{"72048":{"#nid":"72048","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Big Game to Take Over Atlanta This Summer","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Can a game change the world?\u0022 This question was posed to Celia Pearce a couple of years ago, and now she and the Georgia Tech Emergent Game Group intend to show that it can. This summer, Pearce\u0027s game research lab, in partnership with the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI), will present ActionQuest: ATL, a large-scale public \u0022Big Game\u0022 where the goal isn\u0027t racking up the most points or defeating evil warlords, but making the world a better place and having fun in the process.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EUsing play as an engine for social change, ActionQuest: ATL is believed to be the first \u0022Big Game\u0022 with activist aims and the first \u0022Big Game\u0022 ever held in Atlanta. Hosted in conjunction with U.S. Social Forum (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ussf2007.org\u0022 title=\u0022www.ussf2007.org\u0022\u003Ewww.ussf2007.org\u003C\/a\u003E), the game\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nengages players in a series of cooperative quests that involve taking real-world social action in specific locations, such as identifying shelter needs for the homeless or beautifying neighborhoods by planting wildflowers on vacant lots, to name just two. After completing a \u0022quest action,\u0022 players e-mail or text message photographic evidence of its completion to an online action map that is created from the collective evidence that all the players have turned in. The more quest actions, the more complete the map becomes.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Every day, millions of people log onto online games and spend hours working collaboratively on very difficult problems in imaginary worlds,\u0022 said Pearce, director of Georgia Tech\u0027s Emergent Game Group and the Experimental Game Laboratory. \u0022We wanted to see if we could harness that same energy and apply it to real-world problems.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EShe and her collaborators at DS4SI also saw the opportunity to connect Atlantans with the 10,000 social activist attendees of the U.S. Social Forum. By spreading activist activities all over the city, game organizers hope to not only raise awareness of the conference, but also give locals a fun way to engage with social justice issues in Atlanta. The game also gives attendees of the conference an alternate way to tour the city.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We are partnering with activist organizations like the Mad Housers and Citizens for Progressive Transit to develop a wide range of challenge levels for players, from throwing seeds in empty lots to trying to navigate Atlanta in a wheelchair,\u0022 said Peace. \u0022We also think this will be a great weekend outing for families who can have fun together while learning about social justice issues.\u0022\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nUnlike a standard video or board game that\u0027s typically played indoors by one or a few people at a time, \u0022Big Games\u0022 involve hundreds of people and are played outdoors over a large geographical area. Perhaps the best known of these was PacManhattan, produced by students at New York University, who dressed up in costume and played the basic rules of the video game classic Pac-Man in the streets of New York. ActionQuest:ATL channels the excitement and enthusiasm of this concept, bringing a new dimension of fun to social activism.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Whether or not ActionQuest: ATL can actually change the world remains to be seen,\u0022 said Pearce. \u0022But at the very least, we hope it changes the way people see the world. Hopefully they\u0027ll see that collectively, they have the power to change it.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EActionQuest: ATL runs daily from noon to 8 p.m., June 28-July 1, 2007. Players can register online at \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.actionquest.us\u0022 title=\u0022http:\/\/www.actionquest.us\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.actionquest.us\u003C\/a\u003E or in-person at one of two base camps at the Little Five Points Community Center (1083 Austin Ave. N.E. 30307) or Renaissance Park (Piedmont \u0026amp; Pine). For information send e-mail to \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:info@actionquest.us\u0022\u003Einfo@actionquest.us\u003C\/a\u003E .\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"ActionQuest: ATL First Big Game to Merge Activism with Play"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u0022Can a game change the world?\u0022 The Georgia Tech Emergent Game Group intends to show that it can. This summer they will present ActionQuest: ATL, a large-scale public big game where the goal is making the world a better place and having fun in the process.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"ActionQuest: ATL first to merge activism with play"}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2007-06-13 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:00:50","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2007-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2007-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"72049":{"id":"72049","type":"image","title":"Mad Housers Quest","body":null,"created":"1449177434","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:17:14","changed":"1475894649","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:09"}},"media_ids":["72049"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/egg.lcc.gatech.edu\/index.php","title":"Emergent Game Group"},{"url":"http:\/\/ds4si.org\/","title":"DS4Si: the design studio for social intervention"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.ussf2007.org\/","title":"U.S. Social Forum"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.actionquest.us\/","title":"ActionQuest: ATL"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2358","name":"action"},{"id":"2359","name":"actionquest"},{"id":"2357","name":"activism"},{"id":"198","name":"game"},{"id":"2356","name":"gaming"},{"id":"1538","name":"pearce"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}