Conference Background
A growing movement is using digital games for positive social change. Such games have recently been featured in the Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CNN and beyond. As digital games at large become a mainstream form of media, just as film did decades ago, the social change community is also embracing them as powerful and distinctive tools -- read more on our Why Games page.
Created in 2004, Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change, with special assistance to non-profit and foundations entering the field. Over the past two years, G4C has been building the field around these new uses of games. We've hosted events and made presentations at the largest industry conference (E3/Los Angeles/Ed Arcade), the largest developers’ conference (GDC/San Francisco/SG) and the new academic roundtable on Games, Society and Learning (Madison, WI) -- plus the umbrella conferences for Serious Games (SG Summit/D.C. & GDC/San Jose). The work of this community has been presented at such diverse events as Hollywood Hill, the Sundance Film Festival and Davos.
Meanwhile, the Games for Change discussion list has grown to several hundred members, with satellite chapters established in three cities, and more in the planning stages. We have members from almost every state and from more than 15 countries.
Please join us in this exciting new movement!
Program Overview
This year's conference will bring together non-profits, game designers, foundations and academics from across the U.S. and overseas to explore best practices for social change gaming, successful distribution models, and more. It will be a chance to discuss industry partnership opportunities, with ample networking and resource sharing opportunities. Come join us in building this exciting new field!
Speakers
This year's speakers are drawn from across the country and from a diverse set of professional constituencies. More detail is available on the speakers page.
DETAIL: Tuesday, June 27
| 8:00am | Breakfast | |
| 9:00am | Growing the Public Games Space David Rejeski (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), Suzanne Seggerman and Benjamin Stokes (Games for Change) | |
| Several new collective strategies have emerged. This spring, David Rejeski introduced the concept of a "Corporation for Public Gaming" modeled on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Mainstream publishers and media companies are showing a keen interest in games on social issues. This overview gives a brief look at where the field is today, and where it's headed tomorrow. (Podcasts: welcome (Seggerman), opening, field building (Stokes), growing this space (Rejeski))
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| 9:30am | Keynote. Stephen Johnson last year published the best-selling "Everything Bad is Good for You," a powerful articulation of how games are teaching critical thinking skills for life in the 21st century, skills that aren't measured on traditional IQ tests or appreciated by the mainstream media. Johnson is a brilliant cross-disciplinary thinker, a contributor to Wired and Discover magazines, an Internet maven, and cofounder of revolutionary webzine FEED. (Podcast: Keynote-StevenJohnson
)
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| 10:00am | Peace Games & International Efforts Douglas Thomas (USC Center on Public Diplomacy), Stephen Friedman (MTVu), Hardy Merriman (International Center on Nonviolent Conflict/A Force More Powerful) | |
| War games are everywhere. But peace games? Several high-profile efforts are emerging around using games for peace, including MTV-U around Darfur and USC around Public Diplomacy -- both recently announced games contest winners. Also worth note is the recent launch of a training simulation to teach peaceful resistance to oppressive regimes by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. This panel will consider one game from each organization and discuss where this new trend is heading. (Podcast: Peace-Games-and-International-Efforts
) | ||
| 11:00pm | Break | |
| 11:15am | Big Media's Interests in Social Change Games Kate Connally (Shockwave), Ian Rowe (thinkMTV) | |
| Despite frequent references to the grassroots nature of the Internet, big media plays a huge role in selecting content. Encouragingly, many of the main players are actively seeking games with social content and impact. We'll hear of both preliminary plans and actual developments across the media spectrum. (Podcast: Big-Media-Interests-in-Social-Change-Games
) | ||
| 12:15pm | Framing the dialogue: A Conversation Between Ian and Heather Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games, Watercoolergames.com and Georgia Tech) and Heather Chaplin (Journalist, Author of "Smart Bomb") | |
| Heather Chaplin has toured the nation, answering questions on whether games are "good or bad" - but can we move the public conversation to the next level? We look at the state of the public discourse on games with Heather and Ian Bogost, one of the few active in both the games sector and Academia, a developer at the forefront of using games for social change. (Podcast: Framing-dialog-Conversation-Ian-Heather
) | ||
| 12:45pm | Lunch (concurrent with the session below) | |
| 12:45pm | G4C goes Regional moderated by Jake Troy and Gary Goldberger | |
| We'll break into groups, including: Europe, Boston/Rhode Island, Puget Sound, Washington DC, Georgia, Bay Area, and NYC | ||
| 2:00pm | Funding Perspectives: New Initiatives Connie Yowell (MacArthur Foundation), Franklin Madison (ITAC), Chinwe Onyekere (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), Jee Kim (Surdna Foundation); moderated by Suzanne Seggerman (Games for Change) | |
| How can funders with a specific social goal ensure they get a useful game? What is drawing them to the new field of using games for real-world change? Foundations and other funders often develop long long-term strategies beyond specific games or programs; what can we learn from their research? Panelists will discuss their latest work and share insights and concerns as this field begins to take root. (Podcast: Funding-Perspectives_New-Initiatives
) | ||
| 3:00pm | Educating to Mobilize the Masses David Williamson Shaffer (UW-Madison), Doug Nelson (Doorknocker Simulation/ Kinnection), Nelson Layag (CompassPoint Nonprofit Services) | |
| How can organizations educate their masses for door-to-door canvassing, fundraising, or advocacy? Often the effective practices are well documented, but the novices -- who are often in the majority -- lack both the core civic skills and the confidence for independent experiential learning. We'll explore how games can scale up learning to build capacity for thousands of grassroots organizations. (Podcast: Educating-to-Mobilize-the-Masses
) | ||
| 4:00pm | Break | |
