The game layer on top of the world
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0:00 - 0:03My name's Seth Priebatsch. I'm the chief ninja of SCVNGR.
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0:03 - 0:05I am a proud Princeton dropout.
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0:05 - 0:07Also proud to have relocated here to Boston,
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0:07 - 0:09where I actually grew up.
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0:09 - 0:11Yeah, Boston.
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0:11 - 0:14Easy wins. I should just go and name the counties that we've got around here.
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0:14 - 0:16So, I'm also fairly determined to try and build
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0:16 - 0:18a game layer on top of the world.
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0:18 - 0:20And this is sort of a new concept, and it's really important.
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0:20 - 0:22Because while the last decade
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0:22 - 0:24was the decade of social
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0:24 - 0:26and the decade of where the framework
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0:26 - 0:28in which we connect with other people was built,
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0:28 - 0:30this next decade will be the decade where
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0:30 - 0:32the game framework is built,
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0:32 - 0:35where the motivations that we use to actually influence behavior,
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0:35 - 0:37and the framework in which that is constructed,
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0:37 - 0:39is decided upon, and that's really important.
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0:39 - 0:42And so I say that I want to build a game layer on top of the world,
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0:42 - 0:44but that's not quite true
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0:44 - 0:46because it's already under construction; it's already happening.
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0:46 - 0:48And it looks like this right now.
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0:48 - 0:51It looks like the Web did back in 1997, right?
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0:51 - 0:53It's not very good. It's cluttered.
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0:53 - 0:55It's filled with lots of different things
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0:55 - 0:57that, in short, aren't that fun.
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0:57 - 1:00There are credit card schemes and airline mile programs
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1:00 - 1:03and coupon cards and all these loyalty schemes
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1:03 - 1:05that actually do use game dynamics
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1:05 - 1:08and actually are building the game layer: they just suck.
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1:08 - 1:11They're not very well designed, right?
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1:11 - 1:13So, that's unfortunate.
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1:13 - 1:15But luckily, as my favorite action hero,
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1:15 - 1:17Bob the Builder, says,
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1:17 - 1:19"We can do better. We can build this better."
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1:19 - 1:21And the tools, the resources
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1:21 - 1:23that we use to build a game layer
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1:23 - 1:25are game dynamics themselves.
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1:25 - 1:27And so, sort of, the crux of this presentation is going to go through
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1:27 - 1:30four really important game dynamics, really interesting things,
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1:30 - 1:32that, if you use consciously,
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1:32 - 1:35you can use to influence behavior,
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1:35 - 1:37both for good, for bad, for in-between.
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1:37 - 1:39Hopefully for good.
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1:39 - 1:41But this is sort of the important stages
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1:41 - 1:43in which that framework will get built,
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1:43 - 1:46and so we want to all be thinking about it consciously now.
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1:46 - 1:49Just before we jump into that, there's sort of a question of: why is this important?
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1:49 - 1:52I'm sort of making this claim that there is a game layer on top of the world,
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1:52 - 1:55and that it's very important that we build it properly.
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1:55 - 1:57The reason that it's so important is that, the last decade,
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1:57 - 2:00what we've seen has been building the social layer,
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2:00 - 2:03has been this framework for connections,
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2:03 - 2:06and construction on that layer is over, it's finished.
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2:06 - 2:08There's still a lot to explore.
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2:08 - 2:10There's still a lot of people who are trying to figure out social
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2:10 - 2:12and how do we leverage this and how do we use this,
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2:12 - 2:14but the framework itself is done,
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2:14 - 2:17and it's called Facebook.
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2:17 - 2:20And that's okay, right? A lot of people are very happy with Facebook.
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2:20 - 2:22I like it quite a lot.
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2:22 - 2:24They've created this thing called the Open Graph,
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2:24 - 2:26and they own all of our connections.
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2:26 - 2:28They own half a billion people.
