>> So, like Joanna said, I'm Tim and I teach game design here as well as multimedia and —
who here — has anyone here taken the class?
OK. Cool. So, if you ever do take a class in one of those programs,
you'll probably come across me at some point there.
So, Joanna asked me to do this talk on gaming — and it was kind of funny —
I didn't know what to talk about at first and then she told me it was about mass communication
and things like that, so, I was thinking, OK, why don't I talk about the future of gaming.
But, then as I started thinking about that, I really sort of came to a roadblock
and didn't know what that reallymeant unless I talked about — uh oh.
It's not working.
Here we are.
The culture of gaming because the culture of gaming is something that's
like really prevalent, at least in western society as well
as a few eastern cultures as well.
And then I saw the word culture and I said, well, it's not really gaming that I want
to talk about, it's actually the future of culture that I want to talk
about because gaming has sort of like become a really —
and I'm going to show you some stats on this in a second —
has become a really almost vital necessary part of a lot of people's lives [inaudible] less.
So, people play games because — not because they want to, but because they need to.
Now, we can argue whether or not that's true, right,
I mean is entertainment something that's necessary in our culture,
but if you think about human existence, the idea of entertainment, the idea of storytelling,
and the idea of playing games is older than any other form of existence in human nature.
When the first humans were on this Earth, they sat around a fire and told stories, right?
And if you've ever experienced this yourself — I'm sure most of you have —
when you're with someone else that you know, if you're with them long enough
or if you're just this sort of person, a game usually ends up happening,
whether or not you're trying to decide on something with rock, paper,
scissors, or, you know, something.
So — or whether or not you try to hit each other in the arm harder than the other person, right,
I mean there's all sorts of things you could do with those people.
So — and those of us who have kids know that that's
like something that just happens all the time.
So, maybe gaming — or at least games — is actually a vital part of our existence, right?
So, I want to talk about the future of culture and talk about the fact
that this isn't a talk about, again, the future of gaming;
it's a talk about the future of culture.
But, as you'll see — and as I talk — you know, I'm going to hopefully not talk too long,
but I want to show you some interesting facts and things.
Hopefully we'll come to find or maybe we'll come to find that gaming actually started it all,
right, because the idea of games is one
of the driving factors behind how technology advances in our society today.
It's not we need a better Microsoft Word, right?
Or we need a better way to enter items in a database.
It's we need a better way to play games because games are getting more and more advanced.
So, just so you guys know, public access — and I put it in quotes because there was a little bit
of access before this, but really public access to video games began as far back as 1972.
That's when the first arcades hit the scene.
That's when the first take home console, a Magnavox Odyssey came out
and so people started — I guess you could call it their love affair with games —
way back in the 70s and it's only snowballed and sort of advanced since then.
A lot of — of course, a lot has happened since then, so we'll look at some interesting facts
about what it was like to play games then, which was, you know,
there's a handful of people playing and a handful of people
who were interested in this sort of thing to now.
Based on a study by the ESA, the Entertainment Software Association, and DFC Intelligence,
63% of U.S. households are home to at least one person
who plays video games regularly three hours or more a week — and by the way this is from 2015,
so we'll have some new stats coming out soon hopefully from 2016.
And of those 63%, there are an average of 1.7 gamers
in each game-playing U.S. household, which is kind of crazy.
Sixty-five percent of U.S. households own a device used to play video games.
Right? So that's more than half of the U.S. population playing games
on digital devices today, which is rather telling being that we started back in a day
where we had to go to an arcade or spend quite a bit of money on a pretty terrible console,
Now, a stat that I don't have here is the fact that most of these households own two
or more game-capable consoles — and by the way a console means mobile device,
an actual console like an Xbox or a PlayStation, a computer, so on and so forth.
So, because of that, the game industry is actually making a ton of money.
In fact, even through the recession and the pinnacle of the recession in 2008,
the game industry was making much more money than a lot of other industries that are
out there and one of the reasons for that, of course,
You can go out and spend 65 bucks on a little dinner and two hours of entertainment at a movie
or you can spend 65 bucks on a game that will give you 300 hours of entertainment, right?
So, there's a big difference on the cost-benefits
So, as you'll see here, in the U.S., video games and computers made upwards of $17 billion.
OK. And I'm going to show you the difference of this
between another industry as well in a second.
So, the total consumers spend on games —
the games industry in 2015 was actually 23.5once you add in all of the various accessories
and DLCs and, you know, if you're agamer you know what I'm talking about.
It adds up to $23.5 billion.
Now, that's in the U.S. alone.
Let's take a look at whathappened in 2015 worldwide.
It's a $99.6 billion industry.
OK? And now that number will most likely go up this year — or last year.
So, we'll see, but I wanted to show you a comparison to put this in context
of what it means in our world to buy games as compared to what we might also —
might otherwise consider traditional toys.
