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"What do games teach us about creative culture?" By Andrew Phelps- Serious Play Conference

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"What do games teach us about creative culture?" By Andrew Phelps- Serious Play Conference

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  1. What do games teach us about creative culture? Andrew Phelps Professor & Founding Director School of Interactive Games & Media College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  2. Hi, I’m Andy, and I Make Games. Andy approximately 1978-1981. School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  3. RIT HISTORY of GAMES EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT Winner XNA GS Innovation Award 2007 HONORED REPEATEDLY BY MSR and others NATIONAL REPUTATION of EXCELLENCE INCREDIBLE RESEARCH RECORD NEW EXCITING NATIONAL PROJECTS EVERY YEAR Picture the Impossible Just Press Play Preserving Virtual Worlds IGDA GameSauce Challenge Top 10 PAX 10 Challenge Top 10 NETWORK OF ALUMNI MAKING THE GAMES YOU PLAY Halo Transformers Guitar Hero Spongebob Several Kinect® Titles… School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  4. OUR GRADUATES ARE CURRENTLY CREATING THINGS AT: Artificial Life Microsoft X-BOX & MGS Northrup Grumman Undersea Systems Electronic Arts United States Military and the CIA Vicarious Visions Booz Allen Hamilton Red Eye Studios IBM Odopod SquareEnix Lockheed Martin Sony Computer Entertainment Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) High Moon Nickelodeon MTV Volition Cynergy Systems Inc. Blizzard Entertainment Google Edios mySpace / Fox Interactive Activision …and many more! Big Huge Games Zynga Valve School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  5. Alumni Example: Katie Linendoll Katie Linendoll is an Emmy award-winning TV personality and technology expert, appearing on CNN and the CBS Early Show and regularly contributing her expertise to magazines like People, People Style Watch, Marie Claire, Shape and Fitness. Prior to working on-air, Linendoll gained behind-the-scenes experience with ESPN and won an Emmy as Associate Producer for SportsCenter. Knowing what a producer wants and what it takes to create a show helped her transition to her new role in front of the camera, where she develops and creates all her own segments. Linendoll also co-hosted the Emmy nominated series, 'We Mean Business' on A&E and has blogged for Dell and Oprah.com. She has also worked on projects with AOL, Gizmodo and HP. She recently agreed to a one year deal with Lincoln and signed as a spokesperson for Polaroid, and just started her own show on SPIKE TV. CLASS OF ‘05 School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  6. Alumni Example: Josh Gilpatrick Josh was a GDD student who went to work at Microsoft Games Studios. Built the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ mechanic for Kinect now in Sports & Kinectimals CLASS OF ‘09 School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  7. First, are gamers creative? • ‘Learning’ the game? • Training a response? / Cultivating a response? • Isn’t it just ‘discovery of a rule-set’? • Optimization? School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  8. “Take for example the basic notion of a quest. Within a typical MMOG, a quest provides a description of a task to be performed, basic information about what resources are needed, and a reward to be received when the task is completed. One of the key traits of a questing disposition is the willingness to find, analyze, and evaluate resources needed to complete a task. One’s disposition toward the world is characterized by the belief that if you try hard enough you will find what you need along the way, that the world itself will afford the resources that are needed to solve it. Accordingly, a quest disposition is one which is tied to resources and which focuses on the contingency and possibility, but also which demands a high level of situational awareness.” – Doug Thomas and Seely Brown USC School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  9. How do we explain • Rocket Jumping? • Corpse writing? • Wall Hacking? • Gnome Scouting? • …and several other forms of emergent play? _What seems obvious in hindsight_ _is not predictable_ School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  10. Engagement • Obviously, a lot has now been written about engagement, flow, motivation, etc. School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  11. Flow as Game Addiction • In an irony of ironies, the element that is often misrepresented as “responsible for game addiction” is the very same element that makes games a powerful catalyst for learning, and which forms the basis for scientific inquiry • Human beings are “happy” solving challenges and feeling rewarded. School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  12. Creativity • “enjoyability replaces usability” – M. Gough, Adobe Systems • Directed replaces dictated • Our “10,000 hours” doesn’t necessarily produce anything out of the ordinary, but “playing around” often does School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  13. What we used to say about computers • Once you’ve unlocked the power of the desk-top computer, you’ll be using Apple in ways you never dreamed of. You don’t want to be limited by the availability of pre-programmed cartridges. You’ll want a computer, like Apple, that you can also program yourself. … The more you and your students learn about computers, the more your imagination will demand. So you’ll want a computer that can grow with you as your skills and experience grow. – original Apple ][ literature, courtesy of Ian Bogost, GaTech School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  14. The Assessment Trap • One of the biggest challenges is assessment. A lot of times we are asked to prove the ‘effectiveness’ of a given title or experience by comparing it to a more traditional measure using a standardized instrument. Educational games are a prime example here. And if you aren’t careful, you fall victim to organizing everything around the assessment mechanism – you start off designing a game to teach a mathematical concept, and produce a game that makes someone very adept at taking a standardized test about that concept, but not necessarily better at actually employing that concept in their own work or study. School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  15. The Sheeple Trap • And… the continual challenge of allowing for creativity and gameful solutions: players are smart, motivated, and engaged (if you built a good game). That means they will do things you didn’t expect or design for: often times I see folks trying to account for all possible actions or paths, when a more flexible and less-detailed approach might be the better way to go in addressing the content. School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  16. 10 years of Games@RIT School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  17. Thank You & Questions andy@mail.rit.edu School of Interactive Games & Media B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology igm.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

  18. Useful Links: www.seriousplayconference.com www.seriousgamesdirectory.com www.seriousgamesassociation.com Contact: sbohle@seriousgamesassociation.com

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