Tiltfactor Lab at Dartmouth Develops - Pox - Save the people

So, do you know the biggest problem that at least the state of New Hampshire is facing, one of the largest issues is getting people immunized. So, one of the things that we decided to do is really figure out how we could have a situation in where players are not necessarily competing against each other, but competing against the phenomena. So, first we made a card game and a board game hybrid and then went through many, many, many integrations before we ended up with the game we have now. So, we really focused on this idea of non-zero sum games about the way in which people are collaborating or cooperating towards a joint goal. And making that fun is really important because we really didn’t want to feel like ‘here’s another educational game.’ The game mechanics and the game design really has to spark that conversation and get people interested in that idea rather than the sense of- you know- ‘I’m going to tell you all about this disease and you’re going to play this game’ and then it’s not fun at all. We have a version of the game that is actually a print board game, which you can play with people in a physical space and then, of course, we’re developing the online game and, hopefully, an iPad version, which I think would be really nice for the format of the game to be able to play on the iPad. You know, sometimes, teaching with games is hard. I think it’s an incredibly powerful and dynamic thing to have a game and people interacting. I want the game to be fun. I think it’s really important that if we’re going to try new game models that they’re engaging. Tiltfactor Lab is a conceptual design lab, so we come up with these big ideas and we ask big questions about what is the state of technology and society, basically. So, how do we translate a conscientious approach to technology development? And how do we incorporate systems like games and simulations to be generous, responsible, and diverse? So adding human values to traditional engineering or software development criteria to get at some of the richer aspects of what makes us people. One of the reasons that I’m so excited that Titlfactor is at Dartmouth is because of Dartmouth’s history with technology innovation. And, for me, thinking about how games and technologies can really take on some deeper issues is something that I think has happened here for a very long time- the history of AI, the history of leaning programming for the masses, and the invention of BASIC, the computer programming language- it’s really inspiring for me to be part of that lineage and say, ‘Okay, now. What are the questions that face us as 21st century designers and technologists?’