0:00:00.713,0:00:03.159 When we think of games,[br]there's all kinds of things. 0:00:03.183,0:00:06.568 Maybe you're ticked off, or maybe,[br]you're looking forward to a new game. 0:00:06.592,0:00:08.450 You've been up too late playing a game. 0:00:08.474,0:00:09.937 All these things happen to me. 0:00:09.961,0:00:11.396 But when we think about games, 0:00:11.420,0:00:13.590 a lot of times we think[br]about stuff like this: 0:00:13.614,0:00:16.645 first-person shooters, or the big,[br]what we would call AAA games, 0:00:16.669,0:00:18.543 or maybe you're a Facebook game player. 0:00:18.567,0:00:20.442 This is one my partner and I worked on. 0:00:20.466,0:00:23.769 Maybe you play Facebook games,[br]and that's what we're making right now. 0:00:23.793,0:00:25.295 This is a lighter form of game. 0:00:25.319,0:00:27.922 Maybe you think about[br]the tragically boring board games 0:00:27.946,0:00:30.188 that hold us hostage[br]in Thanksgiving situations. 0:00:30.212,0:00:33.951 This would be one of the tragically boring[br]board games that you can figure out. 0:00:33.975,0:00:35.740 Or maybe you're in your living room, 0:00:35.764,0:00:37.621 playing with the Wii with the kids, 0:00:37.645,0:00:41.379 and there's this whole range of games,[br]and that's very much what I think about. 0:00:41.403,0:00:44.344 I make my living from games,[br]I've been lucky enough to do this 0:00:44.368,0:00:47.805 since I was 15, which also qualifies[br]as I've never really had a real job. 0:00:47.829,0:00:51.707 But we think about games as fun,[br]and that's completely reasonable, 0:00:51.731,0:00:53.345 but let's just think about this. 0:00:53.369,0:00:55.933 So this one here,[br]this is the 1980 Olympics. 0:00:56.099,0:00:57.924 Now I don't know where you guys were, 0:00:57.948,0:00:59.323 but I was in my living room. 0:00:59.347,0:01:01.149 It was practically a religious event. 0:01:01.173,0:01:03.760 And this is when the Americans[br]beat the Russians, 0:01:03.784,0:01:06.023 and this was --[br]yes, it was technically a game. 0:01:06.047,0:01:07.374 Hockey is a game. 0:01:07.398,0:01:09.144 But really, was this a game? 0:01:09.168,0:01:10.907 I mean, people cried. 0:01:10.931,0:01:14.272 I've never seen my mother cry[br]like that at the end of Monopoly. 0:01:14.296,0:01:15.438 (Laughter) 0:01:15.462,0:01:17.814 And so this was an amazing experience. 0:01:17.838,0:01:20.348 Or, if anybody here is from Boston -- 0:01:20.372,0:01:23.425 So when the Boston Red Sox[br]won the World Series 0:01:23.449,0:01:26.356 after I believe, 351 years -- 0:01:26.380,0:01:27.657 (Laughter) 0:01:27.681,0:01:29.940 when they won the World Series,[br]it was amazing. 0:01:29.964,0:01:32.362 I happened to be living[br]in Springfield at the time, 0:01:32.386,0:01:34.381 and the best part of it was, 0:01:34.405,0:01:37.018 you would close the women's door[br]in the bathroom, 0:01:37.042,0:01:39.933 and I remember seeing "Go Sox,"[br]and I thought, really? 0:01:39.957,0:01:43.006 Or the houses, you'd come out,[br]because every game, 0:01:43.030,0:01:45.814 well, I think almost every game,[br]went into overtime, right? 0:01:45.838,0:01:49.187 So we'd be outside, and all the other[br]lights are on in the whole block. 0:01:49.211,0:01:52.271 And kids -- the attendance[br]was down in school, 0:01:52.295,0:01:55.443 kids weren't going to school,[br]but it's OK, it's the Red Sox, right? 0:01:55.467,0:01:58.114 I mean, there's education,[br]and then there's the Red Sox, 0:01:58.138,0:01:59.903 and we know where they're stacked. 