via: chronicle.com

How Video Games Can Help in the Classroom, and in the World

By DAVID DEBOLT

Ms. Flanagan, a professor of film and media studies, was recently named the first holder of the digital-humanities chair at Dartmouth College. She is part of a research group, the Games for Learning Institute, that has joined Microsoft Research to study the most efficient ways to use video games in teaching math and science to middle-school students. She is also director and founder of Tiltfactor Laboratory at Dartmouth, which designs games to promote social change.

Q. You started out as a designer of mainstream computer games. What prompted you to begin working on your own?

A. When I was developing commercial software, one of the things that kept coming to mind was questions about the kinds of products we were making. I was thinking to myself, ‘How do we know this game is really educational? What are the ways you measure something like that? How do we know we are addressing diverse audiences?’ I developed this real sense of curiosity about the various ways that things I was making were being used. Sometimes you have a real push to get your product out the door, and you fail to have the time to ask important questions about what games are doing socially and culturally.

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That’s right, since we started selling our Grow A Game cards, folks have been buying them like they were frosted home cooking. Educators, designers, seasoned pros and novices have all found how fun and useful the card deck can be. At all the conferences where we put on workshops, particiapants ask for decks, and to satisfy demand we’re now offering the cards right from on the VAP site. You can go here and get your own set.

We’re working hard to develop new iterations of the cards as part of our Values At Play research program. If you’d like to participate formally by using the cards in our study let us know. If not, we’d still love to know how you’re using the cards and what your thoughts about them are! Check back soon for news about the new playing decks we’re developing for teenagers, children, and more.

Tiltfactor Lab will be releasing its first digital game soon. Proft Seed is a ludic critique of GMO food, and was developed using the Values At Play methodology and tools like the Grow A Game Cards. Check the Tiltfactor site soon for an update!<

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.

Big thanks go out to Michael Abbott who wrote a couple great articles about our Grow A Game Workshop at GLS! You can read his articles on his own blog The Brainy Gamer and also on Gamasutra.

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

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

Designing a great game requires a subtle grace. Even the loudest, most garish, monster slaughter of a first person shooter requires a deft hand and critical eye in the design phase. While I respect and enjoy big sandbox games, massive RPGs, and photorealistic car racing, there is no question that the greatest games of all time are the simplest. One of the oldest board games, Go, uses a grid and two sets of monochromatic stones. It is also a game of such sprawling complexity and boundless emergence that scientists have yet to build the computer to defeat the best human players. Checkers, poker, Tetris, these are games of few rules and endless entertainment. It is important that we as game designers think about these examples, and take a minute to contemplate the process of game design. Read more