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2:28 - 2:30And so when you want to build on the social layer,
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2:30 - 2:33the framework has been decided; it is the Open Graph API.
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2:33 - 2:35And if you're happy with that, fantastic.
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2:35 - 2:38If you're not, too bad. There's nothing you can do.
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2:38 - 2:41But this next decade -- and that's a real thing.
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2:41 - 2:43I mean, we want to build frameworks
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2:43 - 2:46in a way that makes it acceptable
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2:46 - 2:48and makes it, you know, productive down the road.
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2:48 - 2:51So, the social layer is all about these connections.
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2:51 - 2:53The game layer is all about influence.
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2:53 - 2:55It's not about adding a social fabric to the Web
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2:55 - 2:57and connecting you to other people
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2:57 - 2:59everywhere you are and everywhere you go.
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2:59 - 3:02It's actually about using dynamics, using forces,
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3:02 - 3:04to influence the behavior
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3:04 - 3:06of where you are, what you do there, how you do it.
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3:06 - 3:09That's really, really powerful, and it's going to be more important than the social layer.
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3:09 - 3:11It's going to affect our lives more deeply
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3:11 - 3:13and perhaps more invisibly.
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3:13 - 3:15And so it's incredibly critical
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3:15 - 3:17that at this moment, while it's just getting constructed,
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3:17 - 3:20while the frameworks like Facebook, like the Open Graph,
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3:20 - 3:22are being created for the game layer equivalent,
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3:22 - 3:24that we think about it very consciously,
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3:24 - 3:26and that we do it in a way that is open,
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3:26 - 3:28that is available, and that can be leveraged for good.
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3:28 - 3:30And so that's what I want to talk about for game dynamics,
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3:30 - 3:32because construction has just begun,
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3:32 - 3:34and the more consciously we can think about this,
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3:34 - 3:36the better we'll be able to use it
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3:36 - 3:38for anything that we want.
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3:38 - 3:41So like I said, the way that you go through and build on the game layer
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3:41 - 3:44is not with glass and steel and cement.
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3:44 - 3:46And the resources that we use are not this
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3:46 - 3:49two-dimensional swath of land that we have.
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3:49 - 3:52The resources are mindshare and the tools, the raw materials are these game dynamics.
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3:52 - 3:55So with that, you know, a couple game dynamics to talk about.
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3:55 - 3:57Four. Back at SCVNGR, we like to joke
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3:57 - 4:00that with seven game dynamics, you can get anyone to do anything.
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4:00 - 4:02And so today, I'm going to show you four,
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4:02 - 4:05because I hope to have a competitive advantage at the end of this, still.
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4:05 - 4:08(Laughter)
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4:08 - 4:10So the first one, it's a very simple game dynamic.
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4:10 - 4:12It's called the appointment dynamic.
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4:12 - 4:14And this is a dynamic in which to succeed,
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4:14 - 4:16players have to do something at a predefined time,
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4:16 - 4:18generally at a predefined place.
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4:18 - 4:20And these dynamics are a little scary sometimes,
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4:20 - 4:22because you think, you know,
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4:22 - 4:24other people can be using forces that will manipulate
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4:24 - 4:27how I interact: what I do, where I do it, when I do it.
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4:27 - 4:29This sort of loss of free will that occurs in games
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4:29 - 4:31can be frightening,
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4:31 - 4:33so with each dynamic, I'm going to give three examples:
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4:33 - 4:36one that shows how this is already being used in the real world,
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4:36 - 4:38so you can sort of rationalize it a little bit;
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4:38 - 4:41one that shows it in what we consider a conventional game --
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4:41 - 4:43I think everything is a game, but this is sort of
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4:43 - 4:46more of a what you would think is a game played on a board or on a computer screen,
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4:46 - 4:48and then one how this can be used for good,
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4:48 - 4:50so we can see that these forces can really be very powerful.
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4:50 - 4:53So the first one -- the most famous appointment dynamic in the world --
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4:53 - 4:56is something called happy hour.
