By Jordan Heller
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WEST VILLAGE — Video games … they’re not just for killing aliens anymore.
Games for Change, a nonprofit that advocates the use of socially conscious video games for the purpose of getting urban kids civically engaged, kicked off its seventh annual conference on Monday at the New School. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is scheduled to give the keynote address on Wednesday.
Game makers will show off their products and conference participants will attend panel discussions on topics ranging from the “digital divide” to how to “make money with social impact games.”
One of the games exhibited, “Oiligarchy,” teaches children about the evils of Big Oil. Players play the role of an oil magnate and interact with corrupt politicians to “stop alternative energies” from getting off the ground. Likewise, “The McDonald’s Video Game” teaches kids about the “dirty secrets that made us one of the biggest companies of the world.”
Other games promote awareness of poverty, public health issues and the environment. “The Riverbed: an eco-noir mystery” is a first-person game that involves a fictional murder-mystery set in a world devastated by water scarcity.
“When we started, trying to talk to [school] principals about bringing gaming into the classrooms was like asking to bring pornography into the schools,” said Games for Change co-founder Barry Joseph, borrowing a quote from his colleague, Carole Artigiani, the executive director of Global Kids.
“All the people heard about in the press was violence and racism in games like 'Grand Theft Auto,'” added Joseph, who led a panel discussion on Monday about inner-city youth designing socially conscious video games. “The potential for learning was secret and hidden.
“Now, what was originally 45 people for a half a day is hundreds of people over four days, with amazing people like Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.”
Two years ago, the former Associate Supreme Court Justice announced the launch of Our Courts — a Web-based project that develops video games about the American justice system — at the Games for Change Festival.
Among Our Court’s gaming titles are “Argument Wars,” “Supreme Decision” and “Do I Have a Right?”
O’Connor gives her keynote address Wednesday morning at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium.
