EXPO NIGHT 2007
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Bob Kerrey, President, The New School and former Nebraska Senator |
Jeff Bell, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Corp. |
Expo Night is an evening reception where festival-goers can play games, meet each other, and enjoy food and drink in a lively and informal atmosphere.
The 2007 Games for Change Festival Expo Night will be held from 6 – 8pm, at the Lang Center (same site as most of the daytime panels.)
Agenda
6:00pm - Bob Kerrey, New School President, Welcome
6:10pm - Jeff Bell, Microsoft, Announcement
6:30pm – 2007 Games for Change “GaCha” Awards
The following games for change have been selected to be shown at the Expo Night to give festival-goers a chance to play these games firsthand. Those which have a release date before or at the festival are also under consideration for the 2007 Games for Change (“GaCha”) Awards, to be presented during the Expo Night.
AFMP is the first and only game to teach the waging of conflict using nonviolent methods. Destined for use by activists, the game will also educate the media and general public on the potential of nonviolent action and serve as a simulation tool for academic studies of nonviolent resistance. AFMP is primarily a game of strategy, emphasizing abstract ideas and planning. Its realism depends on the accuracy of its underlying political models. Game play is governed by detailed interactive models-of strategic and political factors, ethnicity, religion, literacy, material well-being, media and communications, resource availability, economic factors, the role of external assistance, and many other variables. Tactics include such basics as training, fund-raising and organizing, as well as leafletting, protests, strikes, mass action, civil disobedience and noncooperation. Many game-play decisions involve selecting which characters and groups should take part in the strategy, and weighing the benefits of such actions relative to their costs.
The first in a series of newsgames called The Arcade Wire, Airport Security offers a satirical critique of airport security practices circa early fall 2006, when security agencies in the US and abroad changed their policies to prohibit common items like toothpaste and hair gel. Do knee-jerk reactions that limit our freedom of expression and travel make us safer? In The Arcade Wire: Airport Security you inspect each passenger and his luggage and remove the forbidden items before allowing the passenger to go through -- but the list of forbidden items changes on a moment-to-moment basis. Prohibited items may include pants, mouthwash, and hummus.
Global Kids has established itself as an innovative leader in using online games to promote global awareness and engaged citizenship. Through the Playing 4 Keeps program, Global Kids trains urban youth to develop games about important world issues. This work has been cited as a best practice within Henry Jenkins’s report for the MacArthur Foundation. Global Kids’ gaming programs are made possible through collaborative relationships with the game design company Gamelab, UNICEF, and TakingITGlobal, among others. Playing 4 Keeps (P4K) uses online games as a form of youth media informed by international issues. Together with Gamelab, an independent game company, Global Kids developed an innovative curriculum for engaging youth in the design, development and dissemination of high quality games that have the potential to educate their peers around the world. Playing 4 Keeps is supported by Microsoft’s U.S. Partners in Learning Mid-Tier initiative. Last year, Global Kids Youth Leaders gained leadership, research, and game design skills while producing a socially conscious online game, Ayiti: The Cost of Life. The youth chose to design a game that focuses on the issue of poverty as an obstacle to education and uses the country of Haiti as a case study. The game and its associated curriculum were released through UNICEF’s Child Alert: Haiti website and TakingITGlobal’s network of over 170,000 educators worldwide. Curriculum material is available for educators. Since it was released in October 2006, hundreds of thousands of people have played Ayiti. The game and the after school component are being evaluated by the Center for Children and Technology.
Darfur is Dying is a web-based, viral video game that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is designed to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur and empower college students to help stop the crisis. Students at the University of Southern California, winners of mtvU’s Darfur Digital Activist contest, created the winning prototype. The game was developed in cooperation with humanitarian aid workers with extensive experience in Darfur. The content and the creative are woven together throughout the game, beginning with the first phase where the user selects an avatar to forage for water. Upon success or failure, they learn that their chances of succeeding were predetermined by their gender and age. The navigation system at www.darfurisdying.com enables a player to learn about the situation in Darfur, get involved with stopping the crisis, and understand the genesis of the project. Darfur is Dying helps make activism intuitive in the digital age. Action items are embedded within the game, so that the user may send an automated note to President Bush to support the people of Darfur, or petition Congress to pass legislation that aids Darfur’s refugees, and by doing so increase the overall health of the camp. To further enhance the reach of the game, Darfur is Dying was designed to be spread virally. Players can contact everyone in their email address books and social networks about the game with a click of the mouse.
