I love Massively Multiplayer Soba because it is simple and it works. In an academic paper, I might say the game explores tolerance and diversity by facilitating inter-cultural exchanges around regional cuisine. But really, Soba just gets strangers talking about food. We live in a country flayed by partisan divides, with too much time spent thinking about trivial differences. Even in New York where people from all over live side by side, it’s rare for us to take the time to interact with each other. But games give people excuses to be extroverts. And food is a universal passion. With Soba, we give strangers an excuse to discuss commonalities, and the results are just good.
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This Saturday come join the Tiltfactor team at the 2008 Conflux Festival for the launch of our first urban game: Massively Multiplayer Soba. Participants will have the chance to explore some of the culinary/cultural mash-ups that make New York so unique. We’ll be meeting new people, seeing new neighborhoods, and eating a big delicious dinner. Come out and enjoy the fun during one of New York’s most interesting festivals.

Tiltfactor ran another successful Grow A Games workshop last week at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Twenty people participated in the workshop, running through different one- and two-card exercises. As usual, some really unique game designs were developed, and there was thoughtful discussion about games as expressive media. Read more

This year’s Games 4 Change Conference was another great success, providing seasoned game designers and excited newcomers the opportunity to share experiences and knowledge. From June 2-6, participants met to discuss developments in serious gaming and critical play that will help gaming become an increasingly valuable vista of the cultural landscape. At the conference there was the sense that games in general and serious games in particular were at a tipping point; poised to become a ubiquitous part of modern living, widely valued, respected, and understood. Read more

This year’s Games 4 Change Conference will have a special bonus day to introduce non-profits to social impact games. You can read all the details below, but the most exciting part is that our Dr. Flanagan will facilitating a Grow A Game workshop to get the day started.

From Games 4 Change:
Based on feedback we’ve received over the past few years, we’ve created a one-of-a-kind workshop for non-profits new to the field of social issue games at the start of the 2008 G4C Festival. This workshop is a soup-to-nuts tutorial on the fundamentals of social issue games. The workshop will feature leading experts on topics including game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution, and press strategies, and will be extended for the rest of the year through an online community dedicated to learning about social issue games. Read more

The jury of the Better Game Contest (http://www.bettergamecontest.org) has made its decision, and the winners of the contest are Jamie Antonisse, Chris Baily, Devon Johnson, Joey Orton, and Brittany Pirello! Read more

The VAP team, led by Dr. Mary Flanagan, will be heading to Pittsburg tomorrow night to rock the Future of Interactive Technology for Peace conference. Our team will be facilitating a Grow A Game workshop and a discussion about how and activists and media makers can use games as an expressive medium, and why they’d want to. Workshop members will also get the chance to experience how empowering and fun the game design process can be by playing with Grow A Game cards. Participants will learn how they can use critical play to develop innovative solutions.

We have pictures from our workshop at the Grassroots Media Conference here.

The Future of Interactive Technology for Peace

April 2-3, 2008
Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
University Center

The Future of Interactive Technology for Peace Conference (April 2&3, 2008) is a day and one-half day national conference providing a forum for discussing the impact and the potential that interactive technology holds for peace and peacemaking. Using the highly successful game “PeaceMaker” [http://impactgames.com] as a jumping-off point, the key aim of the conference is to explore new directions in the application of interactive technology for conflict resolution, diplomacy, and international affairs. Read more

Professor Flanagan was at South By Southwest last week to speak on the Games For Change panel. The group of speakers was a solid collection of some of serious gaming’s most influencial thinkers and practicioners including: Suzanne Seggerman, Pres, Games for Change, Eric Zimmerman, Co-Founder, Gamelab, Heather Chaplin, author of Smartbomb, (Algonquin Books 2005), Benjamin Stokes, Program Officer, MacArthur Foundation, and Chris Swain, VP/Programming, Spiderdance. The panel was yet another chance to share our Values At Play work with a new audience. The talk went really well, and you can read some of the reactions on other people’s blogs.

SXSW

Serious Games Source

Bay Area Video Coalition

Buzz About the Redistricting Game 

The Values At Play team is proud to announce it’s second Better Game Contest!

The contest is open from now until July 1, 2008. Read more

This weekend’s Grassroots Media Conference was a big success, with over 900 registrants and a solid turnout for the VAP Grow A Game workshop. Dr. Mary Flanagan began the session with a brief presentation on why activists would want to express their messages through games, and what some of the challenges to doing so are. There is a common misconception among people outside the gaming field that technical hurdles are the biggest barriers to developing activist games. Mary stressed that creating a great design that is on message is far more difficult than finding a programmer. It’s because of this belief that Values At Play team’s work is focused on creating design tools, not technical tools. The Grow A Game cards are the most recent asset released by Values At Play, and we’ve found them to be a great help during brainstorming sessions. After Mary concluded her introduction, it was time to get down to business. Read more

via: Grassroots Media Coalition

The Mainstream Media is a propaganda mind control operation owned by an elite cartel for the benefit of the global oligarchy. I wish that were hyperbole, but it isn’t. Luckily, alternative media, independent media, is going strong and growing every year. The annual Grassroots Media Conference is a chance for media activists to come together, compare notes, and stratagize. It’s always worth attending. This year, Tiltfactor Lab will be facilitating a game design workshop to help participants better understand how to analyze existing games and consciously embed values in their own games. Read more

Tiltfactor Laboratory Open House

Friday November 16, 2007
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Hunter College
695 Park Ave.
Hunter North Room 482

On Friday, November 16 the Tiltfactor Lab at Hunter College (http://www.tiltfactor.org) will be holding an open house to showcase our latest work and celebrate with those in the city interested in social impact games!! All are welcome to come enjoy refreshments and music, meet the staff, and explore the range of Tiltfactor projects. Student art will also be on display, and board games and video games will be available to play and discuss.

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