Rapid Change: Initial Thoughts

I was listening to Nancy Cathcart give a presentation on how community service requirements will be integrated into the first year for residential students through the LEAD program, and someone mentioned that the Peer Advisors should also be attending these activities. My initial thought was this: I don't have time for that! I never let go of that thought, but I did start to wonder how community service and game development can be brought more closely together. The idea that I came up with is something I'd like to call Rapid Change.

Over the course of the past year, having attended a number of conferences and gotten used to the quick and dirty production of games with minimal content and maximum punch, I've become a huge fan of rapid prototyping. These games do not usually have mechanics that require a gamer's mentality and strategic analysis. But they still carry important messages, and they still provide enough interactivity for the user to become engaged, if not completely immersed. What if students volunteered to take controversial or critical issues from the local, national, or global community, and presented them through rapidly developed games? If these games were hosted on a school website and were publicized on a regular basis or made readily available to students when they have a few free moments of time, imagine how much impact they could make, how much public stimulation they might provide in an effort to elevate student interest and discussion.

I'm quite fond of the idea, but I feel certain that I lack the resources, particularly time, to orchestrate it. Also, I have no idea where these games might be made available for students to access. No one's going to jump on a computer and play a game off of the school portal in their free time; they would most likely go straight to a site like Addicting Games. Perhaps we could offer some incentive within the community to play these games. People could collect "Awareness Points" and win prizes for being the most "aware" student of the month. We could even try to supply stickers or some other kind of tangible representation of the online achievements.

Just something to consider. I'd love to see it become a reality, but my obligations for this summer and next year are grossly inflated as it is.