Gaming for understanding
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0:01 - 0:03When we think of games,
there's all kinds of things. -
0:03 - 0:07Maybe you're ticked off, or maybe,
you're looking forward to a new game. -
0:07 - 0:08You've been up too late playing a game.
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0:08 - 0:10All these things happen to me.
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0:10 - 0:11But when we think about games,
-
0:11 - 0:14a lot of times we think
about stuff like this: -
0:14 - 0:17first-person shooters, or the big,
what we would call AAA games, -
0:17 - 0:19or maybe you're a Facebook game player.
-
0:19 - 0:20This is one my partner and I worked on.
-
0:20 - 0:24Maybe you play Facebook games,
and that's what we're making right now. -
0:24 - 0:25This is a lighter form of game.
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0:25 - 0:28Maybe you think about
the tragically boring board games -
0:28 - 0:30that hold us hostage
in Thanksgiving situations. -
0:30 - 0:34This would be one of the tragically boring
board games that you can figure out. -
0:34 - 0:36Or maybe you're in your living room,
-
0:36 - 0:38playing with the Wii with the kids,
-
0:38 - 0:41and there's this whole range of games,
and that's very much what I think about. -
0:41 - 0:44I make my living from games,
I've been lucky enough to do this -
0:44 - 0:48since I was 15, which also qualifies
as I've never really had a real job. -
0:48 - 0:52But we think about games as fun,
and that's completely reasonable, -
0:52 - 0:53but let's just think about this.
-
0:53 - 0:56So this one here,
this is the 1980 Olympics. -
0:56 - 0:58Now I don't know where you guys were,
-
0:58 - 0:59but I was in my living room.
-
0:59 - 1:01It was practically a religious event.
-
1:01 - 1:04And this is when the Americans
beat the Russians, -
1:04 - 1:06and this was --
yes, it was technically a game. -
1:06 - 1:07Hockey is a game.
-
1:07 - 1:09But really, was this a game?
-
1:09 - 1:11I mean, people cried.
-
1:11 - 1:14I've never seen my mother cry
like that at the end of Monopoly. -
1:14 - 1:15(Laughter)
-
1:15 - 1:18And so this was an amazing experience.
-
1:18 - 1:20Or, if anybody here is from Boston --
-
1:20 - 1:23So when the Boston Red Sox
won the World Series -
1:23 - 1:26after I believe, 351 years --
-
1:26 - 1:28(Laughter)
-
1:28 - 1:30when they won the World Series,
it was amazing. -
1:30 - 1:32I happened to be living
in Springfield at the time, -
1:32 - 1:34and the best part of it was,
-
1:34 - 1:37you would close the women's door
in the bathroom, -
1:37 - 1:40and I remember seeing "Go Sox,"
and I thought, really? -
1:40 - 1:43Or the houses, you'd come out,
because every game, -
1:43 - 1:46well, I think almost every game,
went into overtime, right? -
1:46 - 1:49So we'd be outside, and all the other
lights are on in the whole block. -
1:49 - 1:52And kids -- the attendance
was down in school, -
1:52 - 1:55kids weren't going to school,
but it's OK, it's the Red Sox, right? -
1:55 - 1:58I mean, there's education,
and then there's the Red Sox, -
1:58 - 2:00and we know where they're stacked.
-
2:00 - 2:02So this was an amazing experience,
-
2:02 - 2:05and again, yes, it was a game,
but they didn't write newspaper articles, -
2:05 - 2:10people didn't say, "You know, really,
I can die now, because the Red Sox won." -
2:10 - 2:11And many people did.
-
2:11 - 2:14So games, it means something more to us.
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2:14 - 2:16It absolutely means something more.
-
2:16 - 2:18So now, this is an abrupt transition here.
-
2:18 - 2:22There was three years where
I actually did have a real job, sort of. -
2:22 - 2:24I was the head of a college
department teaching games, -
2:24 - 2:26so, again, it was sort of a real job,
-
2:26 - 2:30and now I got to talk about making them
as opposed to making them. -
2:30 - 2:33Part of the job of it,
when you're a chair of a department, -
2:33 - 2:35is to eat, and I did that very well --
-
2:35 - 2:38and so I'm out at a dinner
with this guy called Zig Jackson. -
2:38 - 2:41So this is Zig in this photograph,
this is also one of Zig's photographs. -
2:41 - 2:42He's a photographer.
-
2:42 - 2:47And he goes all around the country
taking pictures of himself, -
2:47 - 2:51and you can see here he's got
Zig's Indian Reservation. -
2:51 - 2:53And this particular shot --
-
2:53 - 2:56this is one of the more traditional shots.
-
2:56 - 2:57This is a rain dancer.
-
2:58 - 3:00And this is one of my favorite shots here.
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3:00 - 3:03So you can look at this, and maybe
you've even seen things like this. -
3:03 - 3:05This is an expression of culture, right?
-
3:05 - 3:07And this is actually
from his Degradation series. -
3:07 - 3:10And what was most fascinating
to me about this series -
3:10 - 3:13is just, look at that little boy there,
can you imagine? -
3:13 - 3:15We can see that's
a traditional Native American. -
3:15 - 3:17Now I just want to change that guy's race.