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4:56 - 4:59So I just recently dropped out of Princeton
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4:59 - 5:01and actually ended up for the first time in a bar,
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5:01 - 5:04and I saw these happy hour things all over the place, right.
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5:04 - 5:06And this is simply an appointment dynamic.
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5:06 - 5:08Come here at a certain time, get your drinks half off.
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5:08 - 5:11To win, all you have to do is show up at the right place at the right time.
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5:12 - 5:14This game dynamic is so powerful
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5:14 - 5:17that it doesn't just influence our behavior, it's influenced our entire culture.
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5:17 - 5:19That's a really scary thought,
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5:19 - 5:22that one game dynamic can change things so powerfully.
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5:22 - 5:24It also exists in more conventional game forms.
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5:24 - 5:26I'm sure you've all heard of Farmville by now.
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5:26 - 5:28If you haven't, I recommend playing it.
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5:28 - 5:30You won't do anything else with the rest of your day.
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5:30 - 5:33Farmville has more active users than Twitter.
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5:33 - 5:35It's incredibly powerful, and it has this dynamic
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5:35 - 5:37where you have to return at a certain time
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5:37 - 5:40to water your crops -- fake crops -- or they wilt.
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5:40 - 5:43And this is so powerful that, when they tweak their stats,
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5:43 - 5:45when they say your crops wilt
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5:45 - 5:48after eight hours, or after six hours, or after 24 hours,
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5:48 - 5:50it changes the lifecycle
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5:50 - 5:52of 70 million-some people during the day.
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5:52 - 5:55They will return like clockwork at different times.
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5:55 - 5:58So if they wanted the world to end, if they wanted productivity to stop,
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5:58 - 6:00they could make this a 30-minute cycle,
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6:00 - 6:02and no one could do anything else, right?
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6:02 - 6:04(Laughter)
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6:04 - 6:06That's a little scary.
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6:06 - 6:08But this could also be used for good.
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6:08 - 6:10This is a local company called Vitality, and they've created a product
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6:10 - 6:12to help people take their medicine on time.
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6:12 - 6:14That's an appointment.
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6:14 - 6:16It's something that people don't do very well.
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6:16 - 6:19And they have these GlowCaps, which, you know, flash and email you
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6:19 - 6:21and do all sorts of cool things to remind you to take your medicine.
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6:21 - 6:23This is one that isn't a game yet, but really should be.
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6:23 - 6:25You should get points for doing this on time.
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6:25 - 6:27You should lose points for not doing this on time.
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6:27 - 6:29They should consciously recognize
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6:29 - 6:31that they've built an appointment dynamic and leverage the games.
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6:31 - 6:34And then you can really achieve good in some interesting ways.
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6:34 - 6:36We're going to jump onto the next one, maybe. Yes.
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6:36 - 6:38Influence and status.
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6:38 - 6:40So this is one of the most famous game dynamics.
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6:40 - 6:42It's used all over the place.
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6:42 - 6:44It's used in your wallets, right now.
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6:44 - 6:46We all want that credit card on the far left
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6:46 - 6:48because it's black.
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6:48 - 6:50And you see someone at CVS or --
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6:50 - 6:53not CVS -- at Christian Dior or something, and then ...
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6:53 - 6:56I don't know. I don't have a black card; I've got a debit card.
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6:56 - 6:59(Laughter)
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6:59 - 7:01So they whip it out. And you see men, they have that black card.
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7:01 - 7:03I want that because that means that they're cooler than I am,
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7:03 - 7:05and I need that.
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7:05 - 7:07And this is used in games as well.
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7:07 - 7:10"Modern Warfare," one of the most successful selling games of all time.
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7:10 - 7:13I'm only a level four, but I desperately want to be a level 10,
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7:13 - 7:15because they've got that cool red badge thing,
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7:15 - 7:18and that means that I am somehow better than everyone else.
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7:18 - 7:21And that's very powerful to me. Status is really good motivator.
