GamesBeat Preview Dinner

Last night, I had the privilege of attending a preview dinner for the upcoming GamesBeat conference. I connected with old friends and longtime colleagues, and chatted with some fascinating  entrepreneurs and investors. Great crowd -- it's shaping up to be a stimulating conference!

Bing Gordon spoke about his experiences with games and education, and where he thinks that field is going.

At heart, he says, games are interactive simulations of real life and they can convey high-level concepts and math education to children in very inconspicuous ways. Children playing Pokemon trading cards or the games, for instance, may be using more math than young boys did while collecting baseball trading cards. (Many of the world’s most famous economists say they learned math via baseball cards). “Kids are learning to read for the first time while playing video games,” said Gordon.

That's certainly been the case in our household. Gabe learned his first words through books and signs (we label EVERYTHING in our house) but he learned his first sentences (in the form of song lyrics) playing Karaoke Revolution at age 4. It struck me then: "This game is seemlessly, immersively teaching my son to read. It's educational!"

That's why we're doing Shufflebrain: to make games that are "a force for good."  Our games are designed to be a healthy, creative, brain-stimulaing part of daily life. We're fired-up about our mission, and excited to bring this style of gaming to a wider audience.