Gaming in public media: now and later

Lauren Orsini

(I went with several other students to Public Media Camp. Here's an excerpt from our developing story.)

3:15 p.m. - Gaming in public media: now and later by Lauren Orsini

How could public media specialists take the hours gamers spend in front of the console or computer, monetize it, and make people better from it?

This was the question event curator Nina Walia pitched during the "Gaming in Public Media" session at Public Media Camp. Walia, a gamer herself, acknowledged that gamers often slip through the cracks of public media targeting.

"The gamer demographic is one that public media needs to reach. It's where we lose a lot of people," she said.

What's working

Walia asked session participants to think of ways that gaming has already been incorporated into public media.

One model brought up was Free Rice, a word definition game which allows players to feed hungry people around the world whenever they guess an answer correctly.

"People feel good about donating, and its engaging," wrote Scott Cummings of PBS Kids on the session's wiki.

Twitter user Andy Wheeland (WXXIinteractive) shared a project his company had helped create called Picture the Impossible.Picture the Impossible is a community-based game developed jointly by the Lab for Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

"The game engages members of the community in exploration of the City of Rochester, and encourages both creativity and charitable giving in the community," said Wheeland. "Players participate in a range of activities, including casual web-based games, games that bring players out to events and locations throughout the city, and games that involve the tangible aspects of the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper itself."

Ideas for the future

Participants then brainstormed other ways to use games to get people involved in community dialogue.

One of the most popular suggestions was for NPR to make a real-time version of their popular gameshow, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Andy Carvin, the original tweeter of this idea, was retweeted by several other participants.

Other ideas participants posted to the session wiki included an NPR fantasy league, political fundraising games that really raise funds, games that encourage players to improve their communities, and games for mobile phones that combined geocaching with a real time event or museum tour.

One participant, Thomas Broadus, the "tech guru" for Mississippi Public Broadcasting suggested simply adding unlockable achievements to existing games would make them more engaging.

"Most people spend around 5 minutes on the NPR site. If you want to make it an hour, put achievements on the application," he said.