Homeless: It's No Game is a Flash-based, web-hosted casual game that puts you in the position of a homeless person trying to survive on the street for 24 hours with your dignity intact. You have to find food, shelter, rest; dodge police, vigilantes, drug pushers, nasty dogs and muggers -- and a place to go to bathroom. You win if you gain 25 self-esteem points. You lose if your esteem points drop to 0.
ICED! I Can End Deportation
Since the passing of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) in 1996, over 2 million immigrant non-citizens (including long-term lawful permanent residents) that have lived in the U.S for most of their lives, have been deported or detained in prisons. As a result of the harsh immigration laws, committing very minor crimes can result in mandatory detention and deportation. Long-time U.S. residents are being detained and deported without access to due process and a fair day in court. The Story with Immigration: ICED! I Can End Deportation is an online 3D Role Playing Game aimed at high school and college age students. ICED! teaches the player about the unjust nature of U.S immigration policy which violate human rights, sparks dialogue and presents an enabling environment towards involvement, action and possible transformation in immigration policy. The game enables the player to inhabit the precarious day-to-day experiences of an immigrant circumscribed by the constant threat of detention, and more than likely, deportation. As the player navigates the city, he or she must avoid constantly spawning immigration officers, make moral/consequential decisions, as well as answer myth & fact quizzes about current immigration policies. If the player chooses incorrectly, he/she increases his or her chances of being teleported into detention. Once in detention, the player endures both physical separation from his/her family and unjust conditions while awaiting, often for unknown amounts of time, the random outcome of his/her case.
Karma Tycoon is an online strategy game in which players solve community problems, such as homelessness, in cities across the US. Players learn the ins and outs of the not-for-profit world as they apply for grants, receive donations and have to manage their budget efficiently. The players begin the game with a grant from the JP Morgan Chase Foundation but then must apply for more grants to help more people. The goal of the game is to teach young people about social entrepreneurship and financial responsibility while they’re also having fun. The game was modeled after Lemonade Tycoon, but instead of maximizing profits, players are trying to maximize their karma by helping as many people, or animals, as possible while running their homeless shelters, senior centers, youth centers, performing arts centers, and animal shelters. Once your “karmameter” reaches 100%, you receive a score for that city and you can move to tackle other issues in more difficult cities. The game can be further used as a teaching tool due to the explanations, summaries and definitions built into the game. If you want to learn about what a foundation is or how severe homelessness is in Los Angeles, this game enables you to do just that. In addition, there is an accompanying teacher curricula that educators can use in the classroom to help the students understand the issues addressed in the game. The game and curricula are available free of charge at KarmaTycoon.com.
Melting Point
The Melting Point game is built in Flash and designed to be embedded in a web site. It takes 5 minutes to play through a single scenario (50 years in game time). As the clock runs, players make changes in the growth rates of several world economies while trying to limit the total accumulation of CO2. One of the interesting characteristics of the game is that players make large-scale macroscopic decisions, such as promoting the growth of nuclear power. The game will translate those decisions into news headlines that indicate various strategies for achieving those goals. For example, if the player decides to reduce the growth rate of transportation, that action might show up in the news headlines as "Europe improves fuel economy standards for 2010 and beyond." Melting Point provides an opportunity for learning that engages a number of key elements of effective educational design:
- The science content weaves together information from several scientific disciplines and can lead learners to a broader understanding of the value of a an interdisciplinary approach to complex issues and problems.
- The context of the experience is authentic. The model that runs the simulation of the impact of choices made by the user is based on models used by scientists. Using such models enables students to come to understand both their value and their limitations.
- The reality of engaging with a complex problem promotes real inquiry. Students must study the various issues involved and try to make sense of them. There are no right answers, only questions to be raised and hypotheses to be tested.
- The process of inquiry leads to scientific problem solving.
- The opportunity to approach a world problem from multiple, regional perspectives broadens global understanding.
