I'm going to try this again... I forgot to occasionally save my work on my blog post and I lost about 30 minutes worth of very thoughtful blog post. Note to self: SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN... D'oh!
A lot of my life recently has been centered around this question: "Is what I'm doing helping people or the world?" This was the original question that was holding me back from going down the game designer/developer path. To me it is a very serious question, and I must be able to answer it before I devote a significant amount of time to it. That's what this blog post is about. Here are my musings and research on this specific topic.
Once I decided that I wanted to go after this I directly addressed this question. My original start was with thinking about why I love games. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I didn't have many friends outside of school. My friends at home were video games. The world of games allowed me to leave the world of jerks behind me, and put me in control of an awesome character. I could save a planet, create an amusement park, or just beat the living crap out of other cartoon characters. This escape helped my high school life be much less painful, and it gave me something fun to do and engage in. My younger brother and I spent a lot of time playing games together. We spent a lot of time playing Halo and Halo 2 together. My brother wasn't quite as adept as I was with these FPS shooters, but we still had fun going through the levels together, and increasing the difficulty. It was also fun being able to play the hero saving my brother from time to time.
As I also mentioned in my last post, I spend a lot of time (or at least I used to before we had a child) with my wife, and I really look forward to playing with my daughter and my family as a whole. It doesn't even have to be video games. It could be board games, or any other random games we can come up with. Games force people to be engaged in what they are doing.You can engage as a team, as a family, or just smash the crap out of each other in a safe environment. Whatever the motivation is, this engagement and interaction allows for a lot of fun and enjoyment life. A family that plays together stays together.
At this point you might be thinking, "That's great, Boris. How is this really good for the world?" I say, "I'm getting there..." Let's get a little more serious now.
Now I'm going to go briefly into the concept of gamification. Essentially, it's when we take something and try to turn it into a game to get more engagement with either a concept or a task - this doesn't necessarily mean video game. There are some really cool things people are using in higher-ed to increase engagement through games. My focus will not be on higher ed at this point in time. There is a great blog post about the different ways people are making games to make the world a better place. Please read it if you get the chance. There is one in particular from the post the really spoke to me, Pain Squad. Here's a description of what it is right from their site:
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto needed to find a way to encourage their young cancer patients to complete daily reports on their pain. With a little back-up from Canada's top police dramas, our innovative mobile app made this overwhelming task easy and fun.
From Yu-kai Chou's blog, I saw that not only did the kids interact with the Pain Squad, but they were fought back harder against the pain and cancer. Playing a game is a lot more appealing to a child than keeping a "pain journal"...
Games can give us so much, and they can give so much back. We must be open to all of these different situations. I would some day like to make a positive difference in the lives of children and families. I may not change the world, but I can help make the world a better place.
The challenge I present to anyone who reads my blog:
Tell me what makes you want to make games. Tell me why you love games. Tell me what difference games have made in your life.
- Boris
Boris from Goldeneye