Highlights From This Year’s Games For Change Last week, Games For Change had their 13th annual festival at the New School’s Parsons School of Design. New to the festival this year were three featured tracks participants could focus on: the Games for Learning Summit; health and neuroscience; and civics and social change. Gamification.Co was lucky enough to attend,…
Yellowstone National Park is one of the most popular of the nation’s 409 national parks, drawing visitors from across the country and around the world. But not everyone who visits Yellowstone understands the wildlife that make these parks home. Recently, two well-meaning tourists driving through Yellowstone came upon a baby bison standing in the middle of the road. Fearing that the calf was cold and at risk of dying from exposure, they packed the bison into their SUV and drove it to a ranger station seeking help, according to Time. That was a mistake.
If you are interested in how serious games can solve problems around the world, you will want to check out a festival designed to highlight the impact games can have across many different industries. Every year the Games for Change Festival showcases cutting edge games that target areas of concern in healthcare, environmental impact, research, human rights, economics, education and many other major issues.
Jane McGonigals opened the 11th annual Games For Change Festival in New York by talking on what the social good organization will be celebrating 10 years from now.
It all started in June 2004. This was the very first Games for Change Festival ever, it was held at New York Academy of Sciences in New York City. The goal? To investigate whether or not games could become serious games, ones that could be used for educational purposes and to inspire social change. Unfortunately only forty-two people attended…
However, this year’s Games for Change Festival will prove just how strong this movement has become. It has been projected that more than 800 people have attended in-person and an additional 10,000 people will have attended the event through streaming this past week. The festival also nabbed a great ally in their quest for social good by partnering with the Tribeca Film Festival for this year’s event.
How much impact can a social good game possibly have? According to Games for Change president, Asi Burak, the results may surprise you.
Half the Sky is a movement based on the award winning and bestselling book that is poised to take the world of social movements by storm. Working with the authors and international celebrities, the Games for Change organization, led by Asi Burak and Michelle Byrd, has built a coalition aimed at using gamification to empower women and girls. From his years of experience in the field, Asi will share how to build broad support for large-scale gamified projects, and what every organization needs to know as it embarks on this transformative path.
Watch Asi’s full GSummit SF 2013 talk below and learn what it takes to make a game with social impact.
Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of this presentation by downloading it here.
Do you like gaming? Do you enjoy new and innovative ideas that can better our world? Of course you do! It’s time to check out the 10th Anniversary Games for Change Festival at New World Stages in New York City June 17th – 19th.
The event is created and hosted by Games for Change (G4C) with the mission to promote social change through gaming. This international conference unites gaming professionals of different backgrounds from around the world ranging from commercial gaming to academia with the shared goal of bettering tomorrow. “The story of the Games for Change Festival is the story of how digital games have evolved, growing from an audience of 40 in 2004 to more than 10,000 attendees on-site and online,” said Michelle Byrd and Asi Burak, Co-Presidents of Games for Change. This year’s event aims to be the biggest and best one yet.
Last week we had a special episode of the Gamification Revolution, the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts happening every Monday at 1PM ET/10AM PT/1800 GMT. We were lucky enough to have Asi Burak, Co-President of Games for Change, and speaker at GSummit SF 2013 for a little Games for Change special episode.
Watch this week’s episode to get hear Asi’s approach towards social impact games and why he believes games are the best medium for affecting change. In essence, games are a unique medium to convey stories. Traditional medium simply tells you what to believe and what is or isn’t right. Games are unique in that they enable a player to experience multiple perspectives on an issue and allows them to make a personal conclusion through player choice and actions. Learn more about Asi’s approach below:
Be sure to check out the Gamification Revolution next week to see legendary designer, Jesse Schell, as our next guest.
As the Co-President of Games for Change, Asi Burak has had a long career using the transformative power of games to promote greater social good in the world. Asi’s path to social impact games began with his education in a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon and a BA in Design from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. His initial work in mobile gaming with Axis Mobile has led to many significant projects that has been picked up by international media outlets. Some of this exceptional work includes:
I see some issues that require immediate attention with the Games for Change world. Principally a rapidly emerging gap between the promise and the track record of socially-oriented gamified interventions. Why, with all the good intentions, is success so fleeting? And what can the high-minded practitioners in the industry do about making it better?
Half the Sky, the bestselling 2009 book by Kristof and WuDunn, sparked a global movement (www.halftheskymovement.org) to address “the central moral challenge of our time” – ending the oppression of women and girls worldwide. The Half the Sky movement is producing a number of big projects to raise awareness for their cause, including educational materials, a four-hour miniseries on…
On day 3 of the Games for Change festival the opening keynote was by James Paul Gee, if you are unfamiliar with the name then I would recommend you read “What Video Games have to Teach us about Learning and Literacy”. He is a professor at Arizona State University and a well respected researcher in…
Tuesday the festival opened with a keynote by the ever enlightening Jane McGonigal. Most of her talk was focused on the history of her self improvement game, SuperBetter. While this information is interesting, and the story of her recovery inspirational, it was a lot of information she’d already presented at other times. However, she than…
In recent years, churches, non-profits and humanitarian organizations have been using gamification to foster empathy and awareness of domestic and global poverty. I try dozens of gamified apps per week, and none has ever brought me to tears until last month, when I played a game called SPENT, a choose-your-own-adventure style game that highlights the everyday dilemmas…
My excitement about attending this year’s Games 4 Change Festival was definitely well founded. Throughout the entire day there was a palpable excitement in the air, every conversation I had was about the limitless potential of games and how we’re witnessing a unique moment in human history. It was electric.
