New Book Goes 'Beyond Fun'

Drew Davidson offered this press release for a new book on the Serious Games Listserv today:

Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) Press debuts the publication of “Beyond Fun: Serious Games and Media” this month. The book features the work of more than 15 international contributors examining how games and media can impact learning.

Topics include cheating and violence in video games, the use of games in classrooms, and how media tools such as simulations and blogs can foster learning and a new digital, procedural literacy. Instead of completely separate individual articles, the contributors to “Beyond Fun: Serious Games and Media” have orchestrated the articles together, reading and writing as a whole so that concepts across the articles resonate with each other.

“We’re excited to release ‘Beyond Fun’,” says Drew Davidson, ETC Press Editor and Director of ETC in Pittsburgh, “it has evocative articles written by leading practitioners in the fields of education, learning, games and media.”

“Beyond Fun” is the second book published by ETC Press, following the initial release of “stories in between: narratives & mediums @ play” which explores the interplay between stories and media. “Stories in between” focuses around the transmedia experience of “Myst” as it moves across media from games to books to comics and more.

The ETC Press is an academic and open-source publishing imprint that distributes its work in print, electronic and digital form. Inviting readers to contribute to and create versions of each publication, ETC Press fosters a community of collaborative authorship and dialogue across media. ETC Press represents an experiment and an evolution in publishing, bridging virtual and physical media to redefine the future of publication.

For more information, please visit: http://etc.cmu.edu/etcpress

The book looks very interesting. Here’s the write-up from the ETC Press site:

This book focuses on strategies for applying games, simulations and interactive experiences in learning contexts. The contributors orchestrated this collection together, reading and writing as a whole so that concepts resonate across articles. Throughout, the promises and problems of implementing games and media in learning experiences are explored. The articles have been authored by Clark Aldrich, Ian Bogost, Mia Consalvo, William Crosbie, Drew Davidson, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Melinda Jackson, Donna Leishman, Michael Mateas, Marc Prensky, Scott Rettberg, Kurt Squire, David Thomas, Siobhan Thomas, Jill Walker Rettberg, and Jenny Weight.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License

The articles in the book are from two special issues of On The Horizon, published in 2004 and 2005. The book is a free download through Lulu.com, and is freely distributable for non-commercial purposes, which means professors and teachers can host the electronic version on their own servers and let students use it for free. A printed version is available for $24.95.

Amy Jussel, HASTAC, and MIT Press’ Open Access Books in the MacArthur Series

I was familiar with Amy Jussel’s excellent Shaping Youth blog, because she linked to a post of mine on exergaming a while back. Recently, Jussel shook some corporate trees by taking Target to task for some suggestive advertising. Target essentially brushed her off since she’s “just” a blogger, which resulted in a firestorm of criticism from the blogosphere (ouch, bad PR … and negative posts last forever in cyberspace). The New York Times took up her story, resulting in even more bad PR for Target.

Anyway, I was perusing Jussel’s blog when I discovered an entry in which she mentioned the MacArthur Foundation’s new book series with MIT Press. Her entry linked to HASTAC.org, which stands for Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory.

The MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning is available through MIT Press in paper format. However, thanks to the foundation’s funding, MIT Press is offering the texts in digital format free. Of most likely interest to readers of this blog will be, The Ecology of Games. Here is the TOC:

Foreword
Mizuko Ito, Cathy Davidson, Henry Jenkins, Carol Lee, Michael Eisenberg, Joanne Weiss
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: vii–ix.

Toward an Ecology of Gaming
Katie Salen
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 1–17.

Part I: Learning Ecologies

Learning and Games
James Paul Gee
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 21–40.

In-Game, In-Room, In-World: Reconnecting Video Game Play to the Rest of Kids’ Lives
Reed Stevens, Tom Satwicz, Laurie McCarthy
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 41–66.

E Is for Everyone: The Case for Inclusive Game Design
Amit Pitaru
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 67–86.

Part II: Hidden Agendas

Education vs. Entertainment: A Cultural History of Children’s Software
Mizuko Ito
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 89–116.

The Rhetoric of Video Games
Ian Bogost
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 117–139.

The Power of Play: The Portrayal and Performance of Race in Video Games
Anna Everett, S. Craig Watkins
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 141–164.

