Brenda Brathwaite on the Power of Games: "I've Never Seen My Mother Cry Like That at the End of Monopoly."


In this TEDxPhoenix talk from November 11, 2011, awarding-winning game designer Brenda Brathwaite captures a fundamental truth - a truth that filmmakers, film educators and film critics must not ignore - about the power of games.

Her starting point is the enduring role of games in our culture (games that we've all played)... and how certain games (for example, a hockey game played by a team of amateurs over 30 years ago) are so full of emotion and message that they become seared into memory.

Brenda Brathwaite suggests that a new generation of games could also be a tool for engaging emotions. Even if you're a skeptic and you've never held a video game controller in your hands - listening to Brenda Brathwaite discuss the way her daughter began to understand the horror of slavery through a game - you might begin to understand why so many storytellers are intrigued by the potential of the convergence of film, TV, theater, games and online storytelling.

The culture of the 21st Century is evolving on digital platforms. Thanks to passionate and thoughtful leaders like Brenda Brathwaite, more and more people are staking out territory in the New World of storytelling - entertainment and education that is engaging and meaningful and that includes the power of games.

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