The transformative power of video games
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0:01 - 0:02Hello.
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0:02 - 0:04My name is Herman,
-
0:04 - 0:10and I've always been struck
by how the most important, impactful, -
0:10 - 0:13tsunami-like changes
to our culture and our society -
0:13 - 0:15always come from those things
-
0:15 - 0:18that we least think
are going to have that impact. -
0:18 - 0:19I mean, as a computer scientist,
-
0:19 - 0:23I remember when Facebook
was just image-sharing in dorm rooms, -
0:23 - 0:25and depending upon who you ask,
-
0:25 - 0:27it's now involved in toppling elections.
-
0:28 - 0:31I remember when cryptocurrency
or automated trading -
0:31 - 0:34were sort of ideas by a few renegades
-
0:34 - 0:37in the financial institutions
in the world for automated trading, -
0:37 - 0:38or online, for cryptocurrency,
-
0:38 - 0:41and they're now coming to quickly shape
the way that we operate. -
0:41 - 0:43And I think each of you
can recall that moment -
0:44 - 0:48where one of these ideas felt
like some ignorable, derisive thing, -
0:48 - 0:51and suddenly, oh, crap,
the price of Bitcoin is what it is. -
0:51 - 0:54Or, oh, crap, guess who's been elected.
-
0:54 - 0:59The reality is that, you know,
from my perspective, -
0:59 - 1:01I think that we're about
to encounter that again. -
1:01 - 1:02And I think one of the biggest,
-
1:02 - 1:05most impactful changes
in the way we live our lives, -
1:05 - 1:06to the ways we're educated,
-
1:06 - 1:09probably even to how we end up
making an income, -
1:09 - 1:10is about to come not from AI,
-
1:10 - 1:13not from space travel or biotech --
-
1:13 - 1:15these are all very important
future inventions -- -
1:15 - 1:17but in the next five years,
-
1:17 - 1:19I think it's going to come
from video games. -
1:22 - 1:24So that's a bold claim, OK.
-
1:24 - 1:26I see some skeptical faces
in the audience. -
1:26 - 1:27But if we take a moment
-
1:27 - 1:31to try to look at what video games
are already becoming in our lives today, -
1:31 - 1:34and what just a little bit
of technological advancement -
1:34 - 1:36is about to create,
-
1:36 - 1:38it starts to become
more of an inevitability. -
1:38 - 1:40And I think the possibilities
are quite electrifying. -
1:40 - 1:43So let's just take a moment
to think about scale. -
1:43 - 1:45I mean, there's already
2.6 billion people who play games. -
1:46 - 1:49And the reality is that's a billion more
than five years ago. -
1:49 - 1:51A billion more people in that time.
-
1:51 - 1:54No religion, no media,
nothing has spread like that. -
1:54 - 1:56And there's likely to be a billion more
-
1:56 - 1:59when Africa and India
gain the infrastructure -
1:59 - 2:02to sort of fully realize
the possibilities of gaming. -
2:02 - 2:06But what I find really special is --
and this often shocks a lot of people -- -
2:06 - 2:09is that the average age of a gamer,
like, have a guess, think about it. -
2:09 - 2:12It's not six, it's not 18, it's not 12.
-
2:13 - 2:14It's 34.
-
2:14 - 2:16[Average age of an American gamer]
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2:16 - 2:17It's older than me.
-
2:18 - 2:19And that tells us something,
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2:19 - 2:21that this isn't entertainment
for children anymore. -
2:21 - 2:24This is already a medium
like literature or anything else -
2:24 - 2:26that's becoming a fundamental
part of our lives. -
2:26 - 2:29One stat I like is that people
who generally picked up gaming -
2:29 - 2:31in the last sort of 15, 20 years
-
2:31 - 2:32generally don't stop.
-
2:32 - 2:35Something changed in the way
that this medium is organized. -
2:35 - 2:38And more than that,
it's not just play anymore, right? -
2:38 - 2:40You've heard some examples today,
-
2:40 - 2:43but people are earning
an income playing games. -
2:43 - 2:44And not in the obvious ways.
-
2:44 - 2:46Yes, there's e-sports, there's prizes,
-
2:46 - 2:49there's the opportunity to make money
in a competitive way. -
2:49 - 2:52But there's also people earning incomes
modding games, building content in them, -
2:52 - 2:54doing art in them.
-
2:54 - 2:58I mean, there's something at a scale
akin to the Florentine Renaissance, -
2:58 - 3:00happening on your kid's iPhone
in your living room. -
3:00 - 3:02And it's being ignored.