Part III: Gaming Literacies

Open-Ended Video Games: A Model for Developing Learning for the Interactive Age
Kurt Squire
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 167–198.

Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming
Jane McGonigal
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 199–227.

Education Unleashed: Participatory Culture, Education, and Innovation in Second Life
Cory Ondrejka
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 229–251.

Why Johnny Can’t Fly: Treating Games as a Form of Youth Media Within a Youth Development Framework
Barry Joseph
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 253–266.

Glossary
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 267–273.

Games Index
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning: 275–278.

CFP: 5th Annual Games For Change

G4C CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2008

Games for Change is happy to announce a call for proposals for the
5th Annual Games for Change Festival on June 2 – 4 at Parsons, the
New School for design in New York City.

PROPOSALS ARE DUE FEBRUARY 11th to events at gamesforchange.org.

Confirmed speakers include Jim Gee and Henry Jenkins in a keynote
conversation (in honor of our Fifth!) and many others!

Exciting new activities and partners are in the works, including a
day-long 101 workshop for those new to the field (aimed especially at
non-profits) on the first day of the festival June 2nd, confirmed
presenters there include Barry Joseph (Global Kids), Eric Zimmerman
(GameLab), Heather Chaplin, (journalist/author) Katie Salen (Gamelab
Institute of Play) Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games) and Alan Gershenfeld
(E-Line Ventures, formerly of Activision). Along with 2 full days of
festival programming on June 3rd and 4th, there will be media and
funders briefings, working group breakfasts, Expo Night and lots of
networking!

For a list of panel criteria, please see below.

Please send your panel proposal to events at gamesforchange.org

We look forward to seeing your proposals! New voices and
perspectives welcome!

Suzanne

CRITERIA:
- The best way to get a sense of what kind of panels we do, please
see our previous events: 2006 & 2007: http://www.gamesforchange.org/
conference/2006
http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2007
We are looking for:
- Presenters with both expertise and the ability to communicate their
knowledge effectively and engagingly – don’t be dull!
- Lively discussions rather than dry Powerpoint presentations
- A diversity of opinion is best. Try to include differing
viewpoints, a little constructive conflict, a lively debate
- Panels can be 45 mins, 60 mins or 90 mins (in special circumstances)
- No advertisements! No product presentations or software tutorials
- Show your game during the Expo Night, not during your panel
- You can show parts of the game, gameplay specifics, etc. to
illustrate or clarify a point
- Moderators can be non-experts, though should be well-informed and
good at sparking discussion. Best if they are neutral parties, not
product-promoters. Journalists are great, other possibilities
include professors, department heads, etc. People who speak often in
front of classes or audiences.

Suzanne Seggerman
President, Co-founder
Games for Change
http://www.gamesforchange.org

Ben Sawyer's Top 10 Myths Surrounding Serious Games

Ben Sawyer over at Digitalmill announced on his seriousgames listserv a new article recently published by The Escapist. “Ten Myths About Serious Games” explores common misconceptions surrounding the industry. It’s a good read, and I won’t recap all of it here, but one of the highlights is the myth, “Serious Games Aren’t Fun.”

We saw this idea argued in the Bogost/Peters controversy earlier this year. It seems some feel that any serious elements within games automatically preclude the possibility of fun within the game. Likewise, fun games should preclude serious elements. Sawyer sums it up this way:

Sure, there are times when serious games lack the joy of play that at times disproportionately drives commercial games, but people absorb media for many different reasons, only one of which is for fun. Any number of necessities and other motivational purposes also come into play. To think fun is the only reason users play games isn’t giving people much credit. If anything, serious games are more than fun.

Sawyer also explores questions surrounding academic influence, military influence, and social factors going into the creation of serious games.

I got a lot out of the seriousgames listserv during my stint working in higher ed, spending much time lurking in conversations between academics, authors, and industry professionals. Recently I jumped back onto the listserv, and found these conversations are still going strong.

Sawyer concludes his article by stating it is important to combat the myths perpetuated in a young field like serious games, because too often a lie left unchallenged becomes the truth.

References
Sawyer, B. (2007, October 30). Ten myths about serious games. The Escapist. [Online]. Available: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues
/issue_121/2575-