Jesse Schell - "Design Outside the Box" presentation
richard on 2010/02/22 23:46
http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/
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Cosmologicon on
2010/02/22 21:32:
Man, the "games" of the future are going to be miserable.... I hope that Pyweek is still around so that some people are making games that are actually fun!
richard on
2010/02/22 22:31:
Akake on
2010/02/28 15:35:
His predictions are disturbing, but I don't buy it. Predictions like that have been made before (IE: Predictions about large changes in culture), and have seldom come true. Most of the technology he describes either exists now or is feasible in the future, but culture is unpredictable. Something bigger is likely to come along.
His "math" is also BS, and destroys his credibility. (At least, in my opinion)
And he never did bring up how much profit big budget games make in comparison with the "Reality" games he fawns over.
Akake on
2010/02/28 16:55:
That's who I was agreeing with, to clarify. :P
Chard on
2010/02/28 20:29:
Tee on
2010/03/03 03:48:
I'm hoping things will go a bit differently. How about running shoes wirelessly connected to earphones that give you exercise tasks in form of a game a la Wii Fit, and rewards you with foot massages and music you like? How about dancing shoes (also wirelessly connected to earphones) that know the exact movement of your feet and teach you how to dance Guitar Hero-style according to the music playing in the earphones? I admit I don't have many ideas about these things, but you get the idea and I'm sure there are creative people out there.
What I want to see are more of these (1 2 3) instead of only-achievement-based "reality" games. I'm not saying achievement games are bad, though, I'm just saying that there's another side to explore that should go hand-to-hand with achievements (it requires more creativity, but I believe the effort is worth it). That said, I liked his presentation. His overview of the present state of games was pretty good and I liked the psychological point of view. And I really do hope "reality" games start popping up - not in the slightly shallow way he talked about, but in a way that is more meaningful and creative. Augmented reality games sound very promising for that.
And I'm all for the advancement of psychology in the context of games. Okay, sometimes people use it only to promote virality and addiction to gain money. I agree that's not exactly "fair", but I have to admit that I find that really cool as a topic to study. But psychology can definitely be used "for good". In fact, although I'm not a game designer, I think part of being a game designer is to understand how to manipulate your players without them realizing. How can I make the player feel afraid of the monster? Use subtle psychological scare tactics, like making the player subconsciously associate a certain effect with fear somewhere earlier in the game, and putting that effect right before the monster. How can I direct the player to the right place without him feeling railroaded? Use subtle lighting to indicate the path and put complex and interesting objects where you want him to go. I think understanding psychology and the player's mind is not only helpful but necessary to be a good game designer. Not to mention understanding the psychology of fun helps a great deal on understanding your goals as a game designer. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy that they're using more and more psychology in the context of games, even if it's in a more marketing/virality/addiction context. At least that means game designers/developers/producers are paying more and more attention to it.
All that said, knowing how to apply psychology to my Pyweek games is a whole different and complicated story. :P
georgek
Cosmologicon on
2010/02/22 19:47:
Well, I watched the first 10 minutes and it was basically him saying, "This game is popular. Huh? I don't get it." over and over.When does he start talking about the future of games?