0:01:59.927,0:02:01.748 So this was an amazing experience, 0:02:01.772,0:02:05.261 and again, yes, it was a game,[br]but they didn't write newspaper articles, 0:02:05.285,0:02:09.604 people didn't say, "You know, really,[br]I can die now, because the Red Sox won." 0:02:09.628,0:02:11.078 And many people did. 0:02:11.102,0:02:14.047 So games, it means something more to us. 0:02:14.071,0:02:15.940 It absolutely means something more. 0:02:15.964,0:02:18.213 So now, this is an abrupt transition here. 0:02:18.237,0:02:21.539 There was three years where[br]I actually did have a real job, sort of. 0:02:21.563,0:02:24.119 I was the head of a college[br]department teaching games, 0:02:24.143,0:02:25.918 so, again, it was sort of a real job, 0:02:25.942,0:02:29.579 and now I got to talk about making them[br]as opposed to making them. 0:02:29.603,0:02:32.875 Part of the job of it,[br]when you're a chair of a department, 0:02:32.899,0:02:34.709 is to eat, and I did that very well -- 0:02:34.733,0:02:37.574 and so I'm out at a dinner[br]with this guy called Zig Jackson. 0:02:37.598,0:02:41.152 So this is Zig in this photograph,[br]this is also one of Zig's photographs. 0:02:41.176,0:02:42.337 He's a photographer. 0:02:42.361,0:02:47.403 And he goes all around the country[br]taking pictures of himself, 0:02:47.427,0:02:50.799 and you can see here he's got[br]Zig's Indian Reservation. 0:02:51.126,0:02:52.646 And this particular shot -- 0:02:52.670,0:02:55.795 this is one of the more traditional shots. 0:02:55.819,0:02:57.482 This is a rain dancer. 0:02:57.506,0:02:59.604 And this is one of my favorite shots here. 0:02:59.628,0:03:02.883 So you can look at this, and maybe[br]you've even seen things like this. 0:03:02.907,0:03:04.831 This is an expression of culture, right? 0:03:04.855,0:03:07.400 And this is actually[br]from his Degradation series. 0:03:07.424,0:03:09.903 And what was most fascinating[br]to me about this series 0:03:09.927,0:03:12.559 is just, look at that little boy there,[br]can you imagine? 0:03:12.583,0:03:14.834 We can see that's[br]a traditional Native American. 0:03:14.858,0:03:16.896 Now I just want to change that guy's race. 0:03:16.920,0:03:18.817 Just imagine if that's a black guy. 0:03:18.841,0:03:22.321 So, "Honey, come here, let's get you[br]a picture with the black guy." Right? 0:03:22.345,0:03:24.155 Like, seriously, nobody would do this. 0:03:24.179,0:03:25.564 It baffles the mind. 0:03:25.588,0:03:28.469 And so Zig, being Indian,[br]likewise it baffles his mind. 0:03:28.493,0:03:29.739 His favorite photograph -- 0:03:29.763,0:03:32.641 my favorite photograph of his,[br]which I don't have in here -- 0:03:32.665,0:03:35.904 is Indian taking picture of white people[br]taking pictures of Indians. 0:03:35.928,0:03:37.438 (Laughter) 0:03:37.462,0:03:39.857 So I happen to be at dinner[br]with this photographer, 0:03:39.881,0:03:41.932 and he was talking[br]with another photographer 0:03:41.956,0:03:43.645 about a shooting that had occurred, 0:03:43.669,0:03:45.389 and it was on an Indian Reservation. 0:03:45.413,0:03:47.669 He'd taken his camera up there[br]to photograph it, 0:03:47.693,0:03:50.273 but when he got there,[br]he discovered he couldn't do it. 0:03:50.297,0:03:52.079 He just couldn't capture the picture. 0:03:52.103,0:03:54.998 And so they were talking back and forth[br]about this question. 0:03:55.022,0:03:56.940 Do you take the picture or not? 0:03:56.964,0:03:59.345 And that was fascinating[br]to me as a game designer, 0:03:59.369,0:04:00.800 because it never occurs to me, 0:04:00.824,0:04:03.972 should I make the game[br]about this difficult topic or not? 0:04:03.996,0:04:05.910 Because we just make things that are fun 0:04:05.934,0:04:09.415 or will make you feel fear,[br]that visceral excitement. 0:04:09.439,0:04:11.396 But every other medium does it. 0:04:11.420,0:04:12.589 So this is my kid. 0:04:12.613,0:04:15.286 This is Maezza, and when she was[br]seven years old, 0:04:15.310,0:04:16.950 she came home from school one day, 0:04:16.974,0:04:20.228 and like I do every single day,[br]I asked her, "What did you do today?" 0:04:20.252,0:04:22.598 So she said, "We talked[br]about the Middle Passage." 0:04:22.622,0:04:24.976 Now, this was a big moment.[br]Maezza's dad is black, 0:04:25.000,0:04:27.599 and I knew this day was coming. 