I just came across Jane McGonigal, who is the Lead Game Designer at the Institute for the Future. She has been heavily involved in designing alternate reality games, i.e. games that are not only on the web, but enter the real world with puzzles and human interaction in real life being necessary to solve the game. Her previous projects include The Lost Ring, World Without Oil, Cruel 2 B Kind, and I Love Bees; all really interesting, viral stuff.
Some of the simple stuff she has created is just as fascinating as the big budget stuff, like the Ministry of Reshelving, which has the goal of relocating a total of one thousand nine hundred and eighty four copies, across all 50 United States, of George Orwell’s 1984 from “fiction” or “literature” to more suitable sections, like “Current Affairs”, “US Politics”, “True Crime”, or “New Non-Fiction.” Other book titles were also moved to more “appropriate sections” – take a look at the Flickr site. What a really cool, thought provoking concept.
I just watched a 1/2 hour podcast, accompanied by the PP slides from her talk – it was reeeally interesting. Her thread is happiness through technology, and how can we create technology that offers lasting happiness. Click on View Slideshow to listen to the audio with pictures.
Quote from the talk: Make your technology not only feel good (pleasure) but also do good (engagement) and expose good (meaning).
I am about to move to San Francisco to work for LucasArts. Jane McGonigal is based there. As a thought leader in gaming, Jane McGonigal would be a pretty interesting person to meet.
