The Game Design of IKEA | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
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WHY DOES IT FEEL SO GREAT to walk through an IKEA? In fact, it feels a lot like beating a videogame, complete with awards in the form of delicious cinnamon rolls once you make your way through the bowels of the warehouse level. And the whole main floor is a maze, filled with specific themed areas and… WAIT, IS IKEA A VIDEOGAME? Join Jamin as he explores the game design of IKEA!
Links:
www.theguardian...
SOURCES
bit.ly/1ubyVFg
ASSETS
:08
How to pronounce Ikea in Swedish
• How to pronounce Ikea ...
:34
IKEA Uses a Massive One Percent of the World's Commercial Wood Supply
gizmodo.com/ike...
1:05
Minecraft Mods: Think's Lab - Furniture Shopping!
• BUYING NEW FURNITURE!!...
1:19
038 - HyperShadeTutorials - Unity 3D Creating Scope Zoom Effect (PRO ONLY)
• 038 -HyperShadeTutoria...
1:22
Rekoil - Timelapse Creation of the level Prison
• Rekoil - Timelapse Cre...
2:05
MINECRAFT: Fudging MAZE RUNNER #RageQuit XD
• Video
2:18
9 Types of Ikea Shoppers
• 9 Types of Ikea Shoppers
2:30
集団行動 group action 2011年 Japanese Precision Walking Competition
• 集団行動 group action 2011...
2:48
EPIC SHOPPING IN IKEA - Life After College: Ep. 314
• EPIC SHOPPING IN IKEA ...
4:25
Alpha Starter MTG 5000 Sub OPENED Common Giveaway! Openboosters
• Alpha Starter 4 ! Alph...
4:45
Time Lapse assembly of IKEA MALM bed frame
• Time Lapse assembly of...
5:06
"MAX KOCH assembles a dresser from IKEA" (NSFW)
• "MAX KOCH assembles a ...
5:12
AutoCAD 2013 - 3D Modeling Basics - Sofa Part 2 - Brooke Godfrey
• AutoCAD 2013 - 3D Mode...
5:33
TWO DRUNK GUYS TRY TO ASSEMBLE IKEA FURNITURE - Dead Drunk but Trying [Ep. 01]
• TWO DRUNK GUYS TRY TO ...
5:38
Couples Race To Build IKEA Furniture
• Couples Race To Build ...
5:49
World's Hardest Game
• World's Hardest Game
6:18
Swing Copters - FLAPPY BIRDS SOUL RETURNS.
• Swing Copters - FLAPPY...
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COMMENTS
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Cracken! Minecraft and Stuffz.
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MUSIC:
"Oh Damn!" by CJVSO
/ cjvso-oh-damn
"Digital Sonar" by Brink
"Mindphuck" by Known To Be Lethal
• Video
"After Hours"
"Lakes" by Chooga
• Chooga - 3170 Lakes
"Beautiful Days" by Extan
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"Spectrum Subdiffusion Mix" by Foniqz
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"Good Way Song" by Electronic Rescue
"Alice y Bob" by Javier Rubio and Parsec
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"Sleet" by Kubbi
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"Toaster" by Kubbi
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"Patriotic Songs of America" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet
freemusicarchiv...
"Lets Go Back To The Rock" by Outsider
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"Run" by Outsider
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"Fame" by Statue of Diveo
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"Freedom Weekends" by Statue of Diveo
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Hosted by Jamin Warren (@jaminwar)
See more on games and culture on his site: www.killscreend...
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbr...)
And regarding my glasses:
• Has League of Legends ...
This kind of episode reminds me of when Extra Credits used game design to discuss how the U.S. Government could be reformed. Game design can be applied to so much more than just games.
Personally, I'd like to hear about how game design could affect vehicles and driving. And no, I'm not talking about Forza or Need For Speed. I'm talking about the way the controls are laid out on the dashboard, or how the "level design" of streets and highways influences how cars flow, or whether street signs and signals provide good conveyance to tell the "player" where to go. Stuff like that.
