SESAME WORKSHOP TOUTS VIDEO GAMES AS 'UNTAPPED OPPORTUNITY'
In 1966, critics of television categorized the medium as useful only for the purposes of entertainment and news consumption. Only a few years before, then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow had called the medium a "vast wasteland." But Joan Ganz Cooney saw something better. That year, she wrote a paper stating that television could be used as a significant device for teaching and childhood development. Ganz Cooney's idea laid the groundwork for the television program Sesame Street, which debuted in 1968 and has been educating and entertaining children around the world ever since.
Now, four decades later, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop sees computer and video games as the next generation media with an ability to leverage its growing popularity and enhance youth development. On June 23, the Center issued a report, Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health, which formally explores interactive entertainment software's potential. The report analyzes how computer and video games can be used to aid children's health and educational development. Game Changer also provides recommendations for the media industry, government, philanthropy and academia on how to harness the appeal of digital games for such purposes.
"Digital games offer a promising and untapped opportunity to leverage children's enthusiasm and to help transform learning in America," the report said. "Research now offers solid evidence that children learn important content, perspectives, and vital '21-st century skills' from playing digital games."
Gary Knell, the chief executive officer of the Sesame Workshop, spoke at a policy briefing on the report and detailed how Sesame Street is already using digital interactive media to educate and enlighten. He highlighted games such as Color Me Hungry, in which Cookie Monster helps children learn proper dietary habits, and Elmo's Brushing Teeth, which teaches proper oral hygiene. He stressed, however, that interested individuals and groups need to expand upon such ideas in order to capitalize fully on the loyalty that children already feel toward video games.
Game Changer recommends a series of public and private sector actions, such as increased government funding for research on educational video games and curriculum assistance for teachers and health care providers who likely would encourage additional investment in non-traditional uses for video games. For the full Game Changer report, please click here.
GAMES FOR HEALTH CONFERENCE SUGGESTS TURNING POINT FOR GENRE
Last month, the Games for Health Project hosted the fifth-annual Games for Health Conference, a two-day event that brought together leaders from the game development and health industries to explore the use and benefits of game technology in health care. The conference was held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio, the Games for Health Project's primary sponsor.
Approximately 350 attendees, including game industry representatives, health care professionals and entrepreneurs, convened in Boston to attend issue-specific sessions that featured experts from organizations such as Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment.
More than 50 sessions highlighted a wide range of topics, from cell biology education to compliance in post-operative breathing exercises. Muzzy Lane Software, for example, teamed with the Federation of American Scientists to create Cell Saver, a game prototype that seeks to help determine how game-based approaches can help improve science achievement in American middle schools. Students in the University of Southern California's game development and design course, meanwhile, developed the rehabilitation game, Breath, to "motivate breathing exercises in post-op surgery patients."
"In general, I think the conference served its purpose: to create an area for people to see the gamut of activity that can be addressed with video games," conference organizer Ben Sawyer told Gamasutra. "This year was a turning point where I clearly saw people realizing that this was an established area of health; forget just an established area of video games. It's here to stay, and has quite a lot of potential to grow."
Last year, the Games for Health conference primarily focused on exergaming, full-body, active video games, including popular titles such as Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and Nintendo's Wii Fit.
The Games for Health Project this year — in response to emerging trends — devoted an equal amount of time and space to the relationship between games and cognitive health. Physical therapy also attracted significant attention, prompting Sawyer to speculate that the topic might receive equal billing at the 2010 conference.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio supports "innovative ideas and projects that may lead to significant breakthroughs in the future of health and health care." For more information, visit www.gamesforhealth.org.
THE ART OF STORYTELLING: VIDEO GAMES AND LITERATURE
In recent years, the entertainment software industry has attracted attention from members of the media, art communities, and general public for the rich graphics and musical scores that pervade today's game titles. Games' complex plot lines and character development, meanwhile, have received relatively little fanfare.
That is beginning to change. With increasing frequency, video games are becoming known as a creative and innovative source of modern literature. Many culture critics now note the rich story-telling in games such as Take Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto IV, which tells of the struggle of an Eastern European immigrant coming to America, as deserving of the same recognition as conventional literature.
Because video games require the players' interaction and choices to move along the story, critics often have discounted video games as a true literary form. The attitude has ignored the literary reality that many acclaimed pen-and-paper writers have created their works in the second-person, relying on the reader to act as a character in the book.
Yet, the intersection of video games and literature goes back further than one might think. Video game writers have used traditional works of literature as the inspiration and source for their subject matter since the earliest video game development. In 1984, science fiction writer Douglas Adams wrote a computer game based on his "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series of books. Her Interactive, Inc. has published games based on the "Nancy Drew" series for over a decade.
More recently, 2K Games' based the acclaimed video game, BioShock, on the objectivist theory that characterizes Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand's books "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." Later this year, Electronic Arts will publish Dante's Inferno, a game based on Italian poet Dante Alighieri's seminal work, "The Divine Comedy."
Each such literary-based title has played an important role in advancing the relationship between video games and literature. As computer and video games continue to attract gamers from non-traditional demographics, literature likely will have an even greater influence on the concepts and beliefs that shape each new title. |