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7:21 - 7:23It's also used in more conventional settings
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7:23 - 7:26and can be used more consciously in conventional settings.
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7:26 - 7:29School -- and remember, I made it through one year,
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7:29 - 7:31so I think I'm qualified to talk on school --
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7:31 - 7:34is a game, it's just not a terribly well-designed game, right.
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7:34 - 7:37There are levels. There are C. There are B. There is A.
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7:37 - 7:40There are statuses. I mean, what is valedictorian, but a status?
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7:40 - 7:44If we called valedictorian a "white knight paladin level 20,"
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7:44 - 7:47I think people would probably work a lot harder.
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7:47 - 7:49(Laughter)
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7:50 - 7:53So school is a game, and there have been lots of experimentations
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7:53 - 7:55on how we do this properly.
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7:55 - 7:58But let's use it consciously. Like why have games that you can lose?
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7:58 - 8:00Why go from an A to an F or a B to a C?
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8:00 - 8:02That sucks. Why not level-up?
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8:02 - 8:04And at Princeton, they've actually experimented with this,
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8:04 - 8:06where they have quizzes where you gain experience points,
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8:06 - 8:08and you level up from B to an A.
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8:08 - 8:10And it's very powerful.
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8:10 - 8:13It can be used in interesting ways.
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8:13 - 8:15The third one I want to talk about quickly is the progression dynamic,
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8:15 - 8:17where you have to sort of make progress,
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8:17 - 8:20you have to move through different steps in a very granular fashion.
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8:20 - 8:23This is used all over the place, including LinkedIn,
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8:23 - 8:25where I am an un-whole individual.
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8:25 - 8:28I am only 85 percent complete on LinkedIn,
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8:28 - 8:30and that bothers me.
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8:30 - 8:33And this is so deep-seated in our psyche
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8:33 - 8:35that when we're presented with a progress bar
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8:35 - 8:37and presented with easy, granular steps
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8:37 - 8:40to take to try and complete that progress bar, we will do it.
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8:40 - 8:42We will find a way to move that blue line
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8:42 - 8:45all the way to the right edge of the screen.
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8:45 - 8:47This is used in conventional games as well.
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8:47 - 8:49I mean, you see this is a paladin level 10,
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8:49 - 8:51and that's a paladin level 20,
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8:51 - 8:54and if you were going to fight, you know, orcs on the fields of Mordor
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8:54 - 8:56against the Raz al Ghul,
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8:56 - 8:58you'd probably want to be the bigger one, right.
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8:58 - 9:00I would.
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9:00 - 9:02And so people work very hard to level-up.
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9:02 - 9:05"World of Warcraft" is one of the most successful games of all time.
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9:05 - 9:07The average player spends something like
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9:07 - 9:09six, six-and-a-half hours a day on it.
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9:09 - 9:12Their most dedicated players, it's like a full-time job.
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9:12 - 9:15It's insane. And they have these systems where you can level-up.
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9:15 - 9:18And that's a very powerful thing. Progression is powerful.
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9:19 - 9:22It can also be used in very compelling ways for good.
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9:22 - 9:24One of the things that we work on at SCVNGR
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9:24 - 9:27is how do you use games to drive traffic and drive business to local businesses,
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9:27 - 9:29to sort of something that is very key to the economy.
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9:29 - 9:32And here we have a game that people play.
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9:32 - 9:34They go places, they do challenges, they earn points.
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9:34 - 9:36And we've introduced a progression dynamic into it,
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9:36 - 9:38where, by going to the same place over and over,
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9:38 - 9:40by doing challenges, by engaging with the business,
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9:40 - 9:43you move a green bar from the left edge of the screen to the right edge of the screen,
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9:43 - 9:45and you eventually unlock rewards.
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9:45 - 9:47And this is powerful enough that we can see
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9:47 - 9:49that it hooks people into these dynamics,
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9:49 - 9:51pulls them back to the same local businesses,
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9:51 - 9:53creates huge loyalty, creates engagement,
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9:53 - 9:55and is able to drive meaningful revenue
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9:55 - 9:57and fun and engagement to businesses.
