Sustainable Play: Towards a New Games Movement for the Digital Age
From
USC Interactive Media Division - Games As digital game designers and theorists embark upon developing new methods to address the creative crisis in mainstream game production, this paper suggests a revisitation of the New Games Movement, formed by Stewart Brand and others in the early 1970s in the United States against a backdrop of dramatic war, social and economic change. Insteresting reading for all types of game designers.
Labels: ideas
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Junkyard Sports®
Bernie Dekoven is a wonderful game designer and playful guy. Back in September I wrote about Giant Pick Up Sticks, a game inspired by Bernie's work in the last century (1976) in Philadephia as a part of the centenial celebration in the City of Brotherly Love. This time, I want to introduce you to one of Bernies more recent innovation. The Junkyard Golf Course and Community Building Event with Potluck To quote Bernie "Everybody can play. There are calls to creativity and collaboration, invitations to inclusion, incentives for sharing, and it all somehow connects people to each other and to the world they are creating together." Bernie freely gives you a complete set of intructions for how to play in a do-it-yourself way. An alternative is to get his book JunkYard Sports and get directions for this and many other fun activities. We have done junkyard golf indoors as a part of the NASAGA conference. We did it with the help of this book, (and a call to Bernie).
If you are a trainer or conference organizer and like this idea, but need a truely structured simulation game activity for a conference or teambuilding. Bernie does sell a complete facilitator guide and participants materials for an indoor version called Finger Golf. This version provides you with a structure that helps you not only have fun and create community, but also begin to reflect on community formation and about how you can take more responsibility for your participation and the benefits you receive.
Labels: fun, ideas, people, tools
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Game Design Principles
In her article
Computer Game Design: New Directions For Intercultural Simulation Game Designers Elaine M. Raybourn provides some very useful and simple notions about games in both the online and offine world. Her ideas are very adaptable to developing games using readily available tools such as chat, discussion forums, and e-mail. As my friend
Thiagi once said. "Interaction is in your mind, not in your mouse."
Labels: ideas, tools
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Interactive Micro-economics
A nice collection of
Simulation Games by Peter Wilcoxen at the Maxwell School at Syracuse Universtiy. The collection includes one of my favorite games archtypes sometimes called
"tragedy of the commons". Professor Wilcoxen's game Greater Tuna is a one player version of the game. Other games include:
- Macrosoft--Monopoly behavior in the software industry
- Oil Trader--Arbitrage trading in the oil market
- Splurge==Market research in the soft drink industry
Labels: tools
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