Emergence: A Massively Multiplayer Online Game Environment for Building Cultural Diplomacy

In this new era of international diplomacy and cooperation the time is right for a new approach to winning the hearts and minds of young people around the globe. Tim Lenoir, Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society, Duke University, will present work underway on a game project that breaks with violence and seeks to engage an increasingly more socially aware generation of gamers schooled in games such as World of Warcraft, Halo3, Gears of War.

Emergence is a new breed of game in which the social, intellectual, and narrative complexity of gameplay rivals the appeal of combat, a game in which the mastery of diplomatic, economic, and social dynamics pays greater dividends than the exercise of brute force, a game in which the strategies required to succeed within the game are equally effective outside the game. Emergence will provide a context for discussing new platforms for public scholars and engaged humanities.

About Lecturer Tim Lenoir

Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society, Duke University

Tim Lenoir is University Professor and the Kimberly Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society at Duke University. In addition to publishing several books and articles on the history of biomedical science from the nineteenth century to the present, he has also been involved in digital archiving and web-based collaborations, including projects with Stanford University, MIT, and the NSF-sponsored Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UC Santa Barbara. His current research centers on the use of text-mining and visualization tools for mapping the recent history of bio-and nanotechnology, the use of computers and digital imaging in biomedical research, and the history of interactive simulations and video games. Lenoir also teaches courses on interactive simulation and video games. As recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Digital Millennium Award, Lenoir recently completed work on Virtual Peace, a multi-player first person simulation environment for students and humanitarian groups and workers in the field of peace and conflict resolution.