The influence of play in both cultural and personal development has been essential to the current state of society. Through playing, human beings have forged their path.
With the advent of computers, we have witnessed the video game revolution; an industry that has managed to beat the film industry. Among many other things, it offers superior immersion, the ability to tell longer stories and play in teams.
What is Gamification?
Individual's life can be interpreted in different ways. For example, Homer's The Odyssey presents personal development as a journey, as it recounts the adventures of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, who became one of the most important Greek heroes. Before Homer, the Gilgamesh poem also spread similar aspects.
Carl Jung, thousands of years later, deepened in which are the stages that we must face, in the individuation process, with the "hero's journey", the acceptance of our shadow and the archetypes.
After him, two great modern journalists and philosophers contributed to the understanding of life as a play. Susan Sontag, a writer from the United States, posited in her Notes on "Camp", that:
“Camp sees everything in quotation marks. It's not a lamp, but a "lamp"; not a woman, but a "woman." To perceive Camp in objects and persons is to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role. It is the farthest extension, in sensibility, of the metaphor of life as theater.”
Albert Camus, French-Algerian novelist and Nobel Prize for Literature, with his essays and plays, invited us to experience our existence from the interpretation of a character, by accepting the absurdity that arises from the failures and misunderstandings of the communication process.
Thus, Gamification invites us to interpret life as if it were a game. Today, this concept is integrated into educational and training centers, the world of work, social networks and smart cities.
Why incorporate these logics? Because play would be the basis for the consolidation of culture. Through trial and error, as well as thanks to the mother-child play relationship - which is essential in early childhood development - we are able to relate to each other on a social level.
This is explored in depth in the book 'Love and Play: Forgotten Foundations of the Human: From Patriarchy to Democracy' by Humberto Maturana, PhD in Biology, and the German psychologist Gerda Verden-Zöller. Ideas that, in today's hyperdigital world, have gained great relevance.
For the same reason, it is possible to affirm that playful language and play is inherent to human beings. For instance, the t2 platform integrates gamification with its t.p. and competitions such as Friends Who Write.
As for video games, the Global Games Market Report, published in July 2022 by Newzoo (free version), states that the profits of this industry will continue to increase over the years.
The report details that Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa will be the regions that will drive much of the growth of players in the coming years.
Is the Metaverse a "game"?
The metaverse is often associated with virtual reality, and can encompass several types of immersive digital experiences, including video games. This concept, which has been explored in science fiction, has gained more general interest as technology has advanced.
In these virtual worlds, whether centralized or decentralized, people have the ability to interact with each other in real time. They can include elements of gaming, but are not limited to them, as they allow other types of virtual experiences such as educational, work and health to be incorporated.
The development of the Metaverse has also received constant criticism. One of them comes from Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming General Manager, who commented that it looks like a poorly constructed game.
Beyond their technical characteristics, these virtual worlds will allow people to participate in a new playing field. They will be able to create strategies to circumvent domination in the digital social field.
With gamified characteristics, in metaverses agents and institutions will establish new game logics to define the relationship of dominated and dominators that we already see in the "away from keyboard" reality.
Here, meta-commodities will provide users with different ways of acquiring symbolic capital. For example, an NFT might allow entry to special sections and provide different definitions of status.
Vitalik Buterin and how World of Warcraft influenced him
In his CypherHunter profile, Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, shares how World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game (MMORPG), influenced his philosophy:
"I happily played World of Warcraft during 2007-2010, but one day Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock's Siphon Life spell. I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring."
A year later, Vitalik would have met Bitcoin (BTC), a cryptocurrency that still represents one of the most decentralized visions of the ecosystem, to then create Ethereum together with other referents, such as Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot, and Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano.
This blockchain, in which smart contracts and non fungible tokens (NFT) will continue to evolve in the future, has made it possible to combine personal finance with video games. Which, at the same time, has transferred the sovereignty of digital assets to the users.
For Martin Sangiacomo, Web3 consultant at Mushroom Protocol, and part of the team of writers in the Friends Who Write competition, the next few years will be crucial.
"Projecting the future, it is intriguing to reflect on the potential impact when innovative Web3-based video games emerge, with exceptional graphics and highly engaging experiences. It seems only a matter of time. We are looking at a fascinating landscape where Web3 technology and NFTs transform the way we enjoy video games."
The gamification of Mushroom Protocol
Our Mushroom Protocol platform, with which we will decentralize the development and application of biotechnology, we are going to integrate gamification in different ways.
For example, we will award medals to users who participate in different areas of biotechnology such as mining, health or greentech.
We will also develop different activities in the metaverse such as scientific talks, art exhibitions and treasure hunts. According to Sangiacomo, in decentralized metaverses, digital property acquires an intrinsic value, and they emerge as the next evolutionary step.
"Technological evolution and greater awareness of its benefits will eventually pave the way for a society massively immersed in metaverses, similar to the massification of social networks at the dawn of the 21st century."
We seek to allow users to participate in the decentralized sciences (DeSci) in a playful, dynamic and fun way. To achieve this, we are working with IsoVerse Project, developing a virtual space, aiming to be part of the revolution that Gamification and the Metaverse represent.
