The lights are on
Jesse Schell, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, kicked off today's DICE schedule by talking about the importance of social media in the gaming landscape.He started out by reminding the DICE audience that there are more Farmville players than there are people with Twitter accounts. After pointing out surprise successes such as Club Penguin, the Wii, Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, Webkinz, and the popularity of the 360's Achievement system, he connected them by the psychological tricks behind their popularity. Club Penguin's recurring charges seem trivial to parents at $6 a month, but that seemingly insignificant amount of cash adds up annually. Along the same lines, Schell says Webkinz is successful because to parents, $12 and $20 are interchangeable amounts of money.Most importantly, these games all break into reality in interesting ways. Guitar Hero's peripheral, Webkinz's stuffed animals, and the 360's metagame all give players a tie to their real lives. Consumers have lost touch with authenticity, Schell says, citing the book Authenticity by James J. Gilmore, making them crave ways to better connect with the "real" world.Gameplay is hidden in activities such as the Simpson's 20th anniversary scavenger hunt, fantasy football, geocaching and other places games didn't exist, Schell says. A teacher Schell knows has even changed his grading system to an XP system, and attendance is supposedly up.
Schell predicts that in the near future we'll have embedded CPUs, cameras, and screens in everyday objects like soda cans and cereal boxes. People will be gain XP as they brush their teeth and eat corn flakes, the government will give tax incentives (and XP) for people who travel by bus. Dreams will be infiltrated by ads, and answering quizzes on the content will be rewarded with huge XP bonuses. Essentially, he sees a world where everything people do is connected to a massively comprehensive gamerscore. Schell was definitely trying to entertain the crowd with his increasingly odd predictions, but they were as plausible as they were creepy.The presentation ended with Schell posing the question to the developers in the room: "Who's going to lead us into the future?"
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Big Brother is watching. This sounds too immersive. Games are supposed to take you to another world but only for the time you play them. I feel like if your whole life is bound by a gamescore we will lose a lot of our humanity.
laying foundation to the matrix or judgement day?
I couldn't have said it any better Obee juan. This is reaching way too far into my every day activities. What's next, how well you "perform" at the end of a date? No thanks.
Tin foil hats. That's my recommendation.
Do not like.
I always knew the world would end in a hail of flaming meteors and the last thing i would hear is "PING! Achivement unlocked! Dodged 6 meteors!"*splat* His predictions were a little creepy.
@Willis: Agreed. Big Brother's scary
I agree wholly with Ghostpig. Tin foil hats. Actually screw that they may have already put a tracking chip inside me i'm going with a tin foil body suit. Radioactive tin foil body suit.
Or i could go back to my roots. I could just go amish(my grandparents are amish and no i'm not amish).
Everyone who agreed with someone else just got 15 achievement points.
So in the future,we ride the bus until we get enough Exp for an epic mount then?Or perhaps to get a high enough level to use the Toothbrush of Plaquebane?
Also, I'm a gameinformer.com power member - level 7. 1350 exp. points. I feel connected with the real world.
Tin foil hats only work if they are folded into perfect pyramid shapes though Ghostpig. Don't forget that.
In the future there will be robots.
Is his name Schell or Schnell? I have been wondering about the whole achievements and experience thing. That XP grading system is not really any different than a typical grading system (aside from the fact that it assigns letter grades, which is strange to begin with) just in disguise. But, xp outside of games, in anything that is real, is just plain creepy. Maybe we will have QTEs in real life (bad), or people grinding for dating skills (worse).
I like to express my creative side by forming my tin foil hat into the shape of a bathing swan. It's not as effective as your standard pyramid but if I'm going to spend my days repelling mind control well honey, I say, "Get noticed!" And it doesn't hurt to have a mimosa at your table either. Mmmm... 3 snaps in a Z-formation! Yes indeed.
Some may think it is Microsoft who will venture down this road...but nope, it is actually Intel. For years they have had the "Inside" logo but what that really means is that they have planted a chip in our brains to begin the perpetual sales pitch. buh....buh ba ba buh.... (their theme song)
I just watched the video and his speech was amazing.
I think that's creepy because I think it might actually work.
Willis, Obee juan, and John's comments were all on point and all what I was thinking. I like video games, but I also like having a real life, and I would prefer having a real life, without ads being forced into my life without my consent, over a life of video games anyday.
hes thiking