Already working on that one. :)
Many hybrid cars have HUDs that give the driver information on their projected milage and energy returns based on how one drives and uses their brakes. Usually, the HUDs will use color or images to help announce to the driver when they're driving efficiently (low acceleration and speed) or inefficient.(higher acceleration, stop-n-go patterns). User testing are not only making the cars last longer, but also safer as drivers are in feedback loops of positive and safe driving or reckless and dangerous conditions.
〈-thatguyoverthere Someone else recommended traffic, so perhaps we could merge the two! The Game Design of Driving or somesuch.
Forming a new country and utilizing Game Theory to craft a better constitution will probably create the economic and social best country to live in. When the US formed it was really unique to be a secular system. I can only imagine how much better we could do using modern social theories.
Rathelm MC The trouble with that kind of thinking is that 100 years from now we'll probably have new theories and frames of mind that vastly improve on our current ideas. But yeah, it would be a big step in the right direction.
Game theory is used quite extensively in economy.
That Ikea idea of making something difficult so people find it rewarding is why American easy bake stuff requires an egg. For a long time they just included the egg in the mix already but folks didn't find it rewarding. So they removed that and had you manually put the egg in.
That way people feel like its "food" and that they are actually baking.
Isles of Scion That's a great example. As much as we love convenience, we derive value from even the illusion of work.
Betty Crocker did that because the house wives at the time felt guilty that it was too easy, like they were cheating or something. So Betty Crocker, General Mills, hired 2 big psychologists, Dr. Burleigh Gardner and Dr. Ernet Dichter, to help with the issue. They said to get the consumer to "add and egg". Not only would this make it feel like more of a contribution to the recipe, with that it was also a psychological thing with the Egg an the womans fertility. Suggesting that she was giving her husband her eggs.
It's interesting that the frustration of assembling IKEA furniture seems to be a cultural tradition (meme?) specific to US, kind of a running joke - meaning it doesn't matter if it's true, it's social glue, a shared in-joke like "airplane food". I can say that in Russia, I never heard people joke (in person or on TV or UA-cam) about how difficult it is to put IKEA things together. Maybe that's why I never regarded it as difficult or frustrating. Again, I don't mean that Russians are better at assembling furniture - it's just not regarded as a (humorously) arcane, exasperating procedure. So if you F it up, well, people trip over their own feet sometimes; and if the box accidentally lacks one screw, it's maddening but mundane.
Isles of Scion i
As a counseling psychology major, I find using the lenses of game design one of my most refreshing challenges. I'm learning that when I work with clients to sort out their issues, I have to maximize the engagement they have with something they would rather avoid thinking about. Much like Jane and Kelly McGonigal designed games to help people deal with problems, I have to think of each session of counseling, or each hour of group processing/therapy as a module (level) in a longer series (campaign mode), establishing different levels of achievement. I also need to establish feedback (and feedback loops) for the clients, in that the more progress they work through, and in attaining it the right way, they are 'rewarded'.
Does it make the job easier? Probably not, but the reward is worth the extra effort.
That's awesome you're apply games that way!
You might be familiar with him, but Jonathan Holmes is the editor-in-chief at destructoid but also works as some variety of mental health professional, I won't pretend to remember what it is he does, but he talks some about helping his clients to see the game design behind real life and society and helping them to succeed within those rules. I don't have any links to where he says that off hand, but you could google him or hit him up on twitter to talk about it :)
Daniel Graham I didn't know that about Jonathan Holmes! Thanks for the heads-up! Will investigate and learn right away.
Living in Sweden most of my stuff is either inherited or bought at Ikea. I actually live quite close to the local store. Something I've noticed is Ikeas sense of proportion. In small cities, like the one I'm currently living in, Ikea is quite small and easy to orient. Furniture is on one floor and miscellaneous stuff is on another. At the big stores you have more floors and not as easy way through. Something else worth mentioning is the Ikea restaurant, it's quite the norm to there if you visit. I've eaten at the restaurant even when I didn't shop anything else.
I think the reason why Ikea is so big in Sweden is the lack of a good furniture store with prices people can usually afford except Ikea, especially for a student like me. And even for the people buying furniture, not having to squeeze in the stuff in the car or take it on the bus is actually a plus. The instructions are usually quite easy to understand.
