hi my name is Bashar and I’m a gamer
every year my friends and I like to get
together either online or in person
along with millions of others to
celebrate our passion for the thing we
love most and see what the future of the
industry holds for us which begs the
question why is it that gamers are so
passionate about games before I continue
I just like to point out that some games
are going to be mentioned later on and I
had nothing to do with the development
of those games I don’t intend to
advertise I’m simply a fan I’d first
like to clarify what a gamer actually
looks like in 2018 in order to really
tackle this problem if I asked you right
now to think of a typical gamer it would
probably go somewhere along the lines of
16 year old boy who hasn’t left his room
since the dawn of time but if we take a
look at some numbers we see that the
average age of a gamer today is actually
34 years old over 40% of which are women
and as we’re going to see later on games
have an unmatched ability of bringing
people together I also find it
noteworthy that games are often
considered a waste of time but upon
closer inspection would see we see that
for a lot of people games offer a frame
in which they can socialize they
encourage in-home gamers cognitive
skills such as memory and proprioception
as well as other skills such as
self-expression creativity and
leadership this is most prominent for
example in games such as massively
multiplayer online games or mmm-mmm O’s
in which working together and being able
to solve problems in a group and lead is
a prominent feature in the game not
being able to do so would halt or slow
down your progress in the game games
also have immense value in scientific
research medicine and education
and then I thought to myself I mean that
can’t be it
I mean everything I just said is all
well and good but if you ask a gamer why
they play games it’s never because it
improves their memory or makes it easier
for them to touch their noses with their
eyes closed
proprioception joke so this had to be
looked at from a different perspective
in my work with two close friends of
mine who helped me with the creation of
this talk
dr. Taha befool PhD in cognitive science
and don’t know what that electrical
engineer at Intel we’ve learned that
what separates a game from a movie or a
great book is responsibility the player
is responsible for what’s happening on
screen at all times
and that responsibility ties us to the
experience it makes it personal and
unique to us if we look at that way that
we experience something in real life and
thought of our brain activity as a horse
race then an experience or a horse is
belittled in a way by the other horses
in the race by other horses I mean the
many variables of real life in a game
however let’s think about let’s think
about right now you’re listening to me
talk and yet at the same time you’re
also thinking about that argument that
you had with your friend last night and
where you’re going to have a drink as
soon as I’m done blabbering in a game
however that world is in a way pure it
is made for us to experience it one
frame at a time this is why games are so
effective at making us feel and with
that I’d like to talk about the most
dangerous look how quiet a god the most
dangerous most common cause of death
amongst men around the world
emotions that’s not true by the way
don’t look that up because it’s the
emotions that we tie to a game that make
it special for us and that’s why I’d
like to talk about the emotions that I
felt playing the games that were most
influent influential for me and the
first is belonging destiny is a game
where it’s another one of those games
where playing with other people is an
inevitable part of the experience it
includes large open spaces that are
packed with other players for you to
explore and play the game with as well
as more tightly structured missions of
varying scales where teamwork and
coordination are key
I remember going through one of those
missions one of the larger scale ones
with five complete strangers which
proved no easy feat because it took us
over six hours to complete yet by the
end we’d established such an effective
way of communicating with each other we
worked so well together that we decided
to form a group this group would then
become the basis for many future
endeavors the members of the of this
group we we pushed each other to become
better at the game and learn more about
it
working together we also more simply put
we became close friends as well with
these people I felt like I belong not
only just in the group but also in the
game world itself right
I’d like to you to think about a game
from your childhood not necessarily a
videogame think about who you played it
with think about how you’d feel playing
that game today if you asked me to think
of a game it would probably be halo
playing Halo in my childhood this was at
a time where in order to play a
multiplayer game you had to physically
carry your home console all the way to
your friend’s place because he happened
to have a second monitor monitor in the
same room so we can play together I mean
today this seems tedious but at the time
it was fine because it allowed us to do
something we considered miraculous which
is to see your friend move on-screen
alongside you flash-forward
more than 10 years later to my tiny
students apartment in Munich and I’m
playing a remade version of that
original Halo dubbed the Master Chief
collection at this point there was
something called split-screen
multiplayer which allowed us which
allowed up to four people to play on the
