Can games be used as an educational medium for children and adults? If so, how? These are only two of the many questions posed by the Meaningful Play conference, which took place at Michigan State University from October 21-23.  A bi-annual conference and one of the nation’s leading events incorporating the video game industry and its academic study, Meaningful Play engaged nearly 300 participants.  Tag-lined “Designing and Studying Games that Matter,” the conference featured top names from both academia and the industry, with three days of keynote addresses, workshops, roundtables, panel discussions, academic paper presentations and networking amongst attendees from around the country and oversees.

The conference was conceived by Brian Winn and Carrie Heeter, faculty in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media, to explore and discuss how video games entertain, inform, educate and persuade in meaningful ways.

“Today’s serious games movement advances the medium far beyond purely entertainment, including uses for learning, personal health and social impact, which we examine as well as game design issues such as storytelling, psychological and neuro impacts, and technologies,” said Winn.

Attendees came to East Lansing from 26 different states, and as far away as Hong Kong.   Recent college graduate Coolie Calihan of Brighton, was urged to attend by a professor at his school, Miami Univ. of Ohio.  “He told me jobs working to make games may be closer to home than I think.  I was surprised and excited by the amount of enthusiasm and loyalty I saw coming from Michigan game developers and students.”

The first day kicked off with a discussion regarding “Design, Learning, and Experience” and culminated in a reception, game exhibition and poster session hosted by the Technology Innovation Center (TIC) in downtown East Lansing. There, academics, students and professionals excitedly discussed the day’s presentations, sharing what they learned.

Saturday’s closing session was highlighted by the announcement of winners of the Game Exhibition and Competition, entries of which were exhibited Thursday evening at the East Lansing Technology Innovation Center.   The award recipients were:

•  “CombiForm,” by Edmond Yee and Andy Uehara at the University of Southern California, for Most Innovative Game 
• “Elude,” by Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, for Most Meaningful Game
• “Yet One Word,” by Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, for Best Student Created and Best Overall Game
• “Olympus,” by Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab at Michigan State University, for People’s Choice Award

More information:

• Meaningful Play website
• Meaningful Play Twitter (follow hashtag #mp2010)
• Meaningful Play Flickr photo gallery

Photo credit: Erica Treais/MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences