Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival at Parsons The New School for Design New York, NY June 2-4, 2008 Fifth Annual Games for Change Festival June 2-4 2008 Proudly Sponsored by 1 G4CFESTIVAL June 2-4, 2008 Festival Background Welcome to the fifth annual Games New School, we launched PETLab— for Change Festival! This year’s a public interest game design and festival brings together innovators research lab for interactive media A game for change from the game industry, education, Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching, government, philanthropy, and non- and Learning. We continued working is a digital game profit sector to explore how games with our Microsoft partners during which engages a can change our lives and our world. the year on the Xbox 360 Games for contemporary social Our panels include many of the Change Challenge, whose winners leading thinkers in social issue game will be selected next month. We also issue to foster a design, research, and practice, as well worked closely with the more equitable, just as leaders in related fields. This year Entertainment Consumers and/or tolerant we have added to the festival a day- Association and the Save the Internet society. long workshop on the fundamentals Coalition on the net neutrality of social issue games specifically to initiative. Our social issues games list assist the many nonprofit and regional Games for Change organizations new to digital games. chapters continued providing lively The New School for all the support We are also proud to host another forums on a broad range of social they provide in putting on this Festival Expo Night featuring some of issue game topics. the latest outstanding social issue festival. games. Organizationally, we are growing as We appreciate the extensive feedback Games for Change actively explores well. This year Games for Change we heard from last year’s attendees and promotes social issue games incorporated as its own nonprofit and hope that this year’s festival around the world throughout the year organization, with a small and meets many of your needs and —at conferences, in the media, and dedicated staff and a distinguished wishes. We will continue to work with through our own initiatives. This group of advisors and board you to further this field and hope that year, in partnership with Parsons the members helping us along the way. the festival informs and inspires your work throughout the year. We give a special thanks to our returning Festival Expo Night sponsor the Microsoft Corporation. We also welcome our new festival “We are convinced that supporters, the AMD Foundation, games have the power to The John S. and James L. Knight make a powerful and Foundation, and the John D. and positive impact on the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. world today.” As always, we extend our gratitude to Suzanne Seggerman - President and Cofounder Games for Change Join our Listserv: http://www.gamesforchange.org/info/ lists 2 G4CFESTIVAL June 2-4, 2008 Games for Change Board of Directors National Advisory Group Lucy Bernholz, Founder and President, Blueprint Ian Bogost, Associate Professor, Georgia Research & Design Institute of Technology; Founding Partner, Persuasive Games Alan Gershenfeld, Managing Partner, E-Line Ventures Malika Dutt, Founder and Executive Director, Breakthrough Franklin Madison, Technology Program Director, Industrial Technology Assistance Corporation Rafael Fajardo, Director, SWEAT Collaborative; Associate Professor, Director, Dave Rejeski, Director, Foresight and Governance Digital Media Studies, University of Denver Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Barry Joseph, Director, Online Leadership Program, Global Kids Suzanne Seggerman, Cofounder and President, Games for Change Katie Salen, Executive Director, Institute of Play; Associate Professor, Design and Alex Quinn, Executive Director, Games for Technology Department, Parsons The New Change School for Design Ben Sawyer, Codirector of the Serious Games Initiative; Cofounder of Digitalmill Adrian Sexton, Executive Vice President, Digital, Participant Media Eric Zimmerman, Cofounder & Chief Design Officer, Gamelab Games for Change 666 Broadway, Suite 825 New York, NY 10012 212-228-7855 www.gamesforchange.org Contact: [email protected] Join our listserv: http://www.gamesforchange.org/info/lists 3 G4CFESTIVAL June 2-4, 2008 Agenda - Tuesday, June 3 At Tishman Auditorium; 66 W. 12th St. 8am • Breakfast include: Jordan Weisman, 42Entertainment; Frank Lantz, Area Code; Ken Eklund, WriterGuy, World 8:30am • Opening remarks – Alex Quinn, Without Oil; Moderated By Peggy Weil, USC Executive Director, Games for Change Interactive Media Division 8:45am • Games for Change of the 20th 2:15pm • Using XNA Game Studio to Change Century – A conversation with Jim Gasperini (Hidden the World – of Games: Chris Satchell, General Agenda) and Chris Crawford (Balance of the Planet and Manager and Chief XNA Architect, Microsoft Balance of Power) Chris and Jim will discuss their Corporation making of these first “games for change” in the late 1980s – the