I hate just how much I love the feeling of success I get from putting the Ikea item. I like the way they look and it's almost addictive.You haven't said anything about the game design style "pay off" at the end of the checkout line or show room. They usually have a cafe or a restaurant. There meatballs are delicious!
Also, I would like to see a copy of the books for AD&D on your shelf .
Django Lowe Oh good call!
Hey! I'm taking a film class that deals with animation, and during our lecture on sound design, one of the clips we watched and discussed was actually your video about Dead Space's sound! You're officially an academic reference point.
I love going to IKEA and buying a soda and just people watching. And see who wants to find the short cuts and how people navigate the store. That is also why I enjoy watching let's plays. You get the feeling of doing something without having to actually do it.
The shelves in the background are from Ikea aren't they? JK great episode.
One of the best episodes to date, great breakdown of some good business practices and shows a cool connection to game design and business. It proves that design is design no matter how different the medium you are working with is.
I work at a IKEA Customer Service Center in Norway, and we have noticed an interesting trend with our customers that could be a pretty good analogy of what is happening in mainstream gaming right now. More and more people want to have everything done for them. That includes getting the furniture to their homes, getting someone to assemble those and get everything fixed if something is, by chance, wrong in anyway. This is very different from what was usually a typical visit to IKEA, where you bought your bookshelf, put it into the car and drove home just to get really angry when that damn screw won’t fit into that hole even though the manual states that is should go there and oh my god why are there so many swedish words and why won’t this be as easy as that one guy at the store told me it would he said anyone with two hands should be able to assemble these and why are there so fricking many swedish words!!
So recently we’ve started doing more for our customers than what they might have expected of us just a few years ago.
This can be seen as pretty similar to how a lot of modern games feature more and more handholding, though a lot of gamers denounce that treatment of themselves as players. Various games nowadays feature increasingly more hints and pointers, and many of the level designs feel at time so linear and obvious that you could just as easily be standing on a cart on a train track. I‘m arguing that a majority of gamers, that probably isn’t that vocal and maybe a great deal younger than the average internet poster- just want the action, adventure or that sweet hoverbike segment as fast as humanly possible. Isn’t it probable that a lot of us have become so impatient with our free-time that we lose interest in a good game - or any entertainment for that matter - if it doesn’t cut the chase as soon as it can?
It just might be that we Norwegians are getting more and more spoiled by our current eco-political bubble and we just want more done for us. But, anyhow, I thought it was an amusing correlation and a quaint observation of where the Scandinavian and Modern society might be headed.
Now both Idea Chanel and Game/Show are making my head explode! You guys have some really thought provoking episodes man.
I think the maze design and the fact that everyone kind of has to walk the same path makes shopping in Ikea a more communal experience than shopping at Target or even a mall. We're all going in the same direction and looking at/discovering the same stuff, so strangers feel like fellow travelers more than random people we're passing by in aisle 12.
Another thing about Ikea is the fact that they're around, but they're not everywhere. This can make going to Ikea more of an event, an experience. You go there partly to have a curated experience, much like you do when you go to a museum.
love the show, great episode as always, BUT
E.T did not cause the video game crash of 1983! it really annoys me when people say that. one bad video game does not crash an industry. at the time the industry was a complete mess because after Activision was founded, small third party developers popped up everywhere and started making some of the worst games ever. yes maybe E.T was the final nail in the coffin but the western games industry had been releasing 100s of awful games for around 3 years at that point. it was only a matter of time before consumers realised that, with or without E.T.
I just think understanding events like the crash of 83 is important. when people dismiss the crash as something that happened because of a single game, they re-write one of the most important lessons gaming's brief history can teach us. and arguably we need to learn from now; as amateur developers release piles and piles of broken games to the front page of steam.
so yes. long rambly comment over.
Cyborg Birdie Fair enough!
PBS Game/Show man, i can't wait for the comments picked in the next episode and the commenting on it.
I think it's better to look at using ET as a Black Tuesday type of event. Black Tuesday wasn't the cause of the Great Depression, but it is the representative signifier of "this is when the Great Depression begins." ET didn't cause the Video Game Crash, but it is definitely the signifier of the crash.
