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Would You Play a Game That Had No Challenge?
This post is part one in a series of two. So a couple of months back, when I went to hear Anna Anthropy talk at the NYU Game Center, I got into a brief conversation with her about the notion of...
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How Many Ways Can Games Challenge Us?
This post is part two in a series of two. Climbing mountains, teaching inner city high school kids, going on scavenger hunts, staging jewel heists, only stepping on every other sidewalk square. We all...
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Crowdsourcing Games for Change
A screenshot from a game for change called MOLT, in which players diagnose malaria. There’s something magical about the math of crowdsourcing. You bring a bunch of people together and collectively they...
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Can a Game Ruffle Your Political Biases?
I’m going to be volunteering at the upcoming Games for Change Festival and in the lead up to the festival itself, I thought interviewing some of the nominees for the Games for Change Awards would be a...
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Games for Change Festival Recap
So I volunteered for both days of the Games for Change Festival and the summit beforehand, and it ended up being a pretty awesome experience. From the games arcade where you could play all of the Games...
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Choosing a Nonprofit vs. For-profit Game for Change
A screenshot from the online platform and the Zamzee device itself. While AAA video game titles might have multi-million dollar marketing budgets, if you’re making games for change, you probably have...
View ArticleBrief Hiatus
I’ll be taking a hiatus from the blog for a few weeks while travelling. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to line up guest posts in my absence so I’ll be sharing more about games for change with you once I...
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Seeking Some Answers, Finding Others
The starting character in all Scratch games, who I've unofficially dubbed Scratchy. I ask a lot of questions, which can make me tiresome company at times, especially since I have a particular fondness...
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Crowdsourcing Thoughts on the Future of Education
Meet the six Zed Omegas. I sometimes find myself saving the most daunting tasks on my plate for later… and later… and later. Which is unfortunate because often they’re the ones that most need doing....
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The Cost of Openness in Games
In fiction. especially postmodern fiction, there’s a trope of characters who mutiny against their author (The People of Paper, Six Characters in Search of an Author, At Swim-Two-Birds, etc.). It’s a...
View ArticleComment on The World of Warcraft of the Games for Change Space by J Li
Yes, yes, yes!! Thank you so much for this article. I have been working in this space for a long time and at a loss for how to put it. Let’s make Games for Good that are also Good Games! If you play a...
View ArticleComment on The World of Warcraft of the Games for Change Space by jspiro
J Li, Thanks for the feedback. Out of curiosity, what was the game that gave you magical powers of ecological modification? -Josh
View ArticleComment on The World of Warcraft of the Games for Change Space by jspiro
Greg, That looks like a cool MMO4C you’ve got there. I like the animation and the way instant level ups and gradual pacing of information really helps suck the player in. I’d be curious to see insights...
View ArticleComment on Civics Games: The Other Call of Duty, Part 1 of 2 by Gene Koo
“Most large systems have game-like elements” because large systems, in order to stay functional, have rules, as do games. The elements that are broken, by McGonigal’s definition of “game,” is the...
View ArticleComment on Civics Games: The Other Call of Duty Part 2 of 2 by Gene Koo
Thanks for the shout-out! I clearly don’t keep up with blogging as much as I’d like but some very belated thoughts in response to this. I had first thought about using game mechanics to augment civic...
View ArticleComment on Civics Games: The Other Call of Duty Part 2 of 2 by jspiro
Gene, Thanks for the feedback. I’ll be sure to check out these games. I’ve been interested recently in the limitations of mechanics that make a player feel frustrated but also, as a byproduct, give...
View ArticleComment on Can Any Game Be Made a Game for Change? by Natalie
I don’t have any comments regarding Words with Friends, but I did want to thank you on your ruminations on games for change in a different capacity from which we normally think of them. You’re right,...
View ArticleComment on Would You Play a Game That Had No Challenge? by Greg
We need both kinds of games. I enjoyed dys4ia (yeah. it’s not fun that people have to go through stories like this one… this game does a great job of raising awareness). Sometimes I play...
View ArticleComment on Would You Play a Game That Had No Challenge? by jspiro
Greg, I hadn’t heard of NetHack, but after reading a bit about it and other intentionally/ mindbendingly hard games, it made me wonder if there’s another category of challenges in which you face them...
View ArticleComment on Can a Game Ruffle Your Political Biases? by Brett A McCall
Josh! I found you here.. Noticed this blog! Nice work!! It was great to work with you at the festival. I have some ideas for staying in touch and would love to collaborate with you. bam
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