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NY Times now publishing Persuasive's newsgames
The New York Times has begun publishing Persuasive's newsgames on the opinion page of their website. Currently, a title called Food Import Folly can be found under the Times Select heading.As Persuasive founder Ian Bogost note, this move by the New York Times is unprecedented. "I think it represents another important shift in videogames as a medium ... The fact that the Times is often considered the national newspaper of record makes this moment even more notable, and gratifying," he said.Indeed, exposure to serious games on the face of such a prestigious and prominent publication marks a bold step for games as an interactive medium. Can games be used as editorial much in the way political cartoons convey their message in a noninteractive manner? Bogost recently discussed such a topic at this year's Living Game Worlds conference.In Food Import Folly, players "protect the United States from contaminants found in foreign food imports." Previous newsgames by the developer had been published by Addicting Games and Shockwave under the series name The Arcade Wire.
Living Game Worlds III: Playing with Controversy: The Case of Super Columbine Massacre
At the Living Game Worlds III Conference last week at Georgia Tech, Director of the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition Sam Roberts lent his feet to the fire to explain his company's decisions in the aftermath of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG pullout, to which he lamented that "I don't think we handled this very well ... this was poorly execution, from start to finish, how we dealt with this."Also on the panel, entitled Playing with Controversy, was GT Assistant Professor and founder of Persuasive Games Ian Bogost and USC Assistant Professor Tracy Fullerton, whose Interactive Media Division withdrew sponsorship following Slamdance's decision. GT Assistant Professor and game theorist Celia Pearce served as moderator. Portion of the SCMRPG trailer was shown to begin the discussion. In it, video of the game is shown over audio tracks showcasing the mainstream media's reaction to the game. The choice quote, from unknown source: "I see no way that you could, in any way, create the mindset that this was anything other than a really bad attempt to make money." The game was created by aspiring filmmaker Danny LeDonne using RPG Maker and was released his website for users to download free of charge.
