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TITLE: Human computation: games with a purpose
CLIENT: Dr. Philippe Pasquier (SIAT)
URL: http://www.sfu.ca/pasquier/index-uk.html
CONTACT: pasquier@sfu.ca
OVERVIEW:
The Entertainment Software Association [1] has reported that more than 200 million hours are spent each day playing computer and video games in the U.S. Indeed, by age 21, the average American has spent more than 10,000 hours playing such games—equivalent to five years of working a full-time job 40 hours per week.
The idea of human computing is to “exploit” this gaming time to solve problems that cannot be solved by computers or gather information that is hard to gather automatically [2]. Gamers are then achieving some useful tasks as a side effect of their gaming, and they do it for free (they may even pay for it)!
This new type of video games - called “games with a purpose” [3] - constitute a major breakthrough in the way we envision the relationship between working and gaming. This project is an opportunity to participate in developing the next generation of on-line video games.
A more complete introduction to human computation can be watched on-line:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8246463980976635143
PROJECT GOALS:
The main goal of the project will be to design and deploy a new “game with a purpose”. That will include the following subgoals:
- Learn more about previous theorizations and realizations in the area of Human Computing
- Finding a task for the gamer to achieve,
- Designing the game,
- Implementing it
- Testing it and testing the human computation side of it.
- Documenting it and deploying it
- Attracting media coverage
One of the side goal of the project will be to write a paper presenting the game and the underlying ideas for publication in one of the many relevant international journal.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
While I do have specific ideas of possible “games with a purpose”, I believe students will benefit from brainstorming and finding their own!
DELIVERABLES:
The main focus of the project is a working prototype that can be launched on-line late spring 2009. Deliverables will include: bi-weekly meeting status reports, design requirements document, game specification document, concept design, design mock-ups, initial and final versions of prototype, final prototype and code documentation, press release and journal paper.
SKILLS REQUIRED:
A well rounded team with members from media arts, design and programming is required for this project. The key roles required will include:
- Project management (e.g., scheduling, documentation, resource allocation)
- Computer game design (e.g., design of the game)
- Multimedia design (e.g., design and coding of audio visual content of the game)
- Programming (Java, C, Macromedia Director can be used)
RESOURCES:
[1] Entertainment Software Association, www.theesa.com/facts/
[2] Luis von Ahn, Laura Dabbish, Designing games with a purpose, Communications of the ACM, Volume 51 , Issue 8, August 2008.
[3] On-line examples of games with a purpose: http://www.gwap.com/gwap/