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
Related Posts:
- The Future of Gaming: A Portrait of the New Gamers
In the spring of 2011, Latitude Research launched a study to understand the recent explosion... - Pentagon: Boost Training With Computer-Troop Mind Meld
The Pentagon is looking to better train its troops – by scanning their minds as... - BrainDriver: A Mind Controlled Car
Imagine you could drive your car using only your thoughts. German researchers have just made... - If Super Mario Bros. Was Made in 2010
If Mario was first designed in 2010, he’d probably have to adopt some of our...
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.