I agree, and consumers started buying personal computers, because they played games, and much more.
maybe an episode on how game design should be used in the creation of political systems, which in a way are a big and unintended MMO, except no one knows all the rules and you can never really leave it
Arturo Gutierrez We have a second! On the list.
Take a look at extra credits, they did a great episode on this!
89taklung I must admit I was thinking about that _Extra Credits_ episode when I wrote this comment. But I think it would be interesting to see Game Show's take on the same issue
lol. well good to know, and yeah, other perspectives are always very interesting to compare ;)
I love Ikea, its like middle class Disneyland. You run around sitting on the chairs and beds, playing about in the show rooms, then there's a fun break for Swedish meatballs! Follow it up with an impulse buy in the toy section and then finish up by riding the flat pack trolleys through the warehouse!
This episode is especially cute.
My bf and I moved into a new apartment recently and we got most of our furniture from IKEA. It was my first time actually IN an Ikea and it was really fun. As soon as we got to the self serve area, I felt really tired and bored, like I do at Costco, because the environment was no longer stimulating. It felt like a clunky tomb in Skyrim or something, when just before I was in a wonderful city or town that provoked my interest.
I find it hard to fully justify GAME design because what you are really talking about is DESIGN in general. This design in specific is making the consumer or viewer or just a bystander automaticly go by the rules you want them to. If thats the case, thats good design.
Graphical design likes to work in the same direction. They design magazines, logos or whatever that makes you look at the correct areas for you to better understand what it is you are looking at. You can see this in movies also. Where they frame the character to the left side of the screen to give space on what is going to happen in the right side of the screen.
Basically, the design you are talking about is design that leads the viewer/consumer/person. In videogames, the easiest form of this is making the exit of a dark cave bright.
What I REALLY want to see on design is designing EMMERSION. This is mostly specific to videogames as they take a dive into itself to properly make you emmersed. Not just videogames, but also games in general. And trust me, this subject is something call'o'dootie does WRONG in alll aspects.
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Here it is. In dungeons and dragons, they give you specific rules to your character race and class so that you better fit in the world and play to what you ARE.
What i mean is, if all the stats and skills would be open for all classes to benefitt equally, then no one would be unique. A paladin would be able to stealth like a thief.
But currently, in DnD. A paladin is given the opportunity to use PLATE armor and heavy weapons, at the same time not letting him level up stealth as good, or at all as Thief can.
This forces the player to play paladin in such a manner that is completely different than if the player would play a Thief. Not to mention all the other things that are tied to make you play a Thief or monk or paladin more like their initial role.
If your character can heal, you are more inclined to help. If your character only does harm, you are more likely to play Evil. etc.
This is something video games are BEST at. They make you want to play like a baddie even though your good. An example on this is GTA. In GTA. You steal cars,shoot people, run away from police, and do like criminal stuff. They designed (pretty bluntly) the game around for you to be able to do this and in a convinient manner. Need transport? HAH i can just steal this car. A police helicopter chasing you? Well your only answer in your pockets is a rocket launcher. The design here is pretty blunt but its saturated enough as an example.
-Skyrim in this case FEELS emersive, but you never really abide to the world.
This is something Fallout: New vegas is praised on. In new vegas, hardcore mode is introduced that forces you to actually work a bit on your survival.
When you get really thirsty, you pray that you will find a nearby town that sells water. Only to find out its condemned and then you make a B line for a radiated sink that satsifies your thirst but now you have radiation sickness. Which creates a new problem but you played like you really were a thirsty person that would do anything.
-In minecraft or the new game Darkwood, you isolate yourself in night time from all the creatures of the night like a little pussy cause you dont have yett the confidence or tools to better navigate the night.
-In Left 4 Dead you really feel like you should stay togheter because of how helpfull it really is. Forcing you to actualy stay togheter like survivors would do because of its effiencancy, not it gamyfying you to rubberband you back (which it doesnt).
