I grew up in Northern Ireland, right in the very, very north end of it there, it’s absolutely freezing cold. This was me running around in the back garden mid-summer.
(Laughter)
I couldn’t pick career. In Ireland the obvious choice is the military, but to be honest it kind of sucks.
(Laughter)
My mother wanted me to be a dentist. But problem was that people kept blowing everything up. So I went to school in Belfast, which was where all the action happened. And was a pretty common sight. The school I went to was boring. They forced us to learn things like Latin. The school teachers weren’t having much fun, sports were very dirty or very painful. So I chose rowing, which I got very good at.
And I was rowing for my school here until this fateful day, and flipped over right in front of the entire school. that was the finishing post right there.
(Laughter)
So was extremely embarrassing. But our school at that time got a grant from the government, and they an incredible computer — the research machine 3DZ — they left the programming manuals lying around. And so students like myself with nothing to do, we learn how to program it. Also around this time, at home, was the computer that people were buying. It was the Sinclair ZX80. This was a 1K computer, and you’d buy your on cassette tape.
Actually I’m just going to pause for one second, because heard that there’s a prerequisite to speak here at TED — you had have a picture of yourself from the old days with big hair. I brought a picture with big hair.
(Laughter).
I just want get that out of the way. So after the Sinclair ZX80 came along the very named Sinclair ZX81.
(Laughter)
And — you see the at the bottom? There’s a picture of a guy doing with his son. That’s what they thought they had built it for. The reality is we got the manual and we started making games for it. We were programming in BASIC, is a pretty awful language for games, so we ended up learning Assembly so we could really take control of the hardware. This is guy that invented it, Sir Clive Sinclair, and he’s showing his machine. You this same thing in America, it was called the Sinclair1000.
To play a game in those days you had to an imagination to believe that you were really playing “Battlestar Galactica.” The graphics were horrible. You had to have an even better imagination play this game, “Death Rider.” But of course the scientists couldn’t help themselves. They started making their own games. This is one of my favorite ones here, where have rabbit breeding, so males choose the lucky rabbit.
It was around this time we went 1K to 16K, which was quite the leap. And if you’re wondering how much 16K is, eBay logo here is 16K. And in that amount memory someone programmed a full flight simulation program. And that’s what it looked like. I ages flying this flight simulator, and I honestly believed I could airplanes by the end of it.
Here’s Clive Sinclair now launching his color computer. He’s recognized as being father of video games in Europe. He’s a multi-millionaire, and I think that’s he’s smiling in this photograph.
So I went on the next 20 years or so making a lot of different games. of the highlights were things like “The Terminator,” “Aladdin,” the “Teenage Mutant Turtles.” Because I was from the United Kingdom, they thought the word ninja was a little mean for children, so they decided to call it hero instead. I personally preferred the Spanish version, was “Tortugas Ninja.” That was much better.
(Laughter)
Then the last game I was based on trying to get the video game industry and Hollywood actually work together on something — instead of licensing each other, to actually work.
Now, Chris did ask me bring some statistics with me, so I’ve done that. The video game industry in 2005 a 29 billion dollar business. It grows every year. Last year the biggest year. By 2008, we’re going to kick the butt the music industry. By 2010, we’re going to hit 42 billion. 43 percent of gamers are female. So there’s lot more female gamers than people are really aware.
The age of gamers? Well, obviously it’s for children, right? Well, no, actually it’s 30 years old. And interestingly, people who buy the most games are 37. So 37 is our target audience. video games are violent. Of course the newspapers love to beat this. But 83 percent of games don’t have any mature content whatsoever, so it’s not true.
Online gaming statistics. I brought some stuff on “World of Warcraft.” It’s 5.5 million players. makes about 80 million bucks a month in subscriptions. It costs 50 bucks to install it on your computer, making the publisher about another 275 million. The game about 80 million dollars to make, so basically it pays itself in about a month. A player in a game called “Project Entropia” actually bought his island for 26,500 dollars. You have to remember that is not a real island. He didn’t actually buy anything, some data. But he got great terms on it. This purchase included mining hunting rights, ownership of all land on the island, and castle with no furniture included.
(Laughter)
This market is now estimated at over 800 million annually. And what’s interesting about it is the market was created by the gamers themselves. They found clever ways to trade and to sell their accounts to each other so that they could make money while they playing their games. I dove onto eBay a couple of days ago just to see was gong on, typed in World of Warcraft, got 6,000 items. I liked one the best: a level 60 Warlock with lots epics for 174,000 dollars. It’s like that guy obviously had some pain while making it.
