Review Fix Exclusive: Games for Change Coverage Tuesday Wrap-Up

Games for Change, for the first time in association with Tribeca Film Festival, kicked off the 11th annual Games for Change Festival today at the New York University Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

G4C Festival is the largest gaming event in New York City, with a focus far beyond the entertainment spectrum most would associate with video games. Today’s festival leaves entertainment at the core of why people game, but also hones in on the impact these games generate throughout a society.

A strong list of keynote speakers — some in the game development field and others not — is what G4C is all about.

If you couldn’t attend today’s events, you’re in luck. We’ve chosen three of our favorite keynotes from Tuesday to give you an idea of what you missed out on.

Games for Change in the Year 2014

Hosted by Jane McGonigal

At the start of the lineup was award-winning game designer and New york Times’ bestselling author, Jane McGonigal, who decided to give the audience an idea of what she felt the future of gaming would look like, at least in 10 years or so, using a slideshow to visually describe a few games that might some day be real and grab hold of G4C’s attention.

 McGonigal began with “Everwin,” a game where people can gain entry into the lotto by simply adding funds to their savings account; next was “Magical Mystery Diner,” a game that combines that power of the Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming headset and a 3D food printer to convince players that what they’re eating tastes good, or that they’re eating something else — bear with us here. This ultimately would allow people to spend less money on cheaper, possibly even healthier, food and their taste buds won’t have to suffer the consequences.

The third game McGonigal introduced was “Walk My Mile,” another Oculus Rift project, where people can create games based off other individuals’ lives so that players can — here comes the cliche — walk a mile in each others shoes; McGonigal then revealed arguably her most ambitious of the fictional titles, “MegaNFL,” where people must conduct physical activities in order to influence their favorite sports teams’ scores, rather than sitting on their couches and watching the game at home.

Lastly, “Socrates 2.0” was shown, a game that allows people to make use of their interests by getting them active in the community, which then rewards them with points that displays their level of experience that could in turn help them find a career in the field of their respective interest… this one might take a moment to wrap your head around. Good luck.

At the end of her speech, McGonigal let the public vote on which of the aforementioned titles were their favorite. “Socrates 2.0” managed to come out on top, however McGonigal had a different one in mind.

 “My personal favorite is the ‘MegaNFL,’ because I really am obsessed with how we can get people to be more physically active,” she told Review Fix after the keynote. “It’s so hard to get people to exercise and yet we are so interested in sports and physical activity when other people play. So how can we take our passion for other people playing sports and the teams we cheer for and help bring that energy and movement into our real lives?

“Plus, I love my favorite teams and I want to help them, I don’t want to just cheer from behind my [television]. If my team is in the world series I want it to be because I helped them get there.”

“I’ve also worked with Nike,” she added. “[And] I feel like they can make it happen.”

GlassLab / Collaborating for Change

Hosted by Erik Huey, Jessica Lindl, Erin Hoffman and Bobak Ferdowsi

The Games, Learning and Assessment Lab hosted an afternoon keynote that touched on the potential for education in games, more specifically, getting games into middle school classrooms.

Lead Game Designer at GlassLab Erin Hoffman took to the stage today to discuss how the organization provides a model to accelerate the research and development as well as distribution of educational games.

Speaking with Review Fix afterwards, Hoffman briefly explained what the studio’s primary goal is, saying, “We want to put games in classrooms that use data from players’ behaviors in the game, so from playing the game to be reflected back to the players themselves and teachers, to teach kids and teachers new things about themselves through their behavior in the game. So we really just want to leverage ‘play’ as a deep learning experience that’s powered by big data… because that’s the dream [chuckles].”

She later described where she hoped the studio will end up in the years to come.

“I would love to see GlassLab as this portal, a learning game network that has dozens and dozens of games that are built according to this methodology that we have of aligning the game mechanics with the learning, like I want to see a whole genre of those games, games for every subject, to where teachers could just look through this big catalog and say, ‘I want to teach this one thing and I’m going to customize the learning experience of this particular student because I think that this game is going to be especially good for them.”

GlassLab also announced today a collaboration with NASA for their latest project, “Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy,” available now on iOS for iPad.

“Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy” is a futuristic adventure set in the year 2054, where a civilization on Mars has finally been established and students must use critical thinking skills and learn to become a responsible leader.

“[Our goal is to make] the learning experience as engaging as what kids are doing outside of a classroom by their own choice,” General Manager of GlassLab Jessica Lindl told Review Fix. “And through that, through our work with leading edge science, ensuring that we’re making a big impact on the learning trajectory of kids so that they learn better and faster with digital games.”

Block by Block — Using Minecraft in Urban Planning Projects

Hosted by Pontus Westerberg

This one we’ll keep short and sweet.

Digital Projects Officer at UN-Habitat, Pontus Westerberg explained how “Minecraft” is helping to revolutionize building projects. In 2012, the organization partnered with “Minecraft” developer Mojang to create Block by Block, where the two associates would use the hit indie title to involve citizens in the planning and design of public spaces.

Block by Block targets people of all ages, though they focus more on the youth, allowing people even with little-to-no educational background to participate in reconstructing their local public spaces. Westerberg displayed near-identical side-by-side photos of places built in the “Minecraft” universe that ultimately became a reality, made in-game by the community.

You can find the full list of Tuesday’s keynotes — as well as Wednesday and Thursday’s — on Games for Change’s website.