-
3:17 - 3:19Just imagine if that's a black guy.
-
3:19 - 3:22So, "Honey, come here, let's get you
a picture with the black guy." Right? -
3:22 - 3:24Like, seriously, nobody would do this.
-
3:24 - 3:26It baffles the mind.
-
3:26 - 3:28And so Zig, being Indian,
likewise it baffles his mind. -
3:28 - 3:30His favorite photograph --
-
3:30 - 3:33my favorite photograph of his,
which I don't have in here -- -
3:33 - 3:36is Indian taking picture of white people
taking pictures of Indians. -
3:36 - 3:37(Laughter)
-
3:37 - 3:40So I happen to be at dinner
with this photographer, -
3:40 - 3:42and he was talking
with another photographer -
3:42 - 3:44about a shooting that had occurred,
-
3:44 - 3:45and it was on an Indian Reservation.
-
3:45 - 3:48He'd taken his camera up there
to photograph it, -
3:48 - 3:50but when he got there,
he discovered he couldn't do it. -
3:50 - 3:52He just couldn't capture the picture.
-
3:52 - 3:55And so they were talking back and forth
about this question. -
3:55 - 3:57Do you take the picture or not?
-
3:57 - 3:59And that was fascinating
to me as a game designer, -
3:59 - 4:01because it never occurs to me,
-
4:01 - 4:04should I make the game
about this difficult topic or not? -
4:04 - 4:06Because we just make things that are fun
-
4:06 - 4:09or will make you feel fear,
that visceral excitement. -
4:09 - 4:11But every other medium does it.
-
4:11 - 4:13So this is my kid.
-
4:13 - 4:15This is Maezza, and when she was
seven years old, -
4:15 - 4:17she came home from school one day,
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4:17 - 4:20and like I do every single day,
I asked her, "What did you do today?" -
4:20 - 4:23So she said, "We talked
about the Middle Passage." -
4:23 - 4:25Now, this was a big moment.
Maezza's dad is black, -
4:25 - 4:28and I knew this day was coming.
-
4:28 - 4:31I wasn't expecting it at seven,
I don't know why, but I wasn't. -
4:31 - 4:34Anyways, so I asked her,
"How do you feel about that?" -
4:34 - 4:36So she proceeded to tell me,
-
4:36 - 4:39and so any of you who are parents
will recognize the bingo buzzwords here. -
4:39 - 4:42"The ships start in England,
they come down from England, -
4:42 - 4:44they go to Africa,
they go across the ocean -- -
4:44 - 4:46that's the Middle Passage part --
-
4:46 - 4:49they come to America, where
the slaves are sold," she's telling me. -
4:49 - 4:51But Abraham Lincoln was elected president,
-
4:51 - 4:53and then he passed
the Emancipation Proclamation, -
4:53 - 4:55and now they're free.
-
4:55 - 4:56Pause for about 10 seconds.
-
4:56 - 4:57"Can I play a game, Mommy?"
-
4:57 - 4:59And I thought, that's it?
And so, you know, -
4:59 - 5:05this is the Middle Passage,
this is an incredibly significant event, -
5:05 - 5:09and she's treating it like, basically
some black people went on a cruise, -
5:09 - 5:11this is more or less how it sounds to her.
-
5:11 - 5:12(Laughter)
-
5:12 - 5:15And so, to me,
I wanted more value in this, -
5:15 - 5:18so when she asked
if she could play a game, I said, "Yes." -
5:18 - 5:20(Laughter)
-
5:20 - 5:22And so I happened to have
all of these little pieces. -
5:22 - 5:25I'm a game designer, so I have
this stuff sitting around my house. -
5:25 - 5:29I said, "Yeah, you can play a game,"
and I give her a bunch of these, -
5:29 - 5:31and I tell her to paint them
in different families. -
5:31 - 5:33These are pictures of Maezza
when she was -- -
5:33 - 5:35God, it still chokes me up seeing these.
-
5:35 - 5:37So she's painting her little families.
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5:37 - 5:40So then I grab a bunch of them
and I put them on a boat. -
5:40 - 5:42This was the boat,
it was made quickly, obviously. -
5:42 - 5:45And so the basic gist of it is,
I grabbed a bunch of families, -
5:45 - 5:48and she's like, "Mommy,
but you forgot the pink baby -
5:48 - 5:49and you forgot the blue daddy
-
5:49 - 5:51and you forgot all these other things."
-
5:51 - 5:53And she says, "They want to go."
-
5:53 - 5:55And I said, "Honey,
no, they don't want to go. -
5:55 - 5:58This is the Middle Passage, Nobody wants
to go on the Middle Passage." -
5:58 - 6:02So she gave me a look that only a daughter
of a game designer would give a mother, -
6:02 - 6:05and as we're going across the ocean,
following these rules, -
6:05 - 6:07she realizes that she's rolling
pretty high, -
6:07 - 6:09and she says to me,
"We're not going to make it." -
6:09 - 6:12And she realizes,
we don't have enough food, -
6:12 - 6:13and so she asks what to do,
-
6:13 - 6:16and I say -- remember, she's seven --
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6:16 - 6:18"We can either put
some people in the water -
6:18 - 6:20or we can hope that they don't get sick
-
6:20 - 6:21and we make it to the other side."
