Due to the Corona virus outbreak and the measures announced by the Dutch government, Waag is cancelling all public events up until June 1st, 2020. Attendees of our events have been notified. Please keep an eye on our website as we’re working on postponing our events and offering alternative online sessions.
Can serious games help us to reimagine our political and economic system? How can we use them to make social themes tangible? Can we transform our city while playing? During our Common Play With Us! game nights we aim to discover the potential of serious games to help us reclaim the urban commons.
In previous editions, the enthusiasm of the participants and the potential of serious games were strongly evident. Serious games raise awareness about specific topics, foster critical thinking and facilitate rational decision making and group consensus. We want to play games and share the tools that we discover by co-creating an online repository of serious games in order to talk about the urban commons.
During our Common Play With Us! adventure we’ve discovered many features of games with respect to urban commons. In the 7th edition we will become ‘game changers’ and hack popular games to make them work for the commons! Could Lego help us to reflect on public space? Could Dixit create the perfect language to have an in-depth discussion about our political system? Can we turn Monopoly upside down to use it to reflect about gentrification and tourism massification? We will experiment with changing game mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics by using them to discuss the urban commons. Bring your favorite game and we will see if we can hack it!
Join us to convert the Waag into a commons on the night of the 19th of March. The doors are open to everyone.
Programme
20:00 – Welcome by Socrates Schouten (Chamber of Commons)
20:10 – Introduction to the game night by Mar Escarrabill
20:20 – Hacking and gaming time!
21:20 – Reflections on game experiences
21:40 – Talk & drinks
English is spoken during this event (but not exclusively).
These are some of the games that we have played at previous Common Play With Us! game nights:
• Digitale Identiteit Ganzenbord
• Pandemic
• Arbor
• Working process urban game by Roos Groothuizen
• Peak Shaving Time game by Pink Pony Express
• Redesire
If you have a game, or ideas for a game, that discuss or emulate urban commons, do let us know! Please contact mar@waag.org.
About Commons
Commons are shared resources, managed by a community from the perspective of sustainability, inclusiveness and public added value. They offer room for bottom-up initiative and citizens’ own directing. In the Commons Lab, Waag generates insight into contemporary commons and brings new forms of commons into practice. 2020 Common play With Us! game nights are mainly focus on Urban Commons. These commons aim to reimagine the spaces of the city as sustainable places for collaboration and collective ownership.
About re-designing games
Many games have been re-designed to change their dynamics or purposes. One example is the game Commonspoly, which we played in the first edition of the Common Play With Us! It hacks modern Monopoly to imagine a viable world based on cooperation instead of competition. DixIt Yourself! is also an inspiring case of how popular games can be re-designed. In this case, the creative atmosphere that Dixit cards provide is used to promote intercultural learning through storytelling.
This edition of Common Play With Us! is financed by European Cultural Foundation and BankGiro Loterij Fonds.