Game Changers: Video Games with Purpose

The videogame industry, now larger than the film and music industries combined, has a proven ability to challenge the status quo. Video gaming can put ethical dilemmas in the cross-hairs of philosophical thought. Games raise questions such as how should we be governed, and what does it mean to be a good or dutiful person? Games critic Marijam Did and game writer and designer Daniel Griliopoulos discuss how videogames can achieve egalitarian goals instead of fuelling hyper-materialist and reactionary agendas, and gaming’s huge influence can be harnessed for good.

Marijam Did is a Lithuanian-Tatar games industry critic dissecting the intersection between videogames and IRL politics. Her work has been published by the Guardian, VICE, GamesIndustry.biz, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and others. Marijam was a Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, and is currently a Senior Marketing Executive at a Bafta-winning videogames studio.

Daniel Cohen Griliopoulos designs and writes for games. He’s the co-author of Ten Things Videogames Can Teach You (Hachette, 2017.) Games he’s worked on include Nightingale, RimWorld, Total War: Warhammer III, ZEPHON, Endless Dungeon and many more. He writing can be found in The Guardian, The New Statesman, Eurogamer, and Edge.