Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > March > 12 > Entry
SXSW Panel: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: The Future Of Video Games
Date/Time: 5 p.m. Friday
Speaker: James Bower (Numedeon Inc.), Lucy Bradshaw (Electronic Arts/Maxis), Amos Zeeberg (Discover Magazine), Anne McLaughlin (North Carolina State University), Tiffany Barnes (University of North Carolina Charlotte)
The gist: Video games are here to stay, and with more and more groups of people playing them, thanks to social media networks like Facebook, they are set to branch out in a number of directions. Preciously, games were written and consumed by males, but more and more women are getting into the development side of the industry, Bradshaw said. Plus, millions of children are playing social games like Whyville, which is like a Second Life for kids. Researchers are also doing studies into how games affect cognitive abilities, especially in older people. And in the classroom, games might even replace longstanding teaching methods. Barnes, an associate professor of computer science, uses an game to teach some in-class concepts to her students. Panelists noted that we already see fitness games like Wii Fitt and in the future , Barnes said people will start to manage their lives more and more in a game-like structure.
Quotes: “I’m seeing games as being more ubiquitous, used as a communication mechanism, used as a framework for interaction, a framework for how we do all kinds of things.” - Barnes
Takeaways: An interesting look into how games have evolved from entertainment vehicles to learning devices. Bower also said that another front in the industry is children — 8, 9 and 10 years old — learning how to create their own games. When creating a game becomes as easy as uploading a video to YouTube — watch out, he said.
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