While the magic that Lucca Comics&Games has accustomed us to is renewed every day in an explosion of colours, in the IMT Library there is a world in which wonders occur that only the union of science and humanity can generate.
In every room, at every table, in every space created in the IMT Library building for four days, we listened, immersed ourselves and had the opportunity to look at the game with a different eye, deeper than that of simple entertainment.
We investigate, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the potential of the game as a valuable tool available to society, in its myriad of perversions.
The fruit of the collaboration between IMT, GSRC and Giocaruolando is incredible.
A daily program full of meetings, one more exciting than the other. Where engineering, psychology, economics and neuroscience tell their stories. An association of great professionals who make science and technology develop around the gaming sector and who offer and publish new projects for free, so that models that already work can be known and imitated. A truly valuable opportunity.
At the same time, in adjacent spaces, shared between different entities (role-playing and board game associations, university escape rooms) there are tables available to try out different game experiences, with the added value, in addition to the fun, to also understand the things that this type of game helps us learn. And do it.
Gaming is the future.
From school, from society, from social network. It has proven to be a valuable tool to combat educational poverty, and a valid aid in creating social networks in very diverse contexts, without neglecting the now well-established therapeutic benefits, which are particularly important in cases of suffering associated with bullying and social exclusion.
When a game is designed by interweaving the skills of specialists from multiple fields of knowledge, it turns into a powerful tool that can have a powerful impact on the quality of teaching in a school and that enhances important processes not only in growth and maturation, but also in the management of many critical issues that Life presents it in the personal history of each individual.
Particular attention is paid to role-playing games (RPG), which have characteristics that other game genres do not have. The specific reference is to the so-called “bleed-through”: a dynamic that ensures that there is a continuous flow between the player and the character he or she plays during a game session, and the passage of emotions and ways of thinking that enhance and allow the gameplay to take place. You have to learn to be more flexible and less rigid, and work to improve the relational skills of all participants.
We came away from the experiences proposed at IMT with the belief that play deserves greater value and space not only in learning processes but in everyone’s lives.
There is only one invitation to municipalities, school administrators, teachers, psychologists and play associations: be curious, enter the IMT library in San Ponziano, ask, listen to the stories, the projects, and see all those who inhabit a corner full of science, technology and grace. Among researchers, scholars and professionals from various disciplines, you will find tremendous generosity in sharing and a great willingness to plan together.
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