GDC 2011 Details 'SGS Gamification Day' Debate, Lectures

Author: by Staff

GDC 2011 organizers are targeting 'gamification' for a one-day Serious Games Summit segment this March, including a 'passionate debate' on the utility of the subject with Jesse Schell, Jane McGonigal and more. The second day of the Serious Games Summit, taking place on March 1st during Game Developers Conference 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, will specifically address the emerging trend with both skepticism and insight. As the advisors explain in the description, the day "will be devoted to the rising trend of 'gamification' – a debatable term and sometimes questionable process of building game-like incentives into non-game applications, to address issues like productivity, health, marketing, and so forth." The centerpiece of the day will be 'The Great Gamification Debate!', in which some of the leading thinkers in the space, including Schell Games' Jesse Schell, the Institute For The Future's Jane McGonigal, Playmatics' Margaret Wallace, Digitalmill's Ben Sawyer and The Inspiracy's Noah Falstein, debate the contentious subject. As noted: "[Such] strong opinions exist on both sides of the pro/con debate that it seems suitable to have an actual honest debate over the merits, incarnations, and future of gamification", featuring "a who's who of passionate GDC regulars and gamification developers who've deployed actual solutions into the field" in an intriguing debate format. In addition, a number of deeply researched lectures will present real-life examples of gamification, including Area/Code's Kati London on 'Hyperlocal Game Design: Connecting Social Currency to Real World Currency', discussing Macon Money, "a real world social game designed for Macon, GA that connects players' social currency with a currency they spend at local businesses." As London explains: "Developing a game for a socio-economically segregated community required designing for how the game fits into peoples everyday lives in terms of location, their social and individual identities, consumer, and entertainment habits. Learn about issues surrounding hyperlocal game design as Area/Code addressed them in this 3-zip code, community-specific game, in which constraints became a key to innovation." Other notable SGS Gamification Day sessions include the University Of Washington's Seth Cooper and Zoran Popovic, the creators of groundbreaking protein-folding game Foldit, on three games being developed at their Center for Game Science around biochemistry, early math education, and reconstructing the world in 3D. In addition, Bunchball's Molly Kittle will present a sharp, to the point lecture on 'Gamification 201 - 30 Tactics in 30 Minutes'. Overall, the Serious Games Summit also includes a first day, February 28th, devoted to health & healthcare, covering research and the many commercialized games in the health & wellness space, including intriguing lectures like 'Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection' and much more. The GDC 2011 Serious Games Summit joins six other notable standalone Summits, including Social & Online Games, AI, Indie, GDC Education, Localization and the GDC Smartphone Summit, as well as multiple high-profile tutorials, on the Monday and Tuesday of Game Developers Conference 2011. More information on this particular Summit -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website -- which can be attended via All-Access or Summit-specific GDC 2011 passes, is available on its official webpage.