WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're getting a preview of this year's Penny Arcade Expo for pax for short. What started out as a gaming convention in Bellevue Washington has expanded to the east coast. PAX East which premiered in Boston back in 2010 has become one of the largest gaming shows in the country's history. PAX East is a three day affair for tabletop videogame and PC gamers from rock band tournaments to Dance Dance Revolution competitions. It's a gamers Paradise there are Nerdcore concerts panel discussions and an exhibitor hall filled with booze displaying the latest from top game publishers and developers. It's also part job fair today the Bay State is a gaming industry hotspot where a surplus of brains and innovation are coming out of our universities from MIT to mass art.. Up next game on Boston. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying tornado survivors in the

Dallas-Fort Worth area are assessing what's left of their homes after twisters tore through the region. The National Weather Service says as many as a dozen tornadoes may have touched down yesterday. One of the hardest hit areas was the Dallas suburb of Lancaster where the Red Cross estimates 650 homes were damaged at least 15 people reportedly have been injured across north Texas two of them severely. Thousands of people are still without power and hundreds of flights at two area airports have been canceled. Coming up a trio of primary victories Mitt Romney has taken his turn at the podium before newspaper editors and publishers in Washington as President Obama had done the day before Romney launched yet another attack on the president's handling of business growth and the economy. It has been an anti-business anti investment anti jobs agenda. And I don't think that's what the president intended it to do but that is what it has done. But Romney's main Republican rival is telling the front runner that it's too early to call himself the party's presidential nominee. Rick Santorum is vowing to stay in the race.

Well it has been a day of reflection at the White House where President Obama hosted an Easter prayer breakfast. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the annual event was attended by Christian leaders from across the U.S. President Obama told the ministers it's dangerous to give a sermon to those who preach for a living. But he called the prayer breakfast a chance to reflect on the triumph of Jesus His resurrection and also on the pain and sacrifice of the days that led up to it. It's puts in perspective our small problems relative to the big problems he was dealing with. And it gives us courage and it gives us hope. Mr. Obama also called the prayer breakfast the calm before the storm coming just days before the White House grounds are overrun with youngsters for the annual Easter Egg Roll. Scott Horsley NPR News the White House. An Equal Rights Amendment has failed in Anchorage Alaska. They show Eaton of member station KSK reports the initiative would have ban discrimination against

gay lesbian and transgendered individuals and jobs and housing. Unofficial results show 58 percent voted no. Most of them cited religious reasons for opposing the initiative. Forty one percent voted yes. Trevor stores managed the losing campaign. Yes on five. As a gay man it's just really honoring that. I live in such a great place where we can have these discussions we're very proud of the level of support of some many diverse people leaders in our community. This has been an amazing event. There is no state law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in Alaska. If proposition 5 had passed it would have made the municipality of Anchorage the first in the state to enact such a law. For NPR News I'm Daisy Eaton in Anchorage. Dow was down one hundred forty nine points. This is NPR News. Good afternoon from the WGBH radio newsroom in Boston I'm Christina Quinn with the local stories we're following. Former State Treasurer Timothy Cahill and two top aides have pleaded not guilty to ethics charges. All three have been released on personal recognizance. They face public corruption

charges for allegedly orchestrating a TV advertising campaign for the state lottery funded with taxpayer dollars. Their prosecutors say were really intended to boost Cahill's failed campaign for governor Cahill's defense attorney told reporters this morning that Attorney General Martha Coakley is using a novel legal theory to make criminal what has long been legal. Meanwhile Coakley plans to seek a third term as the state's top lawyer Coakley told the State House news service that her primary focus right now is to do her job and secondly to run for re-election after her 2010 loss to Republican Scott Brown in a special election for the U.S. Senate. Coakley has spent the last two years rebuilding her reputation by taking aggressive postures on foreclosure and energy issues and an alleged campaign finance and ethics violations by public officials. The Providence Housing Authority Board has placed the agency's longtime executive director on unpaid leave while federal investigators look into alleged wrongdoing at the Authority Executive Director Stephen O'Rourke is on administrative leave while the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development investigates a whistleblower complaint by O'Rourke's executive assistant Elizabeth Hiroshi. She claims there's fraud at

the Housing Authority involving federal funds and no bid contracts. And she accuses overwork of sexual harassment. He denies the allegations. Dartmouth College has named its medical school after a famous alum the late Theodore Ted guys all better known as Dr. Seuss Dartmouth says guys will and his wife Audrey have been the most significant philanthropists in its history. Guys will pan the cat in the hat among many other children's classics. The weather forecast for the rest of the day sunny and windy with highs in the mid 60s tonight partly cloudy in the evening then clearing with lows in the upper 30s right now it's 60 degrees in Boston 59 in wester and 61 in Providence. Support for NPR comes from the Pew Charitable Trusts who's home visiting campaign works to advance policies to reduce child abuse and neglect at Pew Trust's dot org. The time is one of six. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley. This weekend PAX East hits Boston. It's one of the nation's largest gaming conventions listening to music from Tetris the

