Game Theory: Jane McGonigal on Emotion in Electronic Games (BB Video)

Boing Boing Video archives: http://www.boingboing.net/boing-boing-video/

A conversation with games researcher Jane McGonigal of Institute for the Future (IFTF.org). Jane talks with us about her research into emotion and gaming, and her project "Top Secret Dance-Off," which explores how we respond to online interpersonal reactions -- and, what kind of "play" activities make us feel good about ourselves and each other. Don't miss the very end. Jane and Xeni test out the theories in a not-so-top-secret Bollywood dance-off, while wearing Katamari Damacy costumes.

We conducted this interview during the recent Game Developer Conference in San Francisco (http://www.gdconf.com/), and ran on a marathon streaming video webcast (http://ustream.tv/channel/boing-boing-l ive).

------

[ Credits and props for BBV Live @GDC09: Production Team -- Jolon Bankey, Derek Bledsoe, Daniela Calderon, Eddie Codel, Xeni Jardin, Allison Kingsley, Matty Kirsch, Alice Taylor, Wesly Varghese. Special thanks to Wayneco Heavy Industries (accommodation and studio facilities), Virgin America Airlines (air travel), Celsius (thermogenic energy beverage), Ustream.tv (streaming video host). Moral support, production assistance, additional talent, and good vibes provided by: Domini Anne, Scott Beale, T.Bias, Jeremy Bornstein, Brandon Boyer, Chris The Van Guy, Peter S. Conrad, Marque Cornblatt, Wayne, Bre, and the entire de Geere family, Marcy DeLuce, Cory Doctorow, Joel Johnson, Kourosh Karimkhany, Jim Louderback and the Revision 3 team, Karen Marcelo, Rocky Mullin, Alicia Pollak, Jackie Mogol, Taylor Peck, David Pescovitz, Micah Schaffer, and Teal. ]

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• boingboing
• boing boing
• boingboingvideo
• Jane McGonigal
• Xeni Jardin
• Institute for the Future
• katamari
• damacy
• gaming
• videogames
• games
• xenijardin
• avantgame

[shockeyk]

Man this Katamari Democracy thang really has me curious. It keeps popping up. Great job Xeni and Jane! Fascinating work. Dancing is great, I bounced around the living room with my daughter jamming to Pendulum.

[villainy07]

is that y facebk doesn't have the "dislike" button?

becoz the preconception of negative comments, make thing worse

[goldsniper]

she is so AWESOME.

[BlueberryJava]

She's a goddess.

[awengblom]

super interesting research!!!

[Gigawood]

@rameyonwheels I agree 100% that MMOs feed the need for success, though I'm not quite sure what you're getting at past 'video games can't make real life better.' Perhaps the games themselves can't, but we can still learn from *how* games motivate people and then *apply those lessons to real life.* If we can figure that out, the goals of the game devs is irrelevant.

Also, imho, self-medication is a byproduct of a depressing life & the compelling nature of games, not a goal of the devs.

[mrbrownjeremy]

My Macbook Pro is bigger than yours.

[gulllars]

No gen on youtube is false. There are several great comments, you just don't notice them as much as the negative ones.

I know this may start to look like a negative comments, but it's not, it's constructive and honest.

I love the work Jane does, and this is a good video. Thumbs up.

I don't know if it has been done, but it would be interresting to see the ratio of positive to negative comments on youtube represented as a variety of statistics.

Also, check out thumbs up to thumbs down ratios.

[akalchev]

I love Jane McGonigal !!!

[kaosgoblin]

Removing the balance of positive and negative associations sounds like something you do in kindergarten, not the real world where decisions and opinions can be backs by more than trolls, but rather by people with experienced critical eyes. Unbalanced encouragement is childish, and leads people to make uninformed decisions about who they are and what in their fantasy they think they can do. Reality, facts, truth, these are the meters by which people should have the right to decide.