Science behind Social Tide The challenge for social games

nullgate@gmail.com May 2012

IT'S ALL ABOUT FACE Part 1

What's up with Facebook Hype or Fad? Users and Photos? It's all about FACE! ◦ Not the music you like! ◦ Not the circles!

Ubiquitous faces Media ◦ Idols, Super Stars ◦ Cover pages ◦ Advertisement

Money Internet ◦ E-mail ◦ IM ◦ Social Network

Facts about Face Cognitive perk of our brains ◦ Specialized ◦ Subconscious

Cultural reference ◦ Masked robbers ◦ Religious taboo ◦ Faceless horror

Facial motion capturing ◦ Movie – The Polar Express, 2004 ◦ Game – LA Noire, 2011

Neurological POV Fusiform Face Area (FFA) Event Related Potentials (ERP) ◦ N170 ◦ Face selective

IGNORANCE OF FACE Part 2

Brief history of Prosopagnosia As long as human history ◦ > 2% in Caucasian ◦ ~ 2% in Chinese (Hong Kong sample)

1947, first described by a doctor 1997, Face Blind!, Bill Choisser 2008, so am I ◦ A blog of MSRA

Awareness of Prosopagnosia Cognitive impairment ◦ Poor face recognition ◦ Lack of facial memory ◦ Immune to idols

Workaround ◦ People know me ◦ Voice recognition ◦ Pretending

Improvement ◦ Photographing ◦ Portrait painting ◦ Movies and TV series ◦ Work and marriage

Neurological POV ERP almost identical ◦ N170, N250 (famous face)

Fusiform Face Area ◦ Specialized region ◦ Significant defects

Summary of Prosopagnosia Cognitive impairment ◦ Not visual defects ◦ Not intellectual defects

Resulted social impairment Lack of awareness ◦ Developmental prosopagnosia ◦ Diagnostics of internet

Acquired Prosopagnosia ◦ Associative – Lose of semantics sense ◦ Apperceptive – No sense at all

IGNORANCE OF SOCIAL Part 3

Autism Spectrum Disorder Prosopagnosia? Yes and No ◦ Developmental ◦ Apperceptive

Severity of ASD ◦ > 1% in Unite States ◦ Boys : Girls = 5 : 1

Severe social impairment Savant syndrome

Neurological POV

Introvert and Extrovert Neurological difference Delight of social activity Positive feedback?

Empathy and Social Emotional capacity ◦ Shared experience of sentient beings ◦ Developed cognitive skill

Cornerstone of society ◦ Emotional communication ◦ Trust and understanding

Engine of arts ◦ Paintings ◦ Fictions ◦ Movies

Neurological POV Natural selection for social brain WYSIWYG + Feedback Painkiller by money Wikipedia:

When children are shown videoclips with situations where they see people suffering pain by coincidence, neural circuits related to pain are being activated in their brain.

Summary of ASD Lack of empathy Risk factors ◦ Notorious “Vaccine Theory” ◦ Genetic risk Risk of twins Risk of siblings

Society is harsh to ASD patients Interventions Questions?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

SOCIAL RENAISSANCE Part 4

Case Study – Facebook

Eye Tracking – Facebook

Case Study – MFS

Challenge for social games Demands for social networks ◦ Social interaction – Facebook ◦ Social establishment – Linked-in ◦ Social entertainment – Zynga

Road to true social ◦ Friends in Cityville ◦ Word with Friends ◦ Draw something

More than viral and engagement

What's missing Vocal and music ◦ Media presence ◦ Intimacy, security

Gesture and Kinect ◦ More than video ◦ Dot-only animations

Tele-presence ◦ Real-time feedback ◦ Eye contact

Will we see those in games?