Just heading back from a great visit to Docfest in Sheffield, where I had the pleasure of chairing a panel on Games For Social Change. Quite timely, really, given the report last week that the UK games industry – now reckoned to be worth £4.6bn – contributes more to the UK economy than music and video/DVD combined. Given that the West Midlands is responsible for a whopping 20% of the UK market, there’s a considerable economic case for us to be investing in and supporting this sector, but with the public service remit of 4iP, there’s an equally important reason to feel excited about the whole area of serious games and games for social change.
In preparation for the panel discussion, I came across this old - but excellent - article in free pint which acts as a good starting point for anyone who thinks ‘serious games’ is an oxymoron or questions whether or not a game can influence a person’s behaviour or help solve society’s ills.
The fact is that creating deeply immersive environments allow for tangential learning in a way that a more traditional or pedagogic form of learning – text books, tutorials, videos and the like – can never really achieve.
The Docfest panel was a fascinating one to be involved in, with some great debate around the topic from G4SC’s Suzanne Seggerman, Denmark’s Mikkel Lucas Overby – whose company, Serious Games Interactive, produced the rather wonderful Global Conflicts Palestine - the ever-ebullient Margaret Robertson and our very own Roll7, whose agenda for social change influences both the subject matter of their games – like the anti-knife crime game, Dead Ends – and the way in which they build them, unearthing and developing hidden talents in hard-to-reach young NEETS.
Much of the discussion was centred around how to make serious/social games economically viable, but here again there is plenty of room for optimism. It’s not shoot-em-ups and platform games that are driving the phenomenal success of Nintendo’s DS and Wii consoles, for example, but Brain Training games, strategy games and the Wii fit board – and it’s grown adults and families who are buying them for their communal, participatory and highly active forms of entertainment. That’s social change right there.
It’s exciting to think that – as with the UK games industry in general – the West Midlands is very much at the heart of this exciting, emerging market, with the £7m Serious Games Institute in Coventry and some terrific stuff coming out of the likes of Pixel Learning and award-winning work like Digital Native Academy’s terrific Gaming The Tibby.
Want to hear more? Check out this new article posted recently on Developmag re how games are changing the workplace