Wednesday, December 16, 2009

More World Game

Long time readers know that I regard "Casino" to mean "large meeting hall" like a movie theater in Avalon (Catalina). No gambling may occur, yet there's always a risk in going out, sitting next to someone, so life is a gamble. This is not such a quirky spin, is actually closer to the dictionary meaning.

I bring this up because I imagine transitioning an experimental casino from one form of game playing to another, while keeping quite a bit of the same infrastructure. The arcade or video game palace is another influence (Avalon on Belmont).

Imagine playing a game of skill and being able to donate your winnings to invisible children somewhere in need of your help. There'd be some real circuitry here, thanks to data banks like Facebook and Paypal. You might pick your recipient, your game, and then play. Do you want your track record made public? You have that option.

What kind of games you ask? They might make you smarter. They might be recruiting commercials of some flavor, or even counter-recruiting commercials. People have choices about how they spend their time, whether to play any games at all. Video arcades seem oppressive to some. Not all games require video.

Because this model offers players a way to track their donations, there's an atmosphere of shopping for worthy outfits, getting more bang for the buck. Some dynamite nonprofit that really gets the job done (e.g. ONAMI) will bathe donors in reflected glory. Who knows how to pick winners? That's part of the game. Many gems in this ocean.