How did Glitch Game Testers get started?
Many computer scientists credit playing video games with sparking their interest in computing. But for some groups, such as African American males, the connection between video games and computer science is not happening as frequently. We began to wonder if there were differences in cultural play practices. In 2006, we did some preliminary studies at the University of Pittsburgh and found that there seem to be some differences. The primary difference that inspired the tester program was that young urban African American men did not seem to have much value for modifying, cheating, hacking or in any way “gaming the game.” When I came to Georgia Tech, I started working with Dr. Amy Bruckman on finding a way to leverage the African American male’s gaming into an interest in computer science. We needed to get them to break open the game without interfering with their high value on sportsmanship. Game testing is a legitimate excuse to “break” a game that doesn’t conflict with their culture o
