March 4, 2007
With the Serious Games Summit kicking off tomorrow at GDC, it seems like a good time to mention a new initiative designed to educate would-be designers on how to use available tech to create games that are designed to send a message.The new effort, dubbed the Serious Games Tutorial, bills itself as "the first training retreat dedicated to serious games design and project development," the tutorial will be offered in several North American locations this year, including San Francisco, Orlando, Washington, D.C., Toronto and Chicago.
Commenting on the program, Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Serious Games Initiative said:
Serious games is a growing field with many unique elements, and its growth depends on getting more people - both sponsors and developers - deeply educated on how to use games in new ways.
Comments
Hannah speaks the truth, live by this wise young lady's words.
As far as I know, you don't... there are plenty of artists at any given game company who couldn't write a Hello World program if their lives depended on it.
I was actually being sarcastic about COBOL. I just don't understand why you need a background in computer science to write dialog and storyboard video games. Maybe if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't skip over cut scenes and dialog so much.
You need to know C++ if you're a programmer, but I've never heard of COBOL being a requirement for any game industry job ;)
Of course, the more languages you know the better, but only because it tells your prospective employer that you're good at learning new things.
I'd like to play a Serius game....
Can you elaborate as to why this type of game is reprehensible? (That's my wording, but manipulative and dishonest seem to fit this bill) Shoddy direction/quality aside, games like Dafur is Dying and Sept. 12th are basically persuasive essays done in another medium for the purpose of providing a unique perspective on the message. A perspective that perhaps is not possible in other media. There is a long history of media with a message - "Blood on the Asphalt" driver's ed film strips, to name an egregious example.
I guess I fail to see where this becomes an issue simply because it falls ito a 'game' category. I realize that there varying degrees of honesty in media's (mis-)use, but this is a similar issue to bias - if you recognize the intent of the game (bias), you can learn from it despite the slant to it.
My post is more directed at your 2nd post: I applaud your 'suspicion' from the 1st post, because that suspicion leads people to be more media aware. But, your 2nd post seems to single out games, and that's where my question lies: How are 'serious games' with a message more objectionable than an Ann Coulter book (wholly biased, elongated persuasive essay) ?