Jamie Antonisse

It's time for me to come clean. I've been blogging, I just haven't been blogging here.

I've written a few entries over at Pop Ten, a blog that dances between art, music, movies, games, politics and other miscellania, and I plan to continue writing there in concert with the IMD blog.

Just in time for the Meaningful Play Conference, I've updated the Hush site with information, images, and links to resources for Rwanda and Human Rights.

http://www.jamieantonisse.com/hush

Just a few weeks ago, Peter Brinson bravely wrote a post for the IMD blog that was, in essence, a call to all readers to vote. In it, however, he was slightly apologetic for using the Interactive site to talk about the election.

In recent days, I've been wondering if that apology was necessary. Not all of us are politically minded, and we certainly don't all share the same political views. But I think it's absolutely appropriate to use this space to reiterate Peter's equal opportunity call.

If you are in a swing state, a safe state, any state at all, your registration deadline is looming. If you have not done so, please get your ass on the roster so you can vote on November 4th.

We owe it to ourselves to participate in this moment because, among other things, we are a community of players and designers. We have, each of us, spent a large chunk of our lives thinking about participatory systems, games large and small, games built on random chances and strategic masterstrokes, games of cooperation and heated conflict.

For the 300 million players out there, a United States Presidential election is a game of maddening, deceptive elegance. You are given a simple choice between two (or more) people. All you have to do is check a box based on your knowledge of who these people are and what they might do with the time ahead. And that's where the game gets complicated; information and speculation become hard to separate as voices clamor and compete with each other to TELL you the answers, to TELL you how to choose.

At some moments, that choice might seem difficult, or even futile. You might be tempted to believe your individual piece cannot move the game among so many others, or even that the choice itself won't make a difference.

If you fall for that bad logic, if you don't show up, you lose your turn. For four years, you will have lost your right to feel wise or angry, betrayed or validated. That's a hell of a penalty.

This election has been a strange game, a loud and sometimes frustrating game, but I can guarantee you it is the greatest game you will ever be a part of. No other single decision in your life will have the worldwide impact of the decision made on that day. The information is out there: step away from the controller for a second, consider your choice, and wherever you are, cast a vote.

I had a great time at the Meaningful Play conference last week. It seemed a little strange packing up, mid-thesis-work, and make a 12-hour journey to Lansing Michigan, but it was absolutely worth it, because:

Sean recently posted an excellent research paper that touches, among other things, on the notion of games as "safe spaces". If you haven't read it, or at least skimmed it, then in the words of the great Will Ferrell James Lipton, do yourself a favor.

"I'll found a civilization/be a serial killer/perform surgery on a sea lion/fight a Clone War in this safe space, and it won't affect me at all!"