Now in our 6th year, Digital KidsConference 2012 takes place April 25-26, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA. at the Pasadena Convention Center. Digital Kids provides companies the critical information they need to build successful online and mobile products and services for kids. The show features 95 speakers in 5 conference tracks, including:
These experts will share their insight on building, managing and monetizing services, products and interactive content for digital kids and connected youth. This is your opportunity to gain the latest insight on mobile and iPad apps, social games, social media, virtual worlds, and more – all targeting kids and youth.
I combed through the schedule and am particularly interested in these panels…
(from left) Laird Malamed, Laurel Felt, and George Rose grin post-panel discussion on the business of impact games
On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, I moderated a discussion with Activision executives Laird Malamed and George Rose that considered impact games in terms of business models and market prognostications (as opposed to pedagogy, assessment, design, etc). Co-hosted by USC Impact Games (a cross-campus group that I co-chair) and the USC Marshall Society & Business Lab, this event introduced undergraduate business majors to the field, as well as united like-minded scholars university-wide.
While the definition (as well as the terminology — impact game vs. serious game) is contested, one might characterize an impact game as a game that has been designed for a purpose beyond pure entertainment. While the game must entertain in order to effectively engage users’ attention, it aims to impact users’ knowledge, attitudes, and/or practices. Impact games have taught players about international conflicts (as in USC Impact Games co-chair Susana Ruiz’s Darfur is Dying), emotional regulation strategies (as in GameDesk‘s Dojo, the focus of my dissertation), and the pathways to and protocols for college access (as in USC Collegeology‘s Application Crunch and Mission: Admission). They have provided contexts for exercising (as in the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox Kinect), rehabilitating (as in the work of Marientina Gotsis with the USC Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center), accessing tailored health plans (as in My Fitness Coach 2), and building community (as in USC Annenberg Innovation Lab‘s ParTour).
A FEW TAKEAWAYS According to Laird:
Funding — Sponsorship seems a more reliable source of funding than short-term and/or volatile grants. Find companies that support your goals, that want to support/celebrate these goals — principally for-profit businesses that would benefit from being associated with the project. If the outcome is social awareness/understanding, that’s a tougher sell…
Sustainability — Can’t think of a game in absence of a sustainability model, even going into the concept of it, even outlining/coming up with a design. It’s okay to say, in the case of an impact game, there is no business model for this, but what’s not okay is to add it in at the end (similar argument goes for assessment). When you’re evaluating design and deciding what to cut, you don’t cut the things that you’re selling/marketing/getting sponsored for. Another lens to look through that should be done in an iterative fashion. Take multiple passes to consider technology, art, and sustainability factors. No one lens is the right blanket way to do it.
Horizon — Are you making one per year or one every few years? Does it have to survive more than three years (that’s a long time for an interactive project to survive, it will look dated)? It’s more like you’re creating an event that will be online for a 1000 days vs. creating an enduring product. iPhone games being a good example to look at in terms of life-span synced with business plan and goals.)
According to George:
Product development and marketing — You’re creating a product that does something novel, or does better or more efficiently a legacy product. You must overcome built-in resistance from the idea that games and screentime are frivolous and unnecessary, reading books onscreen isn’t real reading, etc. In-fighting among entrenched, interested entities.
Future directions — Impact games are used robustly in Europe to inform citizens about corporate social responsibility. Stateside, we may see growth in this sector as well as in the areas of exergames and rehabilitation, among others.
—–
Here is our PR blurb, a better-than-nothing video of the event, our agenda, and a few pix snapped during the discussion and immediately afterwards:
PUBLICITY The Business of Impact Games: A moderated discussion with gaming executives
From Darfur is Dying to Sim City, the field of “impact” or “serious” games is on the rise. Panelists will discuss what it takes to build up a market for these games and offer strategies for developing and selling commercial products. They will also explore these games’ tremendous potential for inspiring global change and bringing awareness to various issues, from education to public health.
Panelists: Laird Malamed, Adjunct Faculty, USC School of Cinematic Arts and President, Creative Learning Technologies; George Rose, former Chief Legal Officer and Chief Public Policy Officer and current Senior Consultant to Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard
Moderator: Laurel Felt, Doctoral Candidate at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
AGENDA
1. Introductions: (5:05-5:10 pm)
Tell me more about your background and experience. Chronologically, please share your titles, affiliations, and years spent in each position.
2. Definitions: (5:10-5:20 pm)
What are “serious” or “impact” games? Why the vernacular distinction? What are the potential problems as well as potential benefits of each term? Considering the interdisciplinary nature of this field, how should we move forward regarding a shared (if not, common) language? Issues of “perception” (i.e. games, in the general public’s mind, are not to be taken seriously).
3. Personal Connections: (5:20-5:35 pm)
Why do YOU care about serious or impact games? What brought you from a more purely commercial origin to working in this philanthropically-influenced domain? Was there a key moment or insight, a seminal piece of literature or game, that changed your way of thinking and/or inspired a new agenda? Why should the commercial game industry take this field seriously? How is productive collaboration fostered in a space typically (and perhaps, necessarily) inhabited by multiple cultures?
4. Business Considerations: (5:35-5:50 pm)
Let’s talk about practical strategies for developing, disseminating and selling these products/experiences commercially. How do we assemble productive diverse teams, monetize ethically and significantly, and get these games out there? How can teams and businesses plan in a sustainable way?
How can academic game programs and business programs educate students to co-experiment and innovate around new business models for projects/services that seek to make a profit as well as advance social justice and education? For example, past one grant-funded project, how can a studio/developer continue to create high-quality products and keep a roof over her head while competing (or, at least, existing in parallel with) with richly funded commercial entities?
