Different Games Conference: Design//Activism//Community
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Different Games was a 2-day conference, partially funded by an NEA Grant about representation and inclusivity in games held at NYU Magnet. The conference, organized by students at NYU and Georgia Tech aims to create a hybrid space where game designers, developers, activists, academics and critics meet up to discuss and consider the intersections of games, social justice, and community building.
The conference welcomed more than 250 attendees, hosted 3 tracks worth of workshops, discussions, and panels moderated and filled by the voices of more than 40 speakers. In addition to offering a full-day of programming, an arcade featured dozens of games featuring everything from kink and consensual sexual violence to explorations of anxiety and depression, to real-time pervasive performance pieces.
I worked as a volunteer for Different Games 2013, and stepped into a leadership position for Different Games 2014. During Different Games 2014 I acted as the conference’s On-site Coordinator, a Co-organizer, and the NEA Fellowship Coordinator. For more information, check out www.differentgames.org.
Conference coverage can be found at Gamasutra, Paste Magazine, (again on Paste Magazine), and at Technically Brooklyn.