Mr Richards on technology, information, and people
RuminatingSep 19, 2009
People have gotten the concept of games for kids wrong.
What I mean is that people (adults) have decided that games are simply for entertainment, or at best, for instructional value. But what about games that can instruct us ? (adults)
A popular science fiction novel, Ender's Game, poses a scenario where children are playing a game with real-world results. It is enjoyable and the hook at the end is teriffic. This story shows an extreme of perhaps a not-so fictional scenario. It brings up certain ideas that might be applied IRL, AFK. What if a game was designed, perhaps as a port from an existing real-time strategy game (RTS), to extract meaningful data ?
RTS's are games I grew up with. My first exposure was via the venerable Dune 2, a game based more so on the film (although they left out the flying Baron – thankfully ), than the books by Frank Herbert. The gist was you'd pick from three factions: the blue, the green, and the red. Each had its own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities. Players had to hunt for resources, set up industrial centers, and develop military options to protect and attack their enemies (which was pretty much the other colors). The game had some flaws as the primary strategy was to simply sit in one spot, amass a legion of tanks, and then go stomp on your enemy. Takes a page straight out of the 19th Century Way of Military Conquest. (not a real book)
Another interesting game I grew up with was Civilization, by Sid Meier. I may not have to say much about this game – it is considered the Holy Grail by most people having grown up with computers in the 80s and 90s. The premise was similar, but based on real world civilizations, and was presented as a model taking a human tribe from the Stone Age to the Space Age. This game gave you way more complexity than Dune, since it factored in diplomacy, culture, social and technological advances into the mix. Of course you could still amass a bunch of tanks and stomp your enemy if you so chose.
Now what if a game was granted more complexity in a transparent way to gamers, in that it kept the fun parts, while extracting some really good data from the outcomes by inserting some real-world data into the gameplay. Now add into the mix a "Player vs Player" (PvP) element, where you'd add real inputs and economic data. For example, intial start conditions for a match would be taken from existing inputs/resource data that we get from the U.S. Department of Labor. Scale it down based on the player count or scenario (ex. North America).
Tie projected benefits for certain "weapons" (financial policy, industrial advancements) to certain outcomes (time and level of implementation). Having x amount of workers at full employment, at current technology level, will deliver y amount of benefits. Each player would implement a slightly different economic model, and the one that does best “wins.”
I admit that even projecting these benefits can be a controversial task - so set up different scenarios where these "weapons" have different effects. But is this not the best simulation you can run where you have literally millions of computers running the best software (kids), executing in parallel ?
People are playing online matches today against each other all the time. Halo 3 was released in September 2007. More than 1 billion matches were played by March 2009. Admittedly this is a different type of game, with perhaps a different type of devotee - but if this new game were to have a fraction of those numbers - it would equal a wealth of data on competing economic models.
Challenges include making this as real a simulation as possible, while retaining its fun factor to keep kids, adults, dogs, playing it. I think the game should be delivered free so that the widest audience is brought in – because you never know who will add in that valuable contribution that makes this whole venture worthwhile.
Distribution could be online, or perhaps as an application loaded on an OLPC. It would be installed into the folder right next to Solitaire and Minesweeper. Why not have Electronic Arts or Blizzard develop the application and bankroll the laptop - you're introducing millions of children to your IP - as well as pursuing the greatest philontropic, PR move at the same time.
I think this data would be of extremely potent use to economists, sociologists, computer scientists, and policy makers.
A popular science fiction novel, Ender's Game, poses a scenario where children are playing a game with real-world results. It is enjoyable and the hook at the end is teriffic. This story shows an extreme of perhaps a not-so fictional scenario. It brings up certain ideas that might be applied IRL, AFK. What if a game was designed, perhaps as a port from an existing real-time strategy game (RTS), to extract meaningful data ?
RTS's are games I grew up with. My first exposure was via the venerable Dune 2, a game based more so on the film (although they left out the flying Baron – thankfully ), than the books by Frank Herbert. The gist was you'd pick from three factions: the blue, the green, and the red. Each had its own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities. Players had to hunt for resources, set up industrial centers, and develop military options to protect and attack their enemies (which was pretty much the other colors). The game had some flaws as the primary strategy was to simply sit in one spot, amass a legion of tanks, and then go stomp on your enemy. Takes a page straight out of the 19th Century Way of Military Conquest. (not a real book)
Another interesting game I grew up with was Civilization, by Sid Meier. I may not have to say much about this game – it is considered the Holy Grail by most people having grown up with computers in the 80s and 90s. The premise was similar, but based on real world civilizations, and was presented as a model taking a human tribe from the Stone Age to the Space Age. This game gave you way more complexity than Dune, since it factored in diplomacy, culture, social and technological advances into the mix. Of course you could still amass a bunch of tanks and stomp your enemy if you so chose.
Now what if a game was granted more complexity in a transparent way to gamers, in that it kept the fun parts, while extracting some really good data from the outcomes by inserting some real-world data into the gameplay. Now add into the mix a "Player vs Player" (PvP) element, where you'd add real inputs and economic data. For example, intial start conditions for a match would be taken from existing inputs/resource data that we get from the U.S. Department of Labor. Scale it down based on the player count or scenario (ex. North America).
Tie projected benefits for certain "weapons" (financial policy, industrial advancements) to certain outcomes (time and level of implementation). Having x amount of workers at full employment, at current technology level, will deliver y amount of benefits. Each player would implement a slightly different economic model, and the one that does best “wins.”
I admit that even projecting these benefits can be a controversial task - so set up different scenarios where these "weapons" have different effects. But is this not the best simulation you can run where you have literally millions of computers running the best software (kids), executing in parallel ?
People are playing online matches today against each other all the time. Halo 3 was released in September 2007. More than 1 billion matches were played by March 2009. Admittedly this is a different type of game, with perhaps a different type of devotee - but if this new game were to have a fraction of those numbers - it would equal a wealth of data on competing economic models.
Challenges include making this as real a simulation as possible, while retaining its fun factor to keep kids, adults, dogs, playing it. I think the game should be delivered free so that the widest audience is brought in – because you never know who will add in that valuable contribution that makes this whole venture worthwhile.
Distribution could be online, or perhaps as an application loaded on an OLPC. It would be installed into the folder right next to Solitaire and Minesweeper. Why not have Electronic Arts or Blizzard develop the application and bankroll the laptop - you're introducing millions of children to your IP - as well as pursuing the greatest philontropic, PR move at the same time.
I think this data would be of extremely potent use to economists, sociologists, computer scientists, and policy makers.
Labels: video games economics
posted by Phil # 12:25 PM 
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