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Discovering and Filling Gaps in Funding: The Knight News Challenge, interview with Jessica Goldfin
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 10-01-08
G4C: Why don't you give us some background on the Knight Foundation's News Challenge and how that initiative evolved?
Jessica Goldfin: Well, we put a lot of thought into where we could help most, where we fit as an organization. We were interested to see organizations like The John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation begin funding digital media, but saw our role as very different.
We really felt that virtual communities didn't need our help, but that geographic communities might. We saw that the newspaper model was changing and had to change more, and started wondering how we could help those geographic communities and news providers get the news they needed in a way adapted to the digital media environment.
In the News Challenge's First Year Cycle, our winners included a game by Nora Paul from the Institute of New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota to create game prototype tools that will allow community leaders, game makers and journalists to develop games using real community issues.
We also funded a game by Paul Grabowicz and students at U.C. Berkeley called "Saving 7th Street Jazz and Blues" that recreates the buildings and tells the story of Oakland’s jazz and blues clubs, and another by Gail Robinson with GothamGazette to produce three news related games over the next few years.
G4C: What has The Knight Foundation been funding and doing internally to promote the creation of and interest in news related games and other digital media initiatives related to the dissemination of news?
Goldfin: We just funded you, Games for Change, to create a news game track at your annual festival and on your website. We believe that this will foster an interest in creating news related games.
We also awarded almost a sister grant to Ian Bogost, to assess what is and is not working in news games, to categorize types, and also build a community to stimulate a discussion of news related games.
Internally we also have a new hire, Kristen Taylor, who is our online community manager. She's created an online community for our initiative called the News Challenge Garage, to support potential grantees by connecting them with current grantees in mentorship positions. The News Challenge Garage is open to the public and meant to encourage grant seekers to apply. It's only open until November, so anybody interested in applying, go ahead and get on there!
G4C: Why are games an appealing medium for the dissemination of news?
Goldfin: First of all, we think any way we can engage this new generation of news creators and news consumers on a platform they are comfortable with, while also teaching them news literacy and our rights and freedoms under the first amendment, is worth funding.
We know that games are incredibly popular and that alone makes them a medium we should explore. We want to know how or whether we can create a game, that like Jim Gee (who is my hero now) says, can become not just informative to the player, but involve them in a process of preparation for future knowledge.
For example, the game Hush had everyone at the 2008 Games for Change Festival gripped because it was such a powerful game. It achieved a tremendous emotional response. We need games that do that, but are linked to action, long-term learning, and the future consciousness of the player.
G4C: How would you characterize The Knight Foundation's interest in games? Is it something you've had to work hard to sell internally, or has it been accepted easily? Are games an area you'd consider funding exclusively as a separate grant initiative?
Goldfin: We saw how very positive people's reaction was to Sandra Day O'Connor's "Our Courts" game project. We see it as a totally hip initiative, and a sign that games are becoming an important and acceptable way to educate and motivate youth about important issues and aspects of culture.
The fact is we don't have a set initiative for digital media. We're new to this, and we want to experiment; we want to explore and see what else is out there.
It might be worth possibly creating smaller grants in the future to target things like news games. A lot of our learning happens through doing.
Being at the Games for Change Festival this year was extremely helpful, because it gave us a sense of the whole landscape of game development and it helped us understand the funding needs of different kinds of games. One of my favorite moments of the festival this year was at the 101 Workshop, when Alan Gershenfeld gave a breakdown on funding for different size games. Smaller grants allow us to take more risks, and games might be an area to take them in.
G4C: How is funding games and other digital media projects in keeping with The Knight Foundation's mission?
Goldfin: We do a lot of work with journalists and news organizations, and the industry is in flux. It is redefining itself, so we, like the field of journalism, have to redefine our funding areas and explore our new options.
Still, we stay with our core mission--to lead journalism excellence, only now, into the digital age. It's not the values of journalism or The Knight Foundation that are in flux.
G4C: What games are The Knight Foundation looking at as good examples of news related games?
Goldfin: Peacemaker is really great. It's a game that considers all sides and so achieves a neutral point of view you look for in the best journalism.
G4C: What are some trends in grant-making at The Knight Foundation?
Goldfin: Well, as I said, when we launched our News Challenge we saw it as an experiment, and we still do. The News Challenge is showing us new grant-making areas, again for smaller grants, but also new initiatives.
One concrete example of that is our Knight Drupal Initiative. That arose from the News Challenge. We saw a lot of proposals involving Drupal, and some clear themes emerged. We saw a funding gap to fill as a result.
That's really what is so exciting about The Knight News Challenge, is that it exposes the gaps in funding and educates us. It makes us a better funding organization and helps us move the field in new directions, meeting the challenges of digital media while bringing our core values forward.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
New Study on Games and Civic Engagement
Posted by Suzanne Seggerman on 09-18-08
Yesterday the MacArthur Foundation announced a study they’ve funded, conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project and co-authored by Joe Kahne of Mills College about kids and games. A primary finding from the study was that games have the potential to engage kids in civic participation and offer a rich environment for learning. While we at Games for Change may feel like saying, “I told you so!”, we are of course thrilled to have such an important and thorough study with quantitative results to bolster our own long-held view that games have the extraordinary potential to create meaningful civic engagement and long-term social change. It’s the kind of ground-breaking study that will have a major and lasting impact on the field. Thank you Joe! And the folks at MacArthur and Pew.
For more info see the press release or the full paper.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Penny Arcade Expo - The Violence Thing and Beyond
Posted by Alex Quinn on 09-03-08
I spent Labor Day weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle attended by an astonishing 58,000 game enthusiasts. Scores of exhibitors, including leading game publishers, showed off the latest games. The weekend included music, films, and of course plenty of gameplay. The Expo also featured panels on all kinds of game-related topics—from design to piracy.
I was part of a panel entitled Video Games, Politics & Policy: “The Violence Thing” and Beyond. Joining me were Dennis MaCauley, Editor GamePolitics.com; Bo Anderson, President, Entertainment Merchants Association; Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director, International Game Developers Association; and Jennifer Mercurio, Director, Government Affairs, Entertainment Consumers Association.
Much of our panel focused on digital games and First Amendment rights for game sellers, designers, and consumers. As with other new media before games, policy makers are grappling with how to balance the right to create, distribute, and receive information with other societal concerns. In the case of digital games, the societal concerns most often cited relate to the promotion of violent behavior. The debate is ongoing whether or not some digital games do in fact promote violence. (For a lively discussion on this topic see the recent postings on the Games for Change Social Issue List.) Nevertheless, the violence argument has been repeatedly used by state and local legislators to justify restrictions on game distribution. For the most part, these laws and regulations have not withstood judicial challenge.
My remarks on the panel focused not on “The Violence Thing” but the “Beyond.” Games communicate many images and ideas. Games for Change believes that digital games are an increasingly robust and vital platform to explore the political and social issues we face today. When viewed in a wider context that includes education, advocacy, politics, and civic discourse, it is easier to see that games deserve as much First Amendment protection as any other medium, and barriers that impede the entry of games into the market place of ideas should be discouraged.
One potentially serious barrier is the erosion of Network Neutrality. “Net Neutrality” assumes that internet providers will not advantage certain content providers and consumers by blocking, speeding up, or slowing down the flow of information. Many social issue games are distributed via the internet; a tiered approach to content delivery could greatly impact the ability of these games to reach the public. A policy of net neutrality continues to ensure that every internet speaker and listener—whether through games or other media—have the same opportunity to connect.
The excitement was everywhere at the Penny Arcade Expo. The gamers who gathered on mass to hear from expert game makers, debate the merits of the latest games, and simply to play, were knowledgeable, critical, and deeply engaged—a testament to the vitality of this growing platform for cultural communication. Behold the new literati.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
The Future of News Play: Asi Burak Envisions a YouTube for News Games
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 08-04-08
G4C: How is Play the News different from your first news game, Peacemaker?
Burak: “Peacemaker had a very different approach. It is a long form. To play the whole, it takes about four hours. It deals with complex issues and gives many perspectives, in order to address all agendas, and create a balanced, objective viewpoint."
"Play the News is very different. It really isn't as rich as Peacemaker on any one issue, but in some ways it is much richer because of the platform. News playing can go on forever, as people play different games and understand the news better."
