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