1984 classic game. Joining me to talk about what this convention entails the latest coming out of the gaming industry and the Bay State's ever expanding role in this industry are Ethan Gill's Dorf Caroline Murphy and Timothy Lowe even Gill's north is a writer and author of fantasy freaks and gaming geeks an epic quest for reality among role players online gamers and other dwellers of imaginary realms. Caroline Murphy is a director of operations for Brass Monkey games. She's also a community manager from Boston Ind. a collective for independent game developers around the Boston area and Timothy Lowe is the executive director of mass. The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute at Becker College. Welcome to you all. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Ethan I'm going to start with you because you've been in the chair here before at the Calla Crossley Show. PAX East is going to draw 75000 people they say. Most of the tickets all the three day passes a sold out you can get one day pass tickets

now so this is a big deal tell us about PAX East and why it's such a big deal. It is a huge deal and it's really amazing to see how much it's grown. This is a convention that's really celebrating gaining and gaining culture and by gaining especially Massachusetts it might be important to reiterate that it's not gambling exactly on the you know the slot machines. We're talking video games but also tabletop games. So literally if you are into you know old school you know games like Frogger or Pac-Man or you're into new games for your X-Box 360 or if you just like playing Bananagrams or Dungeons and Dragons I mean this game this convention really tries to. Celebrate and I guess speak to all of those different gaming communities and is the fact that it's so huge and almost all they have now speak to the increased interest in games in general or one particular kind of game I mean what has led to this like massive interest in this and PAX East. Well I think it's clearly the biggest influence on his popularity as always he does the video games as

a category of entertainment is huge I mean it's something like I forget with the latest figures 25 billion dollar industry it you know across his movies now is a an entertainment option for people so you know that's really driving it. But what's wonderful that I feels are quite wonderful about this is that being an old school gamer who grew up playing Dungeons Dragons in the 70s and 80s along with this resurgence in electronic gaming there's a real nostalgic kind of. You know retroactive look at tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons and people or tabletop games like some of the tons of course so there's both happening. OK Caroline Murphy with brass monkey. You guys make video games. So when we think about people attending a Pixies we might concentrate on those people who play the game but you make them. It's a big deal for you as well. Oh yeah absolutely. So convention like PAX East is really important to a company like mine because we're they're actually getting impressions from fans you know showing the press what we are doing. So you know it's very important for companies like mine and you know

dozens of others that are in Massachusetts. Timothy Lowe following up because you're the guy head of this mass Diddy project which is a public private concern trying to boost videogame industry across all the levels here and in Massachusetts so it's all about the dollars for you. I understand it's two billion dollar industry already. What what can pack cities do to bring more money attracted to attach to this industry. Well as well I think obviously because of its enormous size and its enormous reach really firmly implants Massachusetts on the sort of global map were game design and game development. It happens. We have a lot of exciting companies here small or large in between the sort of innovation and creativity that that we all know happens here is something that we'd like to share with the rest of the world and Pax is a great way for us to share that with 75000 people who

come here. And by the way the expectation is now that Pax has extended a contract to stay here through 2023. This conference will grow to about 100000 people over that time period so that's pretty enormous when you think about it. You know I not being a gamer per se I heard about it I thought about comic com is it's sort of on that you know I know it's a different focus but you think about growth that used to be kind of a cult interest with people who are into comics and comic characters and now I can't I don't even know how huge it is. Yeah. Comic-Con it is enormous and I think Pax is like that. In fact you know you'll see folks at PAX dressed up like their favorite video game characters. You'll see you know kids in T-shirts You'll see guys in suits you'll see the sort of whole sort of array of people who are involved in in making games. At PAX playing them so and it's really an exciting place I mean if you when you walk in you will be blown away just by the sort of atmosphere right away

by the way you mentioned earlier that there are some day passes left. I saw this morning Fridays sold out Saturdays sold out so it's Pax Easter or nothing at all. OK you heard it here first by the money guy. Carolyn I want to go back to you again you're a brass monkey. You all make video games. What I'm interested in. So we got all these people coming we got all these video designers trying to think of the game is going to attract somebody. What does a 21st century 2012 game have to do to get the gamer who has lots of choices here. Clearly at PAX East and otherwise to play it and actually what goes into building a video game. Well I'll start with the first part of that. So what's the magic formula for making great video games. If I knew that then I would be a millionaire so I thought you were you know not sorry. I think it's you know it's complicated people are looking for different offerings and you know you'll have a very casual gamers who love something like Angry Birds for example which is a very simple little game. And then you have

people who want something like Call of Duty which is a very intense first person shooter perspective game so it really runs the gamut. I think there's no magic formula right now but we have seen a big trend recently towards a lot of mobile games in a lot of games that incorporate social elements and games that people can play more casually. So the you know the casual game market is growing and I think as a result of that you have more gamers who didn't consider themselves gamers who are starting to play. And how do you you know just give me the basics of how a game comes together. I mean if you're worried about you're the director of operations a brass monkey but how does it look. What needs to happen. Well so first of all you need a coder. You need a very base level you need someone who can turn their your idea into code that will run you know for a video game obviously. And then you also need an artist of some sort. So at the very minimal if you have some scale and you can code by yourself you can make a video game by yourself in your spare time. But you

