Playtesting Systems

In mid-November, I traveled to Vermont to give a talk as part of Johnson State College’s Impractical Practicalities series. I spoke about how games are a ripe medium for examining and redesigning social, political, and economic systems. I also argued that the ways in which we create games and the contexts in which we engage in play are just as critical to change-making as the games themselves, if not more. I concluded by discussing the urgency of play at a time when our economic and environmental systems are very obviously failing.

A very warm thank you to Johnson State for inviting me to speak, and for the students and faculty for participating in that silly and mildly violent balloon popping game.

Download the handout for the talk here.

Allied Media Conference 2012 Drop-in Playpen GamesHappening throughout the conference in the Exhibition Area Want to chill out, play some games, maybe run around a 3D sim world? Come to the Drop-in Playpen! We’ll have a large selection of radical video games, board games, and simulations that you can play on your own or with new friends. If you’ve been working on a game at the AMC, this is the perfect place to playtest it! Dog Eat Dog: A tabletop roleplaying game about the colonization of a Pacific IslandVirtual Detroit: A 3D virtual world simulation to explore “sustainable urbanism” in the cityRoba-Roba: A Pac-Man like game about political corruption in BrazilThe City: A tabletop boardgame about community-building that uses actual resources like electricity and solar panelsUnmanned: A split-screen game about the newest kind of solider: one who remotely drops bombs on foreign soil during the day and night goes home to his family in the suburbs. The McDonald’s Game: A resource management game in which you control every part of the McDonald’s corporation, from the creation of pastures to the branding.A Friendship in Four Colours: A two-player game about collaboration and friendly fire.Dys4ia: an unfair game about hormone replacement therapy. It is autobiographical.Realistic Female First Person Shooter: a satirical game created in response to a men’s rights forum post complaining about unrealistic “strong female character” games.Traitor: A space shooter in which you obey your conscience instead of authority. www.amc.alliedmedia.org
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Allied Media Conference 2012 Drop-in Playpen Games
Happening throughout the conference in the Exhibition Area

Want to chill out, play some games, maybe run around a 3D sim world? Come to the Drop-in Playpen! We’ll have a large selection of radical video games, board games, and simulations that you can play on your own or with new friends. If you’ve been working on a game at the AMC, this is the perfect place to playtest it!

Dog Eat Dog: A tabletop roleplaying game about the colonization of a Pacific Island

Virtual Detroit: A 3D virtual world simulation to explore “sustainable urbanism” in the city

Roba-Roba: A Pac-Man like game about political corruption in Brazil

The City: A tabletop boardgame about community-building that uses actual resources like electricity and solar panels

Unmanned: A split-screen game about the newest kind of solider: one who remotely drops bombs on foreign soil during the day and night goes home to his family in the suburbs.

The McDonald’s Game: A resource management game in which you control every part of the McDonald’s corporation, from the creation of pastures to the branding.

A Friendship in Four Colours: A two-player game about collaboration and friendly fire.

Dys4ia: an unfair game about hormone replacement therapy. It is autobiographical.

Realistic Female First Person Shooter: a satirical game created in response to a men’s rights forum post complaining about unrealistic “strong female character” games.

Traitor: A space shooter in which you obey your conscience instead of authority.

www.amc.alliedmedia.org

Testing Revolutionary Games with Verbs

My workshops get better each time I present them, so I’ve decided to try beta testing new sessions. Recently I did a dry run of Making Revolutionary Videogames with Verbs, a workshop I co-designed and will be co-presenting with Paolo Pedercini at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit. Here’s the description:

Want to make a videogame, but don’t know where to begin? Try starting with something we’re all familiar with: verbs! Whether it’s running or collecting, games are driven by verbs. In this session we’ll look at games in terms of actions and explore how these actions express the messages and values of the game creators. We’ll identify the verbs used in popular games and what these verbs say. Then we’ll modify (“mod”) these games, changing the verbs so they express our own messages and values. This is a paper prototyping session — there will be no computers and no programming!

In the modding section, participants (5 adults and 2 kids) were put into groups of three and assigned a videogame to hack. I provided visual assets and dealt out random “issue” cards, asking the teams to use new verbs and rules to redesign the game so it told the story of the issue they were assigned.

The games that came out of the session were pretty impressive:

  • Mario used a fishing and delivery mechanic to transport food to hungry neighbours, who would then help you fight Bowser, who was sending out Goombas to destroy the food.
  • Pac-Man incorporated RPG elements to tell the story of school bullies. In order to defeat the different types of ghosts/bullies, you needed different skills/fruits such as physical strength, charisma, and empathy.
  • Space invaders became a multiplayer game using a Lemmings-like guidance mechanic to infiltrate G20 proceedings. You could play cooperatively or competitively.

The session went much more smoothly than I expected. Based on my observations as well as direct feedback from the participants, Paolo and I will be tweaking the session plan so it’s clearer and more engaging.

If you want to participate in the live version of Making Revolutionary Videogames with Verbs, come to the AMC!

