The ULTIMATE Goal...goal....goal...goal........

I was able to get into email contact with Suzanne Seggerman, the co-founder and president of Games for Change (gamesforchange.org) today which was pretty damn cool.

As I was typing an email response to her, I think I articulated my ultimate goal fairly well so I'm going to copy and paste that into the blog since I don't really feel like retyping the whole thing again.

So here it goes:

My ultimate goal is to create a non-profit game company that develops AAA progressive socially conscious games that will appeal to both casual and hard core gamers. I know this sounds like an impossible task, but I know that progressive thought, video games and commercial success do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Since my end goal is not something that can be easily achieved right now with my current experience level, we (Kathy and I) were planning on starting small with a non-profit called Gamers Of Action that would allow gamers to use their skills to enact positive social change namely through the raising of money to fund the development of socially conscious games. If we raised enough money we could start a small community based foundation that could help fund other young game non-profits.

In terms of fundraising we brainstormed multiple ideas (the viability of each of these options still needs to be researched)
- Find temporary game testing/ focus testing opportunities and have participants donate a portion of their earnings. This setup would be similar to the way that TV taping fundraisers are conducted. Basically groups sign up with audience agencies and go to a TV taping and are paid a certain amount for each person they bring, usually about $14-$20 a head.
- Run a Game Tournaments to raise money
- Partner with existing game tournaments and professional leagues to raise money

Since the mission of Gamers Of Action is to allow gamers to use their gaming skills for positive change, there are other non-money related options that we could pursue as well such as
- Creating socially conscious game design classes to help inspire future generations of progressive game designers
- Create a progressive game developer mentorship program to connect young progressive game developers with more experienced ones.

Of course a lot of this will change over time, but I think it's a good start. Now I can start looking to more research and heckling other companies to find out how charitable they really are.

Not Being Lazy is Hard

Even pushing myself to get this blog started wasn't easy so I'm hoping that this blog will force me to make advances toward my ultimate goal of starting a video game non-profit that produces AAA socially conscious games. Sound like a crazy idea? Makes me sad that even I answer that question with a "Yes" most of the time. I gotta keep reminding myself though that everything starts off small and crazy sounding. Even the name "Wii" sounded ridiculous when it was first announced (still does in my opinion), but now people don't give it a second thought, hell even embrace the name.

I'm just so lazy, I wished the socially conscious game genre was already established so I could easily apply for a game programming position. I enjoy working at my current job as a game programmer for an entertainment game company, but working at a socially conscious game company would be ideal. Guess I might just have to start one sometime in the future if I can't find one. Easier said than done though...I'm lazy.

Blogging for Change?

I finally got around to creating a blog that I'm going to use to document the challenges that I'll most likely be facing trying to get GamersOfAction.org off the ground. It'll also be a good way to document some of the questions banging around in my head that I'd probably forget otherwise. Who knows maybe there are others out there that might be facing the same challenges I am and if not, now perhaps in the future. Even if no one every finds this blog (except for Kathy :) ), at least it'll help me stay organized and focused.