2007 4th Annual Games for Change Festival June 11, 2007

Please join us for the 2007 4th Annual Games for Change Festival, taking place on June 11 - 12 at Parsons the New School for Design in NYC. Called “an early Sundance of video games” for “socially-responsible game-designers” the festival will bring together leading non-profit organizations, game scholars, and industry experts to explore real world games with real-world impact. Participants include MoveOn, the MacArthur Foundation, MTV, and the UN. This new trend in gaming will showcase games about poverty, global warming, and the Middle East conflict. You'll get a chance to learn how these games are made during the daytime panels and presentations, and you can play and vote on the top games during the festival Expo Night, sponsored by Microsoft.

Please see the festival site here: http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2007/index.php

And press highlights below.

See you there!

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The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060715.GAMES15/TPStory/Education
Activism Has Evolved Beyond Sit-ins
By Tim McKeough
July 15, 2006
…The game is part of a growing breed of digital play that aims to educate users about pressing global issues even as they entertain them. In fact, at a recent conference in New York hosted by the organization Games for Change and Parsons The New School for Design, representatives from MTV mingled with those from the World Bank, the International Center on Non-Violent Conflict and UNICEF. Their shared vision: video games as tools for positive social change... "We see a lot of black and white about games being bad for you, about games destroying our culture and polluting the minds of our children," Games for Change co-director, Suzanne Seggerman says. "But that's coming from people who don't play games -- and who haven't seen these new kinds of games yet."

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/arts/23thom.html
Saving the World, One Video at a Time
July 23, 2006
Video games have long entertained users by immersing them in fantasy worlds full of dragons or spaceships. But Peacemaker is part of a new generation: games that immerse people in the real world, full of real-time political crises. And the games’ designers aren’t just selling a voyeuristic thrill. Games, they argue, can be more than just mindless fun, they can be a medium for change… “What everyone’s realizing is that games are really good at illustrating complex situations,” said Suzanne Seggerman, one of the organizers of the [Games for Change] conference. “And we have so many world conflicts that are at a standstill. Why not try something new? Especially where it concerns young people, you have to reach them on their own turf. You think you’ll get their attention reading a newspaper or watching a newscast? No way.”

NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5517415
Video-Game Designers Target World Peace
by Robert Smith
Morning Edition, June 28, 2006 ·
A group of game designers says that video-game technology can help save the world by raising humanitarian awareness. The creators of free educational games such as Darfur is Dying and PeaceMaker met with humanitarian activists during the third-annual Games for Change conference in New York… “If our youth are turning to games, we who are looking to do social change must meet youth with games”, says Benjamin Stokes, co-director of Games for Change.

Newsweek
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13818063/site/newsweek/
Gaming the Poor
By Allen Madrid
July 11, 2006
“Games are growing up,” says Suzanne Seggerman, co-director of Games For Change, a nonprofit organization that promotes developers of socially conscious games. “They’re mature enough now to finally sustain real world content.” This year’s third annual Games for Change conference, held last month at The New School in New York, included 240 participants, up from 40 in 2004, when the first conference was held.

Voice of America
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2006-07-05-voa32.cfm
Video Game Designers Tackle Real World Problems
By Adam Phillips
Many parents and teachers have often wished that young people would find something more useful to do with their spare time and abundant energies than to play video games, especially those that make sport of violence, death and destruction. Soon, there may be less to complain about, as game developers and social activists collaborate on a new generation of games that are as compelling as virtual worlds, but which also encourage players to learn about, and solve, real world problems… "Video games are a part of life and they are not going away," said co-organizer Benjamin Stokes, as he looked out with evident satisfaction at the 300 or so video game designers, academicians, and social activists excitedly talking together, peering at each other's laptop screens, while waiting for the next panel discussion.

The Daily Telegraph
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/06/29/1699929.htm
'Ethical' computer games take on shoot-'em-up classics
By Jack Fairweather in New York
June 29, 2006
Help is at hand for parents worried about the violent computer games their children play. "Ethical" computer games are finding a toe-hold in a market dominated by shooting and fighting…The games are part of a new breed from software designers, weary of violence, who want to create "real life'' content… "There's nothing intrinsically violent or moronic about computer games,'' said Suzanne Seggerman, who organized the "Games For Change'' conference in New York, where many of the games are being shown for the first time.

CNN.com/ Reuters
Videogame Designers Try to Help Save the World
June 26, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/06/28/games.for.change.reut/index.html
Parents may worry that violent video games are bad for their children, but the technology can help save the world by raising awareness of the world's downtrodden, a group of socially conscious game designers say… The idea is to use video games to educate youth about real-world issues -- fighting poverty, surviving in war-torn Sudan and negotiating Middle East peace… The idea appears to be gaining popularity. Just 40 developers and activists attended the first Games for Change conference in 2004. About 250 people participated this year.

NY Sun
http://www.nysun.com/article/35275
Games Get Serious
BY GARY SHAPIRO
June 29, 2006
Asteroids, Pac Man, and Tetris have come a long way. Video games - generally thought by many to be only about fun - have grown up and become serious.At least that was the message at the Games for Change conference, co-sponsored by Parsons The New School for Design… These games have "real-world content," the conference co-director Suzanne Seggerman said in describing the games displayed and discussed over the two-day parley. "We'd like to make a difference in the world." With gaming revenues robust, serious gamers hope to reach wide audiences. "We have a great opportunity to harness this new medium to address the most pressing issues of our day," she noted.

NY1
http://ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=60777&search_result=1&stid=101
Can Video Games Help Affect Social Change?
By Adam Balkin
July 1, 2006
The same question was explored with television when it first became widely adopted, and now it's being asked of video games. In the following report, NY1’s Adam Balkin looks into whether games can affect social change… “Social change in games is looking at the pressing issues from our day, from health care issues like HIV to poverty to the environment, and saying how can games, a massive entertainment technology, be brought to bear on these pressing issues?” says Benjamin Stokes co-director of Games for Change.

Official Website: http://gamesforchange.org