G4C: Some people have already played some of the news games on Play the News, but for the rest of us, can you please describe the interaction?
Burak: "Right now we have one game template; eventually we will have more. In this game template, the player reads a short amount of background information on the game’s subject matter, and is then presented with a series of crises in the story, all of which can be resolved from the perspective of various real-world actors."
"In each crisis, the player chooses what they’d like to see happen, then predicts what will actually happen. Players’ ultimate ranking on the platform depends in part on how well and consistently they predict real-world outcomes."
"This means that the player does not have the instant gratification of raising their overall ranking. Instead, they are compelled to follow and engage with the actual news story, hoping their prediction was accurate. Once they find out the real-world outcomes, players return to the platform to check their ranking in the system."
"Really, Play the News is like a YouTube for news games. The games are short and to the point, but they get people involved in following the issues over time."
G4C: How does prediction figure into Play the News, and why do you feel it is an important element to the game platform?
Burak: "Prediction to us is a core component because it's giving you a very important reason to follow a news event. Part of the thinking we did about prediction and why it became a major element in Play the News, began as we got feedback about Peacemaker."
"People came to us about Peacemaker and said that for the first time that they understood the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that they could understand it in context, and in a deeper way. They said that having a deeper understanding made them very interested in the outcomes of and reactions to actions taken on both sides of the conflict, and that they would try to predict both."
"We started to see that prediction is a way to engage players because people are interested in competing with each other and themselves. That kind of predictive engagement with content really enhances people's interest in a news story over time."
G4C: Who creates game content and how are you currently choosing topics?
Burak: "Right now we have two guys whose job it is to create one of these games every day. We go through global headlines, decide on the subject, come up with the story outline, find images, and publish the game."
Actually, creating a game is not hard. It basically entails putting the content in the right places in the game template. "
G4C: How does Play the News enable organizations to create their own news games?
Burak: "First of all, this is a platform they can use. It can empower others, to create with low effort on their part, interactive news games about their content.
The whole idea is that we can go to a non-profit or to a news organization and have them write games for their content, and have them embed the games on their site. In essence, we've built the publishing tools to create viral games about the news."
Because it is a web platform, Play the News will evolve over time. It can be so much richer, and a lot more powerful when the user base and partnerships are there. Basically it can be an alternative for news consumption."
G4C: What are your criteria for organizations who want to partner with Play the News?
Burak: "We are very open. It could be very big media organization, a blogger who thinks this would be a great tool for them, a small media organization, a new media organization, or a nonprofit that creates a lot of content and wants to raise engagement."
G4C: What are your immediate and long-term plans for Play the News?
Burak: "Unlike Peacemaker, Play the News is a platform for games, and as such, it will change and improve. Right now it's in beta and we only have one game model. In the future we'll have more. We are also going to do a lot of things to extend our games to wider audiences. In fact, we just launched a Facebook application to reach the Facebook demographic. "
"Our long-term idea is loftier. We really want to prove that through this kind of non-linear interaction with news, through exploring it at your own pace and being rewarded within the system that you become a participant in the creation of as opposed to just a consumer of news."
"It really is the future of news."
Continue reading the rest of this post.
XBox 360 Games for Change Challenge Winners Announced Today in Paris!
Posted by Suzanne Seggerman on 07-08-08
From Paris - Today Microsoft and Games for Change announced the winners of the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge - a game contest on environmental sustainability made using XNA Game Studio, Microsoft’s toolkit which allows almost anyone to make and distribute a game for the XBox. We launched the contest during last year’s 2007 festival Expo and then saw the 6 finalists during the 2008 festival just last month. Today the final three were chosen and feted in a big splashy show at the Louvre. It was great fun and the work was very impressive. The 3 winners were CityRain from Mother Gaia Studio in Brazil in first place; Future Flow from Belgium’s Drunk Puppy in second, and CleanUp from the South Korean team Gomz in third. We’ll be seeing those excellent games up on our site by the end of the month, and they’ll also be on XBox Live soon as well.
The entries for the other categories were also impressive. The Imagine Cup is an annual contest created by Microsoft to encourage university students to tackle world problems through technology. This year’s Imagine Cup attracted more than 200,000 students from more than 100 countries to create technology solutions around the theme of environmental sustainability. 2008 was the first year the game development category was included and the 6 game finalists from around the world stood up to some pretty intense competition over the past week. They were all great games with serious messages and solid gameplay. The criteria were primarily: Fun Factor, Innovation and Adherence to Theme. Other judges besides me included Bill Wagner, XNA Product Manager, and John Nordlinger Senior Research Program Manager, both of Microsoft; and Ian Bogost CEO of Persuasive Games.
Winners were awarded $25K in prize-money and their games have a chance to be included on Xbox Live. The winning team will also be considered for internships at Microsoft.
Keep your eyes out for more great G4Cs using XNA Game Studio - it’s a fantastic platform for this community.
Photos from our G4C 101 Workshop
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 06-10-08
How Suzanna Samstag Oh is Bringing Games for Social Change to Korea and a Regional Focus to Games
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 06-05-08
Suzanna Samstag Oh talks a mile a minute. I've barely gotten my laptop open and she's told me about her entire professional trajectory and the how's and why's of her current involvement in games for social change. It's fascinating. She's been a Peace Corps volunteer, headed up the creation of Newsweek's Korean edition, done freelance translation while shepherding her children through pre-school, and now teaches a class on social issue games for KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology, which is the MIT of Korea.
Suzanna Oh spoke on the "G4C Does TED" panel about the work she's doing on games for social change in Korea. To recap for those who did not either attend the festival or see that particular panel, Oh is a Games for Change Chapter leader, and just completed her first semester teaching a class on creating social issue games last semester at KAIST. The first class she says was more about "raising awareness of social issue games and challenging the preconception of games in Korea."
In Korea, she says, "there is an interesting dichotomy in the dialogue about games because while people in Korea are talking about game addiction, the government has decided games are a strategic industry because Korea doesn't have exportable natural resources. The thinking is that they have to develop their national intellectual products."
Oh's work so far has been to raise awareness of social issue games as a genre in both her students, and an interested, though unfamiliar, community of gamers, governmental organizations, and other groups.
The first semester of her class has focused on research, on finding out what issues Korean youth finds important, and contacting and being contacted by Korean governmental organizations and environmental action groups who have heard about her topic and are expressing initial interest in the outcomes. Her class also spent time playing existing social issue games like Ayiti by Global Kids and GameLab, and Peacemaker by ImpactGames.
A semester-long debate ensued over whether the students should focus on translating existing social issue games into Korean, adapting existing games for Korean issues, or creating completely new games with a regional focus.
During this debate Oh began to understand that, "culturally, the applicability of some existing social issue games in a homogeneous culture like Korea, where you are not dealing with hunger or immigration, and people aren't familiar with these issues, is pretty low. You're introducing these games to a culture that doesn't have those issues, and although you might want to share them, they do not understand the context to fully see their potential."
It was for this reason that the class decided it was important to create totally new, regionally focused games.
When creating social issue games, Suzanna believes that not only is it important to know the unique issues in your region, it is also important to understand the cultural stance on dialogue, especially about certain topics.
"For example ICED got a conservative backlash in the United States, but when you think about it, America is very receptive to that kind of critical dialogue. In other parts of the world, certain issues might not be open to a whole lot of debate. You have to be sensitive to how a culture reacts to dialogue."
In the course of the class, Oh and her students determined that the best topic for a regionally focused game would be on Korean reunification, and as they continue their coursework in the next semester, they will begin the conceptualization process on this proposed game.
Suzanna herself will be talking to governmental groups and others towards creating an unbiased, regionally focused game. Her chapter work will continue as she increasingly brings the message of social issue games into focus in Korea.
For those who wish to create their own regional chapter of Games for Change, she believes the first step is to raise awareness, to be able to explain what a social issue game is and why it can matter, not in global, but in a deeply localized terms.
We all look forward to hearing more from Oh and her work on social issue games in Korea, not only because she is one of our chapter leaders, but because we view this idea of regionalism in games as particularly important as this genre matures.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
The Honorable Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Makes a Strong Case for Games for Social Change
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 06-04-08
One of the highest points of this year's Games for Change Festival were the closing remarks made by the inveterately wry Honorable Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who not only presented a real case for social issue games while professing not to play games, but also fielded questions from Reuters and The New York Times with a cantankerous wit that lent a true joy to the last Q&A of a fascinating event.
