How Gameful Engagement Will Impact Markets | Research Assistant for IFTF, Jeremy Kirshbaum

So I'll give you an example of what one of our forecasts look like. So this is just a piece of one. It won't be fully coherent. So one future force that we are looking a lot at right now is called gameful engagement. So you've all definitely heard the phrase gamification. Gameful engagement is a little bit different. It's not really— it's related to gamification, but it's not really about that. It's about engaging with people with emotionally laden attention, getting their attention, not advertising to them in a traditional way. So The descending curve is traditional learning, training, and office work. We're not saying abandon that. The curve makes a lot of money on the way down. So if you jump too soon, you're going to lose a lot of money that you could have made from your normal business activities. But gameful engagement is what you need to start building now so you can jump when it's time. This is a really great description by the founder of Udacity on how they're using gameful engagement in their platform.

So what we're learning is that the pedagogy, the way to address students online, is very different from the way you do it in the classroom. In the classroom, kind of the best way of making students learn is to lecture them, and lectures on video just don't work. People are distracted by Facebook and other distractors. So what we're learning is that the student engagement is a key factor in learning, and the way to do this is steal from video games. Video games train you usually something. Angry Birds trains you how slingshots work. And they draw you in by constant assessment. Assessment is absolutely paramount. But they give you as much time as you want to reach the next level. That's what we do in learning. So when we train you to do math, we replace Angry Birds with mathematics. We still have constant assessment. You have as much time as it takes. So you're saying that the And when you're done with it, you feel really good about yourself.

So the 2 keys are constant assessment and as much time as you need to get to the next level. But the point isn't really about video game concepts. Like I said, gamification isn't really the whole story. It's about keeping people's attention in an emotionally laden way. And so let's take one more example, and then I'll show you what that really looks like. The military is much better at this I'm just gonna—

It looks and sounds like a typical Afghan village. But these Marines aren't nowhere near Afghanistan.

Let's see, can I—

can I mute the volume so I can talk over it?

It's a $1.5 million recreation. Lance Corporal Derek Hicks is one of the Marines on patrol. This is basically—

Yeah, I'll just let this play in the background while I'm talking. So this is a— the military hires people with very, very poor educational backgrounds and turns them into some of the most highest-performing people on Earth. And the way that they do that is through games. Right now, if you go to the U.S. Army website, there is a video game on the front page. If you play it and you get a high score, you will get a call from a recruiter. So this is an example of a full Afghan village that they've built to improve the immersive learning of the Marines before they go out. And these people have very poor educational backgrounds. They probably could not be a part of Draper University. They couldn't be where you are right now. But they are turned into some of the, the highest performing people in the United States, and that's done through immersive learning and gaming. So this is, if you don't get it so far, this is what gameful engagement looks like. Do people look like that when they see your advertisements for your company? This is a photographer that took a picture of people at the moment they're playing video games, at the moment of the epic win. When they— that they're like, oh yeah, I got the highest score. So that's what we're trying to get out of people when we engage with them, when they're learning or when they're playing or when we're advertising to them. Games as— this is from Jane McGonigal, our fellow— they're obstacles that we volunteer to overcome. And it's that voluntary nature that's really a big part of it. There's a video game that they use to practice for drone strikes. You guys have probably heard a bit about that before. This is a methodology that we use at the Institute called Artifacts from the Future. So these aren't real. They're produced by our production team and our producers, but it's another way to kind of evoke for you the kind of thing that we're talking about. So this might be an example. This is what we might call a combinatorial example, a few different future forces combining. So we're talking a lot about the future of work right now. We won't really get into it in this forecast, but we talk a lot about microwork and algorithmic organizations. So you're going along on your phone, It's been tracking your tweets. It says, Abdul, we dig the ideas you post. Join our flash brainstorm and hackathon. Earn $20 for every 10 ideas. So it's particular to you. It's engaging. It's phrased kind of like a game. It's not an advertisement. There's a win-win there. So this is something like what gameful engaged companies might look like. This is a little bit more of a literal example, something that's really going to amplify really gonna amplify game flow engagement is that— is very, very immersive interfaces. Now, this signal isn't entirely accurate, 'cause it's not really gonna be about virtual reality. It's gonna be about blended reality. But this is an example of how what we have right now is just a very rudimentary version of what's to come. So they basically have built a machine so that— that complements the Oculus Rift so that you don't have to sit in a chair while you're doing it. You, like, put on these, like, slippery shoes, and you stand in the middle of it. And you can actually walk around as if you're in the thing. And my friend actually tried this out, and he said that it's a little bit awkward at first, and then he actually forgot that he was in a video game for a minute. I wouldn't actually think that this would be that much of a commercial success, although he does look so stylish.

