Not just a game but a very interesting social experiment. This is amazing on multiple fronts. I think a movement started with second life and hopefully there are many more similar interesting social experiment/games to come.
Don't know if there are any neuro/psychological researchers in the background examining the dynamics but hell, this type of a game, in a given scenario and carefully tweaked can potentially provide at least very interesting insights into human behavior and group dynamics in a certain context.
This may be a bit hyperbolic, but games such as this may be an interesting "evolutionary" step for people as well. In nature play is a way for animals to test out and perfect skills. Given that humans have somewhat transcended the need to perfect motor and physical skills, the future of our play is probably better in a world where our greatest potential threats come from others of our own kind and navigating a more nuanced human centric world where our "play" is more specialized too.
Don't know if there are any neuro/psychological researchers in the background examining the dynamics but hell, this type of a game, in a given scenario and carefully tweaked can potentially provide at least very interesting insights into human behavior and group dynamics in a certain context.
This may be a bit hyperbolic, but games such as this may be an interesting "evolutionary" step for people as well. In nature play is a way for animals to test out and perfect skills. Given that humans have somewhat transcended the need to perfect motor and physical skills, the future of our play is probably better in a world where our greatest potential threats come from others of our own kind and navigating a more nuanced human centric world where our "play" is more specialized too.
Enough dreaming for me, but very cool...