Introducing her was Bob Kerrey, current President of The New School in New York and former Senator from Nebraska. He remarked that the judicial branch of our government is the least understood, but "the most important branch of government, because it is where we [the people] have the most power." His conclusion, "it is critical that we understand not just the ideas, but the commitments that make democracy work."
O'Connor, taking the stage, began, "had someone told me when I retired from the Supreme Court, that I would be presenting at a conference on digital media, I would have reacted with extreme skepticism." She then went on to tell the story of her involvement, beginning with her disturbance with the "increasingly vitriolic attacks against the Judiciary"--attacks she viewed and still views as holding a particular political agenda. "I always thought that an activist judge was a judge that got up every day and went to work," she concluded to applause and laughter from the audience.
The erosion O'Connor sees happening to the role and power of the judiciary branch is something she feels must be addressed in public education above all. "Public education is the only long-term solution for preserving an impartial judiciary and ensuring a robust democracy" said O'Connor, and was responded to with vigorous nodding throughout the crowd.
A more positive trend O'Connor noticed, was that of young people using interactive media to engage with politics and find their political voice. This was something O'Connor found highly intriguing, and she's set out, with help from Jim Gee to create a website called OurCourts. It is because O'Connor believes we must ensure that our future leaders are well-informed that she cares about "bringing the OurCourts project to life."
OurCourts is currently in development stages, but you can visit the landing page at http://www.ourcourts.org. Launching initially in September 2008 for teachers, and in September 2009 for kids, the site will teach students civics through entertaining multi-media problem-solving activities, including games.
Not only does OurCourts hope to teach students about civics, it also sets out to counteract the erosion of judiciary power and civil rights, by raising awareness of and engagement with the constitution as it is written and applied to real cases, especially in examples of cases that effect students in our schools.
Through OurCourts, O'Connor hopes to provide the text of the constitution in various contexts and "have students test out the issues" weighing and balancing their views accordingly.
While O'Connor sees the importance and implications of games and other interactive media, she is not a game player herself. When asked by a journalist from Reuters what video games she'd played before, she replied, "I don't play video games. Sorry!"
Despite her own lack of playerly interest, she's noted her grandchildren's engagement with games and digital media. She, like many educators and game theorists in the audience believes that "you learn by doing, and you remember and understand it better than if you're hearing it in the classroom" and that this engaged learning can be achieved in games and other digital media.
Her conclusion was that the ideas that would productively engage students and future leaders in the major issues of the day would be "seeded in this room" and would be as diverse as the imaginations of the people she addressed.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Registration for the Annual Games for Change Festival is still open
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 06-02-08
We are very pleased to announce that this year’s Games for Change Festival has a record attendance, so far at over 300 registrants. You may register at the door on Tuesday morning. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow!
Continue reading the rest of this post.Announcing Open Registration for the Games for Change Festival
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 04-16-08
Registration for the 2008 Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival is now available!
Please join us at Parsons the New School for Design in NYC for our annual event bringing together non-profits, educators, game designers and activists of all stripes to explore the growing movement and emerging field of games for social change.
Leading scholars Jim Gee and Henry Jenkins will open the festival with a keynote conversation on June 3rd at 4:30pm.
We are pleased to announce our closing keynote this year will be the Honorable Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, scheduled for 4pm on June 4th.
Featured panelists include: Jim Gasperini, creator of Hidden Agenda, and Chris Crawford of Balance of Power and Balance of the Planet fame; Ken Eklund, creator of World Without Oil; Michael Levine, Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center; Shelley Pasnick, head of the Center for Children and Technology, Mary Flanagan Director of the Tiltfactor Lab, Tracy Fullerton of USC's EA Innovation Lab, and representatives from Participant Productions, the MacArthur and Knight Foundations, PBS, and Electronic Arts, among many others.
You will find our usual excellent blend of provocative panels, informal working groups, funders meetings, ample networking opportunities and the ever-popular Expo Night where you can see - and play - the new games firsthand, sponsored by Microsoft.
Check out the festival site here: http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/index.php
And don't forget the pre-festival workshop for newbies on June 2nd. We are happy to announce that this beginners workshop for non-profits new to the field. Let The Games Begin: A 101 Workshop for Making Social Issue Games was a MacArthur Foundation DML Competition award-winner out of more than 1000 applicants!
A separate registration for that day is now available from the festival site here: http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/101.php
We are thankful for the generous contributions of our sponsors AMD and Microsoft, as well as Parsons the New School for Design.
We look forward to seeing you all there!
Suzanne
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Let the Games Begin! G4C Workshop wins DML Competition
Posted by phoebe on 02-21-08
We won! G4C’s soup-to-nuts workshop for newbies is a winner in the first Digital Media and Learning Competition funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This workshop will kick off the 2008 G4C Festival taking place June 2 - 4 in New York. One of 17 innovative projects to receive funding, the 101 workshop will feature leading experts — such as Eric Zimmerman (Gamelab), Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games), Alan Gershenfeld (Activision, E-line Ventures), Heather Chaplin (Smart Bomb) — on everything from game design to press strategies. Space is limited - click here to learn more.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Games for Change is hiring for a Program Associate
Posted by phoebe on 12-18-07
Games for Change is seeking a Program Associate to assist with a variety of projects including
PETlab (Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching and Learning lab—a joint social issue game
development initiative with Parsons The New School for Design), our annual Games for
Change Festival, and new partnership development.
The Program Associate will provide administrative and other support for the Games for
Change Executive team. Examples of duties include:
• Creating and maintaining tracking systems for projects and partnership development
• Coordinating phone conferences and meetings
• Drafting correspondence for potential partners and funders
• Formatting and providing Games for Change informational materials
• Formatting and proof reading reports and proposals
Parsons and Games for Change to Launch PETLab
Posted by phoebe on 12-12-07
First-of-its-Kind Initiative Will Prototype Digital Games Addressing Social Issues;
To Partner with Microsoft and MTV in First Year
Parsons The New School for Design, in collaboration with the non-profit organization Games for Change, has announced the launch of PETLab, the first public-interest game design and research laboratory for interactive media. The initiative was made possible by a $450,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as part of the foundation’s digital media and learning initiative established in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.
In its first year, PETLab will work with Microsoft’s Xbox development platform and MTV’s Think.MTV.com youth-focused online activist community on the development of both learning tools and digital games that explore social issues. “PETLab marks a new level of interaction with the growing number of companies and nonprofit organizations who are interested in developing games that serve as a catalyst for learning and civic engagement,” said Colleen Macklin, Parsons chair of Communication Design and Technology and director of PETLab. “While in the past we have designed games that address issues in the public interest, ranging from global warming to the electoral process, PETLab will give us the capacity to extend the reach of our efforts to new audiences and collaborators. Our goal is to create inventive intersections between the fields of game design, social issues and learning.” Petlab Press Release>>
Continue reading the rest of this post.Save the Date! 2008 5th Annual Games for Change Festival June 2 - 4
Posted by phoebe on 12-12-07
Come celebrate our 5th year!
Games for Change is happy to announce the 5th Annual Games for Change Festival on June 2 - 4 at Parsons, the New School for design in New York City.
Confirmed speakers include Jim Gee and Henry Jenkins in a keynote conversation (in honor of our Fifth!) and many others!
Exciting new activities and partners are in the works, including a day-long 101 workshop for those new to the field (aimed especially at non-profits) on the first day of the festival June 2nd, confirmed presenters there include Barry Joseph (Global Kids), Eric Zimmerman (GameLab), Heather Chaplin, (journalist/author) and Alan Gershenfeld (E-Line Ventures, formerly of Activision). Along with 2 full days of festival programming on June 3rd and 4th, there will be media and funders briefings, working group breakfasts, Expo Night and lots of networking opportunities!
Call for proposals will be announced in early January, so stay tuned.
We hope to see you there.
Happy holidays!
