Along with the SXSW ScreenBurn Arcade, the Palmer Events Center will host a select group of cutting-edge panels and talks about the evolution of gaming. A key contributor to this lineup on Saturday, March 10 at 5pm is Games for Change’s Asi Burak (pictured at right).

Burak serves as Co-President for Games for Change, a non-profit organization dedicated to incubating and championing the importance of social impact games across the globe. Founded in 2004, Games for Changes is headquartered in New York, but maintains an impressive international presence with offices in France, Brazil, and South Korea. “We feel that the medium is mature enough,” Burak explains, “that these kinds of movements will start all over the world. And people will start to understand the power of games for things beyond entertainment.”

A formidable champion of social impact gaming, Burak even managed to get Al Gore onboard the Games for Change bandwagon last June. Burak plans to bring this passion to SXSW in March 2012, where he would like to address the skepticism around games:

"The perception we have [about games] is changing all the time and for the better. But we don’t treat them like books or movies. We don’t treat them like a medium that can address all issues. We see them very narrowly as entertainment, fun, and sometimes shallowness. We don’t see them as educational tools.

I’m going to try to break those misconceptions and show some real success stories of games that people in our community created. Not only where they did something very different, but they have the numbers to show what the outcomes of the games are—what are the takeaways."

Contributed by Michael Trice. Large photo of Nanu Planet, Games for Change Korea, developer: JCE, Small photo of Asi Burak by Richard Koek.