Ken Eklund
Ken Eklund is an American game and experience designer known as Writerguy. He is perhaps most famous for World Without Oil, an early "serious game" in the alternate reality game genre he created and ran in 2007. His recent projects "explore the positive social effects of collaborative experiences and open-ended, creative play. "
Philosophy
Eklund creates immersive games that intend to have a socially relevant, transformative effect and to be informal learning experiences and crowdsourcing for good. Much of his recent transmedia work explores how contributing to 'authentic fictions' engages people directly in real-world issues by allowing them to have fun collaborating on storymaking, positive solutions and action. By creating "barely fictional" gameful situations he creates a new kind of space for negotiating reality, where the candor afforded by interacting with fictional characters presenting the reality of social issues is seemingly more impactful than the realities themselves.As an artist, Eklund's emphasis on response plus respect for diversity "charges notions of the 'vox pop' with an appealing edge as a tool for transformation 'from the inside'. He speaks on how to use alternate reality experiences and other playful "what if?" spaces in pursuit of serious goals and the potential for gamelike activities to help solve global problems.
Works
FutureCoast Rogue Squirrelbot Ruination: City of Dust Hiss Pop Ed Zed Omega Giskin Anomaly Urgent Evoke Zorop Ruby's Bequest World Without Oil Driver: Vegas Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure In Her Shoes Move It! Mr. & Mrs. Smith Strange Dead Bird Tigo Two Forks, Idaho Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Harbinger World of Aden: Entomorph - Plague of the Darkfall Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager Eagle Eye Mysteries in London Eagle Eye Mysteries Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed The Dark Queen of Krynn Death Knights of KrynnAwards and honors
| Date | Award |
| 2022 | Peabody Award for World Without Oil project |
| 2014 | The Webby Awards finalist Category: Net Art for |
| 2011 | 22nd Annual MUSE Awards Category: Games and Augmented Reality Award: Silver for Giskin Anomaly |
| 2008 | South by Southwest Interactive - Award for Activism for World Without Oil |
| 2008 | The Webby Awards, finalist, Games category, for World Without Oil |
| 2008 | Zero1.org, Honorable Mention, for World Without Oil |
| 2008 | Stockholm Challenge, Honorable Mention, for World Without Oil |