It's a very good way to get your workout.

Yeah, right? Oh, he has a workout machine. They should think about that. But yeah, this was funded in 3 hours on Kickstarter.

Wow.

But again, before we end, just so I can end with the emphasis that gameful engagement is not about video games, I have a couple more examples. This is one of my favorites because I love coffee a lot. I love coffee. And so the idea of any advertising where they're giving out coffee makes me really happy. But so basically, Dewar's found that people who tried their coffee in blind taste trials chose their coffee, so they say. And so, they wanted to find a way for people to choose to try their coffee in an engaging way. So, they created a vending machine and put it in the place where people need coffee most— 3 o'clock in the morning at an airport. I've been starting to do a lot of domestic business travel for work, which was glamorous for about 45 seconds. And so I've experienced what these people are going through a lot. So they yawn, and the machine recognized their face. And then when it sees them yawn, it gives them a cup of coffee. So they're not trying to sell coffee. It is an advertisement in a way. But it engages the person. It's memorable. It tells a story. And then you see when they get that coffee, they get that face, the moment of the epic win. Yeah, got the coffee.

Awesome. Isn't it classical conditioning?

Hmm, what's that?

So classical conditioning is where, like, the mice were trained so every time they would hit the right light, they would get food. So every time you yawn, you get coffee. And so it kind of, in your head, you kind of, every time you're tired, you crave that because it's just association. So it's learning by association.

Yeah.

So it's like a very old school Psychological thing, but it's called classical conditioning, where you condition somebody to a response.

So if we have too many of these vending machines, then people yawn every time they want a cup of coffee.

And then eventually, if you do it 10 times and you get coffee, it's like coffee's like a flavor that you remember, right?

Yeah.

So every time you yawn, you automatically start craving coffee.

Yeah, I could definitely— I would yawn and smile, because I love coffee. This is a little bit longer video, so maybe put on— It's like 1.5 minutes, so really put on your attention span caps. Could we turn on the sound for this? It's a little bit dry, but just, they explain the way that their company works so well that I really just wanted you guys to hear this.

Even if you were the richest, smartest, most talented person in the world, it would still be really hard for you to make A new original car. Now you can. Join the Local Motors co-creative team to help create, develop, build, and lot brand new cars. Here's how it works. First, join the community. Everyone is invited. Next, create new cars or help develop ongoing concepts. If you're a hot designer, create new cars by participating in a competition. Or submit a design to Checkup for review. If you love cars, vote to decide what will be developed. All designs are protected with a Creative Commons license to promote collaboration but protect your design ownership. The concepts with the most votes are developed in co-creation. Co-creation is working with your peers and the Local Motors team to help choose things Like the body and interior details, and components like engines and shocks. You help develop the car and ensure it turns out the way you want. Once a car is fully developed, you can buy it and build it. Local Motors opens a microfactory in your region to build the cars you want to build. For example, Local Motors opened a microfactory in Phoenix to build the Rally Fighter. There are many more microfactories to come and more cars to build. So far, the LM Extreme is the most popular in the Carolinas, the Green Apple—

These are all 3D printed.

And the Boston Bullet in Boston. Microfactories mean local jobs and the most convenient service. The microfactory model is also sustainable. Since cars are built one at a time, there is less waste. Plus, local owners' businesses Local businesses allow the use of locally available fuel sources and more rapid adjustment to changing technology. Not only can you be proud of building your own car, you can be proud of buying local. Your car is special because you make it. You can even design or choose a custom car skin.

So that's, that's the explanation. Has anyone heard of this company before? I think they were mentioned in this video. In the desert, like kind of a rally car for a huge paintball short film. And they had custom locomotive cars.

Cool.

A few years back when they made the Rally Fighter.

Yeah.

And their model has evolved a lot since then. I just think this is a great example— sorry, I know it was a little bit long. It's really funny that you guys have a really long attention span. The larger the company and the higher up you go, the less attention span you get. By the time you get to the C-suite, it's like if your video's 20 seconds long, you've got to be worried. But I think this is a great example of gameful engagement, and actually very advanced form of that, which we would actually call reciprocity advantage, where you're not advertising, you're not building concepts in a really systematic way. You're building a community of people that are engaged in many different ways that forms a network that allows for really incredible innovation, engagement on a lot of different levels. So—

To the 5.

Our forecast for gameful engagement. Gameful engagement will be basic to the next generation of office work, marketing, advertising, and commercials. And in 10 years, most leaders will probably be gamers.