Suzanne
Continue reading the rest of this post.Project Manager Opening
Posted by phoebe on 11-15-07
Games for Change is seeking a Project Manager for its Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching and
Learning lab (PETLab) a joint initiative with Parsons The New School for Design. PETLab
develops new games, simulations, and play experiences which encourage experimental learning
and investigation into social and global issues. It is a place for testing prototyping methods and
the process of collaborative design with organizations interested in using games as a form of
public interest engagement… Download full job description
G4C is Growing - Seeking Online Community Manager
Posted by phoebe on 09-24-07
Games for Change is expanding in a number of new directions, including management of an online social network dedicated to the field of digital media and learning. We are currently looking for an Online Community Manager to join our team. The Community Manager will help us craft a vision and oversee the editorial strategy for this social network that serves researchers, academics, media producers, policy makers, educators, and the public. (See PDF job description)
Continue reading the rest of this post.Summary of G4C 07 Festival Panels
Posted by phoebe on 06-14-07
Images, audio, video, transcripts, and blogged opinions of Games For Change’s 4th Annual Festival are on the web for those who missed the event (or who just want to re-live some of the interesting conversations and energy). A round-up of the two days of conversation and panels can be found here.
G4C and Microsoft announce Xbox Partnership
Posted by phoebe on 06-12-07
Check out the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge at: www.xbox.com/g4c
Twitter and notes from the G4C Festival
Posted by phoebe on 06-11-07
The Games for Change Annual Festival June 11 and 12th.
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Check ou Ian Bogost’s live blog from the fesitval |
Twitter from the festival at http://twitter.com/G4C. |
Register for the Festival
Posted by phoebe on 04-13-07
Registration open for the 2007 G4C 4th Annual Festival! Keynotes are announced and you’ll find featured sessions and a great line-up of speakers here.
Submit your Game for Awards consideration here.
Recommend a game you like here.
Vote for Us!
Posted by phoebe on 04-09-07
Please vote for Games for Change here to help us get funding from the NetSquared Innovation Fund. 20 projects from the 150 submitted will get funding based on who gets the most votes. So we need your help!
Continue reading the rest of this post.G4C June 2007 Festival Announcement & Call for Proposals
Posted by phoebe on 03-14-07
We are pleased to announce that the Games for Change 4th Annual Festival will be held on June 11th and 12th at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.
We are currently accepting proposals now until March 15th.
We’d like to receive from our community not only concrete proposal submissions, but we also welcome feedback on the kinds of subject matter you’d like to hear about. Please send proposals to: with “2007 G4C Festival proposal” in the subject header by March 15. We look forward to hearing from you!
For submitting a proposal, please include the following as guidelines.
1. Proposed title of session
2. Name, phone and email of primary contact for this proposal
3. Names, affiliations and titles of panelists and moderator
4. Preferred length of slot: 30, 45, 60 mins
5. Brief description of session
6. 3 Take-aways
7. Bios of all proposed participants
8. Intended audience: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
9. Any additional information?
Session Criteria
- Importance/relevance to the emerging field of social change/social issue games
- Expertise/experience of panelists - ability to communicate ideas effectively
- Thought-provoking/discussion - worthy subject matter (Making “statements” is less interesting than fostering discussion across multiple viewpoints)
- New approach or new content - (different from last year or what you’ve seen at other conferences)
For reference, here is a link to last year’s program:
http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2006/index.php Continue reading the rest of this post.
NYC Salon: Ethics and Values in Games
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 01-14-07
On January 9th an evening salon was held in NYC at Parsons the New School for Design in conjunction with G4C and the NYC Games Scholars. The program included:
Jesper Juul (Assistant Professor, Centre for Computer Game Research Copenhagen; Visiting Scholar, The New School) on The Problem with Games and Players and the Rest of the World: What happens when a player picks up a game? What is the boundary between what is in the game and what is outside the game? Does fiction or rules matter?
--and--
Helen Nissenbaum (Associate Professor in the Department of Culture and Communication and Faculty Associate of the Information Law Institute at NYU) on Values-at-Play: A Methodology for Bringing Values into the Design of Games
Demos were featured by Mark Grob—DWI Learning Experience/Game; Lance Vikaros, Teachers College—Global Warming Interactive (produced by Michael Hillinger); Michael Edwards, The New School—Inspector Carbone
NETWORK HOUR EXHIBITORS: Robert Steele and Kim Blozie—Earth Intelligence Network; Matt Slaybaugh—Go Rabbit, Go!
Continue reading the rest of this post.Podcasts Released from our June 2006 Conference/Festival
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 12-01-06
We're releasing our podcasts. The sound quality is a bit imperfect, but our speakers shine. There are two ways to browse the content:
- View podcasts with descriptions
- View just filenames (same as "continue reading" below)
We’re Growing—Seeking Exec. Director, Social Network Manager, National Events Planner
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 11-22-06
Games for Change is growing! We're expanding our work with Parsons the New School for Design and the MacArthur Foundation, in addition to grants received over the past six months from Surdna, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. As part of our restructuring, Suzanne Seggerman will be assuming the role of President beginning in January; transition details for Benjamin Stokes are forthcoming; beginning today we are recruiting for:
- Executive Director: seeking a social change innovator and experienced program manager to lead a team of five people as the organization expands to a solid yet flexible institution at the forefront of a new form of media in the public interest. (See PDF job description.)
- Online Social Network Manager-Designer: Oversee the development and operation of an innovative online Knowledge Network. (See PDF job description.)
- National Event Planner (as staff or consultant): Oversee planning for all events over an intense eight-month period, including our annual Festival, with the opportunity to help grow new events for future years. (See PDF job description.)
G4C at two Festivals: Margaret Mead and Sundance
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 11-06-06
Games for Change is happy to announce we’ll be featured at two upcoming film festivals…
The first is this weekend in NYC at the Margaret Mead International Film and Video Festival, the longest-running showcase for international documentaries in the United States. The Festival is distinguished by its outstanding selection of titles, which tackle diverse and challenging subjects, representing a range of issues and perspectives, and by the forums for discussion with filmmakers and speakers. This is its 30th anniversary!
Our panel at Margaret Mead will take place in the Linder Theatre at the Natural History Museum from 3:45-5:45pm on November 11th. For parents, consider taking your kids to a documentary before or after, and then to this panel on games. The games we’ll feature include: Ayiti: the Cost of Life, a game allowing the player to assume the role of various family members living in rural Haiti; Darfur is Dying, a game which attempts to put the player in the shoes of one of the 2.5 million refugees who are fighting for survival in the Darfur region of Sudan; A Force More Powerful, a simulation which helps to train activists in techniques for peaceful resistance to oppression; and Tropical America, a game bringing the real-world terrors of investigating secret violence in the Americas.
Next up: we will also be featured at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah in January 2007 - more details to follow.
MacArthur Foundation to work with G4C on Events, Knowledge Network, Games Research
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 10-05-06
G4C is happy to announce that we are the project lead on a $250K grant from the MacArthur Foundation made to the Digital Innovations Group (DIG). As part of MacArthur’s new Digital Media and Learning initiative we will be working on three projects. The first is an online Knowledge Network for the national coordination of resources and community leadership; the second is a series of offline events to connect with policymakers, practitioners and the general public; and the third is research assessing the emerging field of digital games and social change. The official grant recipient, DIG, is G4C’s fiscal sponsor. Some additional details are available on the MacArthur site here.
Continue reading the rest of this post.How to Get Involved
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 07-24-06
Heard about Games for Change and wondering how you can get involved or stay informed about our efforts? A few ideas: try joining our email discussion list. What are we talking about these days? Check out our conference program, see the links proposed by conference attendees, or read more about us.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Conference Press
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 07-23-06
Recent press from our 2006 conference includes:
- 30-Dec: San Jose Mercury News: Forget Sonic. These video games are serious
- 8-Dec: Wall Street Journal: Games Show the Way
- 1-Dec: What is Enlightenment (magazine): Gaming for a Higher Cause
- 24-Nov: NPR (Here and Now): Gary Goldberger, G4C Ambassador in SL
- 16-Nov: Now Toronto (magazine): Activist gaming takes hold
- 1-Nov: Nonprofit Times: Gaming Wins New Advocates
- 27-Oct: Today Online, Courier Mail: 'Serious Games' take aim at shoot-'em-up video
- 8-Oct: La Revista: Jugar a cambiar el mundo (Puerto Rico)
- 7-Oct: Daily Camera: Gaming for Good
- 18-Sep: Plenty Magazine: Just Push Play (environmental games)
- 6-Sep: Palm Beach Post: New generation of video games takes on serious subjects
- 4-Sep: EuroGamer: Darfur is Dying (Interview)
- 23-Aug: NBC's Today in New York: Video Games With A Humanitarian Message
- 16-Aug: KQED Radio: Serious Games panel with Seggerman, Zimmerman, Burak, LaFond (30 minutes)
- 10-Aug: News 14 Carolina: Videogames promote social change (NY1 rebroadcast of 5 July)
- 7-Aug: Newsweek International: Games for Good (shortened print version of the July 11th Story)
- 26-Jul: Wisconsin Public Radio (Here on Earth): 1-hr radio show with James Paul Gee and Benjamin Stokes on 'games to change the world'
- 25-Jul: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Live Interview with Suzanne Seggerman
- 23-Jul: NYTimes: Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time
- 15-Jul: Globe and Mail: activism has evolved beyond sit-ins
- 11-Jul: Newsweek International: Gaming the Poor
- 7-Jul: Times Now: Games for Change
- 7-Jul: News8Austin: Videogames and Social Change (see NY1)
- 7-Jul: Forward: Clicking Toward Middle East Peace
- 5-Jul: Voice of America: Designers Tackle Real World Problems
- 5-Jul: NY1: Can Video Games Help Affect Social Change?
