a medical card game rumor. Well, let it be known that the rumor is indeed true. We here at Nerdcore Learning are developing the first microbiology-based strategy card game. Yes, if you can imagine the fun and excitement of playing a turn based card game in the spirit of Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, and World of Warcraft, while actually learning important medical facts for real life medical practice at the same time, then you have the spirit of “The Healing Blade.”

Now we plan to have many sets of cards, each with a different theme. Yet in every set, there will be two basic players: one called the Apothecary and the other called the Lord of Pestilence. The Apothecaries are the doctors or the healers in the world of The Healing Blade. Their weapons are their knowledge of medicine and the power of this knowledge to manifest itself into powerful attacks. The cards that you will play represent these attacks. The Lords of Pestilence players will play the side of, what else, pestilence and disease. Your weapons are the sheer variety of diseases that you have at your disposal to send against the Apothecaries. Each of these diseases manifests themselves into vicious creatures, which are, of course, represented by your cards as well. The key to winning the game depends on what side your playing during that particular session. If you are playing the Apothecary, then you must block and attack with the right treatments to counter and destroy each of the diseases sent your way. But, if you are a Lord of Pestilence, then you must try to outwit the Apothecary player by setting up different disease combinations to chip away at the health of your opponent.

As we mentioned  before, we’ll be creating each different series with a different theme. The first them that is slated to come out in March 2010 is titled, “Bugs”. That’s right, you guessed it! This first series of cards will take you into the battle field of Microbiology where you will have to pits your wits, strategy, and some luck to win the battle against the swarms of bacteria, viruses, and parasites being sent against you wave after wave. Of course, if you are the Pestilence player, then your goal is to send as many different bugs at a time, with as many different resistant strains as possible to overpower and overwhelm the Apothecary player into submission.

Whether you choose to play as the Apothecary or the Lord of Pestilence, you will learn something new each time you play. And the more you play, the sharper you will be in the real battlefield of medicine. So prepare yourself to enter the world of The Healing Blade, where fun, excitement, and knowledge converge to take you to new heights of prowess, not just in your game, but in your practice of the healing arts as well. Until next time my friends, Excelsior!