So far as popularity of games, what do you think these are doing here? It turns out they’re actually in Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles listening to the L.A. Philharmonic playing video music. That’s what the show looks like. You would it to be cheesy, but it’s not. It’s very, very epic a very beautiful concert. And the people that went there absolutely it.
What do you think these people are doing? They’re actually bringing their so they can play games against each other. And this is happening in city around the world. This is happening in your local cities too, you’re probably just not of it.
Now, Chris told me that you had a timeline video few years ago here just to show how video graphics have been improving. I wanted to update that video and give you new look at it. But what I want you to is to try to understand it. We’re on this curve, the graphics are getting so ridiculously better. And I’m going to you up to maybe 2007. But I want you to try and think about what games could like 10 years from now. So we’re going to start that video.
Video: Throughout human history people have games. As man’s intellect and technology have evolved so too have the games plays.
(Music)
(Applause)
David Perry: The thing again I want you to think about is, don’t look at graphics and think of that’s the way it is. Think about that’s where we are right now, the curve that we’re on means that this is going continue to get better. This is an example of the kind graphics you need to be able to draw if you wanted to a job in the video game industry today. You need to be really an artist. And once we get enough of those guys, we’re going want more fantasy artists that can create places we’ve never been to before, or that we’ve just never seen before.
So the obvious for me to talk about today is graphics and audio. But if were to go to a game developers conference, what they’re talking about is emotion, purpose, meaning, understanding and feeling. You’ll about talks like, can a video game make you cry? these are the kind of topics we really actually care about.
I across a student who’s absolutely excellent at expressing himself, and student agreed that he would not show his video to anybody until you here at had seen it. So I’d like to play this video. So this a student’s opinion on what his experience of games are.
Video: I, like many of you, live between reality and video games. Some part of me — true living, breathing person — has become programmed, electronic virtual. The boundary of my brain that divides real fantasy has finally begun to crumble. I’m a video game addict this is my story.
(Music)
In the year of birth the Nintendo Entertainment System also went into development. played in the backyard, learned to read, and even ate some of vegetables. Most of my childhood was spent playing with Legos. But as was the for most of my generation, I spent a lot of time in front of TV. Mr. Rogers, Walt Disney, Nick Junior, and roughly half a million commercials have undoubtedly left their mark me.
When my parents bought my sister and I our first Nintendo, whatever inherent quality this early interactive electronic entertainment possessed quickly took hold me. At some point something clicked.
(Music)
With the of simple, interactive stories and the warmth of the set, my simple 16-bit Nintendo became more than just an escape. It became an alternate existence, my reality.
(Music)
I’m a video game addict, and it’s because of a certain number of hours I have spent playing, or nights have gone without sleep to finish the next level. It is because I had life-altering experiences in virtual space, and video games had begun to my own understanding of what is real and what not. I’m addicted, because even though I know I’m my grip on reality, I still crave more.
(Music)
From an early I learned to invest myself emotionally in what unfolded before me on screen. Today, 20 years of watching TV geared to make me emotional, even decent insurance commercial can bring tears to my eyes. I am one of a new generation that is growing up. A generation who may experience more meaning through video games than they will through the real world. Video are nearing an evolutionary leap, a point where game worlds will look and feel just as as the films we see in theatres, or the news we watch TV. And while my sense of free will in these virtual worlds still be limited, what I do learn applies to my real life. Play enough video games eventually you will really believe you can snowboard, fly plane, drive a nine-second quarter mile, or kill a man. I I can.
Unlike any pop culture phenomenon before it, video games actually us to become part of the machine. They allow us to sublimate into culture of interactive, downloaded, streaming, HD reality. We are with our entertainment. I have come to expect this level of interaction. Without it, the faced in the real world — poverty, war, disease genocide — lack the levity they should. Their importance blends into sensationalized drama of prime time TV.
But the beauty of games today lies not in the lifelike graphics, the vibrating joysticks virtual surround sound. It lies in that these games are beginning make me emotional. I have fought in wars, feared for my own survival, watched my cohorts on beaches and woods that look and feel more real than textbook or any news story.
