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Right, and I wouldn't play FarmVille either but, according to the talk, more people do that than have Twitter accounts. Given that, and the other similar point

Right, and I wouldn't play FarmVille either but, according to the talk, more people do that than have Twitter accounts. Given that, and the other similar points the presenter makes, I don't find it at all unbelievable that a large percentage of the population would indeed brush their teeth for points.

sailormoon 17y ago
more people [play FarmVille] than have Twitter accounts but will they in a year? Two years? FarmVille seems to be an incredible fad to me; finally people can play a game with their real friends' names. But in the end I have to wonder about what the possible value of such games is. Surely not too many people with any purchasing power are wasting time tending to an imaginary cow or whatever.
- pmarsh 17y ago
  Here's the thing about fads, there's always a new one to take its place. Usually a little different and sometimes a little better in ways, but still a fad that pretty much does the same thing. People might get bored with the farmville rewards, but I'm sure something will take its place. And even if the userbase falls by 50% or even 75% in 2 years, that's still a freaking huge number of users.
pmarsh 17y ago
It's not even like you're trying to get the others to brush their teeth, you're simply adding onto their experience. And if the technology gets cheap enough that the toothbrush they buy has it built-in anyway all the better. Not everyone will, but companies don't need everyone of their users to do so to make it worth it. It's hard to imagine setting up a toothbrush to connect to my wifi router, but imagine we do continue our technological pace for another 30 years. Maybe not that far fetched. Of course we could also hit a wall and these 'games' will march into our lives and then suddenly abruptly we stop caring. Interesting talk, fun to think so pie in the sky.

sailormoon 17y ago

more people [play FarmVille] than have Twitter accounts but will they in a year? Two years? FarmVille seems to be an incredible fad to me; finally people can play a game with their real friends' names. But in the end I have to wonder about what the possible value of such games is. Surely not too many people with any purchasing power are wasting time tending to an imaginary cow or whatever.

pmarsh 17y ago
Here's the thing about fads, there's always a new one to take its place. Usually a little different and sometimes a little better in ways, but still a fad that pretty much does the same thing. People might get bored with the farmville rewards, but I'm sure something will take its place. And even if the userbase falls by 50% or even 75% in 2 years, that's still a freaking huge number of users.

pmarsh 17y ago

It's not even like you're trying to get the others to brush their teeth, you're simply adding onto their experience. And if the technology gets cheap enough that the toothbrush they buy has it built-in anyway all the better. Not everyone will, but companies don't need everyone of their users to do so to make it worth it. It's hard to imagine setting up a toothbrush to connect to my wifi router, but imagine we do continue our technological pace for another 30 years. Maybe not that far fetched. Of course we could also hit a wall and these 'games' will march into our lives and then suddenly abruptly we stop caring. Interesting talk, fun to think so pie in the sky.