- 4-Jul: CGSociety: Games for Good
- 3-Jul: Zee News: Video games take on humanitarian twist
- 1-Jul: ReutersTV: Humanitarian Video Games
- 30-Jun: The World(PRI,BBC): Serious Gaming
- 30-Jun: BBC: Radio Scotland (interview)
- 30-Jun: BBC: Late Night Radio (interview)
- 30-Jun: BusinessWeek online: Getting Activist Video Games to Market
- 29-Jun: NYSun: Videogames Get Serious
- 29-Jun: MTV News: Can Social-Change Video Games Tackle Divorce, Poverty, Genocide?
- 29-Jun: Daily Telegraph: 'Ethical' computer games take on shoot-'em-up classics
- 28-Jun: NPR (Morning Edition): Video-Game Designers Target World Peace
- 27-Jun: Reuters (CNN.com, AlertNet, EpochTimes, Boston.com, Infoworld, Yahoo): Video game designers try to help save the world
Annual Conference in June, 2006
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 05-08-06
Visit the conference website:
Registration is now live for our 2006 conference on "Social Change and Digital Games." The 3rd annual event will be co-hosted June 27th and 28th with the New School in New York City's Greenwich Village. Registration fees will increase after May 24th.
This event is the annual gathering for the exciting new movement using digital games to address the most pressing issues of our day. At the conference, expert practitioners -- academics, activists, non-profits -- will be called in to examine the impact of current games and preliminary and crucial work of building the field. Keynotes include Bob Kerrey, The New School President and former Senator from Nebraska, and best-selling author Steven Johnson of "Everything Bad Is Good For You." A showcase of the latest social change games will be open to the media at the Games Expo. Panel topics include Games for Global Peace, Creating a PBS for Games, Academic Evaluation Efforts, Recent Funding Initiatives, Health and Environmental Awareness Campaigns, and Guerrilla Nonprofit Games.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Outcomes from GDC
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 03-22-06
While the GDC will continue through Friday, the Serious Games portion is complete. Here's a quick report with links to press received, an audio podcast of our panel, and photos from our "birds of a feather" session:
1. Press the article on our GDC panel by GameSpot (and even if GameSpot implies otherwise, Suzanne does know who made hidden agenda-- Jim Gasperini!)
2. Listen to the audio recording (zipped mp3) of the same panel.
3. Check out our photos:
G4C co-director Suzanne Seggerman addresses the main hall for the Serious Games Summit at GDC; fellow panelists Katie Salen, Carl Goodman and Lucy Bernholz (from left to right)
G4C board member Ian Bogost presents on Political/Activism Gaming
A sampling of some of the many folks attending the "birds-of-a-feather" gathering sponsored by G4C.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Two conferences: March 20 (GDC/San Jose) & March 24 (N-TEN/Seattle)
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 03-07-06
UPDATED: photos, audio recordings, and press hits from the conferences are available if you 'read more' at the end of this post...
G4C will be at both the Game Developers Conference and the Nonprofit Technology Conference in late March:
- GDC/San Jose Gathering: Meet-Up for Games for Change community. This birds-of-a-feather session will be hosted by the directors of Games for Change. Objectives are to plan out our upcoming national conference, network and share resources with our rapidly growing community. Monday, March 20, 1-1:50pm
- GDC/San Jose Panel: Mass Audience Issues for Serious Games. As nearly the first panel in the two-day Summit on Serious Games that preceds the official GDC, we're gathering a high-profile crew that includes a funder's perspective (Connie Yowell/MacArthur Foundation), a museum perspective (Carl Goodman/Museum of the Moving Image), and one designer/academic (Katie Salen/Parsons School of Design). Moderated by G4C's own Suzanne Seggerman, the panel will explore how social change games require extra focus on our ability to reach game audiences that the industry has been unable to reach. This session answers key questions, such as: can we look at the elements other media have used when branching into new areas, such as documentary film or educational TV? Monday, March 20, 10:15-11:15am
- N-TEN/Seattle At a panel of the Nonprofit Technology Conference, G4C will present on Storytelling Strategies for Digital Communications using digital games alongside the creators of the Meatrix and Store Wars. Friday, March 24, 1:30-3pm
Reporting Back: Panel at Annual Serious Games Summit in DC
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 02-22-06
We now have the full audio (MP3) from the November '05 panel that G4C hosted at the Serious Games Summit titled "Theory of Change: The Making of Good Social Issue Games." Overview: Many proponents of serious games believe they can affect positive social change, but to claim success, one must be able to evaluate impact. Business owners, foundations and nonprofits often use a "theory of change" (TOC) to articulate what's behind their social change design. Thus, a special focus of the panel will be discussing how TOC principals can form the basis of successful non-profit game design. The panel consider several TOC approaches through the perspectives of varied panelists. (More detail is available on the panel's description on the Summit site.) Speakers included:
- Moderator: Mario Armstrong (National Public Radio)
- Suzanne Seggerman (Games for Change)
- Benjamin Stokes (Games for Change, NetAid)
- Barry Joseph (Global Kids)
- Catherine Herdlick (gameLab)
Call out for feedback
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 11-08-05
We're now gathering all articles, photos and quotes! Send what you've got to our conference email address (). All conference attendees should receive our survey via email by Wednesday, November 15th -- let us know if you haven't seen this yet!
General update: We're regrouping, post-conference, and doing a bunch of assessment. Soon we'll start sharing some of the results and articles from the survey and beyond! Stay tuned...
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Registration Open for our 2005 Conference!
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 09-14-05
Click on the logo at left to find out the details and register today for our 2005 national conference on Social Change through Digital Games.
We invite designers, nonprofits, academics, foundations, government offices, artists and more to attend for two fantastic days of networking, learning and collaboration. Save $50 if you register before September 30th...
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Article Published: Overview of Serious Games for Global Educators
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 08-23-05
The UK-published Development Education Journal recently asked one of our co-founders to write a theme article on "Games and Global Education" for their June 2005 edition. Were now pleased to offer the article online. Two aspects may interest readers here: (1) the overview of digital games for those doing civic education, (2) advice on collaboration to increase impact for the Serious Games sector. A PDF of the article can be downloaded at the top of the following URL: www.netaid.org/go/games
At a larger level, traditional journals are clearly beginning to take games seriously. In this case, the flagship publication of a leading global education journal considered digital games worth recruiting for its special issue on technology in education. The article itself is largely a product of the Serious Games community: it was authored by G4C co-founder Benjamin Stokes and acknowledgements also go out to Dave Rejeski (G4C co-founder) and David Williamson Shaffer (UW-Madison).
Continue reading the rest of this post.Salon Report on “Behind the Scenes of The UN WFP’s Food Force” (#4, July 20th)
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 07-25-05
This salon’s photos and audio are available online.
Who says games are not serious? This months Games for Change Salon took a peek at The United Nations World Food Programs (WFP) FoodForce Game. We welcomed Trevor Rowe, North American Spokesperson for the World Food Programs (who discussed the game and its impact in promoting awareness of the WFP and hunger worldwide.
