Clarify
Who do you expect to join the carnivals — both the 2 events you produce this term and the event in the Spring? Have you thought of ways to capture the action at these events to share with people who do not attend and potentially with people who are only exposed to the dominant narrative?

If you envision these games as part of other actions, would it make sense to think of creating a carnival or game-team that could attend events rather than a stand-alone event? I could envision getting a lot of attention for this aspect being fun and it becoming a draw for people to show up to actions.

Value
This could be a clever way of sharing a new version of the housing crisis narrative with an audience. Engaging people through play opens many possibilities.

Concern
I wonder about the scale of the events you intend to produce this term. Do you yet have a vision for how big these will be, and what it will take to produce them?

Suggestions
I’d suggest thinking about how this can continue to fit into CLVU work going forward. Will the games be reusable at later actions? Is the Carnival an event that CLVU would like to throw again?

The carnival with games is a really creative idea to start combatting the dominant narrative. I am really looking forward to seeing how your games develop!

Below are some guiding questions and thoughts as you move forward.

1. Problem statement: In your project proposal, can you add more meat to this? What exactly is the dominant narrative? Provide more specifics than just “foreclosures are decreasing…” Give examples from newspapers and other media outlets of how they discuss the dominant narrative and then explain why this is an issue. What are the larger implications of this dominant narrative and why does it need to be overturned?

2. So the carnival would take place in the Spring and you are now focusing your deliverables to be the games? This sounds like a good, feasible plan (p.s. CoDesign Studio is also being taught in the Spring so you can take it again and design the carnival through the course).

3. Right now the games that you describe are abstract and conceptual (which is good), but don’t necessarily provide information on how the housing market works. I think the player of the game should not only be able to grasp the abstract concept, but also learn information about the housing market and current problems. How will the games convey this information? How exactly do people learn from the games? What is each game’s message?

4. Maybe a good way to start building the games is to think about 3-4 “they say” issues from your first blog post and figure out how playing the game leads to the “we say” message. Remember people don’t know as much about the housing crisis, markets, and current trends as much as you do, so the games have to educate them.

4. If one of your goals if to overturn the dominant narrative, people who believe that dominant narrative need to play the games. When you do finally deploy these games (and I know it will be in the Spring), strategize about how to get a diverse range of folks to play them.

5. Have you considered building any digital games? This way, even when the carnival is not taking place, people can continue to play and learn form them. I am not sure if any of you have any coding experience, but hiring someone who does is something you could use your $1000 towards.

6. Another final project idea deliverable could be an overall assessment report of the games. You had mentioned you wanted to use this semester to test your games. (Also, where would you be testing them?) It would be useful for others involved in activism and gaming to see and understand your process and also learn about what did and did not work with your games.

7. It sounds like other staff members from City Life are joining your team, which is awesome! What is each person’s role?

Really awesome brainstorming, everyone! Let me know if you have any questions. 🙂