Year End Lists

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Officially I am on vacation today, as I have been all week. But I am also back to my computer which has led me to lurking among news sites and other interesting bits and pieces. As it is nearing the close of the year this means lists of top 25's in the game industry, in education and in games of course.

My sister, Mary DeMarle, pointed me to the Next Generation—Top 25 People of 2007 list. This list is intriguing due to the diversity of individual impacts on the industry. This year Saturo Iwata claimed number 1 spot for his leadership at Nintendo. I believe what was written about him last year when he placed second says it all "But what has made Iwata special in 2006 has been his ability to inspire and lead not only great people, but also the rest of us."

I thoroughly love that Peter Raad made it to the list because of his work creating the Guildhall at SMU. Congrats Peter! We first met 6 years ago at GDC while in the conceptual development stage of our respective programs. It is wonderful to see solid higher ed programs progress and begin to cast their influence. 

Also during this time I have been fortunate to see Montreal grow as a game capital and begin to impact industry. It is quite a gift (and a lot of hard work) to have our new campus, Champlain College du Montreal, there where the students have access to vibrant people with emergent ideas. People like Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the IGDA. Jason spoke with the students early in the Fall term and now I see he will be receiving the 2008 Game Developer's Choice Award. Congrats Jason! Among the studios in Montreal the new Eidos campus is getting a bunch of press. General Manager Stephane D'Astous seems like a leader to watch in Montreal. He appears to have that special leadership ability that leads and inspires.

But back to my vacation, Christmas is a holiday for me that is all about family and play. The top list of play from my family this year would be the following:

1. Guitar Hero for the teen and pre-teen set (of course).
   
2. Apples to Apples—a card-based community discussion game for all (they can't seem to keep this game in stores).
   
3. Bunco—a traditional holiday favorite across the female generations.
4. Playing the piano—the sound of live music.
   
5. My little pony played between the little nieces and my adult brothers.
   
6. The dragon game my niece Becca received.
   
7. Tinker Toys for five year old Christopher.
8. Stealing of adult shoes from under the Christmas Eve table by the five and under set, Macey and Savannah.
9. Dominos for Jim—multiple colors and set variations.
10. Make believe and the sound of reindeer bells.

Wired Play

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Today, a visit to the Boston Museum of Science, a place I have visited before—what do I finally see? An Aztec calendar with a pendulum. The main floor exhibit masterfully positioning my questions about a long ago culture that is no more. 

I've just returned from that 14 hour day to Boston and back. Hope Martin and I had two meetings mid-day. One with Kangmei, the other with Emily, both have exciting concepts about creating games for different outcomes. One on building collaboration in a corporation—integrating "next gen" workers; the other on electronic games as applied to discovery for children. 

At 5:00, we headed off to hear the MacArthur Foundation presentation "Totally Wired: How Technology is Changing Kids and Learning". Three distinctly different academics presented in a forum: Katie Salen, Henry Jenkins III and Howard Gardner. Key thoughts:

• Jenkins expressed the need for new media literacy to allow a larger proportion of the population to be part of  participatory media.
  
• Salen focused on the system of learning surrounding games.
• Gardner wonderfully admitted to being "paleolithic" compared to "digital natives" and  stressed key ethics' questions in regards to youth and new media: sense of identity, privacy issues, ownership & authorship, trust and credibility (to which I add genuineness), and the definition of community.
  

All offered poignant thoughts on a generation brought up alongside computers. I especially appreciated Howard Gardner's reflection on the concept of present society being immigrant cultures on a new frontier. This resonated after a lunch time conversation this week with Champlain education professor Ken Reissig. He explained the dilemma of Burlington's Somalian immigrants and their difficulty adjusting to the rapid adoption of American language and culture by their teens.

However distinctly missing from tonight's forum were the voices of the "totally wired" generation. I'd prefer to hear them offer their perspective from the stage as well. It is interesting that we can not hear until it is translated by experts.

After listening to these luminaries, my last photo in Boston was of the shooting stars hung in Harvard Square. Thoughts on the 3.5 hour drive home were about how far voices from the Vermont mountains travel. Vermont is incredible because it offers a distinct voice. That may be why I love Champlain College. We do do things differently. We are educating forward. It was with these thoughts that, while driving the mountain high roads, I was surprised by 7 amazing shooting stars—the real kind.

Tonight I have no conclusions to offer except visual thoughts about play from my last 4 days:

• Playful mannequin in Bristol, VT.
• Playful cat.
  
• Playful art at MOS.
  
• Game designers at play.
  
• Tinker Toy computer that plays tic tac toe at MOS.
  
• Photographic play with holiday lights in Cambridge.
  

Snow Day

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** * **

It’s a snow day here in Vermont. The first major event of the winter, school’s been canceled. It’s an official day of play. From my kitchen table vantage point, I can see children and dogs, parents and grandparents convening over sleds, snow banks and snowmen.

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It’s a perfect day to reflect on the nature of play and community, about games and business. A larger global event in the world of play also happened today. Activision (Guitar Hero, Call of Duty) and Vivendi (World of Warcraft) announced a merger worth $18.9 billion. Like our New England blizzard swiftly turns brown fields to snowy white, Activision Blizzard instantly topples Electronic Arts as king of gaming’s snowy hill to become the world’s largest game publisher. http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/12/activision_blizzards_ambitions_to_be_no_1_in_everything.html

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What interests me about the joining of the two companies is that despite seemingly different product lines, there is a striking similarity. How many of you have entered Circuit Cities or Best Buys to see line-ups of teens playing Guitar Hero together? Likewise Guitar Hero playoffs are popular. At these events the creative style with which one plays the game is as important as successfully completing the levels. It is a game based on having a live community to perform for. World of Warcraft is also a community-based game based on creative expression and performance. Exploration, making a livelihood, meeting challenges successfully together and the ability to gain leadership status has brought nine million players worldwide into this virtual fantasy world.

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Performance, creativity, and community seem to be a winning combination for these two properties. This trio of elements appears to be major constituents of play. What is it about this combination that draws us to the experience? When accomplished in community, mimicking musicians, fighting opposing factors and building snowmen, are fun and motivate us to do better. Motivation to do better crosses boundaries into the worlds of learning and of work. Only recently new controllers, faster hardware and higher bandwidth are enabling these types of experiences in the virtual realms. What new forms will open up and what will be the pitfalls and possibilities? Will we still call snow days to enable random acts of community and creativity, will virtual hot chocolate taste as good?