-There is very few Fighting games that make the player play the character effeciently. The only fighting game that makes the player play a character highly unlike other characters is Super smash atm. Most other fighting games have the same principals between all characters. Super smash has different characters, but same controls. This makes the player discover the characters strength all alone. So a Samus player is most definetly going to be in RANGE and not upclose just by its effeciency alone. While many fighting games gives too many options for each character. The only character that is super saturated and different in play style ide say is Dhalsim in Street Fighter series. Lei Wulong in Tekken, but because all other characters are bit of the same, they kinda bash lei into the ground cause lei doesnt have effective enough unique effeciancy versus the basic principal that all other characters are good at.
-In Halo1 you are urged to drive fast in the last level because of a timer. This makes you prone to do mistakes and hurry.
--The bad design of this kind is. QTE events, quests in mmos, racing games.
--QTE events make you do things that look similar to what the character is doing, but after that it becomes automatic. Plling you in and out of the experience. Heavy rain did good in this as it makes you CHOOSE and THINK in a small time span. While mosst other games are linear wich forces QTE to just be that. a QTE.
--Quests in mmos really have no urgency other than anothe chore to do. You read up on an npcs quest log, and hes like. Were so hungry, we need 10 pig meat. you go kill 12 pigs for 10 pig meat, you give it to him 1 month later and then hes like "yay, were not starving anymore thanks to youuu". If anything, that wasnt even mmo based. Another mmo problem is the story making you feel like THE ONLY HERO!!! while then after you see 1000k other players running around having been told the same story. I dont know why they are forcing this Singleplayer story onto each player. Why not "We need common soldiers,a nd you are one of them" rather than "we need HEORES and you are one of THE heores".
--Racing games have a problem actualy making you feel like you are racing. The only games that come close is Mario Kart.
In other racing games, you are more focused on driving perfectly and without mistakes more than racing other racers.
I love this episode! I really enjoy going to Ikea because of what you mentioned (good design in a fun, flowing environment). One more idea is that Ikea is often a social experience. When I go to Ikea, I'm often not alone (I go with family or friends). We make a day out of it. We work together, talking about what might look good in different rooms and convincing each other to buy things that we may not need. We explore together and if we forgot something we act as a team ("You go back and get the wok, I'll go ahead and get the picture frames.") The team then goes home and puts together their treasure. Isn't that like a game as well? (well, a multiplayer one).
Something that I noticed on the interwebs is that Ikea furniture can also be modded e.g. taking parts from one or more pieces if furniture and assembling them to make something else.
Ikea is a one way shop. Where you go through countless rooms before ending up in a warehouse where you have to find the things you liked. there are no windows and the only satisfaction out of the experience is maybe a hotdog at the end and/or Daim.
This isn't so much a connection I've made up on my own, but HabitRPG is great at putting life, one's goals, and necessary activities in a "game" setting. You can gamify your good/bad habits, gain xp or lose health, etc. Putting my own life in that frame of "game" thinking actually helps me see the losses and rewards of my own actions in a quantifiable way, making it easier to make better decisions.
heerotomoe I've seen that! Glad to know it's working out for you!
Really good episode! Didn't expect this to make as much sense as is did.
You call it a maze, but you give the definition of a Labyrinth. A maze is design to get you lost, a labyrinth is designed to get you disoriented without getting you lost.
In a spiritual context, a labyrinth is design for meditation, because you can get lost, you may get lost in your own mind.
In the first dungeon of the first Zelda, the layout is build in such a way that in the first room, the player has three direction from which only one is correct, but after that, it becomes very straight with alternate path. The feeling of choice remains and yet the player finds his way to the end without difficulties! Blurring the line between a maze and a labyrinth is what makes the magic happen :)
What you call "level design" is architecture. That being said, this was an incredibly interesting perspective.
I was like 30 minutes running in circles just to find the exit in that Water Temple.
Yeah, Water Temple, that is fitting for IKEA.
I flinched at every swedish word he tried to pronounce...
Speaking from personal experience I have noticed a generational divide in the appreciation of Ikea, in North America at least. Millenials and a lot of Gen Xers, who have grown up with video games and the challenges they pose, have no issues with the process of shopping at Ikea. They would go as far saying they enjoy the process, challenging though it may be at times. However when the subject of Ikea comes up around older people, who have not played games for most of their lives, they tend to decry the maze-like quality of the store, the fact that one has to retrieve one's own packages and assemble them.
