Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Bottom Line
We're All Gamers Now: "It's nearly impossible to navigate a day without bumping headfirst into some type of game. Whether you're clicking through Farmville or Mafia Wars online or racking up airline miles or credit card points in the physical world, the reality is that we're playing games every day. In many instances, we just don't realize it.
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3 comments:
Now that i think about it, there are "games" i play like buying all my food at Giant Eagle because i know that i will get fuel perks from it.
It definitely is an interesting idea that everything we do could gain us points in someway. It is a new kind of reinforcement and could condition us to live healthier lives. It could also be used by corporate companies as a form of promoting their companies.
I am not at all surprised by this. But I think we are cutting ourselves short by saying our technology has made this so. Why not give some credit to the imagination? How many of us went to a pre-school/kindergarden (or at home) played the clean-up game, turning a mundane task into fun? Or if you want to break it down much much simpler, how many of us as children didn't walk on cracks in the sidewalk? (I still do that just to see if I can modify my stride to do so, I'm no longer worried about breaking my mom's back anymore.) Or turned driving into an imaginary stock car race?
My point is, maybe human beings are naturally playful. Let's not overlook that. Therefore we can transform tasks, decisions, and the risks involved into a game. Our technology helps document and categorize that. Let's not throw out the human brain and say technology is making it playful, perhaps the brain is making this technology playful.
I also play many of the games listed above,especially the store ones, and enjoy getting the rewards from them. I think a lot of them are great incentives for both the consumer and the store. And we all know that as Matt said, it's one of the few ways to turn mundane tasks into something we want to do. Even things like the Nike+ which tracks the progress and helps motivate your exercise habits. But at some point, does it go to far to have games and technology embedded into every single aspect of our lives?
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