Playing Well, Playing Together

The promise and potential of games and new media as spaces of learning, social exchange, and civic engagement among youth will not be realized without a shared public agenda addressing the growing problem of toxicity online. While policies and infrastructures have long been in place to assure safe, public playgrounds for kids in the real world, no such approaches exist for the online playgrounds where young people are spending increasing amounts of time.

Raising Good Gamers implicates us all in developing a response: designers, technologists, activists, researchers, funders, academics, parents, and educators. How might we develop and support gaming communities that cultivate empathetic, compassionate, and civically engaged kids? What might it look like to develop youth’s socio-emotional capacities to positively shape the climate of gaming clubs and communities? What role can the design of games, gaming communities, and associated technologies play in mitigating abuse? How do we build the foundations of a healthy community directly into the platforms and communities themselves?

The goal of RGG is to create a sustainable movement that can change the culture of online gaming for everyone.