Mead Arcade
November 29 – December 2 | Grand Gallery
FREE with Any 2012 Mead Ticket Stub
This year, in collaboration with Games for Change, the Mead invites audiences to play a series of interactive digital games that delve into critical social and global issues that appear throughout Festival films and discussions. The games provide a fun and provocative way for audiences to discover their experience of other cultures and the relationship between media and social impact. The games are free and will be available for play at computer stations in the Grand Gallery throughout the Festival, assisted by game “ambassadors” from Games for Change. Through play we further probe — What do you bring to the story?
Attendees of the 2012 Margaret Mead Film Festival will have the opportunity to play the following games:
The Cat and the Coup
Peter Brinson, Kurosh ValaNejad, University of Southern California
Told through a visually complex and metaphoric design aesthetic, The Cat and the Coup explores the downfall of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. Players control Mossadegh’s cat and as it guides his soul through the events that lead to the systemic coup to take him down.
Guess My Race
Michael D. Baran, Harvard University
This simple and powerful guessing game challenges players to determine a person’s race through pre-assumptions based on physical appearance and a series of purposely leading choices. After answering, players can read direct responses from people who appear in the game, as they explain how they culturally identify.
Hunt for the Noor Stone
Endeavor Films, Playwala, ITVS
Part of the transmedia properties surrounding the comic book “The 99″, Hunt for the Noor Stone is another aspect of the project that uses video games to positively highlight Islamic culture. In Noor Stone, players travel through time to stop a villain from capturing the game’s namesake artifact. Players must learn more about Islamic history and language to solve puzzle to stop his advance.
Sweatshop
Litteloud
Sweatshop takes a dark, tongue-in-cheek look at the horrors of overseas, sweatshop labor. As players abuse their workers to gain higher scores, the cartoonish gameplay mirrors the actual problems that exist in these labor institutions.
WAY
Coco & Co.
WAY bridges the gap between cultures through non-verbal communication, team work, and random pairing of players around the world. By putting players in an environment of puzzles that they cannot solve alone, WAY encourages collaborative teamwork with strangers until their hard work culminates in a dramatic finale, finally allowing players to “speak” for the first time.