The State Center for Political Education wants to shed light on various aspects of computer games with a new series of events.
Video games are a mass medium. In the past, this was not only proven by numerous studies, sales figures of large titles such as Fifa, Call of Duty, or Valorant (zaros boosting), which is regularly sold millions of times, show that games have now gained a foothold in modern society. And the interest in the virtual pastime also seems to be great in Northern Saxony.
A whopping 1,800 people, including several school classes, visited the “Aufbruch in Adventure” exhibition, which explores the history and impact of video games at Schloss Hartenfels between the opening in mid-December 2019 and the corona-related closing in mid-March. The exhibition was designed by the media education center Plus of the district, that in cooperation with the State Center for Political Education and the Saxon SAEKs would now like to further deepen the topic of “computer games”. The first event in North Saxony is imminent and, due to the current corona pandemic, will take place entirely on the Internet.
Different perspectives
“As with the exhibition at the castle, our goal is to bring video games closer to people,” explains Dr. Benjamin Bigl, head of the MPZ +, explains the background of the “Fascination Games” series.
The aim is to show those who are interested in games new aspects of their favorite medium but also to show everyone else access to games with reservations. “Computer games are part of our culture and the mass communication medium of the 21st century”, Bigl sums up the relevance of the project. “Gaming is more than gambling and blunt shooting. With moderate play, everyone can experience a virtual adventure. No matter whether alone, in a team, or networked worldwide. ”
And to show this to the people of the Free State, the State Center for Civic Education is inviting you to a total of six events over the next ten months that deal with various aspects of the medium. The image of women in video games is illuminated just as much as the political level of games and the big topic of computer game addiction.
It starts in the network
The series begins on May 13th. The opening was supposed to take place at the Eilenburg Adult Education Center, but was completely digitized due to the corona pandemic and streamed onto the Internet. This online event is thematically dedicated to the educational component of video games and the whole thing is titled “What you can learn while playing”. Benjamin Bigl (MPZ +), who in the past devoted numerous studies and research projects to the medium of computer games, will give a short lecture before René Meyer will take the virtual guests on a tour of the house of computer games.
With more than 1,000 consoles and home computers, this museum is the world’s largest collection of historical game systems and has already supplied the exhibits in the castle. “So it’s the perfect place to show how ideally computer games can help to promote skills, learn logical thinking and develop creatively.”
The whole thing then concludes with a round of talks, which the audience can also see on the screens should involve. “We have a representative of the State Center for Political Education on board as a moderator who collects open questions and then asks us.”
Exciting test run
The virtual kick-off event in two weeks is still a kind of test run for everyone involved to test the possibilities of such an online format. In order to keep the entry as low-threshold as possible, the whole thing is transferred to a normal website without prior registration or the like, the pre-installation of separate programs is not necessary, the link is shared a few days beforehand via social networks and other websites. “We want to make our offer accessible to as many people as possible so that the topic can be broadly spread. I’m really excited to see how the project will be received and how many people will accompany us on our virtual tour of the House of Computer Games. ”