Travis Ross and I are visiting GDC this week. We'll be blogging about innovations in games from a social science-y perspective, with special focus on economics and politics.
To kick things off, let's take note of Mia Consalvo's talk on social game mechanics; she's measuring the communication techniques that social games are using to motivate players and keep them playing. Gee I wonder if anyone in the industry might be interested in her findings...
There's some stuff about gamification out there, but it is not very impressive. Hype warning.
However, one useful thing to note is that game designers have realized that the real world can be part of their game a la ARG. Meanwhile businesses are taking advantage of the motivational techniques that games are using. The businesses seem less concerned about building games and more interested in how games can solve real world problems. One problem that someone from a website called ModCloth presented was a coordination problem where they allowed individuals to use the social web to vote on what clothing would get produced on a large scale. So the player community was collaborating and using social network mechanics to engage in politics for the clothing that they liked. It is cool how Modcloth has designed their business model around these communities and how the communities allow them to solve a coordiation problem and reinvent fashion as a bottom up political process.
More soon, and for related cool stuff, see Travis' blog Motivate. Play.
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