Course Video & Notes

In Class 8 on October 31, 2018 the class did some group work creating a game with impact. The pedagogic purpose behind the work was the hope that having “built” a game no matter how ephemerally, the consequences of regulation of games in various guises could be explored more fully and functionally. That said (and done) the games themselves proved to be rather amazing and worth remembering. So here they are in essentially unexpurgated form:

GROUP 1: The idea involves a device that you wear while sleeping. It records brain activity and can be used in conjunction with a virtual reality headset to replay and interact with dreams while awake. Possible monetization could come from hardware sales or through selling data collected from the device to companies to help with subliminal marketing.

GROUP 2: A 4-D virtual reality horror game which relies on a brain implant to understand your deepest fears. The game will then use this information to construct an environment which is tailored to your specific fears. The experience will be augmented by the 4D aspect – players will be able to ‘feel’ certain things to truly create the ultimate horror experience. Aside from being of appeal to adrenaline junkies, the game could also be used as a form of immersion therapy – assisting people in overcoming their fears by experiencing them first hand. 

GROUP 3: We mainly talked about a game involving critical and strategic decisions concerning real life problems. You take the position of the president and can make basically every decision you want and see the impact it creates regarding politics, economy, voters etc. You succeed by rebuilding a strong economy, winning elections and keep international conflicts at bay. Inspiration wise we looked at House of Cards. YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU.

GROUP 4: Idea – VR simulation while flying. Explanation – The idea is that aircraft will be equiped with VR headsets that are available to flyers to use. The games that will be played on the aircraft will mostly be stationary game. We thought that a flight simulator might be a good game to include. We were also thinking of including a Matrix-like world simulation in which each player could possibly play as an avatar and even “walk around” and meet other people on the same plane. Benefits: The customers will be calmer as it will completely immerse them in an alternate reality. They will be more willing to spend long durations in tighter spaces (maybe cram more customers on a plane). 

GROUP 5: Essentially, it is a two-pronged data collection platform and virtual world builder and simulator. The player wears a headset which, while they sleep, collects data as to what they are dreaming about and the environment in which they are dreaming. This is then manufactured into a virtual world from which you can explore the dream as a 3rd or 1st person to further explore, understand or just enjoy your dream. As a side note, we thought it was highly marketable because you could do two things to make it highly profitable: first, it would be possible to market in game and sell to the user’s subconscious (or remove this for a fee) or second, collect data on what people are dreaming about, what it is that they deeply desire and then sell that data for marketing purposes.

Jon