The Game Layer On Top of (TED)

Here's a great TED talk by Seth Priebatsch the 21 Year Old founder of the social gaming company SCVNGR. Priebatsch, whose Google Ventures backed company company develops geo-social applications, talks about the use of game dynamics in and outside of the gaming sphere. Priebatsch sees the gaming framework as the next logical evolution of interactive media, one that is more pervasive and much more commercial than social, but one that has a long way to go. In his introduction, Priebatsch jokes that "using seven game dynamics you can get anyone to do anything" but his point is well-taken. He proposes a number of ways in which game dynamics can be used for good (in health care ect.) but when dealing with any set of behavior modifying constraints we must ask...whose calling the shots or in this case whose finger is on the joystick.