Beyond The Box
110
Transcript of Beyond The Box
The Game Beyond the Game
David Fox, VP Technology, iWin.com
Casual Games
Big Budget Games
Hard Core Action Games
Multiplayer Games
Massively Multiplayer Games
Let’s Get Inside…
The Gamer’s Brain
Neurological Studies
Brain Wave Mapping
Map By Brain Function
Map By Brain Function
Boring Talk At GDC
Watching TV
Map By Brain Function
Map By Brain Function
Playing Sports
Map By Brain Function
Computer Games
What Do We Learn?
Game playing triggers dopamine release.1
Cerebral glucose metabolic rates initially increase. 2
Brain activity while playing games is varied and deep. 3
1. Jaak Panksepp, Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics at Northwestern University
2. Richard Haier, The University of California at Irvine
3. Numerous studies
What Do We Learn?
[Games make you happy.] [Games make you stressed.] [Games deeply screw with your head.]
SO MANY GENRES!
Some Games Dumb Your Brain
Some Games Make You Violent
A Study Between Othello…
…And Space Invaders
Othello
Space Invaders
What Do We Learn?
Space Invaders activated the parietal cortex and the premotor cortex
Othello activated the dorsal prefrontal cortex
Ref: “Areas of Brain Activation While Playing Different-Genre Video Games”, Keiichi Saito, Naoki Mukawa and Masao Saito - Presented at The Second International Conference on Innovative Computing, Information and Control
Translation: The Brain Changes…
Genre to Genre Among Player’s
Intentions/Moods/Context Within a Game
THE BOTTOM LINE…
Submit to the Game Brain
Game Brain Evolves!
Continually and appropriately challenged
Achievable but challenging next steps
“More Knowledgeable Other” “Regime of Competence”
Game Brain is Unique
Challenged – Focused on Problem Solving
Relaxed – Almost Meditative Engaged – Laughing, Crying, Deeply
Feeling Awed – “Taken to Another World” All At Once!
Getting Down to Business
Game Brain:
Engages Mind! Lifts Spirit! Stimulates Body!
Experience Surrounding Games:
Mindless Dispirited Disembodied
Many Chances to Engage…
Buzz About Game First Visit To Site / Store Browsing for the Game Download Install Upsell Inside Gameplay Around Gameplay After the Game Uninstall Later On…
Browsing For The Game (iWin)
Browsing (RealArcade)
Story Theme Mood Society
Browsing (WildTangent)
Browsing (GameTap)
Browsing (Direct2Drive)
Browsing (Steam)
Browsing (GameStop)
Downloading (Most Sites)
During the Install
Upsell (PlayFirst)
Upsell (WildTangent)
Around Gameplay (Pogo)
Around Gameplay (PlayFirst)
Around Gameplay (Kongregate)
Inside Gameplay (Pogo)
Inside Gameplay (EyeBlaster)
More In-Game Ads…
When Game Closes (PlayFirst)
After The Game (EA)
After The Game (WildTangent)
After The Game (PlayFirst)
Even Later On…
“Community” User Reviews Forums E-Mail Alerts IM Alerts Desktop/Toolbar Alerts
Even Later On… (PlayFirst)
So What’s Missing, Bigshot?
Take The Game Brain:
Challenge Relaxation Engagement Awe
& Apply to Meta Game (i.e. Real Life):
Buzz First Visit To Site Browsing for the Game Download Install Upsell Inside Gameplay Around Gameplay After the Game Uninstall Later On…
In A Holistic Way:
Global Story Deep Theme Continuous Mood Meta-Game Economy Full Social Network
What For?
Stickiness Return Quickly and Often More Revenue Models If Not You, Who? Make the World a Better Place!
Some Current Experiments
Customization & Collection (Pogo)
In-Game Messaging (XBLA)
Achievements (XBLA)
Virtual Worlds (Sony Home)
Community (Sony Home)
Customization (Sony Home)
Play (Sony Home)
Gaia Online
Gaia Online
Flowplay
Flowplay
What’s Next?
The Best Ideas Academia Advertising
Marketing Isn’t (Quite) Evil
It Isn’t Even Stupid
Marketing Is A Game…
…where the goal is to get as many people to spend as much money as possible.
Marketing As Game Design Wear the Hat Take Control
How to Do It?
“Viral” Marketing Free Exponential Win-Win-Win
Scrabulous
Transmedia Sounds cool.
Transmedia Console Web TV Book Movie Toy Broadway Musical Magazines, Newspapers, Festivals,
Billboards, Blogs, Live Events, Email, Podcasts, Seeding, Direct Mail, Radio, Voicemail, etc.
Transmedia More than Adaptations… One masterpiece, different canvasses.
Social Networking Social Graph Web 2.0
ARGs Transmedia Meets Social Networking
Meets Viral Meets Gaming Physical & Virtual Scavenger Hunt Blogs Fake Web Sites
ARGs Google as Text Adventure Game
Parser Real World as Photorealistic Game
Level Wrong Paths as Interesting as Real
Paths
ARGs
Stolen shamelessly from Raph Koster Data from http://www.christydena.com/online-essays/arg-stats/
Players
0
500000
1000000
1500000
2000000
2500000
3000000
3500000
4000000
The A
rt of th
e Heis
t
The B
east
I Lov
e Bee
s
Last
Call P
oker
The O
cular
Effe
ct
Push, N
evada
Halo 3
Mad
den N
FL 08
Guitar
Hero
2
Wii P
lay
Pokem
on D
iamon
d
Pokem
on P
earl
Spider
man 3
Guitar
Hero
3
Why Isn’t Everyone Doing This?
Why “Viral” Is Hard You’re a corporation. Nobody trusts you. Lucky accident. Usually lame. Culture already saturated with idiocy.
Why Transmedia Is Hard Got deep pockets? Hard to think big across
simultaneous media. User generated content nightmare. Crown jewel: Fan fiction?
Why Social Is Hard Critical Mass Needed Real People = Real Problems Everyone Already on MySpace &
FaceBook FaceBook Apps = Jumped The Shark?
Why ARGs Are Hard They’re Free, Stupid! Drill down: Few addicts vs. tasters. Commercial Experiments = Failure
(Majestic)
This is Not Unscary!
Expensive proposition Giving away a lot of FREE content Interacting with real people! Unpredictable Loss of control
Hey, Welcome to Game Development! Creative vision
Technical innovation Large teams Risky!
Solution? Provide something nobody else can. Let them cluster around what they
love. Keep it cheap. Hold larger picture in mind. Stick to your theme!
WWWD? (What Would Walt Do?)
Brand, brand, brandbrandbrand… Woven into the fabric of life Characters more real than most
adults Intentional Focus-tested
WWWD? (What Would Walt Do?)
Planning The Trip Purchasing Tickets Arrival Discovery Wandering Around Waiting in Line Buying Stuff Looking at Photos Later
Your Challenge:Beat the Reigning
Game BrainMasters!
