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