It raises the question of whether or not video games have inadvertently prepared people in some respects for the challenges of the modern world. Namely parsing information from an increasingly overstimulating environment, self sufficiency in the face of new challenges and understanding visual language that crosses the borders of culture and language.
Hey Jaymin, I'd really like to see an episode on games and education, and maybe some of the different structure and game design that could be put into education to help improve it. As a student currently doing exams I would really like to see some thought around the improvement of education in general and I think video games would be a great way to do this. Keep up the good work BTW. Really appreciate it.
Does anyone know what is pictured at 2:03 I swear I've seen it somewhere else, but I can't place it
I love this series! It give me helluva lot of ideas for my next game project!!
Ooh! A gamification episode would be fantastic
I just wanted to say that I think Game/Show is really coming into its prime. Around the beginning of the series, it was a little halting, especially in comparison to The Idea Channel. It has really become very engaging; interesting and enjoyable to watch.
Edward Mace Thank you so much! I really appreciate that.
Thanks, I was looking for more examples for my gamification research paper....but now I'm going to be over 20 pages...gosh darn, what do I cut out now?
The Game Design behind releasing sequels titles. I've never really thought about it, but perhaps the way we design sequel titles is indicative of an underlying aspect of gaming, namingly progression.
For example, Super Smash Bros. has gone through a lot of iterations and between the iterations, there have been more and more options to choose from, which makes the interface design 'more difficult', but because there have been a lot of these games before, people have slowly gotten used to the rise in complexity of the interface design so they can even adjust things like how often their favorite themes will be played.
And so there are more examples. In Assassin's Creed III, you are able to control ships to serve as a kind of tutorial for the features of Assasin's Creed: Black Flag, leading to a more natural progression. Of course, this is because people just happened to like the feature in ACIII, it wasn't neccesarily planned that way, but it naturally emerged to serve as a tutorial between the titles.
The wall needs a chocobo, cactuar, or moogle.
I'm curious about the education/experience in your studio. I find you to be very professional, objective and in-line with journalistic ethics.
College major selection as RPG class/attribute selection?
What about the iconic IKEA character found on the instructions. This character is the protagonist that represents you. It help you progress through the story that is your furniture. This character is used in places where you would otherwise need to print words to describe, keeping the instructions universal.
100% agree that if you understand game design it would help you understand the world! awesome.
And people wonder why I love shopping at IKEA? It's a bloody game! You got some awesome loot and even stamina, health and mana potions (aka. resturant).
I think it would be interesting to see an episode like this done on Disneyland. There's a GDC presentation from 09 entitled Everything I Learned About Level Design I Learned from Disneyland. We went over it in one of my game design classes in college and it was right after Epic Mickey, which used Disneyland as the inspiration for its level design, came out so it lead to some interesting discussion.
What about everyday life? As gaming becomes larger and more familiar to the general population what things would/could/should change this cultural familiarity? Could a product like
Soylent be as successful 30 years ago? What would a website look like for peoples in 1920?
Google maps on my phone is so much like the mini maps i grew up with in games. I can see my older family members struggle to utilize on screen information as efficiently as gamers can.
Love the show please keep it up Jamin!
Lot to consider here! And thank you!
That Diablo 2 reference made me lol
I'm from Sweden :D the ironic thing was that I was eating while watching this and beside me I had a ikea catalog
I LOVE this. I work at IKEA and you are spot on!!!
This is a very clever video. Great idea to link ikea to game design
What if Ikea had a rating system so show how difficult things will be to put together, so that there are 3 factors to consider when deciding which [insert furniture here] to buy. 1) How it looks 2) How much it costs 3) How difficult it is
Well done! looking forward to seeing more applications of game design to the meat world
Not that much related, but somehow.
The year after I excessively played Assassins Creed 2 I went to Venice, for the first time in my life. I knew exactly where each of the historic buildings and bridges were. I saw the rialto bridge, I recognized it and then I knew in which direction the doge's palace was. It was interesting and kinda confusing, since I never have been to venice before.
the "ikea effect" expands largely from the "Betty Crocker effect".
Sometimes I play Ikea as a game. I drive down there and walk through the entire store. If I make it to the end without buying anything, I win. My prize is not having to wait at a register.
