1. WHO CARES ABOUT SOCIAL GAMES?
a talk for CompuGirls
John Carter McKnight
July 2011
2. who am I and why am I here?
adjunct professor of law
PhD student in “Human & Social Dimensions
of Science & Technology”
I study how people build communities and
negotiate rules in online spaces
and I play a lot of games!
3. “Games are a series of interesting choices”
– Sid Meier
4. Social games (Facebook games)
get trashed by game developers,
who don’t find the choices interesting
9. what kinds of choices are interesting
to you?
10.
11.
12.
13.
14. the game mechanics –
those “interesting choices” –
are actually the same as in a game that developers,
critics – and game studies professors - love