Good Game Club Podcast
Alan Gershenfeld | Can Games Help Us Build the Future We Want?
Games don’t just entertain us - they shape how we learn, what we imagine and, potentially, what we believe the future can look like. In this episode of the Good Game Club Podcast, Alan Gershenfeld - Co-Founder and President of E-Line Media and Co-Founder of Endless Studios - joins us to explore the extraordinary potential of games as a force for impact. Drawing on a career spanning Activision, Games for Change, Never Alone and Beyond Blue, Alan explains why games are uniquely powerful spaces for agency, learning and behaviour change. We explore what happens when games are created authentically with communities, why making games could prepare the next generation for an AI-powered future, and how the industry can move beyond dystopia to help millions of players imagine futures actually worth building. Chapters and Timestamps 00:00 – Every Game Makes an Impact Alan sets out the central idea of the conversation: every game has an impact, whether its creators intend it or not. 01:15 – Meet Alan Gershenfeld From E-Line Media and Endless Studios to decades spent exploring the intersection of games, learning and social impact. 06:04 – From Hollywood to Activision to Games for Change How Alan went from international politics and filmmaking to joining a tiny Activision — and eventually decided games could do more than entertain and make money. 10:47 – What Does “Impact” Actually Mean? From awareness and deeper understanding to behaviour change and inspiring entirely new career paths. 12:45 – Never Alone: Making a Game With a Culture The remarkable story of working with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and 36 Alaska Native elders, writers and storytellers to create Never Alone — a game that went on to reach 15 million players. 19:38 – Why Games Are Such Powerful Learning Experiences Agency, empathy, safe failure and feedback: Alan breaks down the qualities that make games uniquely suited to learning and behaviour change. 24:46 – From Civilization to Beyond Blue How games can ignite curiosity and even inspire career choices, from Civilization and history to Beyond Blue and marine science. 27:27 – Will AAA Studios Embrace Games With Impact? Why commercial success still matters — but passionate creative teams could bring meaningful themes into some of gaming’s biggest experiences. 34:20 – Turning In-Game Agency Into Real-World Action From Hellblade to Playing for the Planet, Alan explores partnerships outside the games industry and the opportunity to build better feedback loops between virtual actions and real-world impact. 39:05 – Overcoming the Fear and Friction Around Games What health, education and social-impact games can teach sceptics — and why strong real-world examples are often the best way to demonstrate the medium’s potential. 44:33 – Endless Studios and the Next Generation of Game Makers Why making games develops systems thinking, design, coding, collaboration and problem-solving — and how lowering the barriers to creation could open new pathways into work. 51:16 – Why Making Games Builds More Than Technical Skills Game creation as collaborative, project-based learning — teaching young people how to communicate, resolve conflict and work effectively as a team. 54:45 – Preparing Young People for an AI-Powered Future Why AI needs to become part of how the next generation learns to create, and why curiosity, resilience and problem-solving could become even more important. 58:39 – Can Games Help Us Imagine Better Futures? Alan challenges an industry filled with dystopian worlds to create equally evocative, aspirational and achievable visions of the future — then give players the agency to help bring those futures into existence. 01:03:54 – Favourite Games, the Meaning of Life and a $500M Question Alan chooses GeoGuessr as his current favourite, considers whether humanity might be a third-place alien game-jam project