- The application of high end technology design extends students' technology literacy
You are an Oil God! Wreak havoc on the world's oil supplies by unleashing war and disaster. Bend governments and economies to your will to alter trade practices. Your goal? Double consumer gasoline prices in five years using whatever means necessary. Oil God is the second in our ongoing series of newsgames. The game explores the relationship between gas prices, geopolitics, and oil profits. Gasoline prices are affected most by possible or actual disruptions in oil producing regions, which might reduce supply without altering demand, thus driving prices up. One feature that characterizes the current fluxuations in gasoline prices, unlike previous ones in 1973 and 1981, are a multitude of simultaneous world events and geopolitical uncertainties: the Iraq war, missiles in North Korea, Hurricane Katrina, pipeline problems, the Iran/Korea nuclear, war between Israel and Lebanon war, and so forth...
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution is a simulation guiding players through the events of the Orange Revolution of 2004 in Ukraine, through the eyes of the two main presidential candidates. Players must come secure democratic reform without violence. Players learn about the crisis caused by a corrupt second ballot in the Ukrainian presidential election of 2004, and lead the country through to a successful conclusion, achieving democratic reform and avoiding violence. The game has a prisoner's dilemma-style structure, where players must make decisions for both Yanukovych and Yushchenko, the main rivals involved. The game ends if violence erupts. The project, developed by TakingITGlobal as part of a broader curriculum initiative by TakingITGlobal, Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning, and TEACH Magazine, was produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency.
PeaceMaker was born in the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Carnegie Mellon. As students, we set out to create a video game that is meaningful and non-violent. We chose the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is to many a representation of the most significant challenges facing leaders today. We thought that in this particular point in time, we have a real chance to add new verbs to the vocabulary of the new generation, the future leaders of the world. PeaceMaker challenges players to establish peace in the Middle East. Players can take the perspective of the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President and react to unpredictable real-world events. The player’s ultimate goal is to create virtual peace and be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. PeaceMaker aims to enhance a deeper understanding of multiple perspectives and challenge the player’s prior knowledge and assumptions. Main features: • PeaceMaker is inspired by real events. • PeaceMaker is a turn-based strategy game with a high level view of the situation. • PeaceMaker is two games in one: the Israeli version and the Palestinian version. • Play the news: the game presents real news footage, images and headlines. • Depending on what players bring to the table, there are three difficulty levels to choose from including calm, tense and violent. PeaceMaker has been featured in media outlets around the world and is available for PC or Mac in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
Pete Armstrong
Launched at the NYC G4C Salon 2005, this project addresses a need identified by the Rusk Center, which works for the physical, psychological and social rehabilitation of permanently disabled children. The producer sought to improve the respect which able-bodied children accord their wheelchair-bound peers. Exposure to gameplay which promotes empathy might have the desired effect. Design of the prototype game involved subject matter experts - disabled children, their advocates, professional wheelchair athletes and their promoters,. and game scientists. Game development demanded of its first-time producers far more technical, creative and social sensitivity than had been expected. The finished test game was administered to two different urban populations in the target age range (n=~60). The instrument for measuring effect was a classic one, in use since 1960, but updated by scientists at the University of Virginia who correlated the findings. While the aggregate result supports continued investment in the project, it is the details of the findings that should interest, and warn, anyone interested in games for change. Different subpopulations responded to very different degrees to the game intervention, and some patterns were unmistakable. These patterns whisper caution to the attentive ear, while shouting audibly for further and better research.
Starbucks and Global Green USA have teamed up to encourage individuals to click, play and learn about global climate change and smart solutions with the launch of Planet Green Game. Through the online game, players can explore a virtual world and learn how everyday decisions by individuals, cities, schools and businesses can impact the climate and environment. The game offers real-world examples of how individuals can change their own behavior and also influence the actions of community, political and corporate leaders to engage in the effort to stop global warming. In Planet Green Game, players select an avatar (digital character) to explore Evergreen, a fictional city, with six landmarks. Players can choose their mode of transportation and explore these destinations and throughout their journey, learn about environmental factoids and tips that can be incorporated into their daily lives whether it’s properly servicing a car for improved fuel efficiency or learning techniques to influence local public officials and corporate decision makers. Two bonus destinations include a virtual movie theater and Starbucks store. At the Planet Green Game movie theater, green short films from the Gen Art online movie festival will be screened 24 hours a day. The virtual Starbucks store will also give players the opportunity to vote on environmental priorities the company should consider focusing on and email feedback that will be shared with members of the Corporate Social Responsibility executive team.