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9:57 - 9:59These progression dynamics are powerful
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9:59 - 10:01and can be used in the real world.
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10:01 - 10:04The final one I want to talk about -- and it's a great one to end on --
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10:04 - 10:06is this concept of communal discovery,
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10:06 - 10:09a dynamic in which everyone has to work together
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10:09 - 10:11to achieve something.
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10:11 - 10:13And communal discovery is powerful because it leverages
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10:13 - 10:15the network that is society
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10:15 - 10:18to solve problems.
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10:18 - 10:21This is used in some sort of famous consumer web stories,
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10:21 - 10:23like Digg, which I'm sure you've all heard of.
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10:23 - 10:25Digg is a communal dynamic
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10:25 - 10:27to try to find and source the best news,
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10:27 - 10:29the most interesting stories.
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10:29 - 10:31And they made this into a game, initially.
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10:31 - 10:34They had a leader board, where, if you recommended the best stories,
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10:34 - 10:36you would get points.
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10:36 - 10:38And that really motivated people to find the best stories.
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10:38 - 10:41But it became so powerful that there was actually a cabal,
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10:41 - 10:44a group of people, the top seven on the leader board,
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10:44 - 10:47who would work together to make sure they maintained that position.
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10:47 - 10:49And they would recommend other people's stories,
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10:49 - 10:51and the game became more powerful than the goal.
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10:51 - 10:53And they actually had to end up shutting down the leader board
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10:53 - 10:55because while it was effective,
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10:55 - 10:57it was so powerful that it stopped sourcing the best stories
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10:57 - 11:00and started having people work to maintain their leadership.
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11:00 - 11:02So we have to use this one carefully.
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11:02 - 11:04It's also used in things like McDonald's Monopoly,
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11:04 - 11:06where the game is not the Monopoly game you're playing,
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11:06 - 11:08but the sort of cottage industries that form
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11:08 - 11:10to try and find Boardwalk, right.
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11:10 - 11:13And now they're just looking for a little sticker that says "Boardwalk."
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11:13 - 11:15But it can also be used to find real things.
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11:15 - 11:17This is the DARPA balloon challenge,
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11:17 - 11:20where they hid a couple balloons all across the United States
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11:20 - 11:22and said, "Use networks.
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11:22 - 11:25Try and find these balloons fastest, and the winner will get $40,000."
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11:25 - 11:27And the winner was actually a group out of MIT,
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11:27 - 11:29where they created sort of a pyramid scheme, a network,
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11:29 - 11:31where the first person to recommend the location of a balloon
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11:31 - 11:34got $2,000 and anyone else to push that recommendation up
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11:34 - 11:36also got a cut of it.
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11:36 - 11:38And in 12 hours, they were able to find
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11:38 - 11:40all these balloons, all across the country, right.
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11:40 - 11:42Really powerful dynamic.
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11:42 - 11:45And so, I've got about 20 seconds left,
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11:45 - 11:47so if I'm going to leave you with anything,
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11:47 - 11:49last decade was the decade of social.
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11:49 - 11:51This next decade is the decade of games.
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11:51 - 11:53We use game dynamics to build on it. We build with mindshare.
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11:53 - 11:55We can influence behavior.
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11:55 - 11:57It is very powerful. It is very exciting.
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11:57 - 12:00Let's all build it together, let's do it well and have fun playing.
- Title:
- The game layer on top of the world
- Speaker:
- Seth Priebatsch
- Description:
-
By now, we're used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web -- building a "social layer" on top of the real world. At TEDxBoston, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the "game layer," a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:02
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for The game layer on top of the world | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The game layer on top of the world | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The game layer on top of the world | ||
TED edited English subtitles for The game layer on top of the world | ||
TED added a translation |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 9/26/2016.