know it gets you know you have things from outfits like mine which we have 10 people to game companies that are hundreds of people like so. Like a turbine for example it's a local company that produces massively multiplayer online games and they have hundreds of people on staff so it depends a lot but you know at the very base level you need someone to turn your idea into into art that represents itself on screen and you need rules which comes in the code and. That's. Kind of the very very basics of video game development. Ethan I was reading this article and it says broadly speaking today's average gamer is thirty four years old has been playing electronic games for 12 years often up to 18 hours a week. Now we know by your book that these people are not you know all crazy. There you go let me know. So this is a hobby an activity for a lot of people that perhaps many of us who are outside of the gaming industry looking in wouldn't

know. It's very social as a matter of fact you made a point in your book to say No absolutely I mean I think the stereotype is that it is the game or is you know alone in a basement you know playing by him or herself and and that may have been the case that certainly these stereotypes have a reason for existing and they have been the case 20 or 30 years ago but the truth is that as Carolyn was saying like there are games which are from like for example the we and other games where you actually have to play in a group with people face to face in your living room. They are actually bringing people together in ways that are completely you know would be would have been unpredictable years and years ago. The other thing that I think is very interesting to note is that just because you're playing a game it doesn't mean you're not necessarily being social and of course you are connecting with people over the Internet in some cases gaming. As a as a kind of category of activity has been hugely important in the kind of socialization of people with disabilities for example. If you're stuck in a room and have disabilities or getting problems getting around don't have a lot of social

contact with people in the outside world. By playing some kind of game you can have wonderful experiences interacting with people and in that venue people are judging you based on your disability. They're just basing you are judging you based on sort of how well you play the game and whether you're a fun person. And at any conference you know we see like minded folks so I'm guessing that that's what's happening at PAX East and for you Ethan when you go to PAX East what are you doing. Well I do play some video games to be honest as I may have alluded to earlier. I'm a bit of a lad I do play I do play some video games but my heart is really with tabletop games Dungeons and Dragons Bananagrams whatever you want to call it. And so what's wonderful about this particular conference is that you can really pick and choose from a variety of activities. There's a number of panel discussions I just made note of a couple interesting topics that are going to be discussed this weekend. There's a steampunk world building workshop so that their example is big Yeah. There's a panel discussion with some experts talking about healthy games how to

lose weight live longer and level up so that we think we think about other games that are now integrating you know fitness programs and fitness motivation. I guess motivational fitness actually cannot interrupt you get you know last week and my pop culture segment we did a thing about zombies run. Oh right yeah right where the zombie chasing you know I don't know. Continue to get another panel that looks like a lot of fun called retro game road show which is basically you can bring your old you know video game cartridges from you know the dark ages the video game you know bring in two experts who will decide whether it's worth anything. And there's a panel if I could just plug a panel that some friends of mine who I do some blogging for Geek Dad which is the blog on Wired dot com and they have a panel called raising the next generation of geeks and it's basically just questions that parents have about you know how much of this stuff we should expose our kids to and you know should you let your toddler play sky RAM and you know what if you do do it what to do if your daughter likes twilight more than Buffy. You know

other other problems other problems that are that are you know in the forefront of minds of gamers and geeks out there so. So I'll be checking out some of those panels I have a couple panels I'll be doing myself as well. And there are some performances by musicians Nerdcore like people who do music and rap that sort of game gamer geek friendly. So there's a there's a ton of stuff I think we're going to be talking to Gary from the arcade museum a bit later. So we're talking about that is a wonderful exhibition of classic arcade games that are fun to play. Anyway I could go on forever about all the cool things that are available but the point being there's there's multiple tracks and you can sort of pick and choose to do what you want your enthusiasm is contagious and we're going to let it be contagious as we go through this hour. We're talking about PAX East one of the largest gaming conventions in the country. It hits Boston this Friday and runs through Sunday. We're also talking about how Massachusetts has become a player in this industry. We're going out on music from the Final Fantasy video games. You're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston Public Radio.

This program is made possible thanks to you. And Lincoln introducing the new 2013 Lincoln M K S with organically tanned leather from Scotland Prussian Burwood French seams and curved control more at Lincoln dot com. Lincoln now it gets interesting. And innuendo in Natick with the hundred Douglas celebration of light spring event featuring the new cordless light rawest silhouette shades as well as duet arc a Tele and Lumen at chaining systems innuendo dot com. And nova. A roller coaster ride through nature's hidden laboratory and the compelling stories of discovery that reveal its secrets. Tune into hunting the elements Wednesday night at 9:00 on WGBH too.

Have you ever wondered why we don't have flying cars yet. Me charged up for. A new vehicle tries to bring the Jetsons dream to life. We think it's a first step towards the Jetson car or towards a true flying car however you envision it so we want to be the Wright Brothers a flying cars you could say planes that drive in cars that fly today on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Yet this afternoon at 4:00 here on the 9.7 WGBH. Every good report NPR News Tokyo NPR News Washington the GBH Boston Public Radio depends on the kindness of your support. Help Public Radio keep you connected by staying current with your WGBH membership. Make an online gift right now and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing for a brand new Apple iPod user to go behind the scenes of WGBH radio and television with our new digital members guide. Entry and full rules at WGBH dot org slash itat.

