FESTIVAL 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. (See press highlights from last
year’s conference .) 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-profits and foundations entering the field. Over the
past three 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
Meanwhile, the Games for Change discussion list has
grown to more than 600 members, with satellite chapters established around the
world from
Our partners include MTV, Microsoft, the MacArthur Foundation and Moveon.org
(and those are just the “M's”!)
Please join us in this exciting new movement!
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Program Overview
This year's festival will bring together non-profits, game designers,
foundations and academics from across the
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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.
Agenda
Keynote: Chris Melissinos |
Closing Address: Allison Fine, author of Momentum:
Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age (Wiley), |
8am Breakfast
9:15am Opening Remarks: Alan Gershenfeld,
CEO of Netomat; formerly ran Activision’s Studios; co-author of Game Plan; filmmaker, writer and board
member for FilmAid International, Fab Foundation and Games for Change.
10am Virtual Activism, a mixed-reality
panel exploring the work and communities of non-profits and informal learning
institutions inside the virtual world of Second Life, with panelists: Susan
Tenby (TechSoup); Evonne Heyning (Amoration); Jeska Dzwigalski – InWorld
(Linden Lab); moderated by Beth Kanter, bethkanter.com
10:45am Break
2pm SGI Overview Ben Sawyer, Co-Director of
the Serious Games Initiative, gives a brief update on the initiative as well as
how he envisions what role Games for Change will play moving forward.
Tuesday, June 12
10am Opening Remarks, TBA
10:30am Funding Perspectives – Several
foundations are taking the lead in actively exploring and funding the emerging
uses of games media in the public interest, many of the people on panels and in
the audience among their initial grantees. Where are they in their current
initiatives and where do newer foundations fit in? What can the community do to assist
their work? Panelists: Connie
Yowell, Director of Education, the MacArthur Foundation; Diana Rhoten, Program
Director, Cyberinfrastructure, National Science Foundation; moderated by Lucy
Bernholz, Founder and President of Blueprint Research & Design
11:15am Games in Civic Education and Engagement: New
Research, New Learning, New Approaches to Old Problems,
panelists: Joseph Kahne, Dean of the School of Education, Mills College;
Douglas Thomas, USC; Mary Flanagan, Hunter College, moderated by
Some of the field's leading “social issue” game designers pick a
difficult moment in their game design process which created a crisis or
conflict to examine in depth. They will describe how that conflict arose,
what the criteria were they used to asses the problem, how they solved it, and
whether or why they were successful. Failures and successes included!
Panelists: Tracy Fullerton (Co-Director EA Innovation Lab, USC; author of Game Design Workshop); Ian Bogost
(Georgia Tech, CEO Persuasive Games); and Chris Swain (Co-Director EA Innovation Lab, USC;
author of Game Design Workshop)
Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change.