
The Most Disturbing Presentation of the Year - mightybyte
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/gaming/the-most-disturbing-presentation-of-the-year
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rauljara
I wouldn't be too scared about the presentation. Mr. Schell is a super smart
guy, no doubt, but his sense of what will be popular in the future is way off.
He admits to being blindsided by the wii, almost all the games he mentions in
his talk, and he makes a joke about how everyone hates the iPad, which has
already run out of stock for new preorders. His taste != the taste of
consumers. Which is not to say there's anything wrong with his taste, just
that it's very hard to predict the future when you are shocked that people
find wii sports fun.

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j_baker
"But everything we do and (more importantly) all the information we attend to
will win us points and benefits across a vast incentives network engineered by
corporations and government entities. Or, more tersely: we will live in a
game."

I didn't watch the presentation, but based on the description, I think that's
the way things always have been. The great game is called "economics" and the
points are called "money".

I think he overestimates the capability of these kinds of incentives.
Incentives _do_ have an effect, but not always the effect you intended.

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harshpotatoes
I'm kinda old fashioned for my age, but I thought the end of the video where
humanity was coerced into cleaning up its act was the scariest part. I
disagree with his definition of 'cleaning up its act.' It sounds like he
equates 'cleaning up humanity's act' with the small changes, like brushing
your teeth, cleaning your room, and eating your vegetables. Is it really to
our benefit to have this god watching over us, and we'd better act good
otherwise we'll go to hell. I mean, let's be reasonable, no game system in the
world is going to end rape, theft, or murder. but what would it change?

Apart from my crotchety rantings, it was nice seeing how many of his ideas of
the future seemed to come from Futurama. :)

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jackfoxy
It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around, and birds need a
left wing and a right wing to fly. So long as people just talk about visions
of the future with people acting "the way they're supposed to", "responsibly",
whatever...it's quaint. And if your name is Plato, people still might read and
talk about your ideas 2,400 years later, but whenever people have banded
together to bring these visions about it's resulted in distopia.

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Semiapies
Sorry, meant to vote this up, not down.

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misuba
Schell's followup talk at GDC allegedly gives some important context.
Unfortunately it's not online from what I can tell. Gamasutra talks about it
in passing here:
[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27754/Opinion_Fear_and_Lo...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27754/Opinion_Fear_and_Loathing_in_Farmville.php)

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rguzman
The idea that you need to hack yourself ie trick yourself into doing things is
pretty well-known and not limited to just tricking yourself by rewarding
yourself somehow.

We already have a point system that works: money. For all these points systems
to _really_ be adopted they need to be tied to money or to "social value".
Basically, the points only work if they help people with more of them get
laid. We already have those, we already deal with them.

This line of thought is not that revolutionary, disturbing, or disruptive.

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steveklabnik
If this idea about objects is interesting to you, check out Bruce Sterling's
book "Shaping Things, " (non-affiliate link: [http://www.amazon.com/Shaping-
Things-Mediaworks-Pamphlets-St...](http://www.amazon.com/Shaping-Things-
Mediaworks-Pamphlets-Sterling/dp/0262693267) )

He talks about how objects have changed and will change over time. Jesse is
talking about "spimes" in this particular talk.

The step after this? "Biots."

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vgurgov
America, please quit playing! Start reading!

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vgurgov
I find specially scaring the fact that one like idea of "Levels 9 Student" Is
that the way education system should be fixed? Can it be fixed that way? Oooh
really??? Seriously all the sudden kids will start studying math just for
another "level up"?? I might be sounding old-fashioned but my school
motivation was greediness for the new knowledge and i hardly can imagine high
school students studing better just because simple teacher name them "Level 78
Master of Chemistry". Or maybe i am just too old and completely missing a
point. To me guys is just overexcited about "Gowalla syndrome"

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TeHCrAzY
When framed in the right way, people will pay you for the opportunity to level
up. See: World Of Warcraft.