High tech biotech innovation is part of Lean In Massachusetts are about venture for the WGBH ex-con Amee reported Friday during MORNING EDITION. The partnership between X company dot com and eighty nine point seven WGBH. Welcome back to the Cali Crossley Show. If you're just joining us we're talking about PAX East the gaming convention hits Boston this Friday. We're listening to music from Asheron's Call two fallen Kings a massive multiplayer online game produced by turbine games in Needham. Joining me to talk about PAX East and what a booming industry gaming has become in the Bay State are Ethan gills Dorf Caroline Murphy and Timothy Lowe. Ethan gills Dorf is a writer and author of fantasy freaks and gaming geeks. Caroline Murphy is the director of operations for Brass Monkey games. Timothy Lowe is the executive director of mass Diddy the Massachusetts

Digital Games Institute at Becker College. So one of the things that you do Timothy Lowe is you look at with the mass did he institute situated at Becker colleges encourage people to get into the games. What kind of skills are you must be in place for folks to begin the process of becoming a video gamer. Well there's a. Wide variety of skill sets that are required if you want to get into the video game industry and we work with as a statewide center for for economic cooperation across the commonwealth we work with institutions from Boston to Amherst on issues related to curriculum development. In some cases the internship access and so on and so forth. But one thing that all these folks that we work with have an interest in are what are the skills that are needed and this is very fast moving industry.

You know the game you make today has to be better than the game you made yesterday. So always pushing always pushing and the skills that are needed. There are some fundamental skills. You know Caroline mentioned some earlier. You know you have art skills to be 3D art skills. You'll have. Computer programming skills but their writing skills. There are business skills there are marketing skills there are all sorts of other skills that come together so that game development team begins to work on a project. Everything is covered so students whether they're at Berklee College majoring or minoring in video game scoring or whether they're a backer of college majoring in video game design or one of the many other colleges and there are about 20 some odd colleges and universities in the state with the with majors and or courses in games and game development game programming game art that sort of thing so it's a really growing academic discipline there's a lot of research going on particularly you know we're talking about games for entertainment here but there's

the whole that does this I mean because I want to follow up with. Just you're laying out what's going on at all the institutions and how people are learning to get into the videogame industry. How many companies are there currently in Massachusetts and how. Let's say has grown from 5 years ago. Well there are approximately 75 and game companies start up sometimes they fall apart and the new ones start up. So it's always a little bit of a moving target but we have about 75 companies that were actually engaged in a project will be actually doing some work econometric and sort of census data gathering on the size and scope of the industry but about 75 companies as you heard earlier turbine in Needham is the largest with 400 or so employees in fact you know if somebody is listening they're looking for software engineers check them out or Brass Monkey Caroline's company which has about 10 and some are smaller Some are in between. Some are really high end studios Some are sort of hybrid where I work a lot of

interactive media as well as game design. Some are interested in only sort of providing specific pieces of the game development pipeline maybe just some 3D our other folks may just be providing. Computer programming. So it's a really diverse and dynamic group of folks who are involved in this industry. 4000 people and in some shape or form are directly or indirectly employed in the Commonwealth. But self-identified game companies I'm going to ask this question of both you and Caroline Where do you put Massachusetts in the spectrum because people think tech. They usually think West Coast we're in the top five. Clearly California is the 800 pound gorilla. Texas is of been very aggressive in the marketplace they put a tax incentive out on the street which drew a lot of companies Austin is a big center. I know Caroline was just down at South by Southwest. That's got a big piece of this industry. Washington is a big player backed candidates

very aggressive ukase very aggressive and this is this is for all intents and purposes the dominant form of entertainment on the planet three times the size of the music industry domestically. Drew the domestic box office last year so this is big money. And I think if you just look at the app industry since 2007 apps games are a big part of the app industry for 500000 jobs to the economy in this country private sector jobs. You know our goal I think as a state is the next 500000 jobs that are created by the app industry we'd like more than our fair share to happen here so we work with a lot of different folks and a lot of different areas to try to make that happen. Caroline Murphy director of operations for Brass Monkey one of the video game companies. So how do you see when you look across the country how do you how do you place Massachusetts and are you able to now draw folks here

that would never have considered being in this part of the country would have thought of Boston in Massachusetts as a place to be really at the forefront of the video game industry. Well I think that Boston has a lot of advantage when it comes to recruiting talent because so many of the universities around here like Tim was talking about are just have phenomenal programs. So we have these brilliant kids who are you know coming out of MIT coming out of back or coming out of Sloan coming out of Babson coming you know all these different universities we have really really talented people here and the trick is keeping them here. So that's why we that's why actually Tim and students at Becker College have been. Lobbying towards getting legislation passed that are going to create tax incentives here. So I think if that does happen then you're going to see Massachusetts grow and become a much bigger hub for the gaming industry and I think I first see it you know really impacting our economy changing job numbers for the better. You know we'll have more high tech sector jobs here which you know that's exactly what

we want to help grow this economy. So the tax incentives just so the folks don't understand are the same kind now offered by the film industry to give some breaks for folks to to build their company year to do their business here. And the larger picture is in that that whole return comes to all of us whether we game or not. And that is exactly and unlike film where you know when people come to work on video games here they stay you know they put roots down they make homes they contribute to our GDP. You know it's different than just the film tax credit but you're right that it is an extension of that that. National policy. And so you just back to you Tim for a moment. One of the issues that came up is when Curt Schilling's company moved to Rhode Island and he got huge tax benefits in Rhode Island and you know it's a big controversy but did you do you move to get the tax credits and could we have kept him if we had it. Where do you fall on this. Well that was easy business decision for Kirk.

