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