Fri 27 March 13:00-14:00
This is a free event. Tune in wherever you are, online. If you want to take part in venue you need to book in advance.
In this Lunchtime Talk, Dr. Max Haiven will explore how games have shaped 21st century capitalism and how to use social movements via games to fight back.
The gamification (game design elements and principles in non-game contexts) of our digital lives has transformed many areas of everyday life, from relationships and education to health, money and politics. Behind the promise of fun, connection and convenience, however, lies a powerful corporate infrastructure, concentrated in the hands of game-inspired billionaires, where most of us are treated as little more than data or non-player characters. This talk explores how games have shaped 21st-century capitalism and how social movements are using games to fight back.
About Dr. Max Haiven
Dr. Max Haiven is a writer, game designer, and educator and the Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination at Lakehead University, where he directs RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab. His board game Billionaires & Guillotines is published by Pluto Press and his next book, The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to 21st Century Fascism, will be published by MIT. He has written many books and articles and created podcasts on themes including art, finance, imagination, globalisation, conspiracies, fascism, and grassroots activism. He is the editor of the VAGABONDS series of short, provocative books and, as part of Sense & Solidarity he offers workshops on strategy and communication for social movements.