Wired went the extra mile and really looked at games as the world eases into fully functioning gamers becoming bankers, lawyers and (as they always have) IT professionals. While the frat rat crowd has driven the Madden series to pop culture juggernaut status, we are firmly entrenched in a society filled with people who play video games pretty regularly now.Just look at the World of Warcraft players who continue to drive that game, not to mention the millions of gamers and hundreds of other MMORPG's (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). All of this should be very strange, but it's been a pretty slow transition overall.
Kid loves Nintendo in the 80s, grabs a Sega Genesis in the 90s and a Playstation in college a decade later. Makes sense that as productive members of society today those same people will buy PS2s and XBox 360s, right? When you look at it that way, seems like a natural evolution.
As I sit here and blog, The Girl who rarely picks up a controller except for fighting games like Def Jam: Fight for New York (I know, go figure, huh) has made requests that I stop playing baseball so she can play Guitar Hero. I think we might have something here, Sony. Addd to that other games that are targeted for social gamers - like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution - games that are meant to be pulled out at a party to get everyone participating and you have the new millenium Scrabble.
The gist of several of the Wired articles revolved around how gaming has and will continue to fundamentally change the real world. From theories about how your status in an MMORPG could effect your job prospects (In a good way! Showing that you have tenacity and can work with people even online) to how the wired world will keep spilling over into everyday life.
Think that sounds strange? Consider this.
My mom is a lifelong nurse, primarily in the operating room. When I was about 10 or 11 she came home from a conference and dumped a handful of rice grains on the kitch table. From there, she grabbed some long tweezers and began moving the pile from the right to the left, all while watching her movements in a small mirror.
The point of the exercise was to get better at allowing your hands to move while watching the action go on "independently" of your normal range of sight.
Now, two more things. She'd been working in hospitals since she was 17, so it wasn't like she'd been dropped into a new technological world with this stuff. Secondly, she can touch type at secretarial speeds (both the profession and the racing equine), so it wasn't a coordination thing.
The capper was when she grudgingly admitted that the other suggested practice method was to start playing video games. Needless to say, I didn't have a new buddy for Mortal Kombat.
All of this was leading to revolutionary new techniques using endoscopes and tiny cameras to do interal surgeries that are now the industry standard. Any time you see Carnie Wilson get her pie bag stapled shut on TV, you can thank Metroid for a talentedd young surgeon. At least I like to think so. It was a differnt set of skills needed to watch something happen on a monitor and react accordingly with an interface. Like Duck Hunt with more blood.
Just as revolutionary as endoscopic surgery was, that may be the tip of the iceberg for crossover skills if you choose to believe Will Wright, creator of The Sims and a few other games since then.
He speaks of fundamental changes in generational learning and perspectives in life among the other hallmarks of the new kids coming down the line.
He says, in part:
Now an entire generation has grown up with a different set of games than any before it - and it plays these games in different ways. Just watch a kid with a new videogame. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. This isn't a random process; it's the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play. As the players refine this model, they begin to master the game world. It's a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it's a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents.
How this will impact life in 20 or 30 years should be pretty stunning and maybe even a little shocking - like along the lines of the Summer of Love shocking - for those not entirely on board with what's coming.
I spend a decent amount of time in schools now doing technology installs and upgrades. One school principal told me recently that his classrooms are being fitted for computers, projectors and screens to help teach computer skills and to keep the most recent maps available at the push of a button. It's a different world now.
Add to this every kid over 5 or 6 running around with a cell phone or some mini gaming system like a PSP or Nintendo DS and it's already making its way through now.
I'm not too worrried, though. I totally speak their language and can't wait to call them on their bullshit when they claim they beat God of War on God mode on their first try. Yeah, right... Oh, and the time they took the Marlins to the World Series in MLB? Whatever, maybe on Rookie level... Punkass...
I just hope I don't have to do that in a job interview or anything... that'd be weird.
(Photo from: tecfa.unige.ch)
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