5. Personal Insights/Advice/Lessons Learned + Future Forecasting: (5:50-6 pm)
What have you discovered as a result of your experience? What would you advise our audience members in terms of what TO do and what NOT to do? Five, 10, and 20 years down the pike: What do you see in terms of this field? Paint that picture (in terms of the culture, the technology, and the creative aspects).
6. Q&A: (6-6:20)
Let’s hear what the people have to say!
Marshall's Vertical Lead for Social Impact Careers Nicole Butler chats with USC Impact Games co-chairs Kristy Norindr and Susana Ruiz
Lately I’ve been saying, “I’ve got a lot on my plate.” When I want to switch it up, I disclose the more colorful, “I’m trying to keep multiple plates spinning.” But I’ve been thinking (always dangerous), This paints plates* too reductively. Plates aren’t disembodied, external objects; they don’t merely host gorge-inducing portions or demand frantic maintenance. Plates define our very foundation. We’re built on plates. If living in Los Angeles has taught me nothing else, it’s that our wellbeing depends on the stability, balance, and flow of these plates.
So what’s on my professional plate? Very glad you asked… I’ve enabled comments so that anyone who’s interested can discuss a project with me — this post is mostly meant to inform and engage, and only minimally to vent. Thus, in no particular order:
-co-writing/editing a $1.35M grant to the National Science Foundation
-co-writing an article for journal Learning, Media and Technology on Explore Locally, Excel Digitally, an after-school program my colleagues and I designed and instructed during Spring 2011
-final edits + table layout for Sunukaddu chapter in African Childhoods: Survival, Education and Peace-building in the Youngest Continent
-co-designing challenges for PLAY! platform (which my colleagues and I will present at the Digital Media & Learning Conference and the Annenberg Innovation Lab Festival)
-considering user interface, affordances, and embedded biases of PLAY! platform with colleagues
-brainstorming ideas for Dojo, continuing to meet with folks and think through my dissertation plan, and designing presentation to GameDesk
-writing dissertation prospectus
-co-writing case study about Summer Sandbox and Playing Outside the Box for eBook on participatory models of professional development
-co-facilitating the USC Serious Games Network and co-developing outline for panel I will moderate on serious games’ business models, hosted by USC Marshall School of Business, with panelists Laird Malamed & George Rose
-analyzing data from Laughter for a Change with RFK-LA, a weekly after-school improv workshop with high school freshmen which I participant-observed during Fall 2011, and making a presentation for the Digital Media & Learning conference
-participating on a panel addressing Henry Jenkins‘s Convergence Culture
-revising NCA conference paper on grassroots epistemologies for submission to a scholarly journal and for a chapter in Global Health Communication Strategies in the 21st Century
-attending a gala for the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party, whose membership I’ve instructed in leadership strategies
-writing five letters of recommendation for last semester’s students
-considering a possible joint paper on The Hunger Games
-attending various meetings and workshops
-leafing through stacks of library books and recent Amazon purchases + blogs and articles
-taking on the serious/fun business of playing serious games
Now what’s for dessert?
*My mom paints plates too! You should see her bowl for Rosh Hashanah honey — it’s a beaut!
The University of Southern California (USC) is well known for football, and all of the glory and scandal that comes with it. Some folks also associate USC with privilege and derisively refer to it as the “University of Spoiled Children.”
But USC knows, as I have learned well, that you can’t just rest on your laurels.* We must look to the future.
The Strategic Vision identifies three paths forward, which constitute the heart of our academic vision.
Transforming Education for a Rapidly Changing World highlights building the ranks of transformative faculty and reinventing education at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels. It also focuses on the need to insure student access to education and our commitment to accountability.
Creating Scholarship with Consequence emphasizes the growing importance of translational research, creative work and professional practice that make a significant impact on society. This will require increasingly more interdisciplinary and inter-professional collaboration.
Connecting the Individual to the World calls for promoting local and global engagement to foster mutual understanding. This begins with self-knowledge and self-reflection, critical thought, appreciation of diversity, aesthetic sensibility, civility, and empathy across all spheres of life. Given the broad scope and depth of our academic programs, we must not lose sight of the importance of cultivating human wholeness.
-Elizabeth Garrett, USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, 1/9/12
These values echo my own and if I were more jingoistic, I might be inclined to say something like “I am USC.”
My latest inspiration for my dissertation reflects this commitment to transformative education, meaningful contribution, and human wholeness. It incorporates positive deviance, participatory action research, participatory design, participatory culture, participatory learning, serious games, and social and emotional competence.
Project Plan:
1. Gather baseline data on a youth population (utilize multiple methods to triangulate members’ capacity to emotionally regulate and perform in Dojo).
2. Identify positive deviants (PD’s), or those whose adeptness at emotional regulation qualifies as aberrational; in other words, individuals who thrive despite the odds, without access to special resources.
3. Identify their emotional regulation strategies — How do they do what they do?
4. Work with these PD’s to suggest game design modifications and curriculum components for Dojo.
5. Liaise with GameDesk developers regarding game design modifications and take lead on realizing complementary curriculum.
6. Facilitate outreach efforts with PD’s and other interested youths, spreading the word about Dojo and PD’s emotional regulation strategies.
7. Gather endline data on youth population (utilize multiple methods to triangulate members’ capacity to emotionally regulate and perform in Dojo).
Of course, this plan is ambitious and will undergo intensive revision — part of the process. For now, this is the blue sky I’m eyeballing.
Excited to volunteer tomorrow for 6th annual Digital Kids Conference!
