Another idea from 2004 in the Wayback Machines’ OpenOutsource May 2004 archive ‘It’s a game…‘.
Could an interface be worked out that took the cognitive decisions made in playing a game on one side and connected it to generic task based decision making on the other. The outcome would be that by many people playing a game actual work could be done. These work tasks could be valuable elsewhere…
An example of valuable game play
Credit: aigarius
Lets just make up a possible scenario to help get the picture. Say for a space trading game there is an element of valuation that is done in an auction, where the object is to amass enough funds to buy equipment needed for the game. If for example the trader needed to make shrewd decisions as to what stock they would buy that would make the most money on the receiving end. From a selection of sundry goods they would choose the items of a higher value. This task could be used in valuing certain real life items and if the result was spread over a number of players and items then the output could be a real life monetary value by comparison of a number of items.
There are so many examples that can be teased out of familiar playing decisions that would have a real life use that many valuable services offers could be made. I really enjoyed delving into this and had wrote a lot about it, especially based on an Open Search Engine that used the decisions to sort out relevance.
Credit: not so wise by cheerfulmonk
Unfortunately for me and I am really sad in this case, for the time being it has disappeared along with a few related ones. Grrr…I had created a rudimentary interface from a somewhat intensive and overblown mindmap. I hate all this wasted effort over the years, part of the reason for creating this site is to get into the habit of at least noting it down permanently and stop wasting time.
Paperwork and I have had a stormy relationship over the years.
Anyway, enough of me ranting, back to the archive posts…
The archive posts from Wayback
My 25 Most Influential Games by Michael Heileman
I have come back to this idea quite a few times in my career – with the rise of the internet and internet gaming it is becoming more possible.
Imagine if by playing a game that you are actually doing work. Possible? At the moment if you review games then possibly true, but generally not possible.
What if the logic required to do certain tasks is placed into a game? What if for instance as part of a trading game then real buying and selling decisions are being made?
Another example – What if the logic can be separated enough to sort out where web sites can be placed into a directory much like Yahoo but this logic is placed into a game to make this entertaining and interesting.
Would it then follow that you could be paid to play games. Although I am sure many novice players would do it for free, for many, many hours on end if the game is entertaining enough.
Credits: Casey Serin
OneEyedDog replied:
I think that is brilliant! I have spent several hundreds of dollars over the years on board games by Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad) and Brad Sugars (Founder of Action International) who have done this (but not electronically) by bringing real life business strategies and life experiences to a game format, like super advanced monopoly. Action International even hold “gaming nights” where they invite business owners around the country to come and play the game together to learn off the game and each other.The directory type idea sounds genius to me and honestly think it would do well, done right of course! Games are a fast ticket to learning real situations without the good or bad consequence so you can apply your learning to your life and business. Good thinking mate,
Warm Wishes,
Cheers Deni,
Credit: Zhang Long
The IdeasForge stuff usually passes away unnoticed
I don’t know anything about the Kiyosaki or Sugars board games – are they useful? fun? thought provoking? The ‘gaming nights’ sounds like they have really established themselves…
The real puzzle in the idea is joining two logic / process sets – one for the game and one for the work required. I keep trying to find a method or process that would fit (interface) easily between the two.
Will keep coming back to this from time to time….
OneEyedDog Replied:
Quote:
I don’t know anything about the Kiyosaki or Sugars board games – are they useful? fun? thought provoking? The ‘gaming nights’ sounds like they have really established themselves…They are great! All of the above
Quote:
The real puzzle in the idea is joining two logic / process sets – one for the game and one for the work required. I keep trying to find a method or process that would fit (interface) easily between the two.Real life problems and situations would be the go, like business operations etc and “join” em up into real time work somehow? Thinking caps on!
Warm Wishes,
Credit: xkcd.com
Credit: JoaoTrindade Wikipedia
What comes to mind on one side – something like ‘Design Patterns‘ and on the other – Well – I wonder if anyone has done a study of common game functions. I would love to attempt a really really simple model of this some time – I’ll keep my eyes open for any ideas. Let’s aim for a directory of some description
ooen replied:
Work is work. That’s pretty much all I can say. There are those who play video games to make living. There are those who play baseball, basketball, tennis, football, etc. to make living. But when these games become “work,” it’s work.
Credit: Library of Congress
You have to clarify what you mean by ‘work’. It often has some negative connotation, as if it is a bad thing, something that must be endured to gain some that is needed.
Work is wonderful, it is a means of changing the universe around you and has a very definite meaning if you consider the scientific version of the word. When we ‘play’ we are more capable of work, if we play and work at the same time we are fortunate.
OK – for fun I am going to see if I can come up with some ideas for a search engine site that uses the principles of play to sort and categorise its resources. I’ll be back…
Though it might take a little while.
…
That’s it – I hope I find my old notes too. In any case I loved this idea and sure to come back to it some time soon. I would be interested in your thoughts…