-
3:02 - 3:05Now, what's even more exciting for me
is what's about to happen. -
3:06 - 3:07And when you think about gaming,
-
3:07 - 3:09you're probably already imagining
-
3:09 - 3:11that it features these massive,
infinite worlds, -
3:11 - 3:12but the truth is,
-
3:12 - 3:15games have been deeply limited
for a very long time -
3:15 - 3:17in a way that kind of we in the industry
-
3:17 - 3:20have tried very hard to cover up
with as much trickery as possible. -
3:20 - 3:23The metaphor I like to use,
if you'd let me geek out for a moment, -
3:23 - 3:24is the notion of a theater.
-
3:24 - 3:26For the last 10 years,
-
3:26 - 3:29games have massively advanced
the visual effects, -
3:29 - 3:32the physical immersion,
the front end of games. -
3:32 - 3:33But behind the scenes,
-
3:33 - 3:36the actual experiential reality
of a game world -
3:36 - 3:38has remained woefully limited.
-
3:38 - 3:40I'll put that in perspective for a moment.
-
3:40 - 3:42I could leave this theater right now,
-
3:42 - 3:45I could do some graffiti,
get in a fight, fall in love. -
3:45 - 3:47I might actually do
all of those things after this, -
3:48 - 3:50but the point is that all of that
would have consequence. -
3:50 - 3:52It would ripple through reality --
-
3:52 - 3:54all of you could interact with that
at the same time. -
3:54 - 3:56It would be persistent.
-
3:56 - 3:59And those are very important qualities
to what makes the real world real. -
3:59 - 4:01Now, behind the scenes in games,
-
4:01 - 4:03we've had a limit for a very long time.
-
4:03 - 4:05And the limit is, behind the visuals,
-
4:05 - 4:08the actual information being exchanged
between players or entities -
4:08 - 4:10in a single game world
-
4:10 - 4:12has been deeply bounded
-
4:12 - 4:15by the fact that games
mostly take place on a single server -
4:15 - 4:16or a single machine.
-
4:16 - 4:20Even The World of Warcraft
is actually thousands of smaller worlds. -
4:20 - 4:22When you hear about concerts in Fortnite,
-
4:22 - 4:25you're actually hearing
about thousands of small concerts. -
4:25 - 4:28You know, individual,
as was said earlier today, -
4:28 - 4:29campfires or couches.
-
4:30 - 4:33There isn't really this possibility
to bring it all together. -
4:33 - 4:36Let's take a moment to just
really understand what that means. -
4:36 - 4:39When you look at a game,
you might see this, beautiful visuals, -
4:39 - 4:41all of these things
happening in front of you. -
4:41 - 4:43But behind the scenes in an online game,
-
4:43 - 4:44this is what it looks like.
-
4:44 - 4:45To a computer scientist,
-
4:45 - 4:47all you see is just
a little bit of information -
4:47 - 4:51being exchanged by a tiny handful
of meaningful entities or objects. -
4:51 - 4:54You might be thinking,
"I've played in an infinite world." -
4:54 - 4:56Well it's more that you've played
on a treadmill. -
4:56 - 4:58As you've been walking through that world,
-
4:58 - 5:02we've been cleverly causing the parts
of it that you're not in to vanish, -
5:02 - 5:05and the parts of it
in front of you to appear. -
5:05 - 5:07A good trick, but not the basis
for the revolution -
5:07 - 5:09that I promised you
in the beginning of this talk. -
5:09 - 5:12But the reality is, for those of you
that are passionate gamers -
5:12 - 5:14and might be excited about this,
-
5:14 - 5:16and for those of you
that are afraid and may not be, -
5:16 - 5:18all of that is about to change.
-
5:18 - 5:20Because finally,
the technology is in place -
5:20 - 5:23to go well beyond the limits
that we've previously seen. -
5:23 - 5:24I've dedicated my career to this,
-
5:24 - 5:27there are many others
working on the problem -- -
5:27 - 5:28I'd hardly take credit for it myself,
-
5:28 - 5:31but we're at the point now
where we can finally -
5:31 - 5:32do this impossible hard thing
-
5:32 - 5:35of weaving together thousands
of disparate machines -
5:35 - 5:37into single simulations
-
5:37 - 5:40that are convenient enough
to not be one-offs, -
5:40 - 5:41but to be buildable by anybody.
-
5:41 - 5:43And to be at the point
-
5:43 - 5:46where we can start to experience
those things that we can't yet fathom. -
5:46 - 5:48Let's just take a moment
to visualize that. -
5:48 - 5:51I'm talking about not individual
little simulations -
5:51 - 5:55but a massive possibility
of huge networks of interaction. -
5:55 - 5:57Massive global events
that can happen inside that. -
5:57 - 5:59Things that even in the real world
-
5:59 - 6:02become challenging to produce
at that kind of scale. -
6:02 - 6:03And I know some of you are gamers,
-
6:03 - 6:06so I'm going to show you
some footage of some things -
6:06 - 6:09that I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to do,
from some of our partners. -
6:09 - 6:11TED and me had a back-and-forth on this.
