1972: The Birth of Pong and the Rise of Video Games

In this, our second episode of our Fall 2011 season, we investigate the popularity of video games, their use in education, their relationship to the military and whether or not they are presaging the global expression of our utopian yearnings. 
  
As more and more people around the world use video games to pass the time, to teach and learn and to create alternative realities, it is time for us to consider what its implications are and whether or not we are leading or being led—and to where.

This Show's Featured Panelists: 

D. Fox Harrell, Ph.D is an Associate Professor of Digital Media; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written extensively on identity and digital culture and has published an article called Algebra of Identity; Skin of Wind, Skin of Streams, Skin of Shadows, Skin of Vapor for Theory Magazine. 

Mary Flanagan, Professor of Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth College, is the inaugural chair holder of the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professorship in Digital Humanites. Dr. Flanagan is the author of 'Critical Play; Radical Game Design and is the inventor of the first web based digital game for girls "The Adventures of Josie True". 

Randall Nichols is as Assisstant Professor at Bentley College where his areas of interest are: the Political Economy of Media, New Technology, Media Industries, Video Games, Media Economics and Popular Culture. His essay, Target Acquired: America's Army and the VideoGame Industry is in Joystick Soldiers; The Politics of Play in Military Video Games edited by Nina B. Huntemann and Mathew Thomas Payne.

In this, our second episode of our Fall 2011 season, we investigate the popularity of video games, their use in education, their relationship to the military and whether or not they are presaging the global expression of our utopian yearnings. 
  
As more and more people around the world use video games to pass the time, to teach and learn and to create alternative realities, it is time for us to consider what its implications are and whether or not we are leading or being led—and to where.

This Show's Featured Panelists: 

D. Fox Harrell, Ph.D is an Associate Professor of Digital Media; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written extensively on identity and digital culture and has published an article called Algebra of Identity; Skin of Wind, Skin of Streams, Skin of Shadows, Skin of Vapor for Theory Magazine. 

Mary Flanagan, Professor of Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth College, is the inaugural chair holder of the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professorship in Digital Humanites. Dr. Flanagan is the author of 'Critical Play; Radical Game Design and is the inventor of the first web based digital game for girls "The Adventures of Josie True". 

Randall Nichols is as Assisstant Professor at Bentley College where his areas of interest are: the Political Economy of Media, New Technology, Media Industries, Video Games, Media Economics and Popular Culture. His essay, Target Acquired: America's Army and the VideoGame Industry is in Joystick Soldiers; The Politics of Play in Military Video Games edited by Nina B. Huntemann and Mathew Thomas Payne.