I'm Serious.net

GDC: Not a Banner Year for Serious Games Summit

  I've been trying to put into words the flat feeling I was left with after the Serious Games Summit.

Perhaps it's the word "summit" that generates expectations too lofty to be achieved. I had dreams of heated conversation about the challenges within and for the serious games industry. I envisioned impassioned discussions about learning design/game design mashups. I was yearning for all the new game concepts that would fuel and challenge us for another year. Such was not to be.

Rather, it was a bit stale and under-attended. Sure, a few more corporate initiatives have been funded, but not for any novel purposes. There were a couple of new tools on the market that claim to make it easier to author/script/develop learning games. But all in all, it was same old same old.

This leaves me with vague unease about where serious games are going - or, better, where the conference is going. My sense is that the company that puts on GDC keeps going to the same people to help them with their programming for serious games. This inevitably self-referential approach effectively eliminates new ideas or new entrants to the discussion.

I raise this point because I've wondered for some time whether a conference focused on the ways technologies for entertainment are used for learning and productivity should be co-located with a conference for game developers. There are great benefits, to be sure, but so many topics get left off the table. Important topics, like achieving the right balance between learning and game play; or, cross-cultural play styles and their impact on serious game design; or, whether music enhances learning equally well in story-driven games as in strategy games.

If you are a serious games professional, are your professional development needs being met? Your professional networking needs? If so, how and where? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm serious,
Anne

GDC Anyone? Taking meetings...

  I'm excited - GDC is almost here. All you folks partying your hearts out in Austin better rest up, 'cuz the real action's coming up next week. Honestly, if you're interested in designing games or using game technologies in the service of learning and you aren't planning to be in San Francisco, you need to re-think your priorities for next week.

I'm finalizing my conference schedule now. I have a few slots available, and would love to meet people who have projects to share or work to discuss. Please let me know immediately - EMAIL ONLY, please (anne@imserious.net) - if you would like to arrange to meet.

I'm serious,
Anne

Go Boilermakers!

  Purdue University has announced the opening of its Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments. A reception is being held February 12 to mark the official opening.

As readers know, I have many times decried the lack of formal programs for those wishing to study the design and implementation of games and other immersive environments for learning. Kudos to Purdue and Dr. William Watson for bringing this center to life.

I'm serious,
Anne

Show Them Your Stuff!

Do you have a great serious game concept? Looking for a reason to build it? How about world-wide renown and a pile of money - is that reason enough? OK - I'm stretching it a bit, but this is a great chance for students and professionals to try their hands at designing and developing a serious game. Prizes will be awarded!

Whosegame, an alpha version from Orange (a French? developer), intends to be a portal for serious games built in Flash. In this early stage of the portal's life, a serious game design contest is being conducted at the site.

According to the site, "[y]ou can submit as many serious games as you want on the following topics:

• improve your knowledge in the telecommunications field
• be an eco-citizen with the help of telecommunications
• acting against isolation and exclusion thanks to telecommunications"

They even give you some examples to get your imagination going.

C'mon now - you have 3 months. Any professors out there looking for a class project?...

I'm serious,
Anne

It's Back to School - Unless You Want to Be a Game Designer

  Richard Bartle (I include his book, Designing Virtual Worlds, in the Reading List <- for serious game designers) spoke this week at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival (poorly scheduled for the same time as SIGGRAPH). You will, of course, remember Dr. Bartle for being co-creator of the first ever multi-user dungeon (MUD); Bartle is currently a Principal Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Department of Computing and Electronic Systems at Essex University. I'd say all that adds up to some chops - at least when it comes to game design and higher education.

You can imagine, then, how thrilled I am that Bartle is echoing my clarion call for more and better game design and development programs at the university level. In an amusing twist, he laments that public money in the UK is going toward games-as-anything-but-games program(me)s as a means of legitimizing the industry, but I digress.

Most interestingly, Bartle notes that only "modern" UK universities, those that used to be polytechnic or vocational schools, are offering degree programs in this space. The implication of this is that those who are entering the world of game production will do so without benefit of any particular liberal arts or philosophy education prior to receiving a degree.

In recent months, I have had discussions with two public universities and a private/corporate post-secondary institute, both interested in introducing serious gaming into their curricula (each from a different part of the institution: corporate development, journalism, computer science, student placement). In each case, we have talked about the difference between game design and game production, and how integrated these activities are. For the moment, the complexity of the knot that represents the practice of game development together with the complexity that is a university system have derailed these organizations in their progress.

Failing to meet this challenge head-on today, however daunting it may seem, will only make for a thornier problem tomorrow, if Katie Salen is to be believed (she is!). In addition to having co-authored the seminal text for Intro to Game Design and her faculty post at New School (also on my Reading List), she has designed a middle school for the New York Public School system based entirely on gaming. She spoke just this week at SIGGRAPH, where she pointed out that kids don't think of themselves as gamers; the concepts of networks, play, and everyday life are already intertwined in their experience. "Gaming is more collective, not individual," she says. "Kids are learning how to play from each other and mentor from each other."

But to play and mentor together successfully, kids need games that provoke their minds in appropriate ways. They need social gaming networks that facilitate positive behaviors and sideline negative ones. They need games that match both learning requirements and social/emotional maturity. They need a means to use/manipulate/interact with content in ways that they can't otherwise do in their classrooms or homes.

Who will design and develop these games for the next set of middle school students? Who will have the technical skills and the liberal arts knowledge to bring all this together?

Understanding learners' minds, learning content, and learning behavior requires study together with experience in the world. Developing successful serious games requires this understanding. The few programs (<- look left) available to those seeking such knowledge and understanding expose students to a cross-section of the liberal arts together with technical skills. But they are oh-so-few in number.

I'm serious,

Anne