same screen on the same console but
because of the technological advances at
this point this was considered
old-school an old-school feature would
it was considered a dying trend yet Here
I am
playing it with three of my closest
friends finding myself overwhelmed by
this feeling which reminded me of that
first time seeing my friend move
on-screen alongside me and I’m not alone
gamers often fight to keep their
favorite old games alive we’ve seen this
with the revival of the Halo 2
multiplayer servers on PC after games
got together and asked the developers
not to shut them down more than five
years after the original release of the
game finally I’d like to talk about
empathy now I’ll be quite honest I’m not
sure that this is the right word that
I’m looking for but maybe you guys can
help me out
journey is a game which starts in a
seemingly endless desert it’s undeniably
beautiful the sound design is so
incredible it did this thing where the
music always blended with the way that
you moved your character on screen the
game was a technical marvel yet that
wasn’t what grabbed me about it but
rather after 20 minutes in my hour and a
half with journey I encountered
something which I didn’t know was part
of the game
another shrouded figure that looked just
like mine the way this figure moved and
behaved indicated that this was a real
person and yet unlike destiny or halo
I couldn’t just there was no name tag
above their head
I couldn’t just hook up a mic and start
talking to them but we both had a very
clear objective get to the top of that
mountain which we did by the end this
person I felt a certain connection to
them which was strange because I didn’t
know who this person was or where
they’re from I didn’t know anything
about them I realized that my time with
this person was about to end but I
didn’t want it to so I stopped a few
seconds later this person noticed this
and stopped as well and we just sat
there I hadn’t said a single word to
this person the entire time and yet at
that moment I knew that we felt exactly
the same way to me that very moment
meant so much it meant equality it meant
humanity it meant that any two people no
matter who they are or whether from
could connect he had
changed the way that I thought of others
now I’ve done what I can to explain to
you or give you a taste of what it’s
like to be a gamer but if you look at
all those stories that I just told you
they’re all quintessentially me because
no game is ever experienced the same way
twice play is something we’re all born
with it’s the first thing we know how to
do and nobody ever taught us that I find
it tragic that with time we seem to lose
that connection to our roots it’s one
thing to understand what it means to be
a gamer and another thing completely to
be a gamer yourself thank you
[Applause]
every year my friends and I like to get
together either online or in person
along with millions of others to
celebrate our passion for the thing we
love most and see what the future of the
industry holds for us which begs the
question why is it that gamers are so
passionate about games before I continue
I just like to point out that some games
are going to be mentioned later on and I
had nothing to do with the development
of those games I don’t intend to
advertise I’m simply a fan I’d first
like to clarify what a gamer actually
looks like in 2018 in order to really
tackle this problem if I asked you right
now to think of a typical gamer it would
probably go somewhere along the lines of
16 year old boy who hasn’t left his room
since the dawn of time but if we take a
look at some numbers we see that the
average age of a gamer today is actually
34 years old over 40% of which are women
and as we’re going to see later on games
have an unmatched ability of bringing
people together I also find it
noteworthy that games are often
considered a waste of time but upon
closer inspection would see we see that
for a lot of people games offer a frame
in which they can socialize they
encourage in-home gamers cognitive
skills such as memory and proprioception
as well as other skills such as
self-expression creativity and
leadership this is most prominent for
example in games such as massively
multiplayer online games or mmm-mmm O’s
in which working together and being able
to solve problems in a group and lead is
a prominent feature in the game not
being able to do so would halt or slow
down your progress in the game games
also have immense value in scientific
research medicine and education
and then I thought to myself I mean that
can’t be it
I mean everything I just said is all
well and good but if you ask a gamer why
they play games it’s never because it
improves their memory or makes it easier
for them to touch their noses with their
eyes closed
proprioception joke so this had to be
looked at from a different perspective
in my work with two close friends of
mine who helped me with the creation of
this talk
dr. Taha befool PhD in cognitive science
and don’t know what that electrical
engineer at Intel we’ve learned that
what separates a game from a movie or a
great book is responsibility the player
is responsible for what’s happening on
screen at all times
and that responsibility ties us to the
experience it makes it personal and
unique to us if we look at that way that
we experience something in real life and
thought of our brain activity as a horse
race then an experience or a horse is
belittled in a way by the other horses
in the race by other horses I mean the
many variables of real life in a game
however let’s think about let’s think
about right now you’re listening to me
