DML2014: Ignite Talk - Constance Steinkuehler
2Building a Corporation for Public Gaming
Since David Rejeski's first proposal for a Corporation for Public Gaming in 2006, the field of games for impact has spoken of its need in hushed tones, all too aware of how unlikely such an establishment would be in today's political climate. The idea of public media is under fire from both sides of the political isle, and the dream of anything close to $300M yearly appropriation for interactive media like games seems unlikely. After all, we've a hard enough time simply convincing Americans that not all games are the same, that not all games are violent, and that videogames, just like television, can be the medium of all sorts of expression and not just another "vast wasteland."
As platforms for games diversity and rush into mobile devices (phones and tablets), however, so too does their audience diversify. And as a broader swath of the public engages with games of myriad forms, the nation is starting to wake up to the medium's diversity and potential. To borrow a phrase from President Johnson when he signed legislation to establish the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) back in 1967 for television, "we have only begun to grasp the great promise of the medium."
In this rant I want to talk about the critical functions a Corporation for Public Gaming (CPG) would serve and the efforts we can make to bring that entity into existence. The building blocks are already there in different sectors: academics, industry, philanthropy, government, and -- increasingly, the public market. With some partnership and field building to remove critical barriers and frictions, I argue, we can create a new form of CPG that's distributed across multiple entities working in unison and amplify the function of one another. Perhaps we should start with grass roots organization that leverages the efforts already in play, and then argue for appropriations after the fact rather than a priori. There is an old adage in Washington DC that, every good idea needs three things: resources, permission, and people who own it. And of those three things, its people who are the most critical ingredient. I argue we now have the people and passion we need to make a Corporation for Public Gaming possible. This is my call to arms.