Context and Impact in Games

Dan Norton · Dan White

Thu., June 11, 11:00–12:30, Old Madison (3rd floor, East/Southeast)

Across the educational spectrum, from science to civics, argumentation is a necessary component to literacy. Games can not only provide different interactive models of argumentation, but can create world-based context around arguments and research, and provide a sense of impact as a component of the reward structure. Filament Games will preview their design and prototype of their upcoming civic engagement game, part of Sandra Day O’Connor’s Our Courts program. During a demonstration of the prototype, Filament will discuss strategies on leveraging a fictionalized world to provide stronger context to player’s educational goals and talk about escalating impact in a game to maximize the player’s sense of efficacy and agency. Filament will then open the floor for discussions about design and developmental strategies that create context in games for players to provide meaning for player engagement.