How games will change our behaviour

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This is a presentation given at DICE by Jesse Schell that I was alerted to by Shanti Bergel.

It’s a full 30 mins, but the first 20 minutes focus on how few game designers really saw the emergence of casual/social games (think Wii, Wii-Fit, Farmville etc).

It then points out that games are now *everywhere*. Key example: the new Ford hybrid car has a graphic of a tree that grows the more petrol you save. As Jesse says, “they put a game in a car”.

He then goes on to posit a world in which we get Achievement points for everything, sponsored by business, non-profits, government and more. A world where the awareness that everything we do can be tracked and monitored and left as a legacy for our grand children. And possibly, just possibly, it will make us a better person.

If you’re short of time, watch from about 20 minutes to get a view of a world that is either utopian or terrifyingly dystopian, depending on your point of view.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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