The Hive Mind and Online Video Games - Have You Been Infected Yet?

A walkthrough is a step by step set of instructions, written by a video game player to assist other players of the same game make their way through the complexity of the game. It is generally a collaborative effort. Once the first walkthrough appears, other gamers begin adding further details regarding the game nuances they have discovered and a virtual cataloging of all aspects of the video game begins to develop. This collaborative phenomenon, according to video game makers, ruins the pleasure, the sense of accomplishment, and the challenge the game is supposed to offer its player. However, gamers continuously search out and utilize the walkthroughs. To crush this hive mind, many game designers are taking a new approach; they are beginning to build more difficult challenges into their games.

Walkthroughs are part of a growing online collaborative group which include various size member organizations from a low dozen or so, to arrangements that include millions members. People no longer wish to solitarily solve puzzles and play complex video games. They enjoy interactivity. The collective is far smarter than the individual member alone. This hive mind makes easy work of puzzle solving and navigating the complex video game terrain. Faced with this new hive mind mentality, video game and puzzle designers are looking for imaginative ways to use the group think to design puzzles and games.

Alternative reality games were the first type of video games to begin developing walkthroughs. The joy of the collective mind in solving the mystery was discovered to be more pleasurable then doing it as an individual. Participation in the hive mind made you a neuron in a much larger intelligence. Discovering evidence, contributing to the information other players could use to brain storm with still others to figure out helpful solutions meant everything to the contributors. This hive mind mentality could have never existed before the Internet and this type of collaboration is giving game designers new food for thought.

Does this spell the end of individually played video games and puzzles? No! There are still scores of individuals who choose not to be a part of the Borg. They still prefer to solve the mystery of the puzzle or game on their own. There are still those gamers who use walkthroughs judiciously and only depend on them when they are stuck. There are still those who like to play alone. For this group, the solitary game and puzzle creation will continue. But the hive mind group does exist. Interesting data can be compiled through close study of this emerging phenomenon. Smarter puzzles and games and more difficult challenges are only the start. The rules of gaming have begun to change, which means the designers must change also.

Resource: Smart Mobs, Smarter Puzzles, Wired Magazine - May, 2009