Game On, Or Game Over? How to be a Policy Player

Hancock 2014 lecture by Vasiliki Bednar (@VassB)

Transcript

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2. Trading Cards
   

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3. Are you a player,
   or
   getting played?
   

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4. Generation
   squeeze
   

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7. •Policy player
   •A game
   •The game
   •Getting played
   

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8. Games are a new frontier
   for productive,
   meaningful engagement
   

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10. Games equipped to address policy issues b/c:
    1. They are good at illustrating cause-and-
    effect;
    2. They are good at illustrating constraints,
    conflicts, and trade-offs;
    3. They engage the player by asking her to
    make a decision, and then showing the
    consequences of that decision, creating
    agency and responsibility
    4. They can also simply tell stories, with the
    added element of player influence
    

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12. Why games to satisfy the
    engagement gap?
    1.Gateway
    2.Orientation function
    3.Make complex issues
    accessible
    4.Framing function
    

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16. Cross country canada
    

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17. Fort mcmoney
    

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18. Pipe trouble
    

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19. Spent
    

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20. Spent
    • *play
    

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21. Win the white house
    

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22. Mp for a week
    

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23. Budget hero
    

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24. Open north – citizen
    budget
    

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25. Branches of power
    

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26. Executive command
    

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27. Energy city
    

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28. What the frack?
    

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29. World without oil
    

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30. citizenville
    

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32. •Playing as preparation:
    L.A.R.P.
    •Game theory
    •Not a gamer
    •Trivial, too silly
    •Only one way to play the
    game
    

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35. •Why fun?
    •Motivates curiousity
    •Promotes pleasure
    •Invites sharing
    

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