I often see people playing games on their phones (Sudoku, word games, etc) and think to myself - jesus, look at all of that wasted brain power that could be put to work solving important problems.
Personally, I like to work teaser math problems and algorithms, like the Traveling Salesman Problem, set sorting problems, or whatever. It's so much more fun to know you might by happenstance, fumbeling arounds in math space, find something actually beneficial to the world. You'll never contribute to society play a "bounded game" like candy crush or whatever.
I guess what I'm saying is that I wish there were such a thing as an "unbounded game" that truly allowes you to discover. I think protein folding crowd sourcing comes close, but how fun is that, really? (I'm literally asking, I don't know, I've never partaken)
How do you make a game that also contributes to collective knowledge?
For me, the joy of most of these phone games is that there is limited thinking going on. Sudoku is a good example where it requires some analytical thinking, but it's, for the most part, just applying rules.
To me, that's the point of a game. To relax my brain with something a little silly and 'easy'.
Personally, I like to work teaser math problems and algorithms, like the Traveling Salesman Problem, set sorting problems, or whatever. It's so much more fun to know you might by happenstance, fumbeling arounds in math space, find something actually beneficial to the world. You'll never contribute to society play a "bounded game" like candy crush or whatever.
I guess what I'm saying is that I wish there were such a thing as an "unbounded game" that truly allowes you to discover. I think protein folding crowd sourcing comes close, but how fun is that, really? (I'm literally asking, I don't know, I've never partaken)
How do you make a game that also contributes to collective knowledge?