One of the reasons it’s been a particularly game-centric semester for me is that I’ve been preparing for Bard’s second annual Tech/Action conference, which this year was themed “Games, Simulation, Conflict.” The conference lasted two days, with activities on the first day and lectures and presentations on the second.
The “big deal” of the conference was the inclusion of Buckminster Fuller’s The World Game, a large-scale simulation of global economy originally designed for the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal. Now referred to as the “O.S. Earth Global Simulation Workshop,” the game has become a educational/team-building tool brought to schools and corporate retreats across the United States. There’s a lot I could say about The World Game, but I’ll summarize by calling it a weak game, and an underwhelming simulation. The data used was ten years old, and the game’s odd bartering mechanic, and emphasis on wealth, made it unclear what differentiated an impoverished country from a human interest organization.
On the second day of the conference, a number of speakers talked on topics relating to simulation, games, and conflict. Bard’s own Gautham Sethi talked about Game Theory (which I still don’t entirely understand). Kathleen Ruiz spoke on the role of empathy in games, with examples from her own work (including the beautiful, quest-oriented “Stunt Dummies”). McKenzie Wark discussed his book Gamer Theory (which I recently reviewed).
Eddo Stern introduced us to Darkgame, an in-development title based on sensory deprivation. Bonnie Ruberg asked “Are Conflicts Sexy?” and presented her argument with numerous examples. Ed Halter spoke briefly on various Muslim games, and their relationship to American war games. Finally, Alex Galloway gave an interesting talk on Guy Debord’s Kriegspiel, and his own work to restore the strategy game and develop a fully playable, digital iteration.
I also presented at the conference, doing a short, ten-minute presentation about the role of conflict in game design. A slightly modified version of the slides is available here in PDF format for anyone interested. All in all, the conference was an interesting experience, and a great opportunity to meet a lot of people who are seriously thinking about games.
Also, I’m graduating next week. More on that later.