Educational Simulations presents Real Lives 2004, the life simulation that gives you the opportunity to learn how people really live in other countries. Real Lives 2004 is a content rich and empathy-building real world, real life simulation that challenges your life skills (not your hand-eye coordination) as you make difficult, high-stakes choices that lead to your success, or failure. You might be born anyone, anywhere on Earth. You might die as an infant, you might make it to old age. You might be able to marry the person of your dreams, and have a rewarding job, or you could be stuck in poverty. Be born, live an exciting life, and die. Then do it again. And again. Learn about the world as you live your Real Lives around the world, one life-altering decision at a time. Real Lives 2004 makes the world come alive on a personal and global level, one life at a time.
The U.S. redistricting process is sort of a dark corner of our democracy - Democrats and Republicans both abuse it to achieve "safe" seats in Congress; "safe" seats tend to yield increasingly partisan representatives over time; both parties see flaws in the process yet since it helps keep incumbents in power politicians do not have incentive to reform it. The current process creates a vicious circle that is not good for the American people. Many Americans would like to see redistricting reform enacted - including many politicians – however the process is not likely to change without real outcry from the people. We hope our game can shine a bit of light in this dark corner. We want to do this by exposing the redistricting process to lots of citizens and making it easy for them to communicate directly to congress. As researchers we chose to pursue redistricting as a game - as opposed to a book or a film - because a good game provides an experiential understanding of complex phenomena. Studies show that people learn more by doing than by reading or listening. There are lots of nuances and trade-offs in redistricting that are easy to grasp and fun to play with in an interactive environment yet are hard to grasp and generally boring given only a linear description. We want people to gain a hands-on understanding of not only how redistricting works but also why sound redistricting laws are important for our democracy.
RePlay
RePlay is a Flash-based online game that engages players in a fun gaming experience to promote attitudes and skills girls and boys need to create healthy, equal interpersonal relationships. Its narrative and gameplay fosters learning about healthy relationships and communication, diversity, and prevention of sexism and violence against girls and women. The overarching narrative tells the story of two friends searching for their good friend Zoe. They have just heard sexist, stereotyping rumors about Zoe that lead them to conclude that she is in need of help. The rumors start one day after school when a group of kids describe how Zoe has gone to third base with her boyfriend Jake. The rumors are insensitive and as their maliciousness grows, the friends’ sense of urgency escalates. They come to realize that Zoe is caught up in an abusive relationship. As the story unfolds, the two friends learn of some of the ways Jake has taken control over Zoe’s life. The fact that locating her has become such a challenge is indicative of how Jake has isolated Zoe and pressured her in ways that do not ring true or safe to her two friends. On their search, the two friends navigate their neighborhood and social networks, and they are challenged with confrontations (mini-games) that encourage them to work together and be respectful, confident communicators. Doing well in these mini-games helps to strengthen the avatars’ resiliency and better equip them to support Zoe once they manage to find her.
SciFair
SciFair engages teens and tweens in underserved and disadvantaged communities in creating their own virtual worlds (knowledge spaces) about science and technology. Through this creative process in a collaborative environment, they build digital and media literacy. As pioneers in a new medium, they become resident experts and build self-esteem. Students in science classes and after school programs have worked in and out of school time to conduct research on a biome (taiga, desert, tropical rain forest, etc) and find out the climate conditions and the type of living organisms in that environment. Or they have studied the impact of farming on their local fishery. Or they have looked at the evidence for global warming. Or they have considered the options for sustainable planning in their community. Drawn to the program by the appeal of virtual worlds and their similarity to MMOGs, teams are supported by college students and teacher/coaches trained in the medium and process. The SciFair Model takes them through a sequence of activities that begins with homesteading as a way of learning the basic skills needed to express themselves within the environment. Teams then research into a specific topic, design of their virtual space, acquire new technical skills to complete their project (including integration of other digital media: video, sound, images, slide presentations, Flash games), and test the user interface/experience.
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