The Inkstained Mind: Life is a game?

5 Mar 2010

Life is a game?

Yet, that is what a (seemingly highly accomplished) professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Jesse Schell, envisions as one possibility in the future!

1. We are reaching out desperately from our near-completely artificial environment toward anything that seems to be from the 'real world'. As example, he points to the wildly successful virtual games of the recent that combined both real elements (like cash, interaction with friends, etc.), and virtual worlds (like Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc.)
2. Brands (and governement and everyone else) are going to use game-like point systems designed to modify our behaviour in our daily life. That is, we live a giant game!
3. What sibsidises it is Advertising... Ubiquitous. All-pervasive. Highly intrusive. Created by all-knowing Advertisement-spawning entities that tracking every activity.

...A wholely plausible, and equally frightening prospect! (Hmmm... This is feeding into another line of thought!)

PC Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

No comments:

Post a Comment

WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

It's often called the world's second oldest profession.

But while the scope of the oldest one has changed little over time, the evolution in the way we communicate has had profound impact on Advertising.

In the ancient and medieval world, Advertising meant word-of-mouth. In the 1500s with the development of printing it became a 'paid public notice', disseminating the message to many. And it had Copy & Art.

Then came radio, TV, computer, cable TV, Internet, mobile phones, Internet on mobile, and it's still not done... Even what we perceive as 'change' is changing. Continuously.

So what is Advertising today?

Honestly, I don't know.

But I do know from a dozen years evolving with the business, that Advertising is most valued when it can make a tangible difference for the advertiser.

That has not changed. And probably won't.

UPDATE: Nothing's changed. But in a way, everything has.

As you see, my focus has shifted - evolved in a way - to a larger canvas. The shift or evolution was gradual, and may be have been discernable to the more observant reader.

While I was delving into the influence of media in society to better understand how perceptions are created, evolved and disseminated, I chanced upon a thread of knowledge that I frankly never knew existed.

My conclusion is that a deep pool of awareness and consciouness exists beyond the shallow narcissistic boundaries created by the convention view of social media and the Internet.

My aim is to send my readers down any path that can lead to this quenching pool.