talk and yet at the same time you’re
also thinking about that argument that
you had with your friend last night and
where you’re going to have a drink as
soon as I’m done blabbering in a game
however that world is in a way pure it
is made for us to experience it one
frame at a time this is why games are so
effective at making us feel and with
that I’d like to talk about the most
dangerous look how quiet a god the most
dangerous most common cause of death
amongst men around the world
emotions that’s not true by the way
don’t look that up because it’s the
emotions that we tie to a game that make
it special for us and that’s why I’d
like to talk about the emotions that I
felt playing the games that were most
influent influential for me and the
first is belonging destiny is a game
where it’s another one of those games
where playing with other people is an
inevitable part of the experience it
includes large open spaces that are
packed with other players for you to
explore and play the game with as well
as more tightly structured missions of
varying scales where teamwork and
coordination are key
I remember going through one of those
missions one of the larger scale ones
with five complete strangers which
proved no easy feat because it took us
over six hours to complete yet by the
end we’d established such an effective
way of communicating with each other we
worked so well together that we decided
to form a group this group would then
become the basis for many future
endeavors the members of the of this
group we we pushed each other to become
better at the game and learn more about
it
working together we also more simply put
we became close friends as well with
these people I felt like I belong not
only just in the group but also in the
game world itself right
I’d like to you to think about a game
from your childhood not necessarily a
videogame think about who you played it
with think about how you’d feel playing
that game today if you asked me to think
of a game it would probably be halo
playing Halo in my childhood this was at
a time where in order to play a
multiplayer game you had to physically
carry your home console all the way to
your friend’s place because he happened
to have a second monitor monitor in the
same room so we can play together I mean
today this seems tedious but at the time
it was fine because it allowed us to do
something we considered miraculous which
is to see your friend move on-screen
alongside you flash-forward
more than 10 years later to my tiny
students apartment in Munich and I’m
playing a remade version of that
original Halo dubbed the Master Chief
collection at this point there was
something called split-screen
multiplayer which allowed us which
allowed up to four people to play on the
same screen on the same console but
because of the technological advances at
this point this was considered
old-school an old-school feature would
it was considered a dying trend yet Here
I am
playing it with three of my closest
friends finding myself overwhelmed by
this feeling which reminded me of that
first time seeing my friend move
on-screen alongside me and I’m not alone
gamers often fight to keep their
favorite old games alive we’ve seen this
with the revival of the Halo 2
multiplayer servers on PC after games
got together and asked the developers
not to shut them down more than five
years after the original release of the
game finally I’d like to talk about
empathy now I’ll be quite honest I’m not
sure that this is the right word that
I’m looking for but maybe you guys can
help me out
journey is a game which starts in a
seemingly endless desert it’s undeniably
beautiful the sound design is so
incredible it did this thing where the
music always blended with the way that
you moved your character on screen the
game was a technical marvel yet that
wasn’t what grabbed me about it but
rather after 20 minutes in my hour and a
half with journey I encountered
something which I didn’t know was part
of the game
another shrouded figure that looked just
like mine the way this figure moved and
behaved indicated that this was a real
person and yet unlike destiny or halo
I couldn’t just there was no name tag
above their head
I couldn’t just hook up a mic and start
talking to them but we both had a very
clear objective get to the top of that
mountain which we did by the end this
person I felt a certain connection to
them which was strange because I didn’t
know who this person was or where
they’re from I didn’t know anything
about them I realized that my time with
this person was about to end but I
didn’t want it to so I stopped a few
seconds later this person noticed this
and stopped as well and we just sat
there I hadn’t said a single word to
this person the entire time and yet at
that moment I knew that we felt exactly
the same way to me that very moment
meant so much it meant equality it meant
humanity it meant that any two people no
matter who they are or whether from
could connect he had
changed the way that I thought of others
now I’ve done what I can to explain to
you or give you a taste of what it’s
like to be a gamer but if you look at
all those stories that I just told you
they’re all quintessentially me because
no game is ever experienced the same way
twice play is something we’re all born
with it’s the first thing we know how to
do and nobody ever taught us that I find
it tragic that with time we seem to lose
that connection to our roots it’s one
thing to understand what it means to be
a gamer and another thing completely to
be a gamer yourself thank you
[Applause]
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