“Game design right now is like the NYSE before computers, or baseball recruiting before Billy Beane.”

“Every day, computing power becomes a little bit cheaper and game designers become a little bit more expensive. We’ve finally arrived at the point where we can actually run the millions of gameplay simulations we need to run to do GAs [Genetic Algorithms] effectively and get those insights back into the hands of designers in a few hours or days, and it’s inevitable that that will transform the design process.”

Original Article:
http://aigamedev.com/open/interview/evolution-in-cityconquest/

One group of patients then received CBM (Cognitive Bias Modification): they were trained to push away pictures of alcoholic drinks. The control groups either received “sham” training or none at all. Four 15-minute sessions were conducted on four consecutive days. When retested a week later, the CBM participants’ “approach bias for alcohol had changed to an avoidance bias, on a variety of tests,” said Wiers. The control groups showed no such changes.

“As is typical, many patients had relapsed – but only 46 percent of the CBM trained group, compared with 59 percent of the others.”

Original Article:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217954.php

”Instead of waiting for the government to do it, or for the factory to re-open, they can put their attention on abundance and prosperity will show up in your life.”

This is a quote from an interview with Dr. Wayne Dyer – one of those famous motivational speaker/spirtual guide folks in an interview with MediaBistro.

In the interview he also says, “if you’re thinking about unemployment, or how bad the economy is, or all the reasons why you can’t do something, you’ll get exactly that. Instead, align yourself with the type of energy you want to attract and those kinds of people will show up in your life.”

So, assuming Dr. Dyer has a point…. If we really are what we think, then the question seems to be the age-old question, how can we control or better direct our thinking?

As technology seems to be all around us, what role does it / will it play in helping us better understand ourselves and harness our cognitive energy towards a mindfulness that allows us to get passed ourselves. To build momentum to emerge from a well-worn groove of wanting and longing to a place of receiving and giving.

PLAY THE SIMULATION

I just played this simulation for the 10th time and I’m always impressed by the narrative and the emotion it is able to invoke in the player.

As someone involved with the company I can say that the underlying instructional design that binds the content together is very well done – to the point where I can feel the guilt and regret of having selected specific options.

While – like any other game or simulation – it is not without its share of potential design limitations, the experience truly seems to live up to Will Wright’s comment that games are one of the only mediums that can “make you feel guilty.” So very true.

It’s a funny video, but it got me thinking not just about the monetary dimension going on here, but also the way the kids are shaped by the experience…

The sense of attachment is not just used to make money but also impacts the child….

The video reminded me of Sherry Turkle’s book Alone Together where she explores sociable robots and the increasing emotional bonds that don’t just create a new sense of attachment, but also potentially change the human participant in unforeseen ways.In her book she describes one of her studies that involves following kids as they take home Furbys to play with them.

She explores how children don’t just form an attachment with the Furby like they would a doll or action figure. They instead form a deeper level of attachment since the Furby “grows” and “feels” despite being a machine. As children feed their Furby, teach it new words, and shape its personality, there is an investment that goes beyond what was possible with traditional toys.

Yet at the same time that such an attachment forms, there is also a form of “training” that the child goes through where one can argue, they become detached from intimacy in the human sense.

A Furby is programmed to “make demands” of a specific kind like asking for food. This is unlike a human demand that can be irrational or beyond what a child may be willing to put up with.

In other words, as we play with these toys, we seem to feel connected, but we are really engaging in a predominantly uni-directional relationship where we seek to get what we want from these machines that are designed to shape such an experience.

Zynga 2.0 is here…. 

What struck me as very interesting in this dynamic was the overlap with such games such as Zynga’a Farmville where games require an investment like building a farm (much like teaching a Furby new words) that you don’t want to just walk away from.

Yet, much like playing with a Furby, in games like Tap Fish that gameplay is taken a step further where the game allows emotional attachments to be created with virtual creatures that are linked to profit-making mechanisms (buy more fish).

The rise of critical play… 

As game and toy designers are increasingly able to use intelligent algorithms and sensors to immerse players in powerful emotional experiences that create strong feelings of attachment, there will likely we be the growing need for kids learn to look beyond the machine and question the underlying design.

Much the same way there was a clear need for media literacy where there is an inquiry-based approach to understanding what we read, hear, and see – we will likely see increased focus on engagement literacy where we look at the way we interact emotionally with toys and games which don’t goes beyond understanding how they “hook us”, but also how they change us and why.

In games much like toys, the core interactive element brings to light a whole new sense of attachment that can feel act an emotional drug – which obviously is something that will increasingly be used to market to kids.