On Friday March 11 2011 I gave a presentation at the California College of the Arts in Kristian Simsarian's Design Class about one of my all-time favorite games, Nike+. I tried to answer a few questions, e.g. What did Apple/Nike do right? How could we improve this system? How could we design equally effective products and services that combine software/hardware/social media et al?
Before jumping into the presentation, I summarized paradigm-shifting ideas from the likes of Gary Wolf (Quantified Self), Jesse Schell and Seth Priebasch (Gamification). The gist: Personal tracking + Game Mechanics applied to Everyday Activities = lots of fun. Thinking outside the Xbox is crucial to reinvent the very notion of play in the digital, always-connected era. And it's not just for OCD geeks...
My presentation is no longer available. Here's a link to a PDF (if you wish to see more, email me).
Also Massimo Maietti (currently @ Zynga) gave a killer presentation about the notion of "death" and "game over" in videogames. His taxonomy was eye-opening. In his talk, Massimo explained how game mechanics reflect a deeper philosophy of life. Are we using videogames as a trining tool for our posthumanist future? We concluded the session with a super-fun game design exercise with the students designed by Massimo (read: we harvested a bunch of killer concepts for future projects - just kidding).
Related: Quantifico Dunque Sono: Il personal tracking e' la filosofia della Silicon Valley (WIRED Italia)
Related: Witness the Fitness. Sudo Ergo Lugo (WIRED Italia)
Related: Se lo shopping fosse un videogame (WIRED Italia)
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