Review Fix Exclusive: Games for Change Public Day Today

The 11th Annual Games for Change Festival, in collaboration with Tribeca Film Festival, was held earlier this week in the New York University Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. but don’t fear, if you couldn’t attend, there’s still a chance; for the first time ever the G4C Festival will hold a public day, today, from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. ET.

“[This year], we’re breaking out of the conference hall and into the street,” Asi Burak, president of Games for Change told Review Fix. “So Tribeca is doing every year what they call the Family Street Day, which is huge — 30,000 people throughout the day. It’s April 26, on Saturday, and they have ESPN activities, they have a screening, arts and crafts and for the first time this year they’re going to have games on the street.

“So we succeeded in bringing some great brands like the American Museum of Natural History [and] Zynga, the creators of “Farmville,” they’re going to build a life-sized farm on the street for the kids, so it’s mainly parents and kids but for us it’s a huge move to be much more public facing in Games for Change because I think that in terms of public perception we have a lot of work to do in terms of people understanding that games are very diverse.”

The G4C Festival is the largest gaming event in New York City, with a focus on how digital games can impact society.

“At the core of [G4C] is the idea that people can use games beyond entertainment. Use, play, make. And beyond entertainment means that you have a purpose. Games in our community, mainly the purpose is either humanitarian causes or educational causes,” Burak said. “It’s games for the social good and to advance a problem, to raise awareness, to promote something, sometimes to even change behavior. It became a very diverse spectrum, because we have people making games for kids, something you would expect, but we have people making games for seniors to deal with problems that seniors have. The range is becoming very interesting. Just like you would have with movies or books, it’s a very interesting shift that I’ve seen in the last few years.”