Vivendi

Helen Nissenbaum, Professor of Media, Culture & Communication, New York University (ASDR 2008)

« In our project Values-at-Play, Mary Flanagan (games designer and professor, Dartmouth University, USA) and I suggest ways of taking social, ethical, and political values into consideration in the design of digital games, one of the most compelling media forms in contemporary life.
Often criticized for valorizing anti-social actions, games, in fact, are an ideal medium for heightening players’ awareness of prosocial values such as cooperation, freedom, justice, generosity, privacy, creativity, peace, diversity, tolerance, and autonomy. Often by altering players’ perspectives, games can stimulate meaningful reflection on social and humanistic themes. But can this be done without being didactic or dull?
In our view: yes. Values can be expressed “in play” in many ways, not only through narrative, for example, but also through basic mechanisms. It has been a revelation to see even quite junior students of games design inspired by this approach to develop creative and original designs that are innovative, beautiful and, importantly, fun.
Yet, we take seriously friendly skeptics who admire the general aims but question whether it can flourish outside academia in “the wilds” of corporate life and the commercial marketplace. Accordingly, it was exciting to meet with Vivendi leadership and learn about its program for sustainable development, including as part of its core mission a commitment to values such as cultural diversity, knowledge sharing, and quality and pluralism of content.
We look forward to exploring future collaboration and mutual exchanges of ideas, particularly with Vivendi’s digital games units. »