Games For Change Festival 2009
... and to add to Tracy's post, there will be a panel on this year's Games for Change Festival entitled "Documentary Games" with Tracy, Steve Anderson, Emily Verellen and Judith Helfand, and myself as moderator. To reiterate Tracy's point, this is an incredible event, with a unique and exciting merge of game industry folks, NGO's, and academics.
Documentary Games:
As game theory and the practice of making games become recognized as valued pedagogical and cultural processes across a broad spectrum of disciplines, we see forthcoming a movement specific to a new genre — documentary gaming — which will position game systems within a framework that questions the practice, ethics, and identity of games. Can documentary best practices help us negotiate the socio-political and cultural significance of a game? Do the same ethical concerns and the validity of the “truth claim” affect games the way they have historically influenced the efficacy of documentary and journalistic media? Panelists: Steve Anderson, Assistant Professor, Director, Media Arts & Practice Ph.D. Program, University of Southern California; Tracy Fullerton, Professor, USC, Interactive Media; Emily Verellen, Senior Program Officer, Fledgling Fund; moderated by Susana Ruiz, Ph.D. Candidate, Co-founder, Take Action Games.
Any thoughts/suggestions about the notion of documentary games - I'd love to hear them!