| 4:15pm | Media Evolution: Building Alternative Spaces in Popular Media moderated by Carl Goodman (Museum of the Moving Image), Marc Weiss (founder of the PBS series POV and Web Lab); Sandra Schulberg (founder and former president of the IFP -- Independent Features Project) | |
| We are working as a community to build a new public space around the emerging use of games to address the pressing issues of our day, just like documentary film and public TV before us. In this panel we bring together the institutional leaders of other, more established media such as film and public TV, to discuss how those alternative spaces were built. We will examine how the institutions and structures supporting those media were created and what roles they served. Our aim is to uncover how we as a community can learn from these past organizational efforts as we build the field around games and social change, and in what ways do we need to create new initiatives. (Podcast: Media-Evolution_Building-Alternative-Spaces
) | ||
| 5:15pm | Expo Address: Russell W. Bessette, M.D., Executive Director of the NY State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) | |
| 5:30pm | 'Games Expo' & Cocktail Reception (Includes Multiple Simultaneous Demonstrations) | |
| Eat, drink and play games... what could be better? The best in social change games will be highlighted. Try a game yourself, chat with the designer, or even offer to partner for distribution - it's up to you! Featuring the games presented on the panels, the games of the panelists and conference participants and other social-issue based games. More game demo applications are coming in each week, and we'll publish the full list before the event. | ||
| 7:30pm | Enjoy the night in NYC... | |
DETAIL: Wednesday, June 28
| 8:00am | Doors Open | |
| 9:00am | Youth Connection, Part I: Field Building with University Students Moderated by Katie Salen (Parsons, the New School of Design) | |
| Aside from creating "future leaders," let's talk about what University students are already contributing to social change gaming by creating a new kind of gaming environment. Take a peek into the hotbed of open prototyping, game jams, and mobile media experiements, then consider how schools might start to build social change into games studies curriculum. (Podcast: Field-Building-with-University-Students) | ||
| Youth Connection, Part II: Reaching New Audiences and Distribution Channels around the K-12 Education System Andreas Ua'Siaghail (Pax Warrior/23 YYzee), Barry Joseph (Global Kids) | ||
| Youth programs often focus on disadvantaged urban populations -- can we reach these youth with games? Alternatively, can the school system help us distribute our games to broad networks? We hear from representatives of Pax Warrior and Global Kids. (Podcast: See the second half of the podcast above) | ||
| 10:30am | Keynote. Bob Kerrey is the President of the New School and former Senator and Governor of Nebraska. In its mission, the New School aims to "bring actual, positive change to the world" and with an increasing focus on digital media the University is poised to advance the field of social change games. (Podcast: keynote-Bob-Kerry) | |
| 11:15am | Virtual World, Real Change Speakers include Pathfinder Linden (Second Life), Jerry Paffendorf (Electric Sheep/ Acceleration Studies Foundation), Barry Joseph (Global Kids), Lauren Gelman (State of Play Academy, Stanford Center for Internet and Society); moderated by Colleen Macklin | |
| Over the past year, Second Life (SL) has received significant attention for the grassroots and ground-up content that has been emerging. Notable examples include a walk-a-thon in a virtual world that raises real funds for Katrina, and a campaign promising "if you plant a virtual tree, we'll plant a real one." But are these really games? What are the emerging approaches for connecting virtual action to real-world impact? (Podcast: Virtual-World-Real-Change
) | ||
| 12:15pm | Lunch (concurrent with Breakout sessions below) | |
| 12:15pm | Breakout Sessions | |
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| 1:15pm | Museums & Games: from Collaboration to Funding Speakers include Rob O'Neill (Pratt/previously American Museum of Natural History), Cornelia Brunner (Center for Children and Technology), Leonard Majzlin (NYU), Harry Borrelli (American Museum of Natural History), organized by Bill Tomlinson (UC Irvine), moderated by Aaron Ruby (Journalist, author of "Smart Bomb") | |
| Museums often interface with schools and curate spaces for social change education. But can games work in a very short (2-10 minute) format? What funding streams are distinctive to museums? What distinctive museum collaboration opportunities are possible for the games for change community? (Podcast: Museums-and-Games_from-Collaboration-to-Funding
) | ||
| 2:15pm | Mixing Gravity with Entertainment Susana Ruiz (DarfurIsDying creator), Drew Ann Wake (Livewires Design), Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games), Asi Burak (PeaceMaker) | |
| Organizations are hoping games can engage their audiences but many social issues are weighty and sobering. How do we engage without trivializing; what are the challenges of representational aesthetics? We consider several approaches including satire and roleplaying disadvantaged groups. We also look at how other forms of media are tackling the same dilemma. (Podcast: Mixing-Gravity-with-Entertaiment
) | ||
| 3:20pm | Break | |
| 3:30pm | Trailblazers: Artists and Individuals Creating New Games for Change Moderated by Mary Flanagan (Artist/Academic, Hunter College), with artists Brooke Singer, Lillian Ball and Skawennati Fragnito | |
| Small games by individuals or informal teams have achieved incredible distribution and visibility. How can individuals realistically launch new games or make art in virtual worlds? This panel will consider the extraordinary impact of individuals in starting grassroots wildfires and building guerilla technologies. We'll also consider how organizations can interface with individuals to leverage their raw power for viral and longer-term institutional goals. (Podcast: Trailblazers_Artist-and-Individuals-Creating
) | ||
| 4:30pm | Closing Address. Raph Koster is a dynamic speaker, celebrity game designer and powerful author. He has worked as the Chief Creative Officer at Sony Online Entertainment, and been behind such vital games as Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. His recent book "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" features both cartons and distilled wisdom and has been released to great acclaim in the US, Japan, China and Korea. (Podcast: Closing-Address_Raph-Koster
) | |
| 5:00pm | Enjoy the rest of your stay in New York! | |
Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change.