In this talk, Schell shows us as an audience how games are beginning to invade the real world, and starting to create an affect on society. Gaming is composed of psychological tricks, that ensure the player that they are doing the right thing by investing into the game in order to better their status or character within it. And this, in turn, has an impact on how we view ourselves, and how we are viewed by others. Games are becoming more an more interactive, and closing the gap between what is virtual and what is real, for example in Guitar Hero, you have a real guitar, and you play real song, The games lure you in and then cause you to spend money by convincing you it is a worthwhile decision. From a psychological perspective, the game is worthwhile because you are spending time on it, and when you invest money into it, the game becomes valuable, and thus the element of reality is linked to engagement, because the more time you spend on the game, the more the game becomes a part of your life. What Schell is saying here, is that a lot of these games that are successful in gaining worth, have psychological locks and keys, which make the players want to engage and invest time in it. Facebook itself offers itself as a game play sharing platform, wherein you can play games, unlock achievements and share your progress with your friend, it then makes the game more realative to the person playing as your progress is then measured publicly. Even in games like, Mafia Wars, you are able to compete against your friends, which incorporates the real, because its people you know, And the game encourages you to pay to improve aspects of your character, which will boost the ego of the player internally as this is within a friendship group; thus built around our personal and social construct. Essentially implications of future society correlates with reality gaming.
The link goes even deeper than just gaming, it is beginning to invade what we watch; reality TV, where the viewer can really connect, or even the interactive parts of Television, where the viewer can vote or play along - it gives a new aspect, something more than just watching. The same is in food; organic food, or food described as 'real' - we thrive for things that enhance our grip on reality and on our own social status. He refers to Authenticity by Gilmore and Pine and they talk about how society has slowly been cut off from nature, and this change of demand derives from this. So the viewer now has a demand for something real -something genuine-, rather than something that helps them 'escape reality'. And we are using technology to do this.
Aspects of our daily routine are already part of a points system, and this system changes how we are, and how we perceive ourselves. For example, Weight Watchers uses a points system, you can only have so many points and this is how you lose the weight, it changes depending on the weight you are but in turn, it is a form of social engineering; if we feel good from this, we will invest more time in it.The same with Ford's dashboard plant - that gives a virtual and interactive way for you to be proactive about being green, and driving differently. As the plant grows, we perceive ourselves as better drivers.
As technology diverges, and branches out further, to reach more product and invade more aspects of reality, products will become cheaper and more accessible. Our daily routine will become a points system that monitors and sets a score for who we are. Everything we do, say, eat see etc. will be recorded, and this will leave a legacy, and idea of who we were. And it leaves us to question whether it would make us adapt and change ourselves, or what we did in order to leave the 'right' legacy.
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