OER Hack Day

A few weeks ago, an email arrived in my inbox from a wikimedia.org email address that I initially thought was a broad appeal for support. It said some things about Open Educational Resources (OER) and the Hewlett Foundation, neither of which I was familiar with, so I set it aside for later deletion. I’m glad I eventually reread it, as it was actually an invitation to participate in a “Hacking Open Education” day at Harvard. Open education, I learned after some light Googling, is a movement to reduce barriers and increase access to education through the creation, distribution, and modification of open source learning materials. Pretty cool. Light Googling also revealed that the person who had invited me — SJ Klein — seemed like a real person, so I accepted and found myself in Cambridge last week.

The Hack Day took place after the Hewlett Foundation OER Grantees Meeting. Over the 2-day conference, the grantees had come up with dozens of great ideas for supporting and expanding the OER movement. As OER hackers (programmers, teachers, advocates, and designers) our task was to develop prototypes of a handful of ideas, summarized nicely by SJ over on his blog.

I began the day with a group that was working on creating a GitHub-like repository for OERs, bringing some anthropological/design thinking/user experience considerations to the table. As the prototypes began to take shape, I moved to another group which required help wireframing and visualizing a student portfolio platform that would allow for curation and storytelling. The prototype came about through a neat collision of technology, design thinking, and serendipity. It had to be easy to maintain, so it would have Dropbox integration. It had to look lovely, so there would be numerous visualization options — timelines, node maps, gallery style, etc. And perhaps most importantly or uniquely, it had to enable users to tell stories about their education; we were lucky enough to have Matthew Battles of Zeega in the room and able to give us beta access so we could figure out how to integrate this interactive storytelling tool into our prototype.

The whole experience was pretty mind expanding. I met and heard from a ton of interesting people working on things like Open Badges, Finals Club, and Scratch. The conference itself made me wonder how many of my own projects, especially games and workshops, could be released on open education licenses. And the Hack Day was a cool reminder of the kinds of creative sparks that can fly when designers, programmers, and experts in the field in question sit down together at a project’s inception.

I’m really glad I didn’t delete that email right away.

Infographic: Difference Engine Initiative Ripple Effect View high-res The Difference Engine Initiative was comprised of two six-week game jams for first-time women developers. The ripple effect of the DEI has been extraordinary, with participants pursuing careers in game development, creating new community initiatives, and making more games. While some of these successes can be considered under the rubric of “Women in Games,” more have been due to the talent and dedication of the participants, the excitement generated by their games, and their leadership skills. The women of the Difference Engine continue to make awesome things happen. Learn more about the Difference Engine and the games that came out of it: CBCTorontoistGamasutraAV ClubGame SugarIndie GamesButton MashersAll GamesCareer MashLevel Save
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Infographic: Difference Engine Initiative Ripple Effect

View high-res

The Difference Engine Initiative was comprised of two six-week game jams for first-time women developers. The ripple effect of the DEI has been extraordinary, with participants pursuing careers in game development, creating new community initiatives, and making more games. While some of these successes can be considered under the rubric of “Women in Games,” more have been due to the talent and dedication of the participants, the excitement generated by their games, and their leadership skills. The women of the Difference Engine continue to make awesome things happen.

Learn more about the Difference Engine and the games that came out of it:

CBC
Torontoist
Gamasutra
AV Club
Game Sugar
Indie Games
Button Mashers
All Games
Career Mash
Level Save

A Bittersweet Victory in the House of Commons

On February 27th, the House unanimously supported a motion to ensure that First Nations students have access to the same quality of education as non-First Nations students. Although it was a huge victory for the largest youth-led human rights campaign in Canadian history, the story of how the motion finally came to pass is a sad one.

The Shannen’s Dream campaign was named in honour of Shannen Koostachin, a teenager from Attiwapiskat who spearheaded a First Nations student-led movement for equal education before she passed away in 2010 at the age of 15. The youth who continued the fight after her death realized that the Canadian government would not act without external pressure. In early February 2012, a delegation of First Nations youth traveled to Geneva and testified about their experiences at the United Nations. They presented Our Dreams Matter Too, a report created by youth about the state of First Nations education in Canada, and asked the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to conduct an investigation into the inequities.

The media attention generated by the delegation and the report put pressure on all MPs in the House of Commons to demonstrate support for the motion. I’m saddened that these young people had to go to such extraordinary lengths to be heard. However I’m also inspired by the optimism and tenacity of the Shannen’s Dream team. And I’m honoured to have played a small role in this victory by designing the report and treating the children’s stories with care.

About a month from now, Jim Flaherty, Canada’s Minister of Finance, will present the budget bill in the House of Commons. The eyes of thousands of First Nations youth, and their allies, will be on him. Will he keep the government’s promise to them?

*Update: April 24, 2012*

The government earmarked $275 million over 3 years for First Nations education — one of the only lines that increased in this austerity budget. $100 million will go towards programs like early literacy and $175 million to go to building and renovating schools on reserves. However this is just over half of what critics say is required to raise the quality of education up to levels in the rest of Canada.

Read more: Financing Shannen’s Dream — does the federal budget fund educational equality?