Fascinating! Great video!
I bought a chair that I didn't know I wanted...damn you Ikea!
Just waiting for my Dagstorp game now.
wow, I will never be able to visit Ikea again, without thinking about games (and searching for megahealth:) - thanks
Please do a video on all of those things!!! that sounds really interesting 7:58
To explore through game design:
The points systems used in our social media (the literal points of Waze, Facebook likes/shares, UA-cam views, Twitter subscribers, etc.)
I absolutely love to see good game design concepts appear in places like IKEA, but usually it's not done right, most of the times with apps like Foursquare they just add a thin layer of "gamification" on top of everything and just like in normal videogames it's very easy to manipulate people into buying your product or business with cheap achievements and a false sense of progress. This engagement can be very powerful and sometimes even addictive, i think it's great when it's done well but it also demands a certain responsability to not abuse the consumer.
I'm optimistic though, i think just like with normal videogames we're gonna get progressively better at it.
Wow. A video about IKEA furniture and video games.
That's a first.
5:19 Glad someone else remembers Ballance. Great game. :)
You are doing waaaay better with your voice control, congratulations.
A videogame can be made out of any aspect of life and can still be fun. One reason real life isn't as fun is because the feedback you get is faster or instant. Consequences also have real meaning in life.
Hey, there is ThinkNoodles at 1:09
Games should definitely have a part in education. It doesn't need violence to make learning fun.
You have made such as interesting gaming to real life connection right here!
(Can you try this with Plants vs Zombies. Just a request) Great Video!
I've been to Ikea once and I'll never go back. The furniture is disposable crap and I'm not subjecting myself to an endless maze to save money on crap. Want to know a secret? You can't save money when you spend money. You save money by putting it in a place for a specific purpose and leaving it there.
I always thought you were in front of a green screen, and then you put that E.T. game on the wall... lol
As a Swede I have a life goal to someday visit an IKEA store in a foreign country just to laugh at everyone pronouncing the furniture incorrect.
There are no IKEA stores where I live :(
Always great, as ever! Thumbs up
Duolingo also uses quite a lot of "gamification" in their educational purposes and it's great!
Luis Dias I've been meaning to download that! Need to learn my mother tongue of Spanish to talk to my grandfather.
PBS Game/Show You really should. I'm learning german and despite the language it's really fun.
Bonus points for name dropping Netrunner!
is it a requirement of every PBS show to have at least one episode on Ikea for whatever reason?
And now a word from our sponsors.....IKEA
Maybe they just like IKEA? Can't blame 'em, really
I think it is just an interesting topic, IKEA is a very fascinating phenomenon in my opinion
Arian hmn IKEA = life = IKEA
PBS Game/Show So IKEA is the purpose to our existence then?
What game is that at 2:04 ?
There are no difficulty settings in Ikea... one piece of furniture may be more or less difficult than another, but are you going to buy furniture based on it's difficulty. It may make sense to say "I need to build 3 more bedside cabinets before I have enough experience to a build a bookcase" if life were like Skyrim, but in reality, if I need a bookcase, I get on with it, if I need a bedside cabinet later, there will be a drop in difficulty, but that won't make you want to do it any less.
Why do people get so picky about the naming of soccer (though hand egg is hilarious)? If I recall correctly, football was a general term used to distinguish sports that were played on foot as opposed to sports played on horses. Soccer was originally a British word that fell into disuse but we adopted it over here. It was a slang version of Association Football (versus Rugby Football), i.e. "assoc-er."
www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/why-we-call-soccer-soccer/372771/
Jamin, admit it. You only made an episode about IKEA because Mike made his episode, didn't you?
***** I just want him to like me!
Interesting episode. I've read more than one article about the potential of the "gamification" of the American workforce. The idea that the implementation of many different game-specific methods of push and pull (some of which you've referred to here) can foster a better workplace environment.
On one hand: just fascinating, this idea. On the other: egads and Jesus Christ! As if our already work-exhausted society needs another method of making us all into better consumers.
To be fair, I've always been far more in than "work to live" camp than vice versa. But still: it's a little odd for me to look at something I so genuinely love (games) and see them as a way of training me into doing something I do not love (meaningless, tiresome work).