0:04:27.623,0:04:30.739 I wasn't expecting it at seven,[br]I don't know why, but I wasn't. 0:04:30.763,0:04:34.116 Anyways, so I asked her,[br]"How do you feel about that?" 0:04:34.140,0:04:35.697 So she proceeded to tell me, 0:04:35.721,0:04:39.230 and so any of you who are parents[br]will recognize the bingo buzzwords here. 0:04:39.254,0:04:41.927 "The ships start in England,[br]they come down from England, 0:04:41.951,0:04:44.141 they go to Africa,[br]they go across the ocean -- 0:04:44.165,0:04:45.810 that's the Middle Passage part -- 0:04:45.834,0:04:49.033 they come to America, where[br]the slaves are sold," she's telling me. 0:04:49.057,0:04:51.065 But Abraham Lincoln was elected president, 0:04:51.089,0:04:53.380 and then he passed[br]the Emancipation Proclamation, 0:04:53.404,0:04:54.571 and now they're free. 0:04:54.595,0:04:55.899 Pause for about 10 seconds. 0:04:55.923,0:04:57.237 "Can I play a game, Mommy?" 0:04:57.261,0:04:59.349 And I thought, that's it?[br]And so, you know, 0:04:59.373,0:05:05.161 this is the Middle Passage,[br]this is an incredibly significant event, 0:05:05.185,0:05:09.100 and she's treating it like, basically[br]some black people went on a cruise, 0:05:09.124,0:05:11.132 this is more or less how it sounds to her. 0:05:11.156,0:05:12.313 (Laughter) 0:05:12.337,0:05:15.203 And so, to me,[br]I wanted more value in this, 0:05:15.227,0:05:18.407 so when she asked[br]if she could play a game, I said, "Yes." 0:05:18.431,0:05:19.616 (Laughter) 0:05:19.640,0:05:22.121 And so I happened to have[br]all of these little pieces. 0:05:22.145,0:05:25.244 I'm a game designer, so I have[br]this stuff sitting around my house. 0:05:25.268,0:05:28.521 I said, "Yeah, you can play a game,"[br]and I give her a bunch of these, 0:05:28.545,0:05:30.955 and I tell her to paint them[br]in different families. 0:05:30.979,0:05:33.066 These are pictures of Maezza[br]when she was -- 0:05:33.090,0:05:35.032 God, it still chokes me up seeing these. 0:05:35.056,0:05:36.881 So she's painting her little families. 0:05:36.905,0:05:39.541 So then I grab a bunch of them[br]and I put them on a boat. 0:05:39.565,0:05:42.271 This was the boat,[br]it was made quickly, obviously. 0:05:42.476,0:05:45.417 And so the basic gist of it is,[br]I grabbed a bunch of families, 0:05:45.441,0:05:47.877 and she's like, "Mommy,[br]but you forgot the pink baby 0:05:47.901,0:05:49.319 and you forgot the blue daddy 0:05:49.343,0:05:51.215 and you forgot all these other things." 0:05:51.239,0:05:52.777 And she says, "They want to go." 0:05:52.801,0:05:55.017 And I said, "Honey,[br]no, they don't want to go. 0:05:55.041,0:05:58.346 This is the Middle Passage, Nobody wants[br]to go on the Middle Passage." 0:05:58.370,0:06:02.252 So she gave me a look that only a daughter[br]of a game designer would give a mother, 0:06:02.276,0:06:05.048 and as we're going across the ocean,[br]following these rules, 0:06:05.072,0:06:07.131 she realizes that she's rolling[br]pretty high, 0:06:07.155,0:06:09.444 and she says to me,[br]"We're not going to make it." 0:06:09.468,0:06:11.585 And she realizes,[br]we don't have enough food, 0:06:11.609,0:06:12.926 and so she asks what to do, 0:06:12.950,0:06:15.680 and I say -- remember, she's seven -- 0:06:15.704,0:06:17.740 "We can either put[br]some people in the water 0:06:17.764,0:06:19.635 or we can hope that they don't get sick 0:06:19.659,0:06:21.281 and we make it to the other side." 0:06:21.305,0:06:23.876 Just the look on her face came over -- 0:06:23.900,0:06:26.527 now mind you this is after a month of -- 0:06:26.551,0:06:28.230 this is Black History Month, right? 0:06:28.254,0:06:31.896 After a month, she says to me,[br]"Did this really happen?" 0:06:32.200,0:06:34.986 And I said, "Yes." And so she said -- 0:06:35.010,0:06:36.657 this is her brother and sister -- 0:06:36.681,0:06:39.659 "If I came out of the woods,[br]Avalon and Donovan might be gone." 0:06:39.683,0:06:40.850 "Yes." 0:06:40.874,0:06:42.682 "But I'd get to see them in America." 0:06:42.706,0:06:43.857 "No." 0:06:43.881,0:06:46.410 "But what if I saw them?[br]Couldn't we stay together?" 