- What happens when gaming becomes a major cultural force?
- What happens when social interactions are mediated by playful systems?
- What happens when gaming and social software go mobile?
Vadr; mobile phone advert in Tokyo subway. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/plstw/47098617/
Introduction
Back in 1938 fellow Dutchman Huizinga coined the term Homo Ludens ("Man the Player") and made the case that play is part of culture, that play is serious business and finally that play is unreasonable – with which he objected to the notion that humans are purely reasonable beings.
This talk will offer a highly visual romp through the intersection of three domains: mobile, social software and gaming. It’ll offer insights on how social software is becoming increasingly game-like [1], how the games industry is coming to terms with a social, connected medium [2] and how both of these are being delivered through mobile technology [3].
Evidence
- No one needs to be pointed to Second Life as an example, but have you considered Flickr’s emergence from Game Neverending?
- Take a look at Sony’s Playstation 3 Home, or consider the asynchronous social properties of Will Wright’s next blockbuster game: Spore.
- With Twitter and Jaiku, mobile presence has hit the big time. With alternate reality games (like ILoveBees) and big games (like ConQwest), the mobile has become a conduit for locative, massive, social play.
Promise
Play’s important, as Huizinga pointed out, and we’d be well served to consider how to leverage it to create meaningful experiences.
By putting current examples in a historical context and at the same time extrapolating them into the future; we’ll arrive at guidelines and directions for thinkers, makers and doers in the internet, gaming and mobile industry working to build bridges between them.
Follow up
For the slides, video and downloads, please refer to leapfrog.nl/blog/archives/2007/06/04/slides-and-video-of-my-reboot-90-talk/