Suzanne Seggerman of WebLab welcomed the large group in attendance with a special thank you to the Fund for the City of New York, who generously hosted the event. The WFP FoodForce Game initiative is of particular interest to Games for Change as we draw our members from over 20 countries and because poverty is one of the most significant social issues of our time.
According to Mr. Rowe, unlike most UN agencies, WFP does most of its work in the field. The WFP is the worlds largest humanitarian agency, supports 82 countries and fed over 100 million people last year alone! Hunger remains the #1 health threat around the world, and more die each year due to hunger than malaria tuberculosis and HIV/Aids combined. And yet Mr. Rowe commented: hunger remains a difficult issue for people to focus on.
Mr. Rowe cited a number of challenges facing the WFP in promoting awareness of hunger. How can the WFP promote awareness without provoking guilt or leaving people feeling affronted or offended? Can they develop support for action above and beyond awareness? The WFP also had a goal of creating a more long-term constituency among youth ages 9-13. And finally, the WFP wanted to make the game as real as possible to expose players to the real decisions and experiences the WFP encounters.
The solution for the WFP involved an active game experience where the real problems facing the WFP on a daily basis are solved. The series of steps in the game included a) an assessment of resources and funding required; b) a view into the hard choices the agency makes with balancing nutrition/diet against supplies; c) the logistics of air dropping food; d) the challenge of delivering food across rough and hostile terrain; and e) a review of the long-term initiatives that the WFP undertakes to not just feed, but rehabilitate the countries through rebuilding roads and schools, replanting, etc.
The result was very successful with 1 million downloads in its first 10 weeks following launch. The FoodForce Game game was also the #1 download on Apples website for the first 2 weeks, and in total has been downloaded by 1.5 to 2 million people. The future plans for the FoodForce Game game include promoting its use in schools and releasing it in other languages.
Benjamin Stokes of NetAid demonstrated the game and highlighted its success despite the large download size (220MB), commenting that non-profits should look at downloading as an alternate (and inexpensive) method of distribution. Mr. Stokes also commented on the use of a Trust Network to distribute the game. You have to play it to understand it, Mr. Stokes noted in comparing the cinematic elements of the game to the interactive components. He noted how the game mixed expository information into the actual game play, reinforcing the message the WFP intended to get across, and that game play was very easy to pick up, with instructions lasting only 5 to 10 seconds.
During the Q&A section, one person suggested tying the game into real-time hunger/health data provided by Bloomberg. The game reportedly cost several hundred thousand dollars to produce. According to Mr. Rowe, the large audience was in part due to very solid PR efforts, and that the national debate regarding video game usage and a natural interest on the part of the media fed the publicity.
When asked about establishing a deeper moral connection with its users beyond just awareness, Mr. Rowe commented: Its difficult to establish a moral connection - however you do create a certain level of understanding and empathy for the process of solving this particular problem - there are not just a lot of faceless people out there that are hungry. Youll walk away knowing that you can do something about it, because youve done it. And so the next time someone says you cant do something about hunger, youre going to say well, maybe you can.
Benjamin Stokes distributed an article that he authored on Serious Games that explores: three educational opportunities in games - raising public awareness, affecting behavior and empowering learners and discusses collaborative ways to move the agenda forward. The article is slated to appear in the June 2005 edition of The Development Education Journal .
Barry Joseph of GlobalKids announced new support from Microsoft for a new initiative. According to Mr. Joseph, the After School Games Program will work with students after school to teach them not only GlobalKids leadership skills but also game design skills. Learn how to combine the two together. And well be working closely with GameLab to produce the game with the students each year.
Thanks to those who attended, to Mr. Trevor Rowe for his presentation on the WFP’s FoodForce Game and to The Fund for the City of New York for hosting the event.
Reminder to all about the upcoming Games for Change Conference scheduled for October 21st/22nd in New York.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Please join us for our next Salon on Wednesday, July 20th!
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 07-11-05
The Games for Change Summer Salon:
Behind the Scenes of The UN’s Food Force
THE EVENT:
- Meet the UN World Food Programme’s North America spokesman.
- Learn how they made their game and what they hope to accomplish.
- Discover how a game about air dropping food rations reached over 1,000,000 players within two months.
- Introduce yourself to others in the G4C community.
- Enjoy the drinks, light fare and networking opportunities.
- Show your own game during the cocktail hour.
THE PLACE:
Wednesday, July 20
6 - 8pm
Fund for the City of NY
121 Avenue of the Americas (@ Broome Street) 6th Floor (for directions: http://fcny.org/portal.php/fcny/directions/)
As sponsored by the Fund for the City of New York, the Games 4 Change salons are always free to attend.
RSVP (requested not required) to so we have enough food and drink. Thanks.
THE HOSTS:
Games for Change is a non-profit organization working to bring together non-profits and their partners in industry, academia and the arts, to explore the use of digital games for social change. G4C is an off-shoot of the Serious Games Initiative, which is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector.
Please feel free to forward this announcement to other people and lists you think would be interested.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Reporting Back: at Madison for the GLS Conference / June 23-24
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 06-25-05
As described earlier, we hosted a luncheon this past week on the topic of "facilitating multi-sector partnerships around research, publicity and game development" at the GLS Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. The conference drew more than 300 attendees for a fantastic and diverse look into learning and digital games.
The luncheon was attended by foundations, reporters, game designers, teachers, nonprofits, researchers and others. More than four discussion tables tackled how collaboration between fields can overcome mutual challenges. Moderated by Benjamin Stokes, the event built on G4C's earlier presence at GDC and E3 to expand our fledgling community.
A nice bonus was a front-page article mentioning Games For Change in the Wisconsin State Journal which described our work in "bringing together nonprofits and others across the country to develop games that create awareness and action on social problems ranging from hunger to AIDS" (too bad they didn't mention G4C's name!).
Continue reading the rest of this post.Join us in Madison for the GLS Conference / June 23-24
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 06-20-05
We're hosting a luncheon on the opening day of the GLS Conference in Madison on June 23rd. The focus will be on how G4C can facilitate multi-sector partnerships around research, publicity and game development. The session will be moderated by Benjamin Stokes of NetAid. Benjamin will also be presenting a workshop on intersections between Games and Service Learning.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Our Party at the Education Arcade—and Next Salon Preview
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 05-20-05
Suaznne just wanted to drop in and give you all an update on G4C’s recent events:
First, welcome to the many new members who’ve just joined after our various West Coast activities - we now have members in almost 20 countries (welcome Finland and Taiwan - our newest additions!) and almost all 50 states (hello Hawaii!)
Our most recent event was Monday night’s Education Arcade party, an information session and social hour at the poolside bar of the Figueroa Hotel, a block from the Education Arcade. Co-hosted by G4C, Serious Games and our new LA coordinator, Celia Pearce, it was a great evening. Barry Joseph and I, G4C co-founders, spoke about G4C activities, Celia spoke about the Buckminster Fuller Insititute’s game project Spaceship Earth, and Ben Sawyer filled us in on Serious Games activities. There were at least 60 people there throughout the evening, and we welcomed visits from people who have been inspiring us with their work and vision over the years (Brenda Laurel, Henry Jenkins and others.) No camera, alas. And if you’d like to be involved in the LA group, please email:
Last week in LA, Celia Pearce oversaw a game design charette for the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s game, Spaceship Earth, a social issue game project that is inspired by Bucky Fuller’s World Game. There were 20 people involved from various fields related to games, technology and earth issues in the charette and we welcome them onto the list as well.
July 20th is our next Salon in NYC - it will be ”new members night” where everyone present will have a chance to speak for a few minutes about who they are and what they are working on, as well as we will feature a brief social issues/non-profit game presentation - details forthcoming. Please join us if you can.
Best wishes at the onset of summer!
Salon Report on “Games in Culture” (#3, May 4th)
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 05-15-05
[check out photos and audio of the event]
On May 4th, Games For Change met for its third Salon in NYC (more are pending in the Bay Area and beyond). The panel session, titled “Games in Culture,” was developed and moderated by game designer and author Eric Zimmerman, Founder and CEO of GameLab.
The theme of the presentations and discussion centered on the unique status that games have on our culture, and how games can be used for social change.
Mr. Zimmerman opened the evening’s presentation with a recap of the previous salons and their agendas (the 1st focused on funding and the 2nd on case studies and design and production issues). In this Salon, Mr. Zimmerman aimed to expand the conversation by rethinking games and social change—to think in the largest sense about how to approach new solutions and strategies. To that end he assembled a great panel who were each asked to discuss a game or type of game in this context.
