NV3 – pointless is the new black
In the Virtual Communities talk by Jeff Henshaw and Catherine Winters, 2 products were demoed: 2nd Life, and Xbox Live. Xbox Live is largely set up to give people a sense of accomplishment. Jeff said that there are a percentage of purely what he called “story gamers” who do not go online for the competitive aspect, and instead play the game out of the box with little interaction with other people online. These story gamers are in the minority in Xbox Live. To reward the majority, there is the Gamerscore, which builds up points for your playing on a social basis across all Xbox titles. They also have a cute little glyph for the G (I like using the word glyph.)
The reason I am not a gamer is temporary. I was a gamer and will be a gamer again. However, where I am now in my life, if I play a game and am productive at solving a problem, I feel like I have DONE SOMETHING. This is terrible because then I do not feel like working or doing something else. It’s time to take a break. No sense that the game itself was supposed to be a break in and of itself. So it all kinda breaks down from there. What I really need in my life is (well, not REALLY need, but you get the idea) is an activity that feels completely unproductive. Something that feels like a break. Something that starts the guilt timer going and sends me back to some supposedly productive activity when it maxxes out and I feel bad enough for those delicious few minutes of pointlessness.
Enter 2nd life. Catherine gave a stunning demo of bizarre and pointless social interaction that was interesting and fascinating for what it did NOT have. There was no urgency or sense of panic. There was random social subtleties everywhere. There was the sense that time could go on and on. Sure, you could look at the game as a money making venture and consider that equivalent to points, but then again you can look at the real world that way too. It does not seem to be the point of 2nd life. And that is the challenge of the game. If you are type A, you will be very confused and not know where to hang your hat. Then again, you will feel as if you actually had a break.
Proposed: a first rule of entertainment. A new rule. People don’t want to do anything. People want pointless. I say, let’s give it to ‘em! (In small quantaties of course.)