So, the game industry made $99.6 billion in 2015 worldwide — or 2016 worldwide — I'm sorry.
So, this is a new number.
In 2015, traditional toys made $19.5 billion.
OK. So, that's $80 billion more than people buying Legos, Matchbox cars, all the way up —
by the way, traditional toys includes things like jet skis and Sea-Doos and things like that.
It's kind of crazy.
So, the amount of money spent on games — video games is far exceeding what's happening
in other forms of entertainment in our world.
And so for those of you who do play video games,
we have something called the big three consoles right now,
made by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.
And by the way, these three consoles are in what's known
as the eighth generation of consoles.
So, if you follow the lineage of consoles all the way from the Magnavox Odyssey,
we get to what's now known as the eighth generation.
Now, we don't really know what the ninth generation is going to be
because it's typically based on console evolution —
the power that the console brings with it, the types of games that can be played
on the console and so on and so forth.
So, you'll see here in parentheses I even have the new Nintendo Switch still
in the eighth generation, right?
Because it's not something that's actually advancing the world of consoles.
And this includes the Xbox One S and the PlayStation 4 Pro as well as the PlayStation VR.
So, these are things that will probably still be considered eighth generation
when they're released and when they're used.
So, this brings me to why I'm actually showing you these stats
and how this actually connects to the future of our culture.
Because, as I stated, video games are a really important integral part
of several U.S. citizens' lives.
OK? And the fact that these stats continue to rise —
in fact, there's very few lulls in these statistics over time.
There have been a few, but it's a steady rise until someone actually, you know,
maybe figures out that it's not games anymore and we have to sort
of study the numbers a little differently.
So, we're going to look at why these stats are important.
One of the reasons is because that money in the industry drives emerging technology.
We have things like augmented reality, which is the type of technology that allows you to look
through a device and see three-dimensional images mapped on real life, right?
And so those of you who have played Pokemon Go probably have had experience with AR.
Those of you who have a Nintendo 3DS have probably played with AR a little bit.
It actually is something that was developed by games,
but it's now being used in many other contexts.
For instance, there's a lot of really great apps you can get for your phone where you look
through your camera for the nearest subway station, right, and it will actually map,
you know, directional locations of all of these different places that you can go.
Also, virtual reality of course is something that was originally thought of in terms of games
and now it's branching out into a number of other areas.
Hybrid consoles are going to be something that's emerging as well.
So, the Nintendo Switch is probably the first one of those now.
It's actually a console that you can take with you, right?
So, it's a modular sort of device.
And then we also have the idea of cloud delivery.
Cloud deliver is one of those things that, again, was originally devised
for the game industry and now is being used everywhere, right?
So, there's a lot of companies that they'll work for and instead of launching Microsoft Word
from your computer, you'll click on an icon that looks like Microsoft Word,
but it's actually loading that from somewhere on the Internet to your computer.
So, that application doesn't actually exist on your computer.
In the world of gaming, what people are saying is at some point
in the near future you'll be able to take any device with you — your phone, your tablet,
your laptop or whatever — and stream the exact same content from the cloud to that device.
Right? And so you can, you know, play the latest Assassin's Creed on your Xbox and then —
who needs the Nintendo Switch, right?
Because I can take my phone out and get the exact same content with the same save
on my mobile phone and so on and so forth.
And, of course, who else, you know — who can tell what else is coming down the line?
I've got an image here — whoever here is a Star Trek fan — of the Holodeck.
A place where you can go where your entire surroundings are just transformed into something
that doesn't require a device, right, everything you see
and feel is being determined by a computer simulation.
So, there's this really great book.
If you haven't read it, you should.
It's called Ready Player One.
It's by Ernest Cline.
Stephen Spielberg's actually in the process of making a film adaptation
of it right now to be out in 2018.
And it's basically a book — where I say here is it fiction, is it next gen gaming,
or is it proxy — it's a book that outlines the —
an alternate reality in the near future
where almost everything we do happens in virtual reality.
If you have a job, you don't leave your home.
You put on your headset and you get in your little, you know, chair,
and do your job from there in an office from your living room.
If you go to school, you actually put on your headset and you're in a school situation
like this with other people and you're interacting with them.
If you have a hangout — this is actually a 3D rendition from an artist on —
some website out there — of one of the characters from the book H
who has a place called The Basement.
And this is a really interesting concept.
When the characters in the book want to go hang out, they don't know each other.
They don't live by each other.
They go to The Basement, right?
And when they want to read a book, they take it off of the virtual reality bookshelf.
When they want to play a pinball game, they play one in a virtual reality space.
The TV that you see here — it's hard to see in the picture —
isn't set up to play the latest, like, you know, crazy 3D games.
They're playing retro games like Atari games and Nintendo games in VR on a TV
that it doesn't really exist, right?
And so that's the prophecy of this particular book
that when we do things it will no longer happen in a real space.
