Game Developers Conference 2008 - (Page 51) Serious Games Summit During this session, a group of panelists will each summarize their unique efforts to create games commissioned in support of a broadcast show, including projects for major networks such as Discovery Channel, BBC, NBC, and The History Channel. The panel will then discuss the interesting opportunities that can arise to meld TV and videogames into a new product; one that’s not yet another retail game licensed from a children’s show or an advergame derived from a generic show launch marketing campaign. The goal is to spur discussion about how games can be adjuncts to broadcast shows providing new experiences and community interactions, including the production of educational experiences related to the underlying narrative or documentary forms that many such games for TV projects have taken. involving EA’s sims franchises will be detailed including the recent partnership with BP that explores causes and consequences of global warming. Common to all the examples will be a sense of the creative business, design, partnership, and technology strategies that need to and can come together between major commercial game development and publishing companies and organizations looking to exploit the power of games in new and exciting ways. Meditation & relaxation with games ian bogost (persuasive games), tracy Fullerton (university of southern california), Wild Divine 5:30-6pm This novel session looks at three extremely diverse projects that combine relaxation, meditation, and contemplation with games. Each project will demo its game and showcase the current state of the project, the insights gained in doing it, and the current outcomes from development. These games include: wiLD DiVinE’s journEy to wiLD DiVinE, a biofeedback based game that is has had a successful commercial debut and is used by wellness professionals worldwide; thE night journEy from USC’s Experimental Game Lab is a game that “takes [players] through a poetic landscape, a space that has more reflective and spiritual qualities than geographical ones. The core mechanic in the game is the act of traveling and reflecting rather than reaching certain destination—the trip along a path of enlightenment;” Finally Ian Bogost’s GURU mEDitation is game development retro style, a fully realized meditation game for the Atari 2600 which utilizes Amiga’s Joyboard product to allow people to experiment with sitting quietly in meditation. All three projects ask the same basic question: what novel gameplay can be developed that enables players to become still, contemplative, and relaxed in a truly meditative state. Like many serious game efforts, these ideas fly in the face of what most non-gamers believe about games and thus work to dispel a narrowcasting sentiment of what games can be. Serious Games Summit being brian crecente: using an off-the-shelf role playing game to teach Journalism nora paul (university of Minnesota) 5-5:30pm This session details The University of Minnesota’s efforts to develop a role-playing game to teach journalism. Working together, professors Kathleen Hansen and Nora Paul lead a team that modified Bioware’s NEVErwintEr nights to teach interview techniques and more to budding journalism students. The process of using an off-the-shelf game engine offered unique challenges and insights into how others might attempt to build future serious games. Matching common RPG play (especially Bioware ones!) to journalism was a perfect fit. In the game, students move around Harperville and cover the story of a toxic spill caused by a train derailment. Students must investigate and find their angle to the story and file it. NPCs will offer no comment and react to your style of questioning as well. After detailing the project, discussion will turn to lessons learned and how the next version of the project is moving along providing insight into the iterative learning process many serious game designs require of their proponents. coffee break 4-4:10pm out of the box: eA Fuels new ideas with maDDEn & sims titles rob Moore (eA), steve seabolt (eA) 4:10-4:50pm Electronic Arts is the largest third party publisher in the world with some of the industry’s most successful titles. What if those brands could be extended in new ways beyond core entertainment to create fun new projects? During this session, attendees will hear about several projects EA has undertaken that involve three of its most successful products ever, maDDEn, simcity, and thE sims. Part one of this session will showcase EA Sports Licensing of its football game technology to XOS Technologies for a PlayAction Simulator which was recently credited with being part of LSU’s training program for its national championship over Ohio State. In addition, several projects Visit www.gdconf.com for daily coverage of GDC 2008 51 http://www.gdconf.com/?cid=GDC08_showguide http://www.gdconf.com/?cid=GDC08_showguide
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