Jesse Schell on the future of games (DICE 2010)

[infernovia]

One particular example that always sticks with me is how closely the reward system of item drops in most modern roguelike games closely mirrors psychological research on the most effective methods to encourage repeated human (and animal) behaviour

Dang, I always thought this was the case, never actually thought it had any basis besides my intuition though.

[FentonBailey]

I thought i'd drag this back from the dead to ask how much people know about Foursquare.

It's this app thing for your smart phone where you get points for "checking in" at real life locations. If you check in lots at one place you get bonus points.

[before I hid it from my Facebook] my news feed was full of "X has just checked in at Tesco", "Y has just checked in at Greggs." and in some cases when the person lived in a block of flats, these locations were in the Foursquare data base.

I might also add that these people love WoW, as I feel that is relevant.

[link6616]

Originally Posted by FentonBailey

I thought i'd drag this back from the dead to ask how much people know about Foursquare.

It's this app thing for your smart phone where you get points for "checking in" at real life locations. If you check in lots at one place you get bonus points.

[before I hid it from my Facebook] my news feed was full of "X has just checked in at Tesco", "Y has just checked in at Greggs." and in some cases when the person lived in a block of flats, these locations were in the Foursquare data base.

I might also add that these people love WoW, as I feel that is relevant.

I was reading a review of alice in wonderland for the iphone which apparently has achievements if you go to certain places... I think theres a screen shot with it saying something like

"GPS achievement; you played this at disney land"

Great maketing ploy or silly scam, you decide.

[Logo]

When gps enabled phones first came out I wanted a game like foursquare... except actually a game. I imagined you'd claim areas and build up your army to defend the areas when you're not around. So the whole thing becomes a large fight over territory.

Instead we got Foursquare which will probably squash any other attempt at a territory based game.

[brayanaustin]

But friends, I saw out of their way of doing things in games you never want to make your own if it had not connected the achievement points. The fact that the reward system works and is viable when the future is going to implement everything I learned about motivation. I'm not sure what to think.

[Wail]

Foursquare scares the crap out of me, though more for the surveillance aspect than the "make a game out of your life" angle. I've never played it so I don't know how effective it is in that respect. I do think it's pretty scary to have a phone's GPS tracking everywhere you go - I can't imagine trusting anyone, much less a social networking site/game - to treat that data with the gravity it deserves.

I do in general think "Game Design" should develop some professional codes of conduct. Making games that purposefully encourage addictive/destructive behavior is very dangerous, and at least to me, borders on immoral.
(Not that game design is unique in this respect - There are hundreds if not thousands of new things enabled by technology that we probably ought to have social or legal restrictions against, but don't, simply because our culture as a whole is too ignorant and our decision-makers especially so.)



Side note given where this thread went before - I really think anyone who has trouble with their weight ought to try low-carb/paleo diet. I tried a moderately low-carb diet in college and lost a substantial amount of weight without even trying. I think many people who have problems with their weight are just metabolically less adapted to handling high-carb, high glycemic index foods.

[Skaevola]

Wow, that was disturbing. The capitalist 1984 anyone?