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.
Written by: Stephen Johnson
Posted by: Situated Research
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Fantastic Video! Thanks for sharing.
I like how he describes the business model of social networks and their games- very weird, but very effective!
I’m just excited for the predicted touch screen cereal boxes, LOL! Seriously though, I enjoyed the entire speech. I had never heard Schell speak before. It’s also good to find that there’s some other game developers here in dreary old Pittsburgh.