CMU's Jesse Schell On Designing Outside The Box
Carnegie Mellon University professor Jesse Schell delivered a riveting "Design Outside The Box" presentation at DICE Summit last week, in which he delves into the "big, strange, and terrifying" world of Facebook games and discusses the psychological tricks behind the success of unexpected breakout hits like Webkinz, Club Penguin, and Mafia Wars.
Our sister-site Gamasutra posted a great write-up with key quotes and excerpts from the talk, but G4 has now put up a video of Schell's presentation, allowing you to enjoy his entertaining delivery on the magic behind trend-changers and on the value of "realness" rising in video games ("We live in a bubble of fake bullshit, and we'll do anything to get to what is real.").
You can read more of Schell's thoughts on video games, books, and many other topics at his personal blog.
Comments
Really fun presentation to listen to and I think he did get a lot of interesting points across in terms of the addictive nature of certain games. I felt the "examples of the future achievements" was a bit too drawn out at the end, but overall a great talk.
Posted by: Stegersaurus | February 22, 2010 9:09 PM
I think he's channeling Mitch Hedberg a bit for his delivery. But hey, I was amused. And then I was depressed because of course these games are all terrible. But it was an interesting business talk.
Posted by: Drain | February 23, 2010 4:22 PM