Mr. McKenzie Wark, author of the Hacker Manifesto and New School Media Studies Professor, presented what he termed a “cautionary tale” in discussing the Sims and how a sizeable amount of players have been able to “reverse engineer” aspects of the game. As demonstrated through the Sims fan site message boards and images, players have been able to use the underlying algorithm and the game’s inherent ability to add objects to actually introduce elements of social change into their virtual communities. One of the most striking examples Mr. McKenzie presented was how players have learned that using a family album feature of the game has allowed them to introduce narrative elements into the game. The cautionary aspect of Mr. McKenzie’s presentation was that if the game design allows for player input and modifications—rest assured that they will modify it in ways you may not expect. Mr. McKenzie presented a few posts from a Sims users’ “Wish List” message board and nearly all were requests for more vice.
The next speaker was Carol Stakenas, Program Officer at the International Center for Tolerance Education. Ms. Stakenas spoke of the University of Minnesota’s “Big Urban Game” (BUG), which took place in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In this game, teams of players moved giant game pieces (they looked remarkably like giant Sorry! pieces) around the city. The public participated by voting online on the path the teams should take through the city. Ms. Stakenas was impressed by how the play of the game brought the pieces through a variety of landscapes—how it not only turned the cities into a giant game board, but how in the process it highlighted economy, class, infrastructure and rights issues. She also made a point of differentiating BUG from somewhat similar ideas such as PacManhattan and Can You See Me Now?—the latter two being games where the technology needed to participated narrowed the amount of people who could be included.
Karen Sideman, Game Designer and former creative Director of Sesame Workshop Online, gave a presentation that fit nicely with the previous two, by focusing on online communities that have taken on a life of their own. The most fascinating case Ms. Sideman presented was about Nation States. What initially had been a promotional tool for a book by author Max Barry was, in essence, taken over by its community of users. The community established its own set of rules, and the community keeps growing, with fans even building a Nation States Wikipedia.
A lively discussion between panelists and attendees followed, the general topic being that game developers can often not determine what player behaviors will be until the behaviors start to emerge. In the case of the Sims, we learned that players were not satisfied with a certain lack of narrative and social issues, and so they took it upon themselves to change this. In the same manner, users of Nation States collectively decided they too felt constrained, and again took matters into their own hands.
[check out photos and audio]
Continue reading the rest of this post.Join us for our next Salon on Wednesday, May 4!
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 04-21-05
Games For Change Salon Series
3rd Feature: Games in Culture
6-8pm on Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Fund for the City of New York
121 6th Avenue @ Broome Street
6th floor
** Games For Change brings together non-profits and their partners to explore the use of digital games to advance organizational mission and societal change.
OVERVIEW
This bi-monthly discussion series brings together key individuals and organizations interested in discussing the use of digital games to achieve non-profit missions. The focus for each evening will be a presentation or discussion with several noteworthy speakers followed by a lively social hour.
May 4. Moderated by game designer and author Eric Zimmerman, this panel will explore the cultural and social aspects of games in our society. The discussion will center on the unique status of games within culture, the ways that games are similar to and different than other forms of media, entertainment, and popular culture, and what all of this has to say about how games can be used for social change.
Speakers:
- McKenzie Wark, New School media studies professor
- Karen Sideman, Game designer & former Creative Director at Sesame Workshop Online
- Carol Stakenas, Program Officer, International Center for Tolerance Education
Please feel free to forward this announcement to other people and lists you think would be interested.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Second Games for Change Salon a hit (March 29)
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 04-21-05
[check out photos and audio of the event]
The second Games for Change salon was held on March 29th at the offices of the Fund for the City of New York, which has been kind enough to donate their time, space and equipment to Games for Change.
Guests came from universities, non-profits, and game development companies - many from the city, but also from Massachusetts and Maryland, showing the growing interest in this topic. Everyone enjoyed snacks and beverages in a great lobby space before the meeting proper. Barry Joseph in particular noted the high quality of the rugelah provided. Barry and Suzanne Seggerman greeted the guests and gave brief overviews of the organization’s mission and their recent trip to San Francisco for the Game Developer’s Conference.
The presentations got off to a great start with Mary McCormick, director of the Fund for the City of New York. Ms. McCormick highlighted a number of the Fund’s programs and reiterated her support of serious games. She demonstrated some remarkable work - Flash versions of children’s storybooks that are interactive, and have been made so that they can be viewed in English and Spanish, and more languages to come. The work is done all in-house by a group of dedicated students, interns, and employees.
Benjamin Stokes of NetAid was next with a case study of their “Peter Packet” game and Challenge, which aimed to educate and involve middle school players in the fight against global poverty. Mr. Stokes remarked that young people not only found the game appealing, but that players also many participated in the game’s real-world Challenge to raise awareness. In the Challenge, players earned points by sending emails to friends and family that encouraged dialog, participation and donations. NetAid is building on the success and lessons learned from Peter Packet as it develops a new “World Council” game, which we look forward to hearing more about.
Following Benjamin Stokes was Alex Kopelman of Girls Inc. to give a case study. Mr. Kopelman noted that Girls Inc. was looking for an online game for their site to create stickiness on the site, as well as provide educational content and meet user demand. Together with Large Animal Games (Wade Tinney of this game development company was also in attendance), Girls Inc. has developed a very popular game that emphasizes teamwork. There were a few remarkable statistics for this game - over 75000 people have played online, and 35, 000 have downloaded it. When users download and unlock the full game, they are given the ability to design and add their own levels, which can be uploaded to to a server for others to play. What was really amazing about this is that over 1200 levels have been user created. A great presentation with lots of food for thought.
A formal question and answer session was held following the presentation, with issues such as COPPA regulations and everyone’s favorite, development costs, being the most discussed. This was followed by a good 1/2 hour or so of socializing. This Salon added a new element - guests were invited to demo work they had done - lots of great ideas were shown and exchanged. It is to be hoped that we will have more of this in future Salons. Thank you to everyone who participated and attended, and especially to our gracious and generous hosts, Mary McCormick and Aldrin Bonilla of the Fund for the City of New York.
[check out photos and audio of the event]
Continue reading the rest of this post.Mention in The Nation’s weblog
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 04-05-05
We're pleased to see the editor of The Nation magazine highlight the G4C community in the last paragraph of her weblog, Editor's Cut (www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?pid=2302). The article also features quotes by co-founder Dave Rejeski and game examples featured in some of our recent discussions.
Continue reading the rest of this post.
Success at GDC and in San Francisco
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 03-25-05
Following two days of events in San Francisco, Games For Change (G4C) organizers believe they may have reached a new tipping point in activity and external interest. A new Bay Area chapter has emerged, volunteer groups are cohering around specific projects, and new partners are directly approaching the group. The recent San Francisco events, held in and around the Moscone Center on March 7th and 8th, occurred both independently and within the Serious Games Summit (~500 attendees) as part of the larger Game Developers Conference (~10,000 attendees).
The G4C group's activities in San Francisco show the interest the group is garnering in the larger Serious Games community. On Monday March 7th, the Serious Games Summit started and included Suzanne Seggerman and Barry Joseph (Global Kids) leading a G4C luncheon meeting. Attended by over sixty people, the working luncheon introduced conference participants to the mission and work of G4C. One outcome was a list of key challenges that will need to be addressed to develop nonprofit serious games (to be posted shortly).
That same day, at the invitation of the conference organizers, G4C convened a roundtable discussion on "How Games Benefit the Public-At-Large." Moderated by Benjamin Stokes (NetAid), the 40-person group sought to integrate the perspectives of game developers with their partners to brainstorm untapped opportunities for serious games that might benefit the public good (results to be posted shortly).
By contrast, the G4C event on Tuesday night was open-invite beyond the conference and served as the first West Coast Information Session. Over 35 people attended, from D.C., New York, several Midwest states, Washington and, of course, California. Participants developed topics for the upcoming conference, discussed how to improve the online community, and debated member projects long into the night. Hors d'oeuvres were served.
The launch of a new Bay Area chapter of G4C was one vital outcome of recruiting at the Tuesday night event. The chapter's steering committee of five will be led by Doug Nelson of Kinection. Their activities, including West Coast Salons, will greatly add to the larger G4C community both on and offline.
