Comments on: At SXSWi, hacking 'The hat game'

A CNET News reporter decides to game a festival project--which tasked players with tracking and retrieving a bowler hat with an embedded GPS chip--by wearing one of his own.

[santheman1]

Congrats, you're a dork.

[Len Bullard]

You make too much money and have too much time on your hands or your head.

We are working on a new statute that requires the control of the country to bypass your generation and go directly to our grandchildren instead. Otherwise, it is certain that the Republic is doomed.

[Daniel Terdiman]

I beg to differ. I think people gaming systems and being willing to think outside of the box are the ones who are going to make it possible for there to be much of a world for our grandchildren. Perhaps it was a bit silly to game the Hat game, but the point was to both test game mechanics and make people question their assumptions. Plus to add a little humor to what would otherwise be a fairly mundane story about a game.

I work hard and I don't make that much money, btw. :-)

[Len Bullard]

That was a joke, Daniel. But I wouldn't put too much faith in technology to solve problems which are at their root, cultural or value-oriented. You'll throw a lot more tech away than you will your basic beliefs. My Dad's generation came back from WWII with a different view of the world. Mine marched for civil rights. Your's marches for free mp3s and broadband. Like it or not, you picked the box.

If the hat game is a distraction, it's harmless. On the other hand, there was another game being played where people took cards for doing a good deed. Raph Koster blogged that. It provoked an interesting discussion on the topic of random kindness. It provoked thought.

Now about that hat....

[SimplySimon]

I am the other half of Simon Games, and thanks Daniel for covering our game. I just wanted to address your comment implying that the game was frivolous and without merit. OK, there was frivolity but don't we need that now and again? The game was commissioned for a simple purpose, to raise the profile at SXSW of a bunch of digital creatives and entrepreneurs from the UK. It achieved that in an interesting way.

Although the game was technology driven, most participants heard about it through word of mouth and experienced it on the streets, face to face with other players. This evolution of communications tech away from the screen and the emphasis on physical interaction between people seems to me to offer a good deal of potential outside of PR or marketing. Games have a lot of potential outside of just amusement. Don't forget that the celebrated Obama campaign iphone app. had a game element. It motivated people and gave them feedback and a sense of meaning within a potentially overwhelming task.

The Hat Game was a piece of whimsy but the requirement that people conduct themselves in the game with decorum seems to me to be socially affirming. The argument that games are either essentially frivolous or must have 'thought provoking' outcomes is corrosive. Keep on down that line and you can discount much of art, fashion or music as irrelevant - all the things that make life comprehensible and enjoyable. For instance, you might argue that instead of spending time commenting on Daniel's blog, you could have been helping save a life or contributing to the 'greater good'. But isn't that a kind of fundamentalism of virtue that fails to address the messy complexity of being human? If we want to change the world for the better, we really do need to speak to the messy human in us all.

[joshuawein]

Love it!

[Seaspray0]

The treasure hunt theme based around a mobile hat using tech.... Nice story, Daniel. It made me smile.

[GO ILLINI]

Interesting story. Thanks

[PP Martin]

Nice headgear, Daniel, and hat's off to you for tackling this story head-on.

It's always nice to see a fellow "chrome dome" gaming the game ;)

ppmartin
Hong Kong