External Rewards and Jesse Schell's Amazing Lecture →
[Schnell] rightly points out that actual game designers have the power and skill to make sure the future external reward systems that will permeate our lives will actually improve our lives also. These systems could cause us to read more and better books, to brush our teeth as much as we should, and so on. Yes, that could happen. DanC of lostgarden.com made that exact point as well, and we’ve already seen the benefits of it in exercise games like Wii Fit.
I’m with Schell every step of the way in his lecture, except for that last bit though. While it’s true that skilled designers could use all this for good once sensors and points take over our real lives, it seems almost certain that they generally won’t. If Facebook is any indication, they will simply create the most effective mental viruses that drive whatever commercial behavior they want, with little regard to the victims (consumers).
