The trail explored gender, race, sexuality, neurodivergence and other aspects of identity in gaming. The Game Changers group came up with their ideas through meeting in weekly sessions from November 2021 until March 2022, with 13 virtual sessions and 1 in-person session at the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield. These were led by Freelance Facilitator Sacha Coward, and Leah Dungay from the NVM. Guest speakers from within the museum and the wider cultural sector also joined these sessions.
Gaming Heritage with the National Videogame Museum
We supported the National Videogame Museum (NVM) in a project exploring the heritage of games, including character creation, avatars and representation, from the 1970s to the present. The result was a creative pop-up trail and puzzles created by the NVM’s internal panel of young people, the Game Changers.
The group used Discord to discuss their experiences of gaming and what they wanted this project exploring the heritage of gaming to highlight. They decided to explore the representation of the self in gaming and to create a pop-up trail to reflect this. The development and design of the printed materials were created by the Game Changers themselves, alongside the curation and programming team at the NVM.
The pop-up trail focused on objects within the museum’s collection that demonstrated how representation with gaming had changed over the years and was on display at the museum from Spring to Summer 2022. The Game Changers programme will be continuing and so far it’s received positive feedback. One participant said, “I’ve been enjoying Game Changers club – it’s been a fun time meeting everyone from so many different backgrounds and identities. The guests have also been interesting”. Another said it “Makes me very happy to see everyone contributing their ideas and I feel the atmosphere is very non-judgemental”.
Their final trail came be downloaded here.