AWARDS

During the Expo Night, we will be hosting our first Games for Change (“GaCha”) Awards for the best games for change made over the past few years. The awards ceremony will begin at 6:30pm.

A game for change is a digital game which engages a contemporary social issue to foster a more equitable, just and/or tolerant society. We will be giving out 3 major awards for each of the categories listed below, as well as a number of honorable mentions.

Each of the 3 award categories highlights the important ways in which a game can make an impact on a pressing social issue.

1. Best Awareness-Raising Game - for the game that best raises awareness of an important social issue through engaging and meaningful gameplay coupled with innovative and successful distribution techniques towards a broad reach.
Criteria: Is it a good game, with good game play and a solid integration of game mechanic and content? How did this game reach new audiences, find innovative distribution avenues, and ultimately raise awareness for a particular cause? Tips: These are often low budget games, made in a grass roots context, virally distributed.

2. Best Transformation Game - for the best game which engages players on a deep and meaningful level around an important social issue, whose aims and outcomes are no less than to foster a powerful intellectual or behavioral transformation in it users.
Criteria: Is it a good game, with good game play and a solid integration of game mechanic and content? How well did this game transform its players in learning or outlook? How effective might it be in creating concrete change in the real world? TIPS: These are often bigger budget games aimed at deeper learning or change of world view.

3. Best Social Commentary/ Art Game for the best game making a statement or provoking new thinking about an important social issue.
Criteria: Is it a good game, with good game play and an interesting integration of game mechanic and content? How effective was this game at provoking the player to think differently about an issue? How well did the game express a particular viewpoint or social commentary? TIPS: These games aim to bring to life a new truth about an issue, provoke thought, or reveal an artist or commentator view.

The 2007 Games for Change “GaCha” Awards Judges

Heather Chaplin - author of Smart Bomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution

Nick Fortugno - Co-Founder and CCO of Rebel Monkey

Tracy Fullerton - game designer, educator and writer; Co-Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab

Frank Lantz - creative director and co-founder of area/code; former director of game design at gameLab

John Meyer - Newsweek teen game columnist; Nintendo "Reviewer of the Week" 2006

Nafiza - Global Kids Leader

Karen Sideman - Game Designer and former creative Director of Children's Television Workshop (CTW) Online

Douglas Thomas - Associate Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at USC; Founding Editor of Games & Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media

Special thanks to Katie Salen of gameLab Institute of Play, and Sam Roberts of SlamDance for their help with the 2007 Games for Change Awards Review Process.

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