If you've been reading this blog for a while, you undoubtedly noticed our newest contributor, Eliane Alhadeff. She writes about serious games, she does it well and nothing gets by her. She's also one of the nicest people I ever met in this blog business, always eager to help, never without a kind word and very, very patient.
But who is Eliane Alhadeff?
In her own words:
FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES, her present blog, is the antithesis of everything we expect from a blog about gaming. Whether it's software to help children learn, to medical simulations, to ecological and economic awareness, Alhadeff shows us that there are viable alternatives to the mainstream fare of violence and gore out there.
And, if it's indeed true that our world is nothing but an externalization of our thoughts, dreams, and aspirations, perhaps we all owe her a visit every now and then. Because when we make it a point to see hope incarnated into virtual worlds on a regular basis, it is only a matter of time until we share that hope, and help each other manifest a better future."
Futurelab: How did you get into blogging?
Eliane Alhadeff: I firmly believe that networks of conversation are the most powerful vehicle to produce a step change in a global community. Being passionate about people connections, future-thinking and technology, start blogging was a natural "derivative".
FL: How did you get into Serious Games?
...I felt his ideas were so powerful that inspired me to create a new blog, focused on one of his post segments -"Games" - and one of his great insights - "Game designers are choosing to make games which challenge us to play at building a better future".
"Many of us are so enmeshed in using existing tools of many-to-many communication, from email and blogs to graphic design programs and photo- and music-sharing, that we've lost a bit of our sense of wonder about them, even though they're only becoming more powerful, more accessible and more widely-spread with each passing week."
"With these existing tools it is now relatively easy to create websites, magazines, radio stations, films -- nearly any form of cultural expression -- and with increasingly sophisticated advocacy networks and better, more open models of intellectual property emerging, it is easier and easier to get the word out about what you're doing. Craft and experience still matter, chance still favors the prepared, and the demands on our attention drives an overall move towards the eye-grabbing, the witty and the viral, but the point remains: it has probably never been easier to do cultural activism.We are becoming, as ally Mark Frauenfelder likes to put it, a culture of makers. Increasingly, we have it within our reach to become a movement of future-makers."
"What are the available tools for making better futures?
Games
Play changes the mind. Through play, we feel and experience and respond to new aspects of the world. Like art, play speaks to that part of us "which is a gift, and not an acquisition." Because play is so powerful, games can open new visions of the possible to us in ways other art forms cannot.
Games already exert powerful if often unexamined influences in realms of our public debate we rarely give them credit for affecting, but more and more, game designers are choosing to make games which challenge us to play at building a better future.
FL: How much time do you spend daily on your blog and portal?
EA: About 4 hours a day - most of them dedicated to networking ("look at us"), derived from blog publishing. Other blog related activities, beyond the 4-hour period, would be SG research and ideas exchange with SG developers. And of course playing games.
FL: the risk of sounding redundant, what games do you enjoy? And what are you playing now?
EA: I seldom make use of consoles, even though I do have them. My preferred ones are the Computer Games, where you can play and network simultaneously.
Playing now (over the last semester or so):
Second Life - ongoing
Climate Challenge Game from BBC
Global Warming Interactive Game
The first casual game I ever played was Tetris.
The first entertainment game I ever played was...(???) I can not remember. I played too many.
EA: I'd rather not chose one: each game strikes a different chord: ecology, social advocacy, entrepreneurship, and so forth --provided they are about challenging us to play at building a better future.
Leave a comment