There's Free Labor in Video Games | Hacker News Reader

There's Free Labor in Video Games

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

13 pointsrobg7 comments

I'm not too sure about this. The main issue is that people play to have fun. When they realise that their "efforts" to have fun are being used for something else, suddenly the game isn't a game anymore and they become reluctant to use it. So any implementation of this scheme might really flop if it's not done in a great way.

I'm actually very interested in this topic, since one of the ideas I'm developing is based on gaming, and the perception of the users is something that I consider will decide the success of this idea.

Conversely, there exist people who will do work for disproportionately poor compensation just because they like feeling useful -- the driving force behind Mechanical Turk.

True, but I don't think these people fit in the 'gamer' category (or rather, 'dedicated gamer'). Well, generalising is bad, but you get the idea. I see them as two (almost) opposed concepts :P

And I mean opposed as in, gaming is usually done for your own sake and enjoyment (with or without friends), nothing to do with helping someone else, most of the time. I don't mean gamers are unfriendly people (I'm a gamer myself), just that the concept of gaming is more a personal goal than an altruist one.

When that Google Image game came out I played about 2 seconds before deciding my keystrokes could be applied to better things than helping Google improve their image service.

After reading this article I went to take a look at Google Image Service. I played for about two seconds before deciding my keystrokes could be applied to better things

But then I felt like I was doing really poorly entirely because my partner was dumb and continued to play for 30 minutes just like that.

My point: rationality isn't always the most important driving factor.

I don't see your concern as an issue. The game has to be fun. If it's fun, people either don't care about the side-effects, or are only turned off if those side-effects are extremely detrimental: look at World of Warcraft. It's really just that simple

Even then, you'd be surprised how much people like the idea of, you know, helping someone else out. Maybe you are pointing out that most of us are so gree-, err..., industrious, that if we imagine we are contributing value to someone, we feel like we shouldn't be giving away that value for free. Thus, playing such a game just makes us feel cheated.

I think I was feeling too negative yesterday, but yes, that's what I meant, it's not about having fun anymore but about giving something for free.

And we sure like to help people out, but the issue is, do we still consider it a game then? And is it still as fun as it was before it was just 'for the sake of it'?

I think our reactions might be different (sure I wan't to do it / uff, no I don't feel like it), but the view of the game changes for everybody, and for some it's not a game at all anymore. What I wonder is if there's a way to remove that feeling completely.

Gah it's hard to express things like this in a different language, I hope I explained myself well enough :)

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