The Essence of the Game Changer Movement

• Our vision is to create a community of 1,000,000 Game Changer between the ages of 8 and 18 who are willing to change their game by trading in a violent video game that will be transformed into art, signs, furniture and eventually dresses that may be worn by performing artists as they tour the world.

• Saddened by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and all the shootings leading up to the recent shootings at Munich, Germany, Erik Lehmann, is creating a movement that gets underneath the conversations about gun control and the demonization of individuals, and instead focuses on shifting our collective lenses from those of violence to those of innovation and from fear to love.

• Between birth and age 21 youth are spending, on average, 10,000 hours playing video games and 89% of the most played games, contain aspects of violence. Malcom Gladwell, in his book, Outliers, illustrates that mastery happens when people spend or invest 10,000 hours into a passionate pursuit. 10,000 hours of passionate pursuit has created the legacies of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and 10,000 hours of violent video game play has produced the legacies of Adam Linza, the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Christopher Harper-Mercer, the shooter at Umpqua Community College, and unfortunately countless other shooters who have learned how to kill; mostly from playing violent video games.

• From all of this sadness, also comes an opportunity for healing, learning, and growth. Our kids have a choice as to how to invest those 10,000 hours, and we, as Game Changer Parents and/or Supporters are going to help hold the space for the creation of a new line of choices, and we are going to do it WITH our Game Changer Kids!  There are billions of hours available that will be redirected into activities that change the game in the real world. Overall, humanity plays 3 Billion hours of video games a week!  This is a tremendous opportunity!

• Specifically, we are embarking on the creation process of a game that introduces people to graphene, which is considered to be a the Game Changing substance of the next generation.  We will host and/or sponsor Hack Days and work with experts in coding and graphene to ensure that the game is both authentic and impactful in the real world.  Graphene has the opportunity to revolutionize almost everything we do and every societal and global challenge we are facing including and definitely not limited to clean water, global warming, energy, and communications.  That being said, there is still so much we don’t know about graphene and our vision is to exponentially increase the number of touchpoints so that the development timeline can be condensed, so that we may all experience the wonders of graphene….sooner!

• To further the graphene vision, we have reached out to experts and artists who make and work with graphene.  We are going to introduce graphene to the intentional human swarm that is created as the Game Changer Movement expands into the world. Games like FoldIt, EteRNA, Malaria Spot have shown the impact that the game community can have on the real world.  The intentionality of the Game Changer Movement may add an interesting level of intensity to this vision, as we are redirecting time from toxic gaming to impactful innovation!

• We have learned that today’s violent video games have two powerfully addictive ingredients that seem to be less available in the non-virtual world: a sense of Significance and a feeling of Belonging or Community! It is being the First Person, in a First Person Shooter game that is most important to our kids. The Game Changer Movement is here to let our youth know, just how much they matter right now! We want our Game Changer Kids to be the First Person Rooters in the Game of Life!

• We will create contests, where the winners will receive tickets to attend the retreats that will span the US and eventually, the world.

• We may employ Concept Mapping Technology and Design Thinking as the conceptual framework for our co-creative process!

• Most of today’s game are produced FOR our kids. Game Changer Games are going to be produced WITH our kids. We are moving from FOR to WITH, and from charity to community!

• There are a multitude of ways to engage WITH the Game Changer Movement: you can volunteer at one of our events, you can sponsor the winners of the contests, your company can sponsor the games we create, you can donate $60 instead of buying a video game for your child this holiday season. All change starts from within, so we first ask that you look inside yourself and ask yourself, “Is this the world we want our kids to inherit from us?”

• In order to fortify this vision, Erik has created an alliance with Antiqua Lisha and her organization, Divinely You! Divinely You will serve as the fiscal conduit for Dream Catalyst, the parent organization for the Game Changer Movement.

• We can once again, “Be the Change, We Wish to See in the World!” Please start this year, by not purchasing violence this holiday season! It is time to change our game together, and it starts WITH me. Please join me, as we change our game together and become the FIRST-PERSON ROOTERS WITH our kids!