SGS Feature: '2006 Games For Change Conference Wrap'

Today's main feature written for Gamasutra sister site Serious Games Source, which deals with games created for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses, takes a look back at the third annual Games For Change conference, which was hosted in New York City by Parsons The New School for Design on June 27th and 28th. In this extract, writer Gus Andrews reports on a closing keynote delivered by former Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment Raph Koster, during which he gave some harsh criticisms aimed at many of today's serious games: "Games for change, no offense, is just rediscovering propaganda,” he said. "Don't privilege games and think they are the thing which will help you reach the little kids... they're just another form of radio, television... comic books… cave painting, and so on." This echoed something Games for Change co-founder Ben Stokes had said earlier. Stokes noted that developers needed to consider the scope of their projects in terms of other media. Aiming to make a social change game which literally “everyone would play,” he said, is unreasonable. “Just think how silly it would be for all documentary filmmakers to insist on being as popular as Schindler's List, yet a thriving industry exists around documentary film, and it will exist for games for change too. Our goal should be to have enough of the right people play." You can now read the full Serious Games Source feature on the subject, including more from the various panels that took place during the recent event(no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).