Speakers, Topics Added For Games For Change Conference

The organizers of Games for Change have announced additional speakers and topics for the 2006 conference on "Social Change and Digital Games" - the 3rd annual event which will take place on June 27 and 28, co-hosted the by New School in New York City's Greenwich Village. New speakers added to the event schedule include a representative from The American Museum of Natural History, a Native American artist working in gaming, and the founder of the Independent Feature Project. In addition, new panel topics include documentary games, field building with students, and mixing gravity with entertainment. Organizers have also confirmed a closing address by Raph Koster, who has worked as the chief creative officer at Sony Online Entertainment, and developed such games as Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. At the conference, experts in the area of using digital games to address pressing issues will examine the impact of current games and preliminary work to build the field. The event will feature keynote addresses by Steven Johnson, author of noted bestseller "Everything Bad is Good for You", and Bob Kerrey, The New School president. Previously announced featured speakers include Josh Fouts, executive director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Connie Yowell, senior program officer for the MacArthur Foundation, Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, authors of "Smart Bomb," game maker Asi Burak of PeaceMaker, the UW-Madison's David Williamson Shaffer, representatives from MTV and the Museum of the Moving Image, David Rejeski, director of the Foresight and Governance Project at the Wilson Center, and Katie Salen, acting director of the Design and Technology Center at the New School. Detailed coverage of the 2005 Games For Change event, which was held at the City University of New York from October 21 to 22 2005, is available in feature form on Gamasutra, for those interested in finding out more about last year's agenda.