Video games are increasingly ubiquitous. More than half of all Americans play them and for college students it's more than 70%. Games are rivaling Hollywood box office revenues and some say surpassing them. In short, games are growing up. And as this technology matures, there is a new trend emerging: harnessing the power of this participatory and popular medium for more serious and/or documentary purposes, and recognizing the evolution of video games as a meaningful cultural form. Fostering peace the Middle East. Exploring civil liberties. Training protesters in peaceful resistance to oppressive regimes. Understanding human values. These are just a few of the new themes emerging. This panel will give an overview of the new uses of game technology for political participation and the social good. We will take a look at how games are an ideal medium to explore complex issues and practice "failure" in a safe space. How the participatory nature of games fosters a different kind of learning and practicing political engagement. We'll show and discuss the newest of these models and the audience will come away with a better understanding of why games are an exciting new platform for exploring social issues and "real world" concerns.
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