The people who create these games smart. They know what makes me scared, excited, panicked, or sad. Then they use these emotions to dimensionalize worlds they create. A well-designed video game will seamlessly weave the user into fabric of the virtual experience. As one becomes more experienced the awareness of control melts away. I know what I want and I do it. No to push, no triggers to pull, just me and the game. My fate the fate of the world around me lie inside my hands. I violent video games make my mother worry. What troubles me not that video game violence is becoming more and more like life violence, but that real life violence is starting to more and more like a video game.
(Music)
These are all troubles outside myself. I, however, have a problem very close to home. Something happened to my brain.
(Music)
Perhaps there is a part of our brain that holds all of our instincts, the things we know to do before we even think. While some these instincts may be innate, most are learned, and all them are hardwired into our brains. These instincts are essential for survival in both and virtual worlds. Only in recent years has the technology behind video allowed for a true overlap in stimuli. As gamers we now living by the same laws of physics in same cities and doing many of the same things once did in real life, only virtually. Consider this — my real life car about 25,000 miles on it. In all my driving games, I’ve driven a total of 31,459 miles. To some I’ve learned how to drive from the game. The sensory cues are very similar. It’s funny feeling when you have spent more time doing something the TV than you have in real life. When I am driving down road at sunset all I can think is, this almost as beautiful as my games are.
For my virtual worlds perfect. More beautiful and rich than the real world around us. I’m sure what the implications of my experience are, but the potential for realistic video game stimuli in repetition on a vast number of loyal participants is frightening me. Today I believe Big Brother would find much more success brainwashing masses with video games rather than just simply TVs. games are fun, engaging, and leave your brain completely to re-programming. But maybe brainwashing isn’t always bad.
Imagine game that teaches us to respect each other, or us to understand the problems we’re all facing in the real world. There is a potential to good as well. It is critical, as these virtual worlds continue to mirror the real world live in, that game developers realize that they have tremendous responsibilities before them. I’m sure what the future of video games holds for civilization. But as virtual and real world experiences increasingly there is a greater and greater potential for other people feel the same way I do.
What I have only recently come to realize is that beyond graphics, sound, game play and emotion it is the power to break down reality that so fascinating and addictive to me. I know that I am losing my grip. Part of me just waiting to let go. I know though, that matter how amazing video games may become, or how flat the world may seem to us, that we must stay aware of what games are teaching us and how they leave us feeling when we finally unplug.
(Applause)
DP: Wow.
(Applause)
I found that video very, very thought provoking, that’s why I wanted to bring it here for you guys to see. what was interesting about it is the obvious choice for me to talk was graphics and audio. But as you heard, Michael talked about all other elements as well. Video games give an awful of other things too, and that’s why people get so addicted. The most important being fun.
The name of this track is “The Magic Come.” Who is that going to come from? Is going to come from the best directors in the world as thought it probably would? I don’t think so. I think it’s going to come from the who are growing up now that aren’t stuck with all of the that we remember from the past. They’re going to do their way, using the tools that we’ve created. The same with students or highly creative people, writers people like that.
As far as colleges go, there’s about 350 colleges the world teaching video game courses. That means there’s thousands of new ideas. Some of the ideas are really dreadful some of them are great. There’s nothing worse than having to listen to someone try and you a really bad video game idea.
(Laughter)
Chris Anderson: You’re off, you’re off. That’s it. He’s out of time.
DP: I’ve just got little tiny bit more if you’ll indulge me.
CA: Go ahead. I’m to stay right here though.
(Laughter)
DP: This is just a cool shot, this is students coming to school after class. The is closed; they’re coming back at midnight because they want to their video game ideas. I’m sitting at the front of class, and they’re actually pitching their ideas. So it’s to get students to come back to class, but it possible.
This is my daughter, her name’s Emma, she’s 17 old. And I’ve been asking myself, what is Emma going to experience the video game world? And as I’ve shown here, we have the audience. She’s never going to a world where you can’t press a button and have millions of people ready to play. know, we have the technology. She’s never going to know a world where the graphics aren’t stunning and really immersive. And as the student video showed, we can impact and move. She’s never to know a world where video games aren’t incredibly and will probably make her cry. I just hope likes video games.
(Laughter)
So, my closing thought. Games on surface seem simple entertainment, but for those that like to look little deeper, the new paradigm of video games could open entirely new frontiers to creative minds like to think big. Where better to challenge those minds than here at TED?
Thank you.
Chris Anderson: Perry. That was awesome.