[game_edu] Six Gaming Thought Leaders to Keynote the 10th Anniversary Games for Change Festival

[Meghan Ventura]

Hi all,

We are very happy to share with you the stellar line-up of keynote speakers
for our 10th Anniversary Games for Change Festival (June 17-19). Six
thought leaders, whose voices and work continue to shape the gaming
industry, will reflect on the history and future of games for social change
and learning through daily keynotes.

In the 10 Years of Games for Change series, Leigh Alexander, Ian Bogost,
Robin Hunicke, Brenda Romero, Jesse Schell and Eric Zimmerman will give an
authentic look at the challenges faced by this ever-growing medium and the
opportunity for games to have positive impact on society.

We're looking forward to insightful and inclusive viewpoints these talented
speakers will bring to this year's festival. For more information on
speakers and to register, visit: www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013.

In addition to these keynotes, other confirmed speakers include: Tracy
Fullerton (Game Innovation Lab and University of Southern California),
James Paul Gee (Arizona State University), Alan Gershenfeld (E-Line Media),
Susan Gold (Global Game Jam), Richard Hofmeier (InkThirsty, creator of Cart
Life), Alex Jansen (Pop Sandbox), Michael Levine (Joan Ganz Cooney Center),
Diana Rhoten (Amplify), Phil Stuart (Preloaded) and James Vaughan (Ndemic
Creations). See all participating speakers here:
www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013/speakers.

Come and join us in June!

Keynote bios:

+ Leigh Alexander is a writer and longtime editor-at-large for game
industry site, Gamasutra, where she contributes editorial, trend analysis
and interviews with developers. She also writes for Edge, Polygon, Kotaku,
Boing Boing and Vice's Creator Project. She used to be NYLON Guys’ games
editor, and in the past she’s contributed to Slate, Wired, Paste, Rock
Paper Shotgun, and more.

+ Dr. Ian Bogost is an award-winning designer and media philosopher whose
research and writing considers videogames as an expressive medium. He is
the Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and Professor
of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and
founding partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His videogames about social and
political issues cover topics as varied as airport security, consumer debt,
disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands, pandemic
flu, and tort reform.

+ Robin Hunicke, co-founder of Funomena, is a game designer, producer, and
an evangelist for diversity of thought and participation in game design and
game culture. She co-organizes the annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop,
has chaired the IndieCade Festival, and lectures extensively on how
developers can create novel, experimental designs by focusing on the
feeling. She was the executive producer of the award-winning PSN title,
Journey, and has worked on The Sims2, MySims, the Boom Blox series.

+ Brenda Romero is an award-winning game designer, artist, writer, and
creative director who entered the videogame industry in 1981 at the age of
15. She is the longest continuously serving woman in the videogame
industry, working at Atari, Sir-tech Software, Electronic Arts, and
numerous companies in the social and mobile space. She is presently the
Game Designer in Residence at the University of California at Santa Cruz
and the co-founder and chief operating officer of Loot Drop, a social and
mobile game company.

+ Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games and a faculty member at the
Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center, as well as the
former creative director of the Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio.
He is the author of "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses." He has
continued to help design and develop interactive theme park attractions as
well as widely recognized mass market MMOs.

+ Eric Zimmerman, a founding faculty member of the NYU Game Center, is a
game designer and academic who has been working in the game industry for
nearly 20 years. He was the co-founder and chief design officer of Gamelab,
which spun off two successful companies, including Gamestar Mechanic.
Gamelab also created the Institute of Play, a nonprofit that looks at the
intersection of games and learning that has launched two schools in New
York City and Chicago based on games and play as the model for learning.
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