Seventy million dollars worth of loan guarantees from the state of Rhode Island Massachusetts I think rightly wasn't interested in looking at an individual company. Now there is some discussion and in the legislature right now related to the tax incentive which this tax incentive although some won't like the film tax this is a different business and this bill is targeting job creation not just economic activity. So it's much more it's much more geared towards real economic development that I think we all want but that's the you know the that's up to the legislature at the moment so we'll see what happens there. But. Is there are there examples of other states that if you know I know now we know about courage in Rhode Island. But you know that's one company over 21 states that offer tax incentives for the video game and has it it has been beneficial to the US. OK most are so clearly you know just pickaback. So Montreal is a global center for game design and game development. They don't

have the kind of educational infrastructure or the entrepreneurial spirit or the kind of history of innovation like we have. They went out and bought the bot the industry they spent billions of dollars on there since 2003 and attracting thousands and thousands of jobs. That's a different jurisdiction and they have different rules and different ways that they can work with businesses but they went out and bought an industry I don't think that's what we wanted to hear I think we want to see our homegrown talent build a company here stay here. I don't think we're necessarily interested in poaching businesses from other states. The interesting thing is we do you know we have a very vibrant tech community very vibrant startup community right now and it's popping all over well look at Google expanding in Cambridge I mean we have all of that happening so that it would be then the expansion of this industry would be in the context of all exactly which can only be you know synergistic in some ways it seems.

All right well we have on the phone a great guy to talk to Gary Vincent Gary there. Yes I am. Oh excellent We're so happy to have you. He runs the American classic arcade museum in Laconia New Hampshire. And we want to talk to you because as Ethan has made clear it's even though we've spent the last few minutes talking about the tech part of the video game industry you know you're just doing the old basic stuff that old gamers perhaps let's say veteran gamers are very well aware of the Pac-Man the robot The Dig Dug all of that and it's come back to the enthusiasm about these games Tell us about it. Well you're right what we're doing is we're trying to save that that part of history where I guess a lot of people say video gaming really became popular with the masses when space invaders came out. What asteroids and then tax man which had you know probably the most recognizable icon. I'm pretty sure you could draw a picture of a Pac Man and show it to anyone and

say what is this. And you know that's that's where we are in the whole mix of video gaming is trying to save and preserve that part of it that a lot of people like you said and what are now the older gamers grew up with when when they were teens eggs. And but as I understand it the people that come to the museum are or when you bring your your vintage machines to PAX East as you will be everybody is wanted to play them. You know it they they seem to have a universal appeal. It isn't you know just the folks in their late 30s to you know mid 50s to say oh this is a great game that the game. Play I guess the game mechanics have a wide appeal so that you know people of the younger generation can still play them and get enjoyment out of them. And even last year at tax I had a gentleman shake my hand and thanked me

and he said My son my son has never seen an arcade. And to him an old antique game is a playstation one so you know that's not a wash. OK then allow me that you know he said you know this is what I grew up with and I try to explain it to him you know what our kids were like but you know he said you can talk and talk and talk but until you actually immerse someone into that environment they really have no idea what it was like What do you think was gained in the evolution of video games there I mean the evolution of games I guess from the arcade models now to very sophisticated tech games. And what was lost over the years as a change from the arcade machines that you're very familiar with to something else. Well I don't know if anything was really lost. Other then I guess the original games from the arcade the

Coin-Op games were very simple because the hardware that was available to the game designers was was very simple by today's standards and I often wonder what they would have developed had they had today's technology in the late seventies in the early 80s when you know you take a game like berserk Stern and it has speech in it but speech was very expensive to put into a video game back then so what they did is they just put in a selection of words and then re-used many of the words because it cost too much money to put complete sentences and so you got a lot of creativity out of limited resources. Oh sure and we we have folks from general computer corporation that was actually in Massachusetts and they thought they will be at the show this year with us. They have been for the past two years and these are the people that did it super missile attack.

They did quantum junior Pac-Man and they were the people that invented Mr. Pac-Man and so to do Bally Midway after the end of the Pac man run this. So you know these are great people in a lot of. People are under the impression or maybe just the assumption that all video games were either made in Japan or were in Silicon Valley in California. In fact there were companies all around the country that were creating games for the big branded company. Well we've just heard I don't know if you've heard but Tim Lowe was saying that it's pretty much sold out and I know that the last time you brought your machines your classic arcade games to PAX East it was you were busy. Are you anticipating the same kind of response. Yeah I can tell you Kelly the first year we went I was very concerned because we were bringing games in that some of which are old.

