Level 60 Living
In what is easily the most interesting 28 minute speech I've seen in recent memory, Jesse Schell provides some thoughts on what may lay ahead for the future of games. One of his central thesis points is that there is a current, large-scale need to seek that which is authentic. From McDonald's selling Angus burgers to organic, locally grown foods, to games like Wii Fit, all of these things are seeking to deliver a more authentic experience to consumers.
We're craving authenticity and it's showing up in our games.
His speculation is that this is due to a backlash against an increasingly virtual society. As we move deeper into virtual worlds and communications, we seek more authenticity in our lives to fill the physical voids left behind.
Sensors take the game everywhere
The real crux of the speech occurs in the final few minutes, when he envisions a world, filled with sensors, which enable us to accrue points for our activities:
- Brush your teeth in the morning, your toothbrush knows you are brushing and gives you +10 points
- If you brush for more than 30s, you get another +10 points
- When you go to eat your corn flakes, there is a game on the back of the box that, if you play, earns you +5 points
- If you take the bus to work instead of your car, the government awards you +500 points for being more eco-friendly
- And on an on
Presumably, all of these points would roll up into a master RPG type of account where you could skill up in things like Health, Awareness, Environmentalism, Relationships, etc. The whole point Schell is making, however, is simply that games can be used to drive positive behavior. Without delving into who is actually put in power to decide the right "positive behavior", you can quickly see the power of such gaming systems.
Level 60 Life
Whether or not this degree of integration of scoring could ever occur (i.e. one game to rule them all), the concept of using games to drive more responsible behavior is a really powerful concept that has particular note in health. People are awful at managing their health. How might games improve that?
Whether or not this degree of integration of scoring could ever occur (i.e. one game to rule them all), the concept of using games to drive more responsible behavior is a really powerful concept that has particular note in health. People are awful at managing their health. How might games improve that?
Imagine if you went to the store and bought eggs, (+100), carrots (+50), bananas (+35) and bread (+5) but also Double Stuff Oreos (-250) and some Bud Light (-40). The scoring would let you see almost immediately the opportunities you had to buy food with more nutritional value much more easily. The goal, of course, would be to encourage people to level up, i.e drive more responsible dietary behavior.
The same principles could be applied to any number of other difficult to manage or opaque activities.
I suppose the one very important point to note here is that if you strayed from the positive behavior, you'd level down. This adds, perhaps, too much reality to make a game really appealing.No one wants to lose a game over and over and over. In any case, the video provides a lot of fodder for thought. I still think it's neat to conceive of a whole whole generation of consumers becoming interested in leveling up their lives and bragging about having a Level 60 diet or a Level 60 carbon footprint.
View Jesse Schell's fantastic speech here:
Photo via Jeff Eaton
