Parsing Reality: Shaping Play with Connected Stuff
This panel will explore how our actual lives and everyday stuff are becoming the most interesting platform for gaming. We'll discuss, from different perspectives, the ways games are shaping our experience of a new blended digital subjective/object space. Portables, wearables, and connected stuff mean bits and networks are everywhere we go, giving us the possibility of a new deep awareness of our personal state. As Will Wright says, "we are at a turning point for mobile gaming, a shift for games from being about simulating reality to being about parsing reality." Sensors everywhere and advances like bluetooth smart are turning everyday objects into an opportunity for play. The future of our playful sociality is "toys" that are a customization of our interactions with the actual world and everyday life. This panel will explore how games, robots, and playful experiences are the key to making our new habitat of digital/physical complexity more accessible and fun.
Presenters
Dave is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Tap Lab, a Cambridge-based startup that develops social games with a real-world twist. His focus is in game design and business development. The Tap Lab is a graduate of TechStars Boston and winner of MassChallenge. Dave has a passion for entertainment and has experience working in marketing and business development at Walden Media, Universal Pictures (UK), and Warner Music Group.
Dave was the producer for the mobile game TapCity, a real-world game in which players compete and collaborate to claim ownership of their favorite local places. More recently, he has been working as the producer for The Tap Lab's newest game, Tiny Tycoons, which will be hitting the market soon.
Phu is a cofounder of Romotive, maker of smart phone robots.
Tish is working with Will Wright on designing and developing a new franchise of personally aware mobile social experiences where your actual life is the gaming platform.
Tish is a synthesist – an entrepreneur, designer, technologist, speaker, writer, and anticipatory anthropologist, passionate about creating the future of playful sociality. As, “What we call social and networked now is going to seem pretty feeble soon!”
Tuesday, March 12
