Tuesday, May 09th, 2006 - 7:30PM The Home of Lawrence Bender
Bel Air, CA
Our next event is on a new segment of the video game industry known as "Games For Change". Video Games are going to play a major part in many aspects of our society: how future generations of children are educated, how the military conducts its training, how cities are built, how municipal budgets are balanced, how social patterns are manipulated, how people interact, and how knowledge is attained. A new community of game designers have recently formed with the mission of creating video games that enable social change. The potential of these games is huge. For instance, massive multiplayer games, known as MMORPGs, in which players sign-on around the world into a web-based system and play against each other, have the potential to unite individuals across borders and engage them in common causes.
Real-World Examples: A state senator from Massachusetts worked with graduate students to create a game called MassBalance (https://www.playmassbalance.com), and challenged people to balance the state’s budget online. The United Nations World Food Program recently launched Food Force (https://www.food-force.com), a game with over 3 million players worldwide who work to save and rebuild the fictional island of Sheylan, ravished by drought and war. A number of people – or their virtual selves -- come together in an online, multiplayer game called Second Life (https://secondlife.com) to help design a park for Queens, New York. The interactive nature of games, their ability to present complex and dynamic information, and, increasingly, to allow thousands of people to meet in sophisticated virtual environments means games can accomplish what TV never could in terms of addressing educational and social challenges.
We have begun working with this community to develop new games that fit The Hollywood Hill's goals. This event will be an introduction to this new community, the possibilities we have for developing high-impact games, and a sampling of some of the games that have already been developed and deployed. The speakers will include three of the pioneers of this new field: Ian Bogost of Persuasive Games, and Suzanne Seggerman & Benjamin Stokes of Games4Change, one of the main organizations nurturing this new community of game developers. Ian has worked on numerous games including online activism games for the Dean Campaign and the DCCC. Benjamin has worked for the United Nations managing their online volunteering service and was the E-learning architect at NetAid. Suzanne is a Director at NYC-based think tank Web Lab, and was a producer for PBS, including on the Ken Burns series "The West".
Ian Bogost is one of the world's top experts and game designers in this area. He is an academic videogame researcher, game designer, and educational publisher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Founder of Persuasive Games, a game studio that designs, builds, and distributes electronic games for persuasion, instruction, and activism. He designed the online activism games for the DCCC and the Howard Dean campaign in the last presidential election. Ian also participated in last year's Games For Change Conference in New York and Serious Games Summit in Washington, D.C.
Benjamin Stokes is Co-founder and Co-director of Games for Change (G4C), the national umbrella organization supporting and advancing social change through digital games. Previously, Benjamin was the E-Learning Architect at NetAid, where he trained high school students to reach 150,000 of their peers in the fight on global poverty. Benjamin has also managed the United Nations online volunteering service. Before NetAid, Benjamin produced research tools and virtual fieldtrips for the more than 43,000 high schools served by Bigchalk/ProQuest publishers. At the CREA House, Benjamin helped develop a living wage standard for the U.S.-Mexico border region. Benjamin has studied abroad in Senegal; at Haverford College he co-founded the anti-sweatshop student alliance.
Suzanne Seggerman is Co-founder and Co-director of Games for Change (G4C),
a part of the Serious Games Initiative. G4C provides support, visibility and
shared resources to organizations and individuals using digital games for
positive social change, with special assistance to non-profits and
foundations entering the field. She is also a Director at NYC-based think
tank Web Lab, whose mission is to develop innovative new media and
cross-media projects that bring fresh perspectives and new voices to the
discussion of public issues. At Web Lab she works on a variety of
projects, including the Crossover Project and the Loop, a television show
in development. Her background in online media includes community-oriented
interactive environments and the design of non-traditional games. Some of
this work earned her awards from New Voices New Visions and Communications
Arts. Before working in new media, she was a documentary film producer for
PBS, including on the Ken Burns' series "The West" and as Co-producer of
"Race For Life," a humanitarian aid and documentary film about the effects
of the environment on perinatal care in Eastern Europe. She is a
nationally-ranked scabble player and the queen of asteroids.
Cocktails & Hors d'oeuvres, Valet