"The game layer on top of the world" - another TED talk

Following on the heels of Jane McGonigal (see previous entries here and here for a little more on her frightening take on our current experiences; "the user experience of reality is broken" and the possible positive role that gaming combined with social media can have on this), TED.com just released a talk by Seth Priebatsch, "The game layer on top of the world".

As with Ms McGonigal, once you get beyond the initial shock of the key statements, the talk makes a disturbing amount of sense; the first decade of the century should be considered the time when the social media infrastructure was put in place that will enable the coming decade to be about influencing behaviours on a mass-scale through games and gaming concepts. Moreover his premise that this will based upon the Facebook online graph (see also here for an interesting blog entry from Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook) seems possible to me.

He sites several examples of this already happening (influencing when people go online and what they do via event-driven games a la Farmville, or any cocktail happy-hour for that matter, is just one trivial example, but there are many more).

What I like about his presentation is that it is doggedly optimistic. Given the obvious "big brother" concerns about any corporate or governmental attempt to influence behaviours through the social media, his appeal for us all to take part to make sure that the massive potential for manipulation is harnessed in a "positive" way feels long overdue (though this might simply be because I am getting older and am no longer on the pulse of what is "in".. actually thinking about it, I suspect I never was).

Of course, the biggest question is, what is "positive"? How do we ensure that it is the petrol efficiency competitions (see here) and not the "buy this to out-do your friends" competitions that win out?

Most certainly worth sacrificing 12 minutes for, his presentation is not very polished, but the simple messages and in particular the clear structure of his "game dynamics" - basically behaviour archetypes that many games are based upon (1. appointment dynamic, 2. influence and status dynamic, 3. progression dynamic, 4. communal discovery dynamic) - are spot on.

This stuff is happening today and is going to massively increase in the future - time to come to terms with it, I fear.

Nothing to post, but love the iPad

I really don't have anything to post, but want an excuse to try out the iPad blogging app.

I almost resent Apple for the fact that I have been hankering after an iPad since they came out, even though the functionality is severely lacking compared to the standard net book with Windows.

But only almost..


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad