Calling the game input the “controller” was the first lie. In fact, games control us - and we like it. As game designers and critics, we have an ethical responsibility to examine the ways that coercion makes itself manifest in interactive games. We must understand how the seductive power of challenge, of action, of micro-worlds, and of goals “without consequences” in fact may have heavy impact indeed.

Controlled Invasion is a vehicle for drawing attention to the liberating, enthralling, gratifying and yes, dangerous power of interactive games. Over two days, Thorsten S. Wiedemann of A MAZE. and Heather Kelley of Kokoromi will engage transmediale guests and distant collaborators to build a framework of game design ethics that recognizes the equal measures of pleasure and peril inherent in this persuasive medium. The moderators will interview and question leading practitioners in art and technology about the human body, spirituality, and social philosophy. The process of ideation will be documented and annotated, to share the developing concepts in an open record of exchange and collaboration. 

Finally, their goal is nothing less than a Manifesto - a defining statement of a way forward that is both cautionary and hopeful.

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