James Portnow

James Portnow
Residence Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater St. John's College
Carnegie Mellon University
Years active 2007 (2007)—Present (Present)
Known for Extra Credits, Theories on Socially Positive Game Design, Design Consultant with Zynga and Riot Games
Notable work A Dreamer's Tales: Annotated Edition

James Portnow is a writer, game designer, consultant, and the co-founder of the educational Youtube channel Extra Credits. He is known for his theories on socially positive design and has worked as a design consultant with Zynga and Riot Games.

Early life and education

Portnow received his undergraduate degree from St. Johns’ College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a master’s from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center before getting a job at Activision.

Career

Portnow is a game designer and consultant. He has worked as a designer for Activision’s Call of Duty franchise. He has done consultant work for partners ranging from Zynga to Riot Games and previously served as Interim Design Director for Snow Cannon Games. Portnow has also been cited as one of "25 Video Game Personalities You Should Know Who Aren't Developers."[1]

He has also worked as an educator, teaching undergraduate game design and master’s level game software production courses at DigiPen Institute of Technology[2] for four years.

Portnow has been a regular speaker at many gaming conferences including the keynote speaker at the Argentina Video Games Exposition in Buenos Aires in November 2011,[3] the Konsoll 2014 conference, hosted by the Game Developers Guild of Norway ,[4] and will keynote the Georgia Game Developers Association’s 12th annual Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo.[5] He has also regularly been asked to give talks on gaming at many Universities and Colleges including Vancouver Film School,[6] Indiana University Bloomington,[7] and Smith College.[8]

Extra credits

In 2008, Portnow co-founded the video lesson series Extra Credits, giving it the tagline “Because Games Matter”. The series of videos which spans over 16 seasons and 377 videos discusses issues pertinent to video games and game studies, particularly discussing issues concerning video game development, addressing the legitimacy of video games as art, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in gaming culture.[9] Portnow has written a majority of the episodes for Extra Credits, spanning a large range of subjects including poor narrative creation, level design, gamification, tangential learning, sexuality and gender discrimination both within games and in the gaming community, and bullying in the community.

Microsoft invited James to a special meeting to discuss potential solutions to the toxicity present on Xbox Live, and has appeared in the New York Times[10] and on Al Jazeera for his fight against toxicity.[11]

In 2013, Creative Assembly sponsored a series of episodes about the Punic Wars. After a positive reception, the crew launched a Patreon campaign to create Extra History, a spin-off series designed to teach viewers global history. James has written a majority of the series, including Sengoku Jidai, The Battle of Kursk, and The History Of Non Euclidean Geometry.

In late 2017, Extra Scifi started with Portnow’s exploration of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein before becoming a regular series on the Extra Channel.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "25 Video Game Personalities You Should Know Who Aren't Developers". Complex Media. January 23, 2013.
  2. ↑ "The Many Roles of James Portnow". DigiPen Institute of Technology News. March 2013.
  3. ↑ Brian Byrnes (November 15, 2011). "Argentina's video gamers take on world". CNN.
  4. ↑ "Antagonist, one of Norway's 5 best game studios?". Antogonist. October 28, 2014.
  5. ↑ Colin Solan (July 24, 2018). "Extra Credits' James Portnow to Keynote SIEGE Con 2018". Convention Scene.
  6. ↑ VFS Web Team (February 3, 2012). "Guest Post: Extra Credits' James Portnow Visits VFS". Vancouver Film School News.
  7. ↑ Ellen Glover (18 October 2016). "Portnow encourages young designers to explore 'magic of games'". Indiana University Bloomington News.
  8. ↑ "James Portnow of Extra Credits - More Than A Pastime: A Promise to Future Generations Public Lecture and Q&A Sessions". Smith College Student Engagement Hub. 28 February 2018.
  9. ↑ Force, Sebastian. "Extra Credits: The Web Show That Changed How I Think About Games". BnBGaming. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06.
  10. ↑ "In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real". New York Times. August 2012.
  11. ↑ "She got game". Al Jazeera. June 2014.
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