The three San Francisco events detailed above help show how much G4C has accomplished in the past year. At the start of 2004, G4C was born via conference calls that led to a conference in June. Today G4C runs its own website, independent listserv, bi-monthly salon series and national conference focusing on social issues and nonprofit partnerships. Volunteer groups have already formed and are working to organize the upcoming conference, a series of case studies and future salons. Volunteers are also working to start up chapters in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Join us at these March events
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 02-16-05
Lunch as part of SG-GDC (March 7th): At the Serious Games Preconference to GDC in San Francisco. Come learn more about what we have achieved in the past year, network with other practitioners, and learn what GFC can mean for you and your work. Co-moderated by Suzanne Seggerman, coordinator of GFC, and Barry Joseph, director of Global Kids' Online Leadership Program. Lunch provided on a first come, first serve basis. Note that you must register for the pre-conference to attend.
Bay Area Happy Hour Information & Networking Session (March 8th): Want to connect to the Games4Change movement in the Bay Area? Come to this free event (not connected to the conference). We're going to host an information and networking session on Tuesday evening, March 8th. The first half hour will be for beginners only, and then we'll kick off an open session for all. However, momentum in the Bay Area will ONLY happen with volunteers helping bring in NGOs, game developers, academics, etc. Can you think how we might get the right NGOs to attend? Or who we should talk to? Would you like to attend? Contact Benjamin Stokes at 212 537 0520 and we'll let you know the specifics.
Evening Salon Discussion Featuring Two Case Studies (March 29th): We'll try to give everyone a sense of how our emerging sector already operates by contrasting two very different game business models and desired outcomes. Alexander Kopelman of Girls Incorporated will present TeamUp and Benjamin Stokes of NetAid will present Peter Packet. A discussion will follow. These two case studies are part of a larger initiative by Games For Change to publish case studies of relevant games to our membership. To attend, email Suzanne Seggerman for details.
Continue reading the rest of this post.Games For Change mentioned in NYC Council Hearing
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 02-14-05
Today, the City Council’s Committee on Technology in Government held a public hearing: “Oversight: Improving Participatory Democracy Through Municipal Cable Television.” You might wonder what this might have to do with online games?
Well, one of the main questions pertained to the stations’ websites and how they could be used to engage and inform the public. One of GFC’s founders, Barry Joseph from Global Kids, was invited to present. He spoke about a number of areas, such as online dialogues, but addressed games and our movement as well.
The following is from his spoken testimony:
- 50 attendees from all over, both near (NYC) and far (Boston, St. Paul, Miami, & Los Angels). Many arrived early and stayed late; maybe it was the great food? Grin.
- Diverse backgrounds: mostly nonprofits, with a good blend of industry, academia, artists, media and consultants.
- The speakers were fantastic - inspiring and practical.
Franklin Madison, Jr., the Technology Program Director at the Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation, opened the presentations by discussing various avenues for securing funding from Federal agencies.
Kevin Duggan, an independent consultant specializing in planning and development for individual artists and nonprofit cultural organizations, follow by discussing his work with artists and mediamakers as innovators in the use of technology for social change.
Finally, Aldrin Rafael Bonilla, the Director of the Community Technology Innovations at the Fund for the City of New York, (and understudy for Mary McCormick, who was unable to attend), described various projects by the Fund which employed community-based technology to meet social needs.
The short presentations were followed by an active Question and Answer period.
CHECK OUT: We've posted some photos and audio excerpts will be coming soon. - To grow, people are pitching in to help out - organizing future salons, assemble case studies, help with outreach, etc. Join the listserv to learn more in an upcoming email.
- If you attended, help us spread the word by sending us feedback (or add a comment below).
- A possible event in San Francisco in March, perhaps in conjunction with GFC's presence at the Serious Games pre-summit to GDC
- The next Salon!
For three years, Global Kids has been exploring what has come to be called, “Serious Games,” the use of online games as a tool for more than just entertainment. More specifically, we have been a leader with other like-minded non-profits in New York City interested in using online games as a tool for achieving our social mission. This emerging organization, recently named Games for Change, held its first conference last year and has recently begun a bi-monthly salon series for non-profits and their partners.
Why games? According to The Entertainment Software Association, half of all Americans play computer and video games, with women making up the second largest group of gamers. Games are steadily becoming a dominant way that people spend their leisure time, often stealing time away from traditional media, like television.
But games need not be simply for fun. Global Kids is currently developing two separate games as a way to reach youth. One, the Profiler, will be what is known as a casual game, a fast, action-packed game that will educate its players about airport profiling in a post-9.11 world. The second, the Public Policy Slam, will be what is known as a massively-multiplayer online game, engaging and informing youth around the country about significant public policy issues.
Gotham Gazette has been a leader in developing inexpensive, civic-oriented games. Here are a few recent examples. The descriptions are taken from their website.
* The New York City Budget Game: In an effort to close the city’s $3.8 billion deficit, public officials have been playing the usual budget games - laying off workers, raising taxes, and threatening to close firehouses and zoos. Now with our interactive NYC Budget Game, you can play too. You spend the money. You make the cuts. You raise and lower the taxes.
* Plan Your Future Park Our newest interactive game lets you plan your own park, making choices that communities all over the city have been facing.
* Breakdown New Yorkers rarely think about the systems that keep the city running, until something breaks down. Now, you can take a system-by-system look at what keeps us wired, watered, and flushed: play Breakdown!, our newest interactive game, and use your knowledge to save the city from kaput.
Recommendation:
Integrate “serious games” into the Council 51 website as a way to attract new users to the site while educating them about important civic issues.
Continue reading the rest of this post.First salon a success (including pictures!)
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 01-13-05
The results are in: our first Salon, held two days ago, was a success. Highlights include:
Games For Change in the Village Voice
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 01-13-05
In this week’s Village Voice Educational supplement, Games For Change’s work with online gaming got a mention in “Game On! Will more professors develop video games for their classes?”
...Although New York schools haven’t designed many curricular games, the city has pushed ahead in a slightly different field-"meaningful content” games, which promote social and political awareness. Last June, a trio of New York-based nonprofits (NetAid, a U.N. organization that fights world poverty; Global Kids, Inc., a leadership group for urban youth; and Web Lab, a new-media think tank) hosted a conference called “Serious Issues, Serious Games” to explore ways of using digital playthings to “advance society.” Out of the conference emerged Games for Change, an interest group that has already worked with a number of pristine simulations where “winning” involves successfully dealing with issues like AIDS, poverty, and racial profiling.
For educators, games are not only a catchy way to appeal to the otherwise bored and twitchy, but also a concrete embodiment of pedagogical theories about interactive, student-based learning. Unlike the usual proponents of vague and utopian teaching methods, those intellectually invested in video games feel a sense of inevitability about their project: Games have already outsold the Hollywood box office. According to Suzanne Seggerman, co-director of Games for Change, they will easily worm their way into the academy, just as film did 30 years ago.
“Using video games as a learning tool is newborn, squirmy, and barely formed,” she says. “But it’s only a matter of time. Talk to me in 10 years. We’ll all be playing.”
The rest can be found here.
Continue reading the rest of this post.First in Salon Series: “The Untapped Resources of New York City”
Posted by Benjamin Stokes on 12-18-04
6-8pm on Tuesday, January 11, 2005
This new quarterly discussion series will bring together key individuals and organizations interested in discussing the use of digital games to achieve non-profit missions. The focus for each evening will be a guided and provocative discussion inspired by 2-3 key speakers and followed by a lively social hour. The salons will be held at a spacious SoHo loft, with drinks and hors d’oeuvres provided. The series launches on the heels of our first national conference this summer.
EVENT DETAILS
Convened by the Games For Change steering committee, the first salon will feature three speakers and will gather together a group of 30-50 people from academia, industry and the nonprofit sectors to explore digital game partnership opportunities within New York City. We’ll focus on the intersection of social issues, technology and innovation. RSVP required. 6-8pm, Tuesday January 11th, 2005, near Lafayette and Bond Street (exact address available upon RSVP to Suzanne Seggerman).
THE GUEST SPEAKERS
High profile in their respective fields, the speakers are drawn from beyond the Serious Games movement to encourage broader perspectives and community. Our first salon will feature the speakers below.
* Mary McCormick is the President of the Fund for the City of N