Ben Sawyer - is the producer of Virtual U, a million dollar plus foundation funded project to build a university management simulator. Virtual U, now shipping Version 2.1, was a 2000 Independent Games Festival finalist.
Ben is also the author of Serious Games: Improving Public Policy through Game-Based Learning and Simulation Whitepaper for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (wwics.si.edu) and was a contributor to Game Developer Magazine. He also has author of two books on gaming for Coriolis Group Books and is developing a book on simulations with Paraglyph Press. He has published several research reports on the games industry for DFC Intelligence.
The Unique Culture of Gamers
Gamers and their related gaming endeavours and behaviours provide some extremely interesting leads to new thinking about how gamers can be more than entertainment.
Information shared in this session will show that the emerging video game culture is distinct - one that informs public discourse, marketing, non-game media, and social networks. Understanding this unique culture and the interesting thing gamers are doing will inspire and aid anyone developing serious game projects.
In this talk Ben Sawyer shares his collection of stories, movies, screenshots, and forum posts to pull the curtain back on one of the most under-discussed areas in serious games - the gamers themselves.
The serious side of games The offline side of games
The serious side of games
The offline side of games