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LIFE: The Game

LIFE: The Game. Jeannie Novak Founder, Indiespace Lead Author & Series Editor, Game Development Essentials. Game Review. accessible & widely accepted to date believable characters lasting appeal challenge & variety

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LIFE: The Game

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  1. LIFE: The Game Jeannie Novak Founder, Indiespace Lead Author & Series Editor, Game Development Essentials

  2. Game Review • accessible & widely accepted to date • believable characters • lasting appeal • challenge & variety • unusual design feature: no choice in determining character’s initial starting location, appearance or gender (seemingly random) • customization comes into play later • newbie players are guided through early levels by NPCs (sometimes “griefers”) • experience achieved through “level treadmill” • player economy • career system

  3. Components of “Play” • Engagement • Perceived Control • Entertainment • Decision-making • Social interaction (multiplayer) • Education (often covert/stealth and social) • Emotional attachment • Level of simulation • (“life simulation” as genre)

  4. Game Elements • Gameplay (Formal/Structure/Mechanics) • Challenges  strategies • Balance • Victory & loss conditions • Socialization frequency & success rate • Competition vs. cooperation • Virtual economies • Experience points (from battling monsters & “bosses”) • Story (Dramatic / Narrative) • Decisions and affect/emotions • Plot points = challenges • Narrative “pathing”

  5. Game Elements • Character • Avatars vs. NPCs • Big boss • Identity and control • Effect of relationships on story “outcomes” • Interface • Physical/mechanical & visual controls • Feedback vs. control • Sensory feedback • Heads up display (HUD)

  6. Life Examples • Job Hunting • Networking • Grocery Shopping • Dating • Driving • Negotiating • Investing • Learning • Writing • Composing • Creating a “blockbuster”

  7. My Strange Encounter

  8. “Doppelbot” • Virtual agent/”not so evil” twin that knows what you want/need and proceeds to get it for you (or provide you with the information you need to get it yourself) • Software-based • Automatic • Immediate linked to your thoughts

  9. Life Management Tools • project management • organization • email • collaboration • searching • wikis • discussions • blogging • networking • strategizing

  10. Age of the Amateur • Player as co-author • Non-linear life narrative • Comparing player control within and outside the game environment • Leveraging technology to enhance social interaction and efficiency

  11. The Transparent Societyis Here . . . • Transparency goes both ways; feature of “good” corporations & government • Commercial web / information as facilitator • Privacy almost non-existent – but many would prefer to be in the public eye

  12. Who Needs Privacy Anyway?

  13. Total Recall?

  14. Not Quite . . .MyLifeBits • Experiment: Gordon Bell is now completely digital (paperless) • Software Research: Jim Gemmell & Roger Lueder have developed the tool to support digital memories • If we can access all memories & our lives are fully digital, game-life elements will become even more pronounced • Ramifications: Legal, Social, Entertainment If memories can be recorded, they can be altered What is left untouched?

  15. Dreamtime • Australian Aboriginal mythology • Two parallel forms of time: • Daily objective activity • Infinite spiritual cycle (dreamtime) • More real than “reality” • Natural world real? Human-made modifications less real, game-like?

  16. Virtual Worlds / MUVEs • Economies • Merchandise • Social interaction • Simulated environments (many mundane – representational)

  17. Game-Life Hybrid • What is real life? We’ve created artificiality; everything is an interface • Our impulse is to live in myth • Definition of story is “fiction”; if we move to the “real,” will we still be storytellers?

  18. Will We Use -- or Lose -- Our Illusion?

  19. Genre: Social Farmville – social consciousness; tedious – just like life

  20. Platform: Mobile • Intersection between analog and digital world • Mobile phone moves through our environment • “Cyberspace” as phone conversation  cell phone as device that references an alternate environment

  21. Augmented Reality Bringing game elements inherent in life into focus

  22. Augmented Reality? Augmented Past / Memories? Alternate Reality? After Life?

  23. Future of Entertainment • Entertainment business facilitates bottom grass roots entertainers vs. extremely high risk hit identification • This segment of the entertainment industry makes it easier to formalize the idea of our life as a game • Life and art have always mimicked one another, but the game entertainment segment has triggered a fusion due to the rise of online social media/networks and user-controlled content (player as “co-author”) • Web-based “life” has been an “enabler” in this area • Beyond “pseudo-events” & simulacra

  24. The Game . . .

  25. . . . Has Already Begun

  26. Suggested Reading • The Transparent Society (David Brin) • Total Recall (Gordon Bell et al.) • Life: The Movie (Neal Gabler) • CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (George Saunders) • Play as Life (http://playaslife.com) • Real Life – Gamespot Review(http://tinyurl.com/gufy)

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