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Life Imagined As One Big RPG

Posted by timothy on from the congratulations-you're-employed dept.

Scoop Snookems writes "Will there be a day where we earn achievement points simply by brushing our teeth or high-fiving a friend? There could be, according to Carnegie Mellon professor Jesse Schell. In this video from the annual DICE summit, Schell comments on recent evolutions in gaming before fixating on a concept where our futures evolve into one big RPG. Fascinating stuff, and I hope writing this post nets me 10 points."

9 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Actually used as a therapy tool by Gothmolly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've read articles where kids with behavioral disorders, social anxiety, general nerdiness, etc were encouraged to use this as a means of driving more appropriate/better behaviors. Like if a shy kid talked to a classmate, he gave himself 10 points, etc. Then they worked with the therapist to track the whole thing - basically making life your RPG.

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    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Actually used as a therapy tool by LS · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A friend of mine was accused by his father of general nerdiness, and threw him on the street every day to hang out with the local thugs. He's still a nerd at heart, but he can handle himself in a fight and bench 300 lbs now, though he still obsesses over the latest linux distros. Probably worked out better than any RPG therapy could, but he's quite a riven guy.

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      There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
    2. Re:Actually used as a therapy tool by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can't wait till someone start shooting up people and numbers (HP) start floating above their head.

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      Life is not for the lazy.
    3. Re:Actually used as a therapy tool by mhajicek · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My wife and I did this with my ADHD son for a while when he was about five. Positive points for doing good things, negative points for doing bad things, all according to a list. When he saved up enough points he had a list of things he could cash them in for, like eating out at a restaurant of his choice, seeing a movie, or getting some Lego. It did seem to help.

  2. Jesse by Kamineko · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've met Jesse Schell. The man is charismatic and completely insane.

  3. Say what you want... by SharpFang · · Score: 3, Interesting

    After donating 18 liters of blood, achieving the Ist Degree Honorable Blood Donor title, a document and a badge stating that, and a permanent free public communication ticket, I really felt like I just finished a major questline.

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    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  4. Stop the simple analogies [madness]! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    "Will there be a day where we earn achievement points simply by brushing our teeth or high-fiving a friend?"

    It's already here.

    a. brushing teeth gives you health "points"--you say alive longer with good dental hygenie.

    a. high-fiving gives you mental points -- you feel good.

    A RPG is JUST a game, a game is a perspective, it's not reality--which is way more complex. And today's RPG is based on binary principles (it needs to run on a computer)--which the world is not.

  5. Re:Life like a video game by tibman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I do something similar to this but in periods of acquire and slim down. I don't hoard or have too many redundant items (like people who have eight different shotguns or whatever) but what i have is usually very nice. Camping pack is nice and probably done.. lots of titanium and everything is water-proofed (including zippers).. the best part is that it's so light. I still have a backup bag fully packed too, my old army ruck. Tritium Compass (radioactive self-illumination).

    My latest projects have been in mobile tech that doesn't require any infrastructure. I've been working on a solar-rechargable commo-device called the "z-day coordinator" that builds a peer-to-peer network with no required central base. The idea being that during disaster or infrastructure break down, a hand-held communication network can still operate over long distances. You can also add auxilliary wireless devices like motion-sensors (or whatever you can dream up) that join the network under your control. Allowing a small group of people to quickly deploy an electronic sensor network to detect motion, fires, gases, whatever. These devices can be very small since no interface is needed, just sensor, battery, transmitter (with MCU to talk with network). I hope to get a kit together to sell someday... /me tilts his head to the side and daydreams for a while.

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    http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
  6. Re:So when will we start.. by icebraining · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So when will we start to walk around with signs over our heads that say our name

    It has already been done. The backpack would be handy, though.

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