Values at Play investigates how designers can be more intentional about the ways in which they integrate human values into their game-based systems. Our team creates and tests a values based college curriculum and develops novel games which integrates values. The team’s most recent digital game LAYOFF attracted over 1 million players in its first week of release and educated players about the financial crisis. Our current board game VEXATA helps middle school students learn to “read” game mechanics and develop a game literacy with values in mind. Finallly, the forthcoming urban game, PHOTOPOLIS, explores how players can envision and document how human values manifest in everyday life across cultures, and it will launch with players in New York, Beijing, and Shanghai.

Our ambition is to harness the power of video games in the service of humanistic principles. Aware of the tremendous and wide-ranging impact games have in our world, the Values at Play™ (VAP) research project seeks to assist and encourage designers in creating games that further the understanding and appreciation of such values as equality, diversity, creativity, and many more–and how we experience values through play.