-
6:21 - 6:24Just the look on her face came over --
-
6:24 - 6:27now mind you this is after a month of --
-
6:27 - 6:28this is Black History Month, right?
-
6:28 - 6:32After a month, she says to me,
"Did this really happen?" -
6:32 - 6:35And I said, "Yes." And so she said --
-
6:35 - 6:37this is her brother and sister --
-
6:37 - 6:40"If I came out of the woods,
Avalon and Donovan might be gone." -
6:40 - 6:41"Yes."
-
6:41 - 6:43"But I'd get to see them in America."
-
6:43 - 6:44"No."
-
6:44 - 6:46"But what if I saw them?
Couldn't we stay together?" -
6:46 - 6:48"So Daddy could be gone."
-
6:48 - 6:49"Yes."
-
6:49 - 6:51She was fascinated by this,
and she started to cry, -
6:51 - 6:55I started to cry, her father started
to cry, and now we're all crying. -
6:55 - 6:59He didn't expect to come home from work
to the Middle Passage, but there it goes. -
6:59 - 7:01And so, we made this game, and she got it.
-
7:01 - 7:03She got it because she spent time
with these people. -
7:03 - 7:07It wasn't abstract stuff
in a brochure or in a movie. -
7:07 - 7:10And so it was just an incredibly
powerful experience. -
7:10 - 7:13This is the game, which I've ended up
calling "The New World," -
7:13 - 7:14because I like the phrase.
-
7:14 - 7:17I don't think the New World
felt too new worldly exciting -
7:17 - 7:19to the people who were
brought over on slave ships. -
7:19 - 7:22But when this happened,
I saw the whole planet; I was so excited. -
7:22 - 7:25I'd been making games for 20-some years,
-
7:25 - 7:27and then I decided to do it again.
-
7:27 - 7:28My history is Irish.
-
7:28 - 7:31So this is a game called "Síochán Leat."
It's "peace be with you." -
7:31 - 7:34It's the entire history
of my family in a single game. -
7:34 - 7:36I made another game called "Train."
-
7:37 - 7:40I was making a series of six games
that covered difficult topics, -
7:40 - 7:43and if you're going to cover a difficult
topic, this is one you need to cover, -
7:43 - 7:46and I'll let you figure out
what that's about on your own. -
7:46 - 7:49And I also made a game
about the Trail of Tears. -
7:49 - 7:51This is a game
with 50,000 individual pieces. -
7:51 - 7:55I was crazy when I decided to start it,
but I'm in the middle of it now. -
7:55 - 7:56It's the same thing.
-
7:56 - 7:59I'm hoping that I'll teach
culture through these games. -
7:59 - 8:01And the one I'm working
on right now, which is -- -
8:01 - 8:03because I'm right in the middle of it,
-
8:03 - 8:06and these for some reason
choke me up like crazy -- -
8:06 - 8:08is a game called
"Mexican Kitchen Workers." -
8:08 - 8:10And originally, it was
a math problem, more or less. -
8:10 - 8:12Here's the economics
of illegal immigration. -
8:12 - 8:15And the more I learned
about Mexican culture -- -
8:15 - 8:17my partner is Mexican —
the more I learned that, -
8:17 - 8:19you know, for all of us,
food is a basic need, -
8:19 - 8:23and it is obviously with Mexicans, too,
but it's much more than that. -
8:23 - 8:25It's an expression of love.
It's an expression of -- -
8:25 - 8:27God, I'm totally choking up
way more than I thought. -
8:27 - 8:29I'll look away from the picture.
-
8:29 - 8:33It's an expression of beauty,
it's how they say they love you. -
8:33 - 8:34It's how they say they care,
-
8:34 - 8:37and you can't hear somebody
talk about their Mexican grandmother -
8:37 - 8:40without saying "food"
in the first sentence. -
8:40 - 8:42And so to me, this beautiful culture,
-
8:42 - 8:46this beautiful expression is something
that I want to capture through games. -
8:47 - 8:50And so games, for a change,
it changes how we see topics, -
8:50 - 8:54it changes our perceptions
about those people in topics, -
8:54 - 8:55and it changes ourselves.
-
8:55 - 8:58We change as people through games,
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8:58 - 9:00because we're involved, and we're playing,
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9:00 - 9:01and we're learning as we do so.
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9:01 - 9:02Thank you.
- Title:
- Gaming for understanding
- Speaker:
- Brenda Brathwaite
- Description:
-
It's never easy to get across the magnitude of complex tragedies -- so when Brenda Brathwite's daughter came home from school asking about slavery, she did what she does for a living -- she designed a game. At TEDxPhoenix she describes the surprising effectiveness of this game, and others, in helping the player really understand the story.
(Filmed at TEDxPhoenix.) - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:23
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Gaming for understanding | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Gaming for understanding |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 11/22/2016.