-
6:11 - 6:14These are a few things
that not many people have seen before, -
6:14 - 6:17some new experiences
powered by this type of technology. -
6:17 - 6:19I'll just [take] a moment
to show you some of this stuff. -
6:19 - 6:21This is a single game world
-
6:21 - 6:24with thousands of simultaneous
people participating in a conflict. -
6:24 - 6:27It also has its own ecosystem,
-
6:27 - 6:29its own sense of predator and prey.
-
6:29 - 6:32Every single object you see here
is simulated in some way. -
6:32 - 6:35This is a game being built by one
of the biggest companies in the world, -
6:35 - 6:37NetEase, a huge Chinese company.
-
6:37 - 6:39And they've made
an assistant creative simulation -
6:39 - 6:42where groups of players
can cocreate together, -
6:42 - 6:43across multiple devices,
-
6:43 - 6:45in a world that doesn't vanish
when you're done. -
6:45 - 6:48It's a place to tell stories
and have adventures. -
6:48 - 6:49Even the weather is simulated.
-
6:49 - 6:51And that's kind of awesome.
-
6:51 - 6:52And this is my personal favorite.
-
6:53 - 6:55This is a group of people,
pioneers in Berlin, -
6:55 - 6:56a group called Klang Games,
-
6:56 - 6:59and they're completely insane,
and they'll love me for saying that. -
6:59 - 7:02And they found a way to model,
basically, an entire planet. -
7:02 - 7:05They're going to have a simulation
with millions of non-player characters -
7:05 - 7:07and players engaging.
-
7:07 - 7:09They actually grabbed Lawrence Lessig
-
7:09 - 7:11to help understand
the political ramifications -
7:11 - 7:12of the world they're creating.
-
7:12 - 7:15This is the sort of astounding
set of experiences, -
7:15 - 7:17well beyond what we might have imagined,
-
7:17 - 7:18that are now going to be possible.
-
7:18 - 7:21And that's just the first step
in this technology. -
7:21 - 7:23So if we step beyond that, what happens?
-
7:23 - 7:27Well, computer science
tends to be all exponential, -
7:27 - 7:28once we crack the really hard problems.
-
7:28 - 7:30And I'm pretty sure that very soon,
-
7:30 - 7:32we're going to be in a place
where we can make -
7:32 - 7:35this type of computational power
look like nothing. -
7:35 - 7:38And when that happens,
the opportunities ... -
7:38 - 7:41It's worth taking a moment to try
to imagine what I'm talking about here. -
7:41 - 7:43Hundreds of thousands
or millions of people -
7:43 - 7:45being able to coinhabit the same space.
-
7:45 - 7:48The last time any of us as a species
-
7:48 - 7:50had the opportunity
to build or do something together -
7:50 - 7:52with that may people was in antiquity.
-
7:52 - 7:55And the circumstances
were less than optimal, shall we say. -
7:56 - 7:58Mostly conflicts or building pyramids.
-
7:58 - 8:01Not necessarily the best thing for us
to be spending our time doing. -
8:01 - 8:03But if you bring together
that many people, -
8:03 - 8:06the kind of shared experience
that can create ... -
8:06 - 8:09I think it exercises a social muscle in us
-
8:09 - 8:11that we've lost and forgotten.
-
8:11 - 8:12Going even beyond that,
-
8:12 - 8:15I want to take a moment
to think about what it means -
8:15 - 8:16for relationships, for identity.
-
8:16 - 8:19If we can give each other worlds,
experiences at scale -
8:19 - 8:22where we can spend
a meaningful amount of our time, -
8:22 - 8:24we can change what it means
to be an individual. -
8:24 - 8:25We can go beyond a single identity
-
8:26 - 8:28to a diverse set of personal identities.
-
8:28 - 8:32The gender, the race,
the personality traits you were born with -
8:32 - 8:35might be something you want
to experiment differently with. -
8:35 - 8:38You might be someone
that wants to be more than one person. -
8:38 - 8:40We all are, inside, multiple people.
-
8:40 - 8:42We rarely get
the opportunity to flex that. -
8:42 - 8:43It's also about empathy.