I was with you until you said that Android: Netrunner does not require language to play. A:N doesn't require language like Magic: the Gathering doesn't require language; if you know the cards you can play even without the words using the pictures, but one of the ongoing mantras of any CCG is RTFC (Read the Freaking Card). From how to break Bioroid ice without an icebreaker to how Femme Fatale actually works, the game is not very kind to new players in the rules department.
Even with the knowledge of how the game works, certain mechanic require language to work. If I look at the top card of my opponent's deck (something that happens often in the game) I need to be able to tell my opponent what I want to do with that card, and often people have problems with other people touching their decks.
I guess the big question is, "What do you mean when you say a game doesn't require words?" I can play a card game without speaking and understand everything that's going on. But I wouldn't be able to teach someone Netrunner without speaking their language. NPR did a segment on language (www.radiolab.org/story/91725-words/) where they talk about a deaf person who did not know language. Could that person play these games?
I think for many video games (Shadow of the Colossus comes to mind) I think the answer is yes. I believe that person could learn through trial and error. But I do not believe that person could learn to play Netrunner.
Back on topic, do we actually require language to go through Ikea? The answer is yes, but only so much as language is required to understand the social contract involved in buying something. A person should be able to walk into every Ikea in the world and buy something without knowing the local language (perhaps with some mishap), but that person would need to have language in the first place.
I got it from IKEA, and put it together myself. And I have all these pieces left. Oh Leonardo Leonardo.
I would very much like to see an examination of bullet hell design, and why they are so addicting.
Great video!
Please explain the Apple Store, because I just don't get it.
01:09 THINKNOODLES!!!
Please compare game design to education, that sounds amazing
I second this! It would be interesting to see some thoughts on how gamification could possibly help restructure the current educational model. Kind of like Quest to Learn but on a larger scale.
I've never been to an Ikea, but your description sound like a horrible place I would hate to visit. I appreciate a physical space where I can evaluate the tactile properties of an object and the quality of the material, but as far as choice is concerned, I need a wardrobe of these specific dimensions in this narrow range of colours and I am willing to consider items in this price range. Impulsive buying is not a thing I do and every extra second spent at a store is torture.
PBS loves IKEA. is this the 2nd? 3rd? video on IKEA?
i hope they makin it rain for PBS
Political campaigning is something I'd like to see through the lens of level design, if you can manage it.
+Thunderscreamer That would be cool, especially with an examination of the real life political strategies discussed here: www.press.umich.edu/353460/strategy_of_campaigning
"Dagstorp." -Mike Rugnetta
We don't have an ikea in my state
:( just a bunch of Nebraska Furniture Marts, and Furniture malls of Kansas.
And don't forget to follow the cheap sheep to the mattress farm
I love to go to IKEA just for fun. It's the best ever.
You should explore owning a pet from a game design point of view.
Hopefully this isn't too meta, but I like to look at life through the lens of game design. Indeed as I drive to and from work I can appreciate the design of the roundabout - even though no on in America can figure out how to use it (except me of course).
Also like video games I find bugs in the system aka missing pieces or holes. So I see that connection.
It reminds me of playing Half life. I played the game had no idea where I was supposed to go yet still did somehow sort of taken down a linear path without it feeling linear and without it needing sign posts or anything.
I have Ikea furniture in my room not just because it is cheap but also because no other furniture store had what I wanted. My room is too small for a queen sized bed but normal furniture stores its either single or queen and that was the only options. Plus with my small room I need the storage ikea beds offer. I guess this is the internationalising you are taking about, normal furniture stores just assume you live in a huge australian house while internationally small housing is much more common.
Video games and violence only correlate in the United States whereas in other "Developed" nations with large gamer demographics such as The Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Australia the low occurrence of violent crime on the blotter and the ubiquity of video games don't lead to the same correlation as you see with the United States. Take that and put it in your zeitgeist.
Why are you wearing glasses without lenses?
to look cool, like look at those american white girls today
zomg a Netrunner reference?! yeah!
Game design analysis of customer loyalty cards?
great video
I went through IKEA one time.
...
Never again.