Onto play

Justin Hall's Passively Multiplayer Online Game concept is an interesting spin on some of the issues with data ownership and the transparent society that we have been blogging about recently.

Hall's point is that one of the reasons the web experience is not nearly as absorbing or fulfilling as playing games, is that the web is in fact not paying attention to what you do when you surf. It does not adapt to your experience of the web or your surfing habits. It's an interesting thought, even if there are some obvious counterquestions: If we always live in a world adapted to us, when will we ever meet other people in a meaningful way? Is game-like immersion really a good global goal? We all know that flow is a pleasing and important experience, but is it really the only experience we need?

Some concrete ideas that touch on some of the same notions can be found in presentations by Matt Webb on ideas for a sensory web browser at reboot8 and 'a zoology for web applications' at EuroFoo.