environment in which these inspiring 2:45pm • G4C does TED: 10 minutes each from games launched and how things have changed since key voices in the field: Suzanna Samstag, Global then. Moderated by Celia Pearce Contents Forum and G4C Seoul Regional leader; Cindy Poremba, digital media theorist, Concordia 9:30am • Journalism, Games and Civic University; Ken Perlin, Dept. of Computer Science Engagement—this panel will explore the issues and and Media Research Laboratory, NYU; Wendy challenges of the emerging interest and intersection of Cohen, Manager of Community and Alliances, journalism in social issue games and civic engagement. Participant Media Panelists include Nora Paul, Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota; Ben Sawyer, Digital 3:30pm • Break Mill and Serious Games Initiative; Joellen Easton, American Public Media; Asi Burak, Impact Games; 4:00pm • Gaming the Class: Want to get serious Gerard LaFond (respondent); moderated by Heather about using games to change the world but just don’t Chaplin, journalist and author of Smartbomb. have a budget? David Thomas, UC Denver, and Justin Hollander, Tufts University discuss the use of This panel has been generously supported by the John S. and off-the-shelf and Web-based videogames to teach James L. Knight Foundation students about urban planning and design, and engage them on subjects such as equity and 10:30am • Break fairness, the public’s interest in property, the need for 11:00am • Values@Play at Work in the cooperation, and the social contest that underlies the Classroom Values@Play is an NSF-funded research ways our cities form. Using games such as SimCity, Dice project that seeks to harness the power of videogames Wars and Carcassonne, find out how two instructors have in the service of humanistic principles. The panel found a low-cost—and compelling—way to immerse includes game scholars and professors who have their students in complex issues. integrated the curriculum and exercises created 4:30pm • Keynote conversation with Jim Gee through this project in game design classrooms as well and Henry Jenkins, introduced by Colleen as students who have used the tools to create their own Macklin, Director of PETLab and Chair of CDT games for change. Panelists: Mary Flanagan, Parsons, The New School for Design Tiltfactor Lab, Hunter College; Tracy Fullerton, USC; Celia Pearce, Georgia Tech; Jamie Antonisse, Hush At Lang Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd game; Devon Johnson, Hush game; PETLab, Parsons Floor: 6 – 8pm • Expo Night – Microsoft Corporation and 12:00pm – 1:30pm • Lunch (For those interested, Corporate Vice President Jeff Bell invite you to spend Mary Flanagan’s Grow-A-Game workshop in the the evening seeing some of the Imagine Cup 2008 Lang Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor) finalists from the Xbox 360 Games for Change 1:30pm • ARGS for Change Alternate Reality Challenge, as we show you the games they built, Games (ARGs) harness large groups of players imagining a world where technology actually enables a working towards a common goal. How can we sustainable environment. And check out some of the harness this “hive mind” to approach messy real world newest G4Cs from Parsons' PETLab, the UN, USC’s issues in addition to the neat narrative puzzles of EA Innovation Lab, and many others. traditional ARGs? How might the game mechanics evolve to effectively embrace social issues? Panelists 4 G4CFESTIVAL June 2-4, 2008 Agenda - Wednesday, June 4 At various NYC locations (please see briefly discuss the work of the new center as well as a www.gamesforchange.org/bwiki to register): new collaboration with Serious Games and Games for 8 – 10am • Birds of a Feather Breakfasts Change. At Tishman Auditorium; 66 W. 12th St.: 12:45pm • Lunch • Open It Up: Frank Lantz and Karen Sideman will reprise their open discussion with 10:00am • Measuring Impact: This panel the community. This years debate will dance around explores evaluation strategies and techniques to the idea that games for change are diminished – both capture and measure the impact of social issue games. as experiences and as directed communications - to Panelists will explore how social issue game evaluation the degree that they are maximized as message is situated within other research on youth-created delivery mechanisms rather than complex and social issue media and within our understanding of balanced systems in their own right. To stimulate social change in general. Panelists include Shelly discussion Lantz and Sideman will report on “deep Pasnik, Director of EDC’s Center for Children; Karin play” experiences with well-known social issue games. Hillhouse, Director of Changemaker Partnerships at They will have played these repeatedly, the way Ashoka; Fran C. Blumberg, Coordinator of the hardcore gamers play A-list console titles, and will Educational Psychology Program at Fordham discuss whether their understanding of, and University; Ellen LaPointe, Hopelab (respondent). relationship with, the games’ “content” deepened over Moderated by Alex Quinn, Executive Director, Games time. for Change.