Games for Change in New York Summary #G4C13

So I’m back in dear old Bristol from Games for Change in New York.  Firstly I have to say it was a great event and kudos to the organizers for all their hard work.  Secondly I have to say what a great line-up of speakers.  The keynotes were all amazing and full of fascinating stuff – there was a reason why these people were tagged as ‘though leaders’ in gaming!  Here’s quotes from an article summarising Eric Zimmerman and Brenda Romeros’ talks:

Zimmerman argued that we don’t look for the same kind of world-changing effects from documentary films or books, and we don’t discuss “bookification” or the merit of books as educational tools. He argued that video games do not deserve this kind of scrutiny, and holding them to these higher standards is “like saying a medical simulation for training doctors should also cure cancer.”

and

“It’s not games that need to change,” [Brenda Romero] continued, “we need to change the way we look at things. There’s a zillion different ways we can look at stuff, and we need to look at things from a perspective that is not our own. We need to see the world as others might see it, and make games out of things we normally wouldn’t make games out of.”

Here’s a bit from an article I wrote on the first day’s talks:

In this respect games become the stepping stone to more complex ideas. The simplicity that games bring becomes a routemap to understanding not because they tell you what to think but because they help to ask questions.

One of the main bits of news that got a lot of people tweeting (including me) was this:

And finally hats-off to the winners in the Games for Change awards including Quandry!

And here’s a picture I took of the Empire State building!

The Empire State Building in NYC

PS. The session I was in was the subject of this interesting article on Polygon.