About MMORPGs / Bryon Reeves
Not just about human/computer interaction - interacting with avatars and characters that represent another social actor. Two groups of people scanned - controlling one circle. The other circle does the same thing. One group being told it's controlled by people. the other group that it's a robot. Very different parts of the brain are activated. People treat it like inter-personal interaction.

What is fun? Choosing your own avatar causes much moore 'arousal' than being 'assigned' one.

Where's the camera - effects of perspective on arousal during game play. 1st vs. 3rd person. Moving the camera away from your body might have been a good evolutionary response. But you get different kinds of physical responses. Heart-rate accelleration when action happens. 1st person is more passive, 3rd more actiony.

Media richness - what happens when the pictures get better and are very rich. Much greater mirroring of the real action in the brain.

Narrative context - very arousing to shoot people in a game, but what about the narrative - far more arousing to be in a game where you know the background and the narrative. Story makes it way more sexy.

"I'm a gamer":
- failure doesn't hurt
- risk is part of the game
- feedback needs to be immediate
- used to being the star
- trial and error the best plan
- tehre's always an answer
- I can figure it out
_ competition is fun and familiar
- i make bonds beyond my near-group

We're looking at ways to take the lessons from thesee games and look at how we might be able to employ these in other contexts - learning / similulation and eventually work.
- Don't understimate fun - people work in media not just with it - history of media is history of fun, fun a driver for office automation - engagement has demonstrable ROI
- Game rules applied to work - a clear challenge, progress each logon, rewards in multiple time domains, recruiting and teaching requirements, individual wins when group wins, create specialities and roles.

Looking at embedding real work into fun games. A screenshot from StarWars Galaxies. Doctors in Star Wars galaxies have to learn tasks. Doctors are about 60% accurate in spotting cancer. they embedded cancer screens into the games, and it turns out wisdom of crowds measn that about 30 people playing averaged out come out with similar level stats.

Why is fun important - decentralisation of work