0:06:46.434,0:06:47.685 "So Daddy could be gone." 0:06:47.709,0:06:48.867 "Yes." 0:06:48.891,0:06:51.328 She was fascinated by this,[br]and she started to cry, 0:06:51.352,0:06:54.751 I started to cry, her father started[br]to cry, and now we're all crying. 0:06:54.775,0:06:58.648 He didn't expect to come home from work[br]to the Middle Passage, but there it goes. 0:06:58.672,0:07:00.765 And so, we made this game, and she got it. 0:07:00.789,0:07:03.345 She got it because she spent time[br]with these people. 0:07:03.369,0:07:06.614 It wasn't abstract stuff[br]in a brochure or in a movie. 0:07:06.638,0:07:09.706 And so it was just an incredibly[br]powerful experience. 0:07:09.730,0:07:12.710 This is the game, which I've ended up[br]calling "The New World," 0:07:12.734,0:07:14.016 because I like the phrase. 0:07:14.040,0:07:16.824 I don't think the New World[br]felt too new worldly exciting 0:07:16.848,0:07:19.279 to the people who were[br]brought over on slave ships. 0:07:19.303,0:07:22.389 But when this happened,[br]I saw the whole planet; I was so excited. 0:07:22.413,0:07:24.799 I'd been making games for 20-some years, 0:07:24.823,0:07:26.822 and then I decided to do it again. 0:07:26.846,0:07:28.262 My history is Irish. 0:07:28.286,0:07:31.418 So this is a game called "Síochán Leat."[br]It's "peace be with you." 0:07:31.442,0:07:33.973 It's the entire history[br]of my family in a single game. 0:07:33.997,0:07:36.496 I made another game called "Train." 0:07:36.520,0:07:39.575 I was making a series of six games[br]that covered difficult topics, 0:07:39.599,0:07:43.309 and if you're going to cover a difficult[br]topic, this is one you need to cover, 0:07:43.333,0:07:46.061 and I'll let you figure out[br]what that's about on your own. 0:07:46.085,0:07:48.938 And I also made a game[br]about the Trail of Tears. 0:07:48.962,0:07:51.416 This is a game[br]with 50,000 individual pieces. 0:07:51.440,0:07:54.824 I was crazy when I decided to start it,[br]but I'm in the middle of it now. 0:07:54.848,0:07:56.075 It's the same thing. 0:07:56.099,0:07:59.026 I'm hoping that I'll teach[br]culture through these games. 0:07:59.050,0:08:01.352 And the one I'm working[br]on right now, which is -- 0:08:01.376,0:08:03.202 because I'm right in the middle of it, 0:08:03.226,0:08:05.692 and these for some reason[br]choke me up like crazy -- 0:08:05.716,0:08:07.771 is a game called[br]"Mexican Kitchen Workers." 0:08:07.795,0:08:10.240 And originally, it was[br]a math problem, more or less. 0:08:10.264,0:08:12.331 Here's the economics[br]of illegal immigration. 0:08:12.355,0:08:14.556 And the more I learned[br]about Mexican culture -- 0:08:14.580,0:08:16.850 my partner is Mexican —[br]the more I learned that, 0:08:16.874,0:08:19.204 you know, for all of us,[br]food is a basic need, 0:08:19.228,0:08:22.534 and it is obviously with Mexicans, too,[br]but it's much more than that. 0:08:22.558,0:08:24.988 It's an expression of love.[br]It's an expression of -- 0:08:25.012,0:08:27.462 God, I'm totally choking up[br]way more than I thought. 0:08:27.486,0:08:29.358 I'll look away from the picture. 0:08:29.382,0:08:32.678 It's an expression of beauty,[br]it's how they say they love you. 0:08:32.702,0:08:34.054 It's how they say they care, 0:08:34.078,0:08:37.106 and you can't hear somebody[br]talk about their Mexican grandmother 0:08:37.130,0:08:39.838 without saying "food"[br]in the first sentence. 0:08:39.987,0:08:42.143 And so to me, this beautiful culture, 0:08:42.167,0:08:46.487 this beautiful expression is something[br]that I want to capture through games. 0:08:46.511,0:08:50.012 And so games, for a change,[br]it changes how we see topics, 0:08:50.036,0:08:53.548 it changes our perceptions[br]about those people in topics, 0:08:53.572,0:08:55.294 and it changes ourselves. 0:08:55.318,0:08:57.507 We change as people through games, 0:08:57.531,0:08:59.567 because we're involved, and we're playing, 0:08:59.591,0:09:01.080 and we're learning as we do so. 0:09:01.104,0:09:02.302 Thank you.