Rather than the people attending the show then I was talking with one of our board members who lives in Pennsylvania and meets up with me in Boston. I'm really scared because I don't want to open the doors and hear crickets chirping and within five minutes of opening those doors the first year the room was filled with people he comes over Pats be on the back and goes You worry too much. Well I can't let you go without asking how in the world because some of these machines are you know way back in the 80s. How do you keep them up how do you keep them running. It's not that there are so many people around who made created the machines and. And how about the part that is becoming a problem. But thankfully due to the Internet and the game collector community it's kind of like new technology being used to save old technology. And there are folks who have found out what we're doing here and a lot of times will say hey I've got

some parts and I have no use for him. Publish I just ship them to you. Have them. That's wonderful and I had a gentleman call me up who was getting out of collecting names and he said if you can come over to my storage unit I have about 30 CRT monitors if you want to take them. And so I drove an hour and a half from here and picked up 30 spare monitors. So it's you know it that's that's how we're we're able to keep things going is because of our gratitude and to these collectors. And you know for them willing to support what we're doing. So what does this say do you think about the longevity the legacy of gaming in general. I think people appreciate it from what I've seen and conversations with people here who come on site and then the people that meet up with us at PAX there they really work to stave this history and be sure that there's going to

be you know some place where people can go and and relive that experience. Well I say that's pretty interesting and for the folks lucky enough to have tickets to PAX East I guess they can see you there this weekend. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much Gary Vincent Gary Vincent runs the American classic arcade museum in Laconia New Hampshire. And he will be at PAX East this weekend. I'm callin Crossley this is WGBH Boston Public Radio. This program is on WGBH thanks to you and UMass Memorial Medical Center and

its gynecologic surgeons providing minimally invasive in robotic techniques for cancer or fibroids infertility and more. You can ask questions on line at UMass Memorial dot org slash Gyi and surgery. And Greenberg Traurig an international law firm with offices in Boston and more than 30 other cities worldwide addressing the complex legal needs of businesses from startups to public companies global reach local resources GTI law dot com. And for members of the Great Blue Hill society whose a state and planned giving arrangements to WGBH create a lasting legacy and ensure public media for generations to come. What will your legacy be. This week the first to report from Somalia that the militant Islamist group had prevented people from leaving the country on the next about his reporting on the famine Gettleman is the East Africa bureau chief.

For an IRA. It's a fast tour. I'm Cally Crossley we're listening to the theme from the classic in Tendo game Super

Mario Brothers. This is to get us in the mood for PAX East the big gaming conference that hits Boston this Friday. Joining me to talk about this convention and the state of our gaming culture are Ethan gills Dorf Caroline Murphy and Timothy Lowe. Ethan Gill's Dorf is a writer and author of fantasy freaks and gaming geeks. Caroline Murphy is a director of operations for Brass Monkey games and Timothy Lowe is the executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute at Becker College. So Ethan let's talk about some of the social aspects of gaming because as we've said earlier you know lots of folks are gaming and it's no longer the sort of you know nerdy skinny guy sitting in a basement alone with one on one. Not so skinny with one bare bulb in the room above his head. Everybody is gaming now and lots of folks that we've heard from Gary that brings up generations of still interested in the classic up to today. But what I want

to talk to you about is this growing body of university research that I didn't make this up. That gaming actually improves creativity and decision making and perception. I wonder if you could speak to that and how more and more folks are starting to realize that there's a power in the gaming beyond just entertainment. Sure absolutely. I'm a big fan of gaming for those very reasons and of course we play games because they're fun. And I think we like having challenges we like it in together with our friends and doing things whatever that is. Watching a football game playing a game of cards. Shooting hoops are their friends so gaming fulfills a basic social function but I think that yeah absolutely we are think there are things that we are learning while we're gaming that we may not even be aware that we're learning one of the past keynote speakers at PAX East was a woman named Jane McGonigal who wrote a really interesting book that came out a couple years ago called Reality is Broken It was basically about this concept that you know we can use games to help us teach us things that perhaps we're not we're not actually effectively learning in other ways as an old school game or as someone who grew up playing tabletop

games. And I think the analogy works for both tabletop games and video games like Dungeons and Dragons. The game demands a sense of cultivating curiosity and imagination. There's lots of writing you have to do you have to plan something. My joke is always if you can plan a Dungeons and Dragons campaign you can probably plan a marketing campaign and it's the same skills organisation recordkeeping. You know creative problem solving all of these things. So that's that's a huge part of it and of course you know maybe the researchers don't yet quite know how let's say hardcore gamers brains are being rewired or exactly what they're learning in the sense of you know we talk a lot about the generational gap of kids today and attention spans and these are things to be concerned about. But I think I think the the wide body of a body of research as you pointed out in Cali is suggesting that yeah this is this is stuff that's going to improve our lives in many ways. So Ethan I'm quoting from this article from The Wall Street Journal and the title of his when gaming is good for you. And here's a quote people who played action based video and computer

games made decisions 25 percent faster than others without sacrificing accuracy. And this was quoting a specific study and went on to say the most adept gamers can make choices and act on them up to six times a second four times faster than most people. Other researchers found and more practice game players can pay attention to more than six things at once without getting confuse compared with the four that someone can normally keep in mind. You know this. Often we've heard differently. You know we've been told that if you do that you can't you can't multitask you can only do the one thing you're shut out everything else. This is suggesting and this is more than one study that the opposite is true. Yeah it's wonderful and I think that even anecdotally I've talked to so many gamers who have have actually people I write about in my book fantasy for example any geeks who you know in a way their personalities or their attitude towards the world has changed through gaming. There's one woman who who I interviewed who you know talked about being in a kind of a low point in her