-
8:43 - 8:45I have a grandmother
-
8:45 - 8:47who I have literally
nothing in common with. -
8:47 - 8:48I love her to bits,
-
8:48 - 8:52but every story she has begins in 1940
and ends sometime in 1950. -
8:52 - 8:54And every story I have
is like 50 years later. -
8:54 - 8:56But if we could coinhabit,
-
8:56 - 8:58co-experience things together,
-
8:58 - 9:01that undiminished by physical frailty
or by lack of context, -
9:01 - 9:02create opportunities together,
-
9:02 - 9:05that changes things,
that bonds people in different ways. -
9:05 - 9:10I'm struck by how social media
has amplified our many differences, -
9:10 - 9:13and really made us more who we are
in the presence of other people. -
9:13 - 9:15I think games could really start to create
-
9:15 - 9:17an opportunity for us to empathize again.
-
9:17 - 9:19To have shared adversity,
shared opportunity. -
9:19 - 9:22I mean, statistically,
at this moment in time, -
9:22 - 9:26there are people who are
on the opposite sides of a conflict, -
9:26 - 9:28who have been matchmade
together into a game -
9:28 - 9:30and don't even know it.
-
9:30 - 9:33That's an incredible opportunity
to change the way we look at things. -
9:33 - 9:37Finally, for those of you who perhaps are
more cynical about all of this, -
9:37 - 9:40who maybe don't think that virtual worlds
and games are your cup of tea. -
9:40 - 9:42There's a reality you have to accept,
-
9:42 - 9:45and that is that the economic impact
of what I'm talking about -
9:45 - 9:46will be profound.
-
9:46 - 9:49Right now, thousands of people
have full-time jobs in gaming. -
9:49 - 9:52Soon, it will be millions of people.
-
9:52 - 9:54Wherever there's a mobile phone,
there will be a job. -
9:54 - 9:57An opportunity for something
that is creative and rich -
9:57 - 10:00and gives you an income,
no matter what country you're in, -
10:00 - 10:03no matter what skills or opportunities
you might think you have. -
10:03 - 10:06Probably the first dollar
most kids born today make -
10:06 - 10:07might be in a game.
-
10:07 - 10:09That will be the new paper route,
-
10:09 - 10:11that will be the new
opportunity for an income -
10:11 - 10:13at the earliest time in your life.
-
10:13 - 10:16So I kind of want to end
with almost a plea, -
10:16 - 10:18really, more than thoughts.
-
10:19 - 10:22A sense of, I think, how we need
to face this new opportunity -
10:22 - 10:24a little differently
to some we have in the past. -
10:24 - 10:26It's so hypocritical
for yet another technologist -
10:26 - 10:28to stand up on stage and say,
-
10:28 - 10:30"The future will be great,
technology will fix it." -
10:30 - 10:33And the reality is,
this is going to have downsides. -
10:33 - 10:35But those downsides will only be amplified
-
10:35 - 10:38if we approach, once again,
with cynicism and derision, -
10:38 - 10:40the opportunities that this presents.
-
10:40 - 10:42The worst thing that we could possibly do
-
10:42 - 10:44is let the same four or five companies
-
10:44 - 10:47end up dominating
yet another adjacent space. -
10:47 - 10:50(Applause)
-
10:50 - 10:54Because they're not just going to define
how and who makes money from this. -
10:54 - 10:58The reality is, we're now talking
about defining how we think, -
10:58 - 11:00what the rules are
around identity and collaboration, -
11:01 - 11:02the rules of the world we live in.
-
11:02 - 11:04This has got to be something we all own,
-
11:04 - 11:05we all cocreate.
-
11:06 - 11:09So, my final plea
is really to those engineers, -
11:09 - 11:12those scientists, those artists
in the audience today. -
11:12 - 11:15Maybe some of you dreamed
of working on space travel. -
11:15 - 11:19The reality is, there are worlds
you can build right here, right now, -
11:19 - 11:21that can transform people's lives.
-
11:21 - 11:23There are still huge
technological frontiers -
11:23 - 11:25that need to be overcome here,
-
11:25 - 11:28akin to those we faced
when building the early internet. -
11:28 - 11:30All the technology
behind virtual worlds is different. -
11:30 - 11:32So, my plea to you is this.
-
11:32 - 11:34Let's engage, let's all engage,
-
11:34 - 11:38let's actually try to make this something
that we shape in a positive way, -
11:38 - 11:41rather than once again have be done to us.
-
11:41 - 11:42Thank you.
-
11:42 - 11:47(Applause)
- Title:
- The transformative power of video games
- Speaker:
- Herman Narula
- Description:
-
A full third of the world's population -- 2.6 billion people -- play video games, plugging into massive networks of interaction that have opened up opportunities well beyond entertainment. In a talk about the future of the medium, entrepreneur Herman Narula makes the case for a new understanding of gaming -- one that includes the power to create new worlds, connect people and shape the economy.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:00
Yasushi Aoki commented on English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Oliver Friedman approved English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The transformative power of video games | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for The transformative power of video games |
Yasushi Aoki
6:37
And they've made
an assistant creative simulation
# an assistant -> a persistent