You might think making games is all about putting 40 percent awesome in a box, throwing in a pinch of zazz and calling it a SKU, but that's not true. Games, you may have noticed, are all around us, all the time.
In the video below, Carnegie Mellon professor and ex-imagineer Jesse Schell lays out a vision of the future in which our lives become, essentially, one big RPG.
Schell's discussion kicks off with some of the most unexpected gaming developments over the last few years, including:
- The sudden success of Guitar Hero.
- The Wii winning the console wars
- Webkins
- The incredible popularity of Xbox Achievements.
- Mafia Wars
"What do these have in common? A variety of psychological tricks," explains Schell, who then goes on to examine how these various gaming successes take advantage of humans instincts, and how we hunger "to get to anything real." He goes on to examine how gaming has extended to grading a class, driving a car, shopping and socializing, ending at a future where everything is a kind of game.
Seriously, watch the video. It's pretty mind-blowing. And check out the rest of our DICE 2010 coverage for more videos, news, interviews, photo galleries and more.
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jtdude
I hope it never happens
Ian528
The scarier part for me is to realize he expected someone in that room to engineer that system. To be blunt the total system will not be engineered it has each piece engineered by someone different. Looking to all the data collection points and I can realistically say it is to late to stop this vision. This is not 10 years down the line, in many ways it is already here.
Don't think so?
Dr. Pepper points. Well it was a cool idea right. No basis in reality. I mean not like a huge recent game offering did not have Dr. Pepper specific in game items that heavy drinkers of Dr. Pepper could get. Have you really been enjoying Mass Effect 2?
Flown on your sky miles?
Gotten discover to pay you back?
The truth is that if you look at the reward system it always also has to change. I remember when monopoly first came out at McDs those restaurants were packed. They are less so now because it is not that same initial thrill although there are die hard players who only go to McDs during that time period.
He is actually overestimating the goodness of people and corporations. With the point systems that already exist it is clear they foster behavior that is most suited for the continuation of their profits. To get a competing healthy point system to make serious in roads into our psyche it will take rewards that are inadvisable.
Scary, scary speech.
WTF Revanchist
This Guy just took me to a new world and BLEW MY MIND!!!!
Noone You Know
This certainly was a great presentation. As a person who highly values privacy and hates almost every concept mentioned here (games where they don't belong, overuse of sensors, various achievement point systems, all the "REAL" stuff, ...) I do hope never to see this vision come to life.
I only disagree with the last point made in this presentation, a world like that wouldn't make us better people, it would only cause a lot of severe mental breakdowns. I'm certain I wouldn't last a month.
The Face of Boe
my brain=blown!
TVHalfback
Jesse Schell has an amazing grasp of the human psyche and did a great job showing how these subtle "mind tricks" can influence gamers and game developers looking forward. Great presentation, I hope to see more from him.
ac1234
Good talk, the point made about psychological keys and locks was a good one. The second half of the talk was also good but not anything new. Sam Landstrom wrote a great piece of fiction about it a year ago (http://www.amazon.com/MetaGam e-ebook/dp/B002AJ88LC).
ezo15
PS
If this does ever happen I'm definatly joining the rebel group that plays NES games and fights the facist police dictatorship ruled by skynet. =D
ezo15
Ok, let me first say that I will kill myself if this happens. Its like constantly being hooked up to a game, I like games don't get me wrong but this level would be simply disgusting. This model of 'gaming' would offer no privacy, to anybody. I'm very sorry to all of the saints out there, but there are some things that are meant to be kept private. Many things that people do every day that should never be tracked. Veering away from the mindset of masturbation, etc, we need to take into account that privacy is a right given to us by the United States Government. The existance he describes is one free of privacy, and when there is no privacy that means somebody is always watching, somewhere. This sounds like evil empire background manipulation Farenhight 451 big brother BS. Privacy is a right which I will defend just as I will defend every other thing written on the constitution.
MorsDei
his cadence is very similar to Christopher Walken's at times..... I really enjoyed listening to him.
sewageking
This is the most horrifying thing I have ever heard.
EmbryonicGod
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz facebook zzzzzzzzzzzz reality zzzzzzzzzzzzz futurezzzzzzzzzzzzzz facebook.
60Hertz
lol... the first 2/3rds were interesting the last third got very big brother brainwashy and the major problem (as if those weren't big enough) is that people will hack the hell out of those systems rendering them totally useless which would probably be a good thing... maybe its a good thing we don't let game designers design public policy... at least not this guy.
Bonifer
Jesse makes an important point about the ability of games to inform reality (and vice versa). I think for 28 minutes and change it's about all you can expect of a conference speaker.
My interpretation is that he's offering his vision as a challenge, he has to be, because the future he paints is a such bleak one, so sad, of automatons behaving automatically, a world of Flynns who can't escape the game grid, of Second Lifers with no First Life. Game technology has more to offer than the scoring system he describes, which is potentially just another bubble of bad b.s., because...Who scores the scorers? It presents a real political and existential dilemma that cannot be resolved by exploring his premise.
Here, I think, is where he gets off track: He says that technologies do not converge, they diverge. If what he meant to say is that technologies do not converge into other technologies (except in your pocket), then I'd agree. But technologies DO converge. They converge around narratives. This is how communities are created, how brands are built, and how spontaneous collaborations result in breakthroughs.
It's only when we begin to look at technologies through the lens of narrative (and not vice versa) that we can begin to make sense of them, and their role in the reality of our lives. I would challenge him to flip his story...tell us an inspiring story about a life lived in the future, and how technology makes that life possible. Then we'll be getting somewhere.
faithfracture
That was rad.
Swal
If my school had that point system, I definitely would have paid more attention in class.
Coalmine
This presentation creeped me out beyond pale. I really don't like the idea of having every one of my actions being read by a sensor, influencing me to look at adds, and broadcasting every move I make to some website online. I am personally the type of person who HATES Facebook, and texting, and AIM, and all divergences of it. I have friends who live NEXT DOOR that I rarely talk face-to-face with because they're on Facebook and Farmville all the time. Facebook is kind of the biggest enemy to my social life, it ties into the same reason I quit playing WoW, because I'm sick of talking to people through a computer screen. Busting through to reality? Are you kidding me? The world is insane!
V_Translanka
Visual representations of progress will always be better than...y'know, guessing how well you're doing/dieting/working/leveling /whatever...Great, informative and entertaining presentation! I shared it on FB, so I gots me points fer teh day (deduction for grammar!?!)!
yagamilighto
This Presentation was PHENOMINOL!!!!!!!!!!! CATASTROPHICALLY AWESOME AND MORE THAN JUS MIND BLOWING, ITS MIND DISINTEGRATING. CRAZY!! Its scary yes but i do believe that the state of affairs he's talking about is going to happen and its simply a question of when as well as who will be at the florefront when it does. To be honest, i don't know whether this happening will be a good or bad thing and if it should even be something that we willingly look forward to. However i believe that it happening is definately inevitable and i just hope that it will affect the world in more positive ways than negative because we all know that hoping for the absolute best( all positive) is by all means ludicrous. The government and other powerful systems will definately use this knowledge to their advantage and hopefully not to our( the consumers and citizens)detriment. EXCELLENT VIDEO!...CAN'T WAIT TO TALK ABOUT IT AT SCHOOL INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON SCHOOLWORK...MAYBE IN TIME I WON'T BE ABLE TO DO TAHT SINCE I MIGHT MISS OUT ON SOME ACHIEVEMENTS.
gl3bm
this guy is awesome
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