Now, there's a lot of other fun stuff that happens in this book as well,
it's a really fun read, but I highly recommend reading this just to sort of get a small sliver
of a view of what could happen in our future based on the fact that gaming propels technology
which then overtakes what we do in our real lives.
OK? And so the lines between our physical and digital lives are blurring.
This is something that I saw at E3 which has now been actually expanded
to an actual amusement park, but these people are all sitting on chairs in a room acting
and feeling like they're on a roller coaster, right, because they have VR headsets on.
And you can see some people have their arms up and everything and they're actually screaming.
It was pretty funny to watch, but the market viability
of gaming has proven to be a primary catalyst.
Because of all of these intersections of our different media —
although the future comprises so much more than just gaming, right?
And this is where I really wanted to bring this in to the idea that this is not the future
of gaming, but the future of culture.
Everything that is happening in games is leading toward alternate spaces that we're all going
to experience — maybe not in real life, but maybe from the comfort of our own couch.
Living in common spaces — when we go out and see people or go to a movie,
we might do it from our home, right, and go meet these people somewhere
in virtual reality — or otherwise.
I don't know what that — what the future is going to bring for that.
Right? Again, when you have a job, employment will happen from your home.
Commerce — it already happens.
Who here goes to the store anymore when you're shopping for Christmas presents?
I mean we do once in a while, but do primarily all of you shop
on Amazon and other places like that now?
I mean it's just so much easier, right?
We click what we want, they send it to our house and, you know —
I don't know if it's more thoughtful or not than going to the store, but time will tell.
Politics will even happen in VR, right?
I mean we're going to see the — you know, in 12 years or whatever,
we're going to see the inauguration not from on the TV but by putting a headset
on and actually being in the crowd.
Right? I mean we just had the Women's March all over the world, which was a really cool event
that happened, but what if we could actually be there in some way by not leaving our house?
Now, again, there's arguments about what's, you know, good or bad about that sort of situation,
but if you watch the trend of technology, something like that is bound to happen.
Right? Education, again, we're going to be going
to school probably in a virtual reality type world.
In fact, in the book Ready Player One, they have these identical planets all
over the virtual space called Ludus and those are the places
that the children of the world go to learn.
And so you go to this planet and basically, you know, on your island you've got a school
and you've got some grounds and you can, you know, explore that and go to school that way.
Mass communication and mass media are going to be huge in the world of whatever this is.
Right? Because we're no longer going to be —
again, going physically to a place necessarily or watching a TV.
We're going to be there in some virtual sort of environment.
So, I mean, how cool would it be to be able to go to the next presidential debate,
something we never get to go to, and actually feel like you're there, but not be there.
Right? I mean that's something that's going to be pretty important for a lot of people
and so journalism, activism, all of the things that we sort of kind
of have a good understanding of today are going to shift quite dramatically in the future.
And, of course, gaming's going to be a part of it, but, again, you're going to be able to play,
yeah, the coolest latest virtual reality games, but you're also going to be able to go
into your VR world and play, you know,
Pong or one of the first video games that was ever created.
And, of course, I added question marks to the bottom here too
because who knows what else this will bring with it.
And so — with that being said, the quickest lecture in history —
if anyone needs to contact me or wants to contact me about any of this,
I've got some contact info on the screen.
The game design program at Moorpark is a full Associate in Science degree
and brings with it a number of classes.
You can follow us on Twitter, find us on Instagram and Facebook and so on and so forth.
So, anyway, if anyone has any questions or comments I would love to field them.
Yeah.
[ Inaudible question about Amazon Pop-Up stores ]
Yeah. I mean I don't know a lot about it.
I've seen one.
Yeah, I didn't go — I should have gone into it but we were traveling.
But, yeah, there's — I mean that sort of thing is really —
you know, it's proof that the lines are blurring, right?
That we're sort of going between the two worlds.
Yeah. Definitely.
Yeah.
[ Inaudible question colleges that offer classes in competitive gaming ]
You know, it could be.
UC Irvine actually just built an E-sports lab and are bringing people
to not only study what it mean — what, you know, what game design means,
but what it means to be a professional game player.
And so, I mean, I think that's going to happen.
I mean Moorpark College is interesting because it's a community college
and we're leading towards those places.
Right? And so I would love to do stuff like that here at least casually.
I don't know if we could formalize it like UC Irvine does, but yeah.
[ Applause ]
Oh, well yeah.
No more questions!
I'm done with this.
>> Are there any more questions?
I appreciate the applause, but I was like —
[ Laughter ]
Any more questions?
Professor Samoff — the reason he did this as a quick lecture is he's got class —
>> Yeah, in seven minutes.
>> Yes.
>> I have one little question.
>> Yeah, go for it.
>> Do you guys do map designs?
>> Like designing levels and things?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah, we have a whole class called level design, so yes!
>> What a fascinating topic and thank you so much for coming.
Now you applaud.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you guys for having me.
I'd love to see you in a class.