Gamze get a bad reputation from being
distractions that keep us from
interacting with other people and
there's a definite stigma that gamers
are isolated from society so today we
wanted to share a story from MJ about
how games can help bring people together
[Music]
my name is MJ and I'm a game developer
and professor of game design but I
didn't always have access to games when
I was growing up my brother and I had
fairly limited opportunities to play
games
my parents didn't want us to get
addicted to something they considered an
unhealthy habit so they limited our
access to it one day my family was at
the shopping mall and my brother and I
were lured to a display case that was
set up to play Pokemon Stadium on
Nintendo 64 we began playing so intently
that our parents left us there for some
time all they did their shopping and
when they returned we were still glued
to it and a funny thing was happening we
were laughing and having fun together
now I should explain my brother and I
did not get along well in our childhood
we fought a lot and my parents struggled
to find activities we could do together
and now here was this silly little game
that made us both forget our differences
and bond over our shared enjoyment we
left the mall that day with a Nintendo
64 and a copy of Pokemon Stadium and
parents who were a bit more open-minded
about games years later I was at grad
school for entertainment technology at
that time I wanted to design attractions
at theme parks or work an animated film
but the program I was in often had us
work on unusual game-like experiences
one such project was an exercise game
that had two players on Wii Fit balance
boards and used a Kinect to track our
movement my parents came to visit and I
convinced them to try the exercise game
my mom was handicapped from childhood
she could stand but not without the help
of canes so using the balance board and
Kinect was a challenge for her but she
gave it a try and played against my dad
she was soon laughing harder than I'd
ever seen and for a moment she seemed to
forget her physical limitations and
become immersed in the experience not
long after that my mom was diagnosed
with cancer I was too far away to visit
more than a couple times a month and my
mom had to spell
long periods of time getting treatment
she was frequently by herself during
those treatment days since my dad had to
work alone at a time when she probably
needed people the most but we found a
way for me to keep her company
words with friends words with friends
had just come out and she and I both
loved word games so we started playing
during her treatments she would let me
know in advance when her treatment
schedule was and I would coordinate my
schedule so I could be on my phone
during those times one great thing about
words with friends was the chat feature
so we could send messages while we were
playing and we would start lots of games
at once sometimes we'd have 10
simultaneous games going that way there
would always be one she could take a
turn on and it would keep her mind off
things during the treatment
sadly my mom didn't make it through the
cancer when she found out it was
terminal my brother and I came home to
spend her last couple of weeks with her
it was hard for her to focus on anything
even conversation and she didn't want us
sitting around being sad so she asked us
to play games next to her so she could
hear us laughing and having fun together
and it would bring her peace after my
mom died my career hit a turning point I
decided I wanted to make games
specifically I wanted to make games that
bring people together the way they had
done for my family I worked a couple of
jobs at game studios mainly making
educational and training games but
eventually I started working on games on
my own my first solo project I made for
my dad now my dad doesn't always get
along with newer technology but he had a
smartphone and I wanted him to try
playing games on it he had a physical
dice game that he enjoyed a lot so I
made a digital dice game with similar
rules so he'd already know how to play I
also wanted to keep the physical nature
he loved so to roll the dice you shake
the phone and the internal gyroscope
would do the rest I decided it would be
multiplayer and players would play
sharing one phone the intent was that
people who are waiting for something
like at a restaurant or in a waiting
room could have an activity to do
together rather than everyone just
staring at their own phones it's simple
a player would roll the dice a few times
trying to get certain numbers then pass
the phone to the next person to take
their turn something any family can do
when I released my game it only had a
handful of downloads but one of those
downloads was my dad he had never
downloaded a game before so I gave him
step-by-step instructions to download
and install but once he had it he
enjoyed playing it and he got more
comfortable using his phone for
something other than phone calls a year
later he still played that dice game on
his phone he even pulled it out at
Christmas to show me games don't have to
be distractions or unhealthy habits if
we let them they can be things that
bring us together and create moments of
joy between us and our loved ones
incredibly well said MJ thanks so much
for sharing something so personal with
us and you know I'm willing to bet that
there's a lot of people out there who
feel very much the way you do and now
thanks to your story they feel a little
less alone thanks again
[Music]