gabe newell keynote talk
DESCRIPTION
G4LI Games for Learning Day at G4C 2011TRANSCRIPT
OpportunitiesOpportunities
ValveValve
Gabe Newell, President of Valve, [email protected] Worked at Microsoft from 1983-1996
Valve Started in 1996 Independent game developer for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360
Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Day of Defeat
Steam platform for the PC Services for gamers and game developers 30 million users, 1500 titles, 21 languages
Existing and Emerging OpportunitiesExisting and Emerging Opportunities
Games are powerful tools for education, research, and social change
As a game developer, we see new opportunities Educational Research Charitable Economic Policy
Portal 2Portal 2
Game involves physics, spatial reasoning, and problem solving Player doesn’t have any weapons
Cooperative sections require collaboration between two players to solve puzzles
What is a Game?What is a Game?
Portal 2Portal 2
Since April 18th, we’ve sold 3 million units
Highest rated game in 2011
“Physics — the basic behavior of this particular reality —can be beautiful. Read Newton or Einstein. Or you could play Portal 2, the achingly brilliant new game from the Valve Corporation that wrings more fun out of physics than all of the shoot-’em-ups in the world.”
New York Times
Meet JoshMeet Josh
Josh’s father sent me this video As a parent he understood something special was
happening
Josh is 2 He has never been taught how to read He has never been taught how to use a mouse He has never been taught how to use Windows
Games as Freshman Lit RequirementGames as Freshman Lit Requirement
Professor Michael Abbott, Wabash College FC 11, Enduring Questions
“This is a course about what it means to be human, focused on some of the enduring questions our existence inevitably raises for us. The goals of this course reflect this focus.”
Gilgamesh, Aristotle, Goffman, Donne, Portal “This tension between backstage machination
and onstage performance is precisely what Portal depicts so perfectly - and, no small detail, so interactively.”
Games as Educational ToolsGames as Educational Tools
Games are inherently about learning Self-directed
Choose what and when to learn
Experiential not didactic (no formulas on whiteboards) Provide immediate feedback, support self monitoring
and provide a practice space Enjoyable
Games as FrameGames as Frame
More and more educators are realizing that video game development is a great way to motivate learning of a wide variety of topics Math Art Architecture Physics Programming 3D CAD Industrial Design ….
Games for ResearchGames for Research
Highest performance, real-time 3-D rendering of shared virtual worlds Decoupled Sampling for Graphics Pipelines, by J. Ragan-Kelley, J.
Lehtinen, J. Chen, F. Durand, MIT CSAIL and M. Doggett, Lund University
Spark: Modular, Composable Shaders for Graphics Hardware, by T. Fole, P. Hanraha, Stanford University
Sample Distribution Shadow Maps, A. Lauritzen, M. Salvi, A. Lefohn, Intel Corporation
Precomputed Wave Simulation for Real-Time Sound Propagation of Dynamic Sources in Complex Scenes, N. Raghuvanshi, R. Mehra, M. Lin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N. Govindaraju, J. Snyder, Microsoft Research
Uh-ohUh-oh
Time for zombies and cursing
Zombies for GoodZombies for Good
Why are they interesting? Expressive synthetic actors
Based off of Paul Eckman’s work
Contingent Consistent, measurable, and untiring University of Washington is exploring the use of virtual
actors for autism socialization and therapies
Games for GivingGames for Giving
After the 2011 earthquake in Japan, Team Fortress 2, held a fund raiser
Using micro-transactions, players could purchase and wear items to show their support
All revenue went directly to the Red Cross fund for Japanese relief
It raised $500,000 in two weeks Games harness network effects –
the fact of your community support is visible to everyone
Games and NGOs - Khmer Genesis ProjectGames and NGOs - Khmer Genesis Project
Structural and architectural design of a 9-story building for an organization in Cambodia Anna Groendyk, Josh Uitvlugt, Amanda Hayes, Calvin
College
Needed a tool for visualization and client walk-throughs
Game engine was highest performance and it was free
Games as a Pro-social Training GroundGames as a Pro-social Training Ground
Social construct Sanctioning anti-social behavior and rewarding pro-
social behavior is much easier Communication is free world-wide Shared goals and achievement amplify the value of
communication Bring together fragmented communities Explore notions of self Opportunities for to learn leadership skills (e.g. clans) Encourage grass-roots self-organization
Communication is cheap, clear shared goals, delimited
Economic OpportunityEconomic Opportunity
3rd World Farming http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com 3rd World Farmer is a simulation that illustrates the plight of
poor farmers in unstable and impoverished countries. Players take the role of a desperate farming family and attempt to survive as long as possible while contending with disasters, wars, poor medical care, and unfair prices.
Low value-add labor Poor access to markets High capital costs I never made it past level 23
Economic OpportunityEconomic Opportunity
Gold Farming Market in virtual goods and services World of Warcraft rogue sold for $9,000
Low value-add labor Efficient access to worldwide market Low capital costs I made about $20/hour
Per capita GDP, WoW was ~$2,800 (ahead of Nigeria, Laos, Pakistan, Ghana, …)
Economic OpportunityEconomic Opportunity
The line between author and audience is very blurry Consumption leads to creation
Economic OpportunityEconomic Opportunity
Peer to peer content Let people build and sell neat stuff
to other people Models, maps, animations, … Lose control of your IP but
empower your community
A game is a worldwide market High value-add labor
First four “item farmers” made $40,000 USD apiece in two weeks
Policy – The Value of 30 Million ConnectionsPolicy – The Value of 30 Million Connections
30 million users Creates a framework for real-time measurement of the relative
efficacy of our programs What classes are most popular and result in the outcomes we are trying to
achieve? How much change can a community absorb? What is the optimal
relationship between frequency and scale of updates versus community engagement?
Which messages work best for which audience? What are regional variations in outcome? How likely are Norwegian customers with Nvidia graphics cards who buy
Counter-Strike on a Tuesday likely to buy Team Fortress 2 on a Thursday?
For us, we can’t imagine creating policy without this Anyone who uses the Steamworks API gets similar introspection into
their users
Practice – The Value of Direct MeasurementPractice – The Value of Direct Measurement
Biometrics Physiological signals of player
emotional state
Current experiments Heart rate Skin conductance levels Gaze tracking
Future experiments Pupil dilation EEGs Body temperature Facial expressions
Greatly increases subjective experience of contingency
SummarySummary
I am as excited as I’ve ever been about the opportunities and the future of games as a force for positive social change
The game community – the technology, the design knowledge, the companies, and the gamers themselves – are tools
Like a hammer, these tools won’t do anything unless you pick them up and use them
Games for ChangeGames for Change
Game engines Source, from Valve, www.valvesoftware.com Unreal, from Epic, http://www.udk.com/ Unity, from Unity, http://unity3d.com/
Community Steam, from Valve, www.steampowered.com
Community contribution model http://www.teamfortress.com/contribute/
Academic, NGO or research licensing Mike Dunkle, [email protected] Mike Durand, [email protected]
Biometric research Mike Ambinder, [email protected]
Graphics research Jason Mitchell, [email protected]