The MIT Game Lab combines research and education to critically explore the games industry and its impact on society. It encourages students to think beyond the game's entertainment and focus on its cultural significance and potential to solve real-world problems. This unique lab uses games as a way for students to play, explore, and learn to think critically about the role of games in society.
Students filled the glass-walled rooms and spilled into common areas. They gathered around a table piled high with board games and game pieces. Along the far wall, large screens showed students exploring the latest virtual reality experiences while fellow students replayed their favorite retro video games.
Welcome to an open house at the MIT Game Lab, where play and experimentation combine with serious inquiry into the games industry and its role in society.
In addition to lively open houses held at least once each semester, the Game Lab hosts public events, organizes research projects, and teaches courses through MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing (CMS/W).
The work of the Game Lab is designed to help students think critically about the games they have played regularly over the years, regardless of the values they may embody, and to prepare them to engage in thoughtful design practices themselves.
"I think students often have moments where they realize that this thing they've been enjoying actually has a lot at stake; those are the things that really matter," said T.L. Taylor, director and professor of the Game Lab. The Game Lab analyzes the gaming industry and its impact, explores new technologies and formats, and creates games that solve important problems. Many of the new games are tied to larger research projects.
"Our students are eager to express themselves through play, whether that's by making educational games or games with a specific message or lesson," said Game Lab research scientist and instructor Mikael Jakobsson. “Games are an important part of most people’s lives, so our students are eager not only to learn how to make games, but also to study games as social and cultural artifacts.”
Through this research, students develop an appreciation for the impact games have on the world.
"Games are very important in society and culture," Taylor said. "We've really been trying to think critically and productively about how we leverage this powerful form of media and entertainment, and look at games as a place where imagination and stories about the world can be studied and thought about."
The MIT Game Lab was established in 2006 in partnership with the Singapore government. Early on, it held game design workshops with Singaporean students during the summer, then taught and researched with MIT students during the academic year.
The collaboration with Singapore ended in 2012, but the lab continues its work, often working with outside companies, private donors and other groups on campus to explore the impact of gaming on different aspects of society.
In a project at the Samuel De Lee MIT Real Estate Entrepreneurship Lab, students designed a game to explore the basics of real estate development, including managing capital and debt and deciding what types of buildings to build and where.
The lab also works with communities to help them think about civic engagement. It holds workshops around the world with local students and other community members, challenging them to think about social issues through the lens of game design. One of those collaborations resulted in the game Promesa, a game Jakobsson created with Puerto Rican graphic artist Rosa Colón Guerra and design collective Popcicleta to promote what the creator calls "anti-colonial" views in the context of a game about the island's debt crisis.
In addition to making games, researchers also consider the impact of popular games throughout history. “We’re not making games, we’re studying games,” said Michelle Liang, a junior who serves as an undergraduate researcher in the game lab. "It's easy to think of entertainment as a separate world, when in fact media is influenced by many different factors and biases. A lot of the work in the Game Lab is about enhancing this understanding."
Game Lab organizers say the work sets them apart from other gaming-focused groups in academia, which often provide students with specific skills to find jobs in the video game industry.
"We are not a pipeline program working in the gaming industry," Taylor explained. “Some students do go into the industry, but because we’re doing critical design practices, we’re looking at games through a broader, critical lens by thinking about issues like equity and representation.”
Before discovering Game Lab, Liang had not considered the role of games in social and political issues. She immediately saw the lab as a way to combine the many things she was passionate about.
“It’s fun talking to people about my work,” Liang said. “Even though we are a polytechnic, MIT has so much more to offer.”
"The perception of gaming as just entertainment leads to a lack of introspection. The gaming industry is a bit like a boys' club, and a lot of social responsibility is shied away from because they say they just want to have fun without having to think about how it affects society," Jacobson said. “Now we’re dealing with a lot of the consequences of that mentality.”
For students, getting involved with the Game Lab might mean conducting research, taking one of the classes, or simply visiting an open house. Regardless of how they come into contact with the lab’s work, Taylor hopes they leave with a deeper appreciation for the power of play in our society.
“Games are a very important media and entertainment space, but they are also one of the most relevant and politically active spaces in our culture,” Taylor said. "Media spaces are in part where we learn about the world (for better or worse), where we construct our imaginations of the world, where we think about other possibilities. Part of CMS/W's mission in general is to take media spaces seriously, and games are an increasingly important part of that."