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Overview

Zapdramatic is a multi-award-winning interactive media company based in Toronto, Canada. The company designs and produces SERIOUS GAMES and DRAMATIC SIMULATIONS to entertain, educate and influence opinions.

Zapdramatic operates a member supported Web site at www.zapdramatic.com, which attracts close to ¼ million unique users each month. As well, Zap provides interactive services to organizations wanting to develop online learning applications with an emphasis on negotiation, relationship and ethical practices.

 


Zap was founded in July 2000 by filmmaker Michael Gibson and Negotiation and Alternative Dispute Resolution experts Allan Stitt and Frank Handy.

Zap's goal is to popularize the art and science of negotiation to a world audience using interactive simulated adventure games.

The first Zapdramatic game was launched in January 2001 when “The Desperate Dad”, the first of nine episodes in the Ambition murder mystery series, became an underground hit. The episode brought thousands of users to the Zapdramatic Web site, which has steadily grown into a popular member-supported game environment.

Interestingly, over 50 per cent of Zap's paying membership is female. This is a significant achievement in the online gaming world, which has traditionally catered to a younger, male demographic.

In January 2004, Zap released Episode 6 ("The Suspects") in the Ambition series to Newgrounds.com, the world's largest flash portal. The episode earned a featured spot on the main page at Newgrounds and in three days had logged over 117,000 views with an average vote rating of 4/5.

A great deal of the appeal of Zapdramatic's online negotiation games lays in the fact that creator and user can interact with ease. With each launch of a new Zapdramatic episode, users from around the world write in with comments and suggestions many of which are incorporated into subsequent episodes. This collaborative process has helped Zap create challenging, engaging, user-friendly experience for all ages.

In February 2003, Zap launched an eight part University Certificate on-line Negotiation Course. Four universities around the world offer certificates to users upon completion of the course. Clients include lawyers, professionals, sales people and companies and organizations such as Volvo and the Canadian Federal Government. The Law Society of Great Britain offers professional development credits to their members who complete the course.

In April, 2005, Zap launched Move or Die , an interactive animated adventure series, which challenges users to successfully negotiate with two ethically challenged siblings who are bound and determined to rationalize their way into a deadly collision with the Karma bus. Users from across Canada can log onto the Sympatico/MSN portal, beginning April 1, to play the first hair-raising episode.

Move or Die was honored in September 2004 with the Vortex Prize at the first McLuhan International Festival of the Future.

Zapdramatic was named a winner at the Canadian New Media Awards, winning the "Excellence in Learning" prize for it's Professionalism and Ethics Simulation.

Zapdramatic was selected as one of eight new media companies to represent Canada at the 2005 World Sumit Awards in Tunisa.

Zapdramatic is a division of the Stitt Feld Handy Group.

   
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Since 2000, Zapdramatic has grown into a top provider of interactive instructional negotiation games for both the private and public sector. Some of our more recent clients, include:

  • Agriculture Canada
  • Bell Sympatico
  • Canadian Tourism Commission
  • CIBC
  • Ontario Power Generation
  • The Canada Revenue Agency
  • The Department of Defense
  • Volvo
   
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Zapdramatic designs and produces licensed and customized online negotiation games for the corporate, professional and educational markets. Zap games have been used to teach advanced negotiation skills to executives, managers, professionals, sales people, real estate agents, entrepreneurs, customer service representatives, teachers and students.

Zap's interactive FLASH simulations can be used very effectively in online learning applications such as:

  • Negotiation
  • Front-line client relationship training
  • How to deal with difficult people
  • How to deal with difficult conversations
  • How to recognize and deal effectively with ethical traps

The real value of the Zapdramatic experience is that it transforms learners from passive recipients into active negotiators. Learners develop a deeper understanding of how to manage challenging situations by having the freedom to make decisions in a safe “simulated” environment.

By playing along with the drama, learners can understand why the decisions they made were wrong and then correct the strategy on subsequent attempts. The overall effect is to give the learner a safe virtual learning experience, which will not only provide him/her with knowledge and skills but also a little wisdom.

Our online negotiation games are accredited by leading universities in Canada and Australia. Zap recently completed an 8-module online negotiation course, which is certified by the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law.

If you would like more information regarding our online negotiation games, please contact michael@zap.ca. A one-year license for our Web dramas starts at only US$99.

Zapdramatic also designs and produces interactive advertising campaigns. To find out more Click here .

 
   
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ARTICLES

PRESS RELEASES

PRESS KIT - Everything you need to know in a convenient printable format.

Media Contact Information:

For additional information or interviews, contact:

Julie Giles, Green Hat Communications
Tel: 416.537.9774
E-mail: julie@greenhatonline.com


IMAGES

MOVE OR DIE

"Syd and Wilma face the music" Click on image to enlarge, then right-click or ctrl-click to download.


"Syd and Wilma with the body". Click on image to enlarge, then right-click or ctrl-click to download.


"Wilma flags down car ". Click on image to enlarge, then right-click or ctrl-click to download.


"Carla and Mrs. Grimm ". Click on image to enlarge, then right-click or ctrl-click to download.


AMBITION - An Interactive Murder Mystery


Episode 8: "Duke, Wilma and Ted ". Click on image to enlarge, then right-click or ctrl-click to download.


Episode 4: Angie pointing at Ted
 

 

Zapdramatic Fact Sheet

  • Zap was founded July 2000 by filmmaker Michael Gibson and negotiation experts Allan Stitt and Frank Handy.
  • Zapdramatic produces animated interactive simulations for the entertainment, educational and corporate markets.
  • The most popular game on the Zapdramatic Web site is The Lusty Barfly with over 4 million views.
  • The most annoying character as voted by Zapdramatic users in the Customer Service rep in The Negotiator series.
  • Zapdramatic games require intelligence and human relations skills and are unlike the typical shoot'em up games that you find on the Internet.
  • Zap dramas appeal to both men and women. Over 50 percent of Zapdramatic's paying membership is made up of women.
  • If Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the National Hockey League, and Bob Goodenow, Executive Director of the NHL Players' Association had played “Pavlov's Hotel” (module 5, of the University Certificate On-line Negotiation Course) they would have learned how competitive bargaining is an out of date technique that too often leads to angry losers on both sides.
  • If Conrad Black and Martha Stewart had played Zap's professionalism and ethics simulation they would have learned how casual self-serving remarks can slowly compound over time and lead to disproportionate consequences.

 

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