Ezra Klein linked to this outstanding video conference from Jesse Schell on the future of video games. He starts his lecture by saying that the sudden rise of facebook games such as Mafia Wars and Farmville "knocked us (game designers) on our collective ass." Perhaps the most astounding Facebook innovation is the unscrupulous way in which they generate income. Instead of a traditional pay as you go system for their games, they use a new system called Lead Generation, in which the costumers get game credits for however long they play. These credits allow gamers to buy prizes from the game store. There is only one catch: To qualify for these prizes, you have to have be a paying member with a 15$ a month co-payment. Gamers can get extra game credits by paying cash or signing up for a credit card. These credit cards will soon come in handy: Gamers can throw in twenty bucks in a game such as mafia Wars to increase their level.

Another interesting aspect of these new games is their social aspect. In the past gaming was about escaping from reality, the prototypical gamer was an awkward antisocial teenager who spends most of his time in front of the computer screen. These new games seem to be focused on a much wider and more social audience.

here is the link:


http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/