life and was having a hard time kind of getting her footing in things were going well in her marriage and she was sort of feeling like you know her husband was kind of walking all over her and she's got really into playing World of Warcraft which is one of these super intense online role playing games set in a fantasy world and after playing the game for six or 10 months you know she came out of that experience sort of more it in tune with kind of her inner. I don't know I like her. Her inner aggressive personality she was much much more adept at sort of talking back she talked about arguing with her husband the more come more comfortable in a kind of social way and talk is speaking of the example of heightening her reflexes. She she really felt like she was becoming a better driver a you know a better runner like everything about her her core being was kind of enhanced in a way and. In a in a way she kind of came out of that game experience realizing OK you know I spent a lot of time playing this game. I kind of retreated into this world for a certain amount of time to kind of recoup and regenerate and kind of reenergize and kind of came out of that and she doesn't play as much as he used to. And I think maybe in some ways that's a good thing. Like she's learned something from the game and now

she's applying it to her real life. That's my guest Ethan guild's dores He's the author of fantasy freaks and gaming geeks. Now I would be remiss if I did not keep my ear attuned to someone sitting at the radio now going wait a minute what about those violent video games that everybody has said screws up people if they do play them a lot they become like weirdos or crazies or whatever. And this research is actually mixed. It can alter brain function according to what research some researchers are saying but also some of the some of the violent action games have a strong beneficial effect on the brain. So where do we go from there I think. I mean maybe our other two guests here can can can chime in on this but I think that you know statistically there's no indication that we're more violent today than we were 25 years ago when videogames became prevalent. I mean I would argue that on the whole For most stable normal people you know playing a video game helps us release aggression and it's a cathartic experience. You know of course there are crazy people who do crazy things and the minute they find out that someone's done something crazy they figure out they

played Dungeons Dragons or played you know Call of Duty and then make the connection LIKE A plus B equals C which of course is totally unfair. We don't go around saying oh that guy used to play a lot. Sorry. That guy who murdered his wife you know used to watch a lot of NFL football therefore NFL football must make people more violent. You know it's just it's easy to drop it to jump to conclusions I'm sure there are some people who've done horrible things that happen to play video games but they've you know there's more to it than that. I'll say this personally killed billions of zombies and aliens and people and. Upstanding citizen so take it for what it's worth and I think that's generally the experience of most most gamers. You know it's entertainment and that's simply what it is. That's my guest Timothy low He's executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute at Becker College. Caroline Murphy of Brass Monkey want to weigh in. Yeah absolutely. Well I think that first of all I I have yet to see a study that shows gaming affecting behavior affecting brain function sure but whether or not it affects it makes somebody who has a violent predisposition snap and become violent.

I don't think that's true at all I just I have yet to see any evidence of that. The research says it alters brain function I guess the next step. And if it is it is harder to prove. All right. Yeah. And then beyond that you know I totally reiterate Tim's point I've been gaming for my whole life and you know I've killed countless and Orks in my time. So you know I consider myself to be you know a fine upstanding citizen I don't I think that gaming also gives us an ability to feel like we have a sense of accomplishment. This is actually something that Jane McGonigal talks about in her book Reality is Broken is how people actually get a positive chemical release from playing a game where you feel like you're in control making decisions. You get to act out behaviors that you consider to be positive. That has a huge effect on happiness in general and but it's up to a point and that point is usually about 20 hours is the research that I've seen so 20 hours a week is fine

healthy amount to be gaming but when you start going beyond it is when you start socially retreating and you're and it can start to have detrimental effects on your life. But you know 20 hours a week that's quite a lot so it's difficult to record that much time. Yes I know exactly. So Caroline why you are speaking I want to talk to you about the statistics that say 42 percent of gamers are women that didn't used to be the case. And are you an anomaly as a person who's a part of the decision making group and a video gaming production company. Well currently Yes but it's changing and it's changing very fast. So if you look at people under the age of 14. There's an even split between male and female gamers just as many young girls are gaming and participating in video games that we consider hardcore videogames as boys. And so I think that this is going to be a generational thing that we see moving over. Right now I think it's just the nature of the fact that games are very high tech industry and in a lot of cases we

haven't educated women about technology as much as we have men there's just this kind of cultural predisposition towards technology and science and math that's a that's a man's field. So and it's not true at all obviously you know women are just as capable of doing cool technological things as men are. But I think that's something that as a society we're working towards and that we're getting there. All right. You're listening to the 9.7 WGBH and online of WGBH dot org. We're talking about the gaming convention PAX East it hits Boston this Friday. I'm joined by writer Ethan Gill's Dorf Caroline Murphy director of operations for Brass Monkey games you just heard her and Timothy Lowe executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute at Becker College. I want to talk about something that I had a concept I had not heard of until I got ready to talk about the subject with you all and that is something called game effect cation which means that even those of us like me who don't game. Unless you count Scrabble who will not be among the people at PAX East but

