Playing games has a function in every living thing that plays. Cats learn how to kill the birds they leave on your doorstep by pouncing on toys. Dogs learn to physically defend themselves and their family by play fighting with other dogs. Humans are no exception to this rule. Sports serve to teach us teamwork- like puppies ganging up on each other we teach our children to work together in teams. All of humanities greatest achievements involved immense amounts people all working together for years to accomplish a goal. I'm talking about building pyramids, sending men to the moon, and yes even war. War might be mans greatest smudge on history, but in war's aftermath both "teams" (countries) tend to bond internally over the mutual suffering caused. It's the same reason why men punch each other in the face, and then become best friends.
I've talked a lot about technology's effect on society, and how, only now, technology is uniting humanity. But, technology can be a frightening beast. It speeds along, changing at an exponential rate. It both threatens to leave us in its wake, and demands more intrusion into the way we live. It can be a frustrating, fast moving, constantly changing to try to keep up. Also, technology has had the unfortunate habit of diverging… by this I mean that technology becomes more complex and diverse. Think about blueray, DVD, VHS and beta-max... or that cathode ray tube television you still have gathering dust. This has caused society to approach new ideas slowly and with caution.
However, Consider just the past year in technology. Facebook has done so incredibly well that Hollywood made a movie about it. A piece of web software changed every ones lives so much that some people made an entire movie about how the world birthed said website. The smart phone has become a new standard. With smart phones technology is converging. People are more comfortable consuming newer technology faster, and the smart phone is the magic tool that lets them keep up. It's a digital Swiss army knife for the modern age that can fit in your pocket. With these magic bricks of technology you can talk, work, and yep- PLAY… with anyone in the world.
Okay, so- technology has converged into smart phones and social media, so what? What are we converging to, right? Think about how things like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we interact with each other. Restaurants tweet the daily specials instantly to only the people that care enough to subscribe- no wasted advertising. My dad had to go on dates, sometimes with total strangers that he couldn't stalk on Facebook before hand, but my generation has Facebook where I can poke the girl I like from anywhere that gets 3g coverage. If she likes me she can respond, and if I'm not so lucky then she can ignore me without consequence. The effect of this is relevant in Facebook's success. Facebook is about bringing people together and that is THE reason it is successful. Bringing people together has become the goal that steers a previously destructive business model up toward economic harmony. Where the money flows the business will grow, and growing it is.
What does this imply about the gaming industry? Video games used to be for geeks in their mothers basement. They used to not only separate us, but encourage us to stay separate- World of Warcraft is demonized by those outside the community for it's "life replacement" effect on players. In reality WoW was only introducing people to a safe community where they were accepted (or at least paid attention to by other people <- @ trolls). Facebook games like Farmville are about cooperating with your real life friends in a game, and mobsters is about one upping your buddies. The successful games create communities. The better the community member feels about being in that community- the more people join that community. Business knows this as the "viral effect" or the "positive spiral".
So what happens if we take all these ingredients and pour them together? Take a piece of technology, like an iPhone, that allows you to interact with anyone plugged into the web. Create a game on this ultra accessible platform that rewards players for working as a TEAM and build a community. Unlike WoW- players can be rewarded for being in new locations, or being with new people, or trying new things. Industry would have a vested financial interest in advertising- try the new dinner get 10% off and 50xp. Put on your new sneakers to run 3 miles and get 500xp and a badge. Check in on top of Everest and get a super mega rare cool badge! The game can now reinforce the traits in people that allow us to accomplish all great things- the reward of doing going to our world. Now our play can encourage us to be good to each other, and be good to ourselves.
What if all this playing together taught us to work together even better? We've been blowing each other up pretty good these last several thousand years, and now that's kind of out-dated http://bit.ly/gxslLw ... So what if games could be the practice we need for everyone to get really good at this working together thing? People seem to be able to do anything we unite to do, so what if we started getting experience points for solving all the crap that we dont like about our world? Wouldn't we all just be playing a game with no enemies?
watch this:
http://kotaku.com/5479125/points-for-toothbrushing-the-gaming-speech-everyone-is-talking-about
This is a link to the beta of my website for the mobile game I've been developing since my return from Afghanistan:
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