Supernova 2007: because technology is everyone's business

Thursday, June 22, 2006

More Than Just a Game

Where will we take technology originally developed for games? This panel looks at how to apply gaming technology, skills and behaviors in the business environment.

Moderator: Dan Hunter, The Wharton School
Amy Jo Kim, Shufflebrain
Doug Failor, Joint Futures Lab, DOD
Michael Zyda, USC Gamepipe Lab
Philip Rosedale, Linden Lab
Charles Moore, Reuters

JFL: As a contractor for the defense department, I play video games for a living. At the Joint Forces Command, the mission is military transformation. The right equipment and training are critical. JFL explores and validates theories. One of the tools we use is computer simulations, which enable you to test decisions ahead of time and predict the results. Because games are sophisticated simulations, we can learn about cause and effect, long term vs. short term goals, patterns in chaos, complex system behaviors, counter intuitive results, motivation by obstacles, persistence and experimentation to solve a problem.

Reuters: Reuters core business is news, then using that news to support financial professionals in delivering training. We set up an innovation program like a venture fund, where we choose 6-8 spaces to look for ideas for subsequence investment. In Learning from the Virtual World (games), we immersed ourselves in the gaming space to take back proposals for investment to the venture board. They’re interested in the user interface, and how we can apply it to our interface. For training, we can learn how users learn from within games.

Shufflebrain: We’re a design consultancy doing design and strategy for games. By going into game mechanics and what makes them compelling, we can create better, more addictive games. Games shape behavior by leveraging primary response patterns. Giving positive or negative feedback on a schedule provokes a particular response. Slot machines use semi random payoffs with large or small payoffs, creating addictive behaviors. The power of reinforcement and feedback makes games work. By engaging us in flow, increasing the challenge as your skills increase, games keep people playing. The underlying mechanics can be applied to other software. These are the drivers of behavior including: collecting things, earning points, feedback, exchanges or interaction, customization. For example, character customization or personas.

USC Game Lab: When you consider how much time people spend in negotiations, there’s value in training them to be better negotiators using games and emotional response sensors.

Linden Lab: We talk about Second Life as being like the Internet, only three dimensional. The difference is, you experience it with other people. Second Life takes the context and puts people in it at the same time, so they can build on each others knowledge. It’s an amplifier that enables you to interact with people while they’re in your site.

Q: Have you noticed a generational change where games play a more significant role?

Reuters: We see that to a great extent. The game generation has already started to penetrate the workforce. We see the parallels in gaming that apply to the business world. But there is a significant majority in the business world who aren’t’ involved in the gaming space. The younger generation may see applications, but the senior managers don’t get it.

USC Game Lab: The line where game playing stops is around 35 years of age. We’re developing a game development program at USC. Kids are fascinated with games. By analogy, you can drive any car, if you now how to drive. Games are like that, if you’re in the game playing generation. Older players don’t have the metaphors to work with.

Q: What lessons do we learn from games about user interface design?

Shufflebrain: If you look at the example of eBay, you make it more game like by creating anticipation and randomness and putting in a reputation system. Then there’s the notion of emergent exchanges or back and forth exchanges. When an auction closes, people trade reviews. On MySpace, they make guestbook comments in exchange for being added to a list. You can allow room for emergent behaviors, rather then making the interface too restrictive.

Q: How does the social environment evolve?

Second Life: You can see the landscape, where you site fits into the environment. The cities emerge around people with shared interests. It’s a hyper accelerated demonstration of web 2.0 behavior, building businesses together, collaborating, all within context of the virtual society. Putting up a forum on eBay amplified the excitement. You can have a bad clothing store in Second Life, but the social support drives excitement.

Q: do people choose these environments instead of the real world?

USC: the line will be between people who do and don’t understand games. People who are fascinated with massively multiplayer games might do it. But will be a while before a majority can.

Q: What are the social ramifications of an online fantasy world that takes over their reality?

Shufflebrain: as a parent, we put limits on the amount of gaming. When my seven year old plays too many games, the rest of life becomes boring. He gets personalized feedback in the game. Any media can be indulged in too much. Common sense, involved parenting is needed. Social games teach valuable lessons that translate into the real world. Every powerful tech is a double edged sword. They need to be understood well and used in an informed way.

Second Life: you have to compare the learning per unit time. Second Life is a rich environment for facing real constraints as you develop a business. In terms of safety, they’re safe when they’re not alone. When there are a lot of people around, there’s safety in numbers.

Q: wireless gaming industry in Asia?

USC: looking for cool tech in Japan, you find people are into gadgets. Wireless does well there. In the US, mobile games are just now gaining traction. The problem with mobile games is that the phones have different interfaces and keys. What works on a Motorola won’t work on a nokia. When there is more standardization, we’ll see the push from what is happening in Asia.

Q: why are games so compelling, when people are so time challenges they can’t manager their first life, much less a second life?

USC: world of war craft, the average user plays an enormous number of hours. When kids buy world of war craft and start playing, we see it in their grades. It’s highly addictive.

Dan: You create social connections and spend time chatting in the guild room. You start to lose your assumptions about the necessity for physical interaction in order to have meaningful social interaction.

Second Life: You will need to get a Second Life account because, as it relates to innovation, economy, prototyping, things are happening faster there than they do in the physical world. People are funding companies, growing, learning and doing things together much faster there.

Q: How would these services take advantage of expanded bandwidth and faster processing power.

USC: you always need more. You add emotion sensing. You draw different graphics and sound. We’ll use all the processing cycles available.

Second Life: computer games don’t look like movies now, but in five years, they’ll look more like movies. Now you can’t simulate all the objects in a room. You need to simulate more objects to be fully believable. We’ll reach better parity with reality given more bandwidth. We’ll make the effective bandwidth person to person wider.