game theory process orientation is coming into my life can you talk about that Caroline. Yeah absolutely. So game if occasion. Many designers if you say the word gamification to them will make a vomiting sound lay they Sorry just the word itself to them they don't like the concept that we're adding game mechanics to something it makes it a game because that you know that's not really true but it is true that we're adding game type mechanics to applications that help us to organize ourselves better or to you know remind you to brush your teeth or whatever it is. So by adding you know kind of point systems and badges and achievement the things it creates a sense of motivation that people sometimes buy into to a great deal so if you look at an application like a popular application like Foursquare for example you get all kinds of points and badges and you get to be on leaderboards just for going to your favorite restaurant and checking in there so you know people find that really rewarding in some ways and

so that kind of mechanic is being applied to a variety of different applications. What do you all think about it. Yeah. Carolyn's right you'll hear a lot of folks who are in the game industry cringe a little bit when they hear the word game of cation but. It's big and whether it's in corporate training or whether it's in health care or certainly in education ad for a gaming X or game you know all these things that are it's using the best of what we know we've learned in. True sort of game development and extracting some of that and applying it in other areas. And I think it's you know it's not the same as a game but it has a lot of other value. So it's been hot for the last couple of years and I expect it to be hot for a long time I mean anybody who's got an iPhone or iPod or endurance of. Is it has somehow been touched by game creation and something they are using is game.

Whether it's at the workplace or in the classroom the stuff is everywhere at this point it's like trying to stop rock'n'roll in the 50s it ain't going to happen. And what part of the popularity even be the fact that for those of us who I said don't game but we recognize some of the mechanics of it because it's in our world in general and so therefore you know I'm game of fire I guess. Whether you like it or not whether I like it or don't. I mean just classic I mean it's just using the technology to I think do what we always do which is to reward ourselves for good things that are things that make us feel better I mean hopefully it's being used for good not evil. But you know this idea that it's been around forever you know instead of getting a gold star at the top of your you know homework assignment because you didn't get any things wrong you get some other benefit that sort of a more digital thing. I mean I will say that not to be the lead to lead our panel here but I think it's also very important to realize that you know as wonderful as videogames are as a genre you know I'm such a big fan of the tabletop game because I personally do spend so much time in front of a computer or looking at my iPhone I'm constantly interacting with screens and it's just a nice sort of

breath of fresh air like it is you know going outdoors for a walk to be around a table and the only sort of the highest technology is pencils and dice and you know pieces of paper. And that is just an unmediated a social experience that I find to be so important what I love about PAX is that it doesn't differentiate and say oh you know videogames are better than table top games or you know this new game is just because it's supported by huge industry and has this giant display on the exhibition floor somehow better than a game like Settlers of Catan which is this wonderful social game get together on a Friday night and you know it's like Monopoly it's very similar in that regard and those are just you know simple low tech games and they are just as popular now just as capturing people's imagination as. You know name name at Mass Effect or going to your wife and I would argue too that the effects of them. Anecdotally anyway I can be more profound than videogames. You know people are sitting around looking at each other face to face and rolling dice Dungeons Dragons. There's a there's a very intricate social experience that's going on there and I think that's that's

something that's really cool. And if people are interested in learning how to play do you one of the panels I'm going to be on this weekend at PAX is called How to start playing because there are a lot of people who you know don't know how to do it I do it and it's like a gateway. Video games might be a good way to an older game like DMD. So with seconds to go we're going to a lightning rod around here I'd like to know each of your thought quick thoughts on PAX East as leading us leading Massachusetts into the future of the gaming industry. Well that's easy for me actually. We've got a panel at PAX Massachusetts the place that if you want to come to PAX and hear all about it that's will be 10:30 on Friday. And I don't know about you either. Well I just think you know I mean just symbolically the fact that this convention is based here in Boston they didn't pick New York they didn't pick Baltimore they pick Boston and I think that's going to have this enormous trickle down effect and as you mentioned you know 10 the convention's going to run for the next 10 years. So we're here to stay. Caroline Murphy It is my great hope that Pax being here for the next 10 years

is a signal that the industry here is just going to explode over the coming years. And brass monkey will be also a PAC so come visit us where it booth one the sixty eight and we're also taking part in the made in Massachusetts initiative so there's a big scavenger hunt where you can go around and find all the Massachusetts based companies and visit the lounge which is sponsored by the state. And I think it'll be a great time. Well I think I'm game of five packs of five. And certainly Massachusetts. So there you go. Thank you all thank you. We're going out on music for kingdoms of amyloid reckoning. It's the first game released by Curt Schilling's 38 Studios. We've been talking about PAX East the gaming convention hits Boston this Friday and runs through Sunday. I've been joined by writer Ethan Gill's Dorf author of fantasy freaks and gaming geeks. Caroline Murphy director of operations for Brass Monkey games and Timothy Lowe executive director of the mass. The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute at Becker College.

You can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show by following us on Twitter and become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook. Today show is engineer by Jane pic produced by Chelsea Mars will roll slip and Abby Ruzicka the Calla Crossley Show is a production of. WGBH. Boston Public Radio.