Sydney Serious Games Barcamp @ AFTRS 7th/May/2010 - Notes, observations and thoughts

Event reports and write-ups are always a bit odd. They are only one person's viewpoint and filter, and only a selection of the sessions that took place. In these notes, if I've missed really exciting stuff - sorry.

This BarCamp was my first; maybe it was a bit of risk to sponsor the food when I wasn't 100% sure what was happening. But I had feeling it was the right thing to do. In actual fact, the event reminded me in many ways of the Polar/Solar new media arts events I was part of back in the 90's. This is what I hoping for, it's part of the reason why I was excited about the event. There was a good feel to the day. I personally really loved how in the it was more a "˜have you thought about ...' style. I personally got a lot from this. If I was doing a session again, I think I'd organise it more as a discussion. This time around, my session was a lot about ordering and bringing together some thoughts and experiences.

One of the surprising things about the day for me, was how many people where interested in non-digital games - things like training games, learning games and role-plays. There was a real diversity to the day and the presentations. It did feel to me like a lot of the presenters and the audience were learning focused. Other recent Serious Games events, like the Serious Games and Documentary LAMP event at AFTRS last year, were constructed to bring a new narrative to the games at a time when there was funding from the ABC aimed at doing just that. The LAMP days were constructed as a learning experience for the audience. A Barcamp is not a constructed, curated event. Maybe, at the moment, the learning area is in more of need of "˜Gaming' than the game area is in need of becoming "˜Serious'.

Often at conferences you have people talking about their visionary idea's. Instead, we had a lot case studies and solid examples. People doing things, not people dreaming about what can be done. On another weekend, I'm sure other people would have been there and the focus could have been quite different.

Notes and observations on some of the sessions

The visionary session I loved was Rohan Story's self-powered game. The game is played by getting on a bike and pedalling. The speed of the pedalling and the direction of your steering controls a virtual bike moving around the screen. The people that tried it out were really excited by it.

What I took way from the session:

  • Adding something like a game to an activity like exercise can make it more engaging.
  • Rohan's technology was really simple. Often simulations that combine physical things like train controls and graphics are extremely expensive. Rohan reminded me that they needn't be expensive.

Selena Griffith, from the College of Fine Arts (COFA), talked about how she is working with students to create awareness of the "˜wicked problem' of design and sustainability. Selena's work is a great example of "˜gaming up', a face to face course. Wicked problems are problems where the solution isn't known when the question is asked, and there is often not a single, right answer. They are problems where there is no current model, and if something can't be modelled, it can't readily be turned into a digital media experience. If you were to add technology to what Selena was doing, then I think online role play in virtual worlds could be a solution. But is that is what is really needed? Most of the examples during the day that were non-digital were dealing with problems that couldn't easily be "˜modelled'.

Bronwyn Stuckey talked about Quest Atlantis. This is a virtual world learning environment for 9 to 12 year old students. One of the examples that Bronwyn used in the session was maths teaching. Maths teaching is often about practising theory and process, and not applying that learning to real problems. What happens in Quest Atlantis was that the students are asked to use maths skills to solve real problems in the virtual world. What I think is interesting about this is that the teacher could ask the students to apply the same maths thinking to real problems without a virtual world. But the virtual worlds have been a chance to rework and rethink teaching practice. This is the real promise of technology and learning - the chance to rethink learning design.

Elyssebeth Leigh's session on "˜Understanding the Story Lines' was a highlight of the day. One of the main things I took away were her words: "˜I realised as I was developing these games I was actually developing stories', and her observation that most branching stories are a type of "˜Quest'. Through some recent readings, I've been trying to develop a richer understanding of the nature of story, and Elyssebeth's thoughts, and Christopher Booker's work that she talked about, has given me a some new threads to follow up.

People also seemed really excited about the Marigo Raftopoulos' talk at the end of day, and the session on selling Serious Games to the corporate world. Unfortunately, I didn't get to those sessions.

What next and the wrap up

The wrap up at the end of day was a good thing to do. One of the topics was "˜what next?' and how to keep the networks and energy going. Eyssebeth Leigh talked about the Simulation Industry Association of Australia's (SIAA) interest in forming special interest groups, and the possibility of forming a Serious Games Special Interest Group. I've also talked to a handful of people about the idea of a Serious Game Association. The seed for the idea was actually planted by Jeevan Josh from Knowledge Working, and I've really just been exploring it. The conclusion that I came to was that there wasn't so much a need for a new association as a special interest group. This reflects the position of Serious Games as hybrid of disciplines (I have a feeling that over time the term Serious Games will actually stop being used). A special interest group of SIAA is the perfect solution to the need to bring people together.

The other idea that was talked about was a "˜Games BarCamp' that might get a more diverse group of people together. Another thought as I'm writing this is that it could be great to have an elearning or learning BarCamp Personally I think it's good not to keep on repeating the same thing and to evolve.

I did shoot some video on the day and I will trying and edit some of that soon. All in all, it was great day, with interesting people and lots of fascinating sessions. Matt Moore did an amazing job of initiating and organising the event.