West World’s Game Theory

Jason Concepcion’s great Who Would Actually Go to Westworld got me thinking. I wrote a post about how Westworld is similar to developing websites a few days ago. Five Content Marketing Tips from Westworld on Curagami didn’t see Jason’s brilliant point about the the shows timing flaws.

Jason points out the 1970’s feel and pre-vr thinking. Jason’s psychological and sociological points are valid. We are humans and there are certain behavior boundaries we hesitate to cross.

My company is focused on “content gamification” (CG). CG is crafting a conversational game with the 1:9:90 Rule in mind. Most websites have 1% (or so) contributors, 9% “sharers” and 90% readers.

We engage the magical 10% of a site’s audience willing to become advocates and give them something to share, talk about and help craft. We’re about to put our theories to test for Moon-Audio.com, a manufacturer and distributor of high-end headphones, in the Headphones Game. Stay tuned and I’ll promise to report back on our game.

Westworld is also a game. And Westworld (WW) is a game within a game. In fact we count several games including:

• The corporate Game (with Anthony Hopkins’ Founders’ Game in there)
• The “Visitors” Game(s)
• The Robot Game
• The Ed Harris Game within a Game

We also know behavior in games is different than in life. Games are often more intense and have different systems of rewards and punishments. War is, at least in the abstract, also a game afterall. This is NOT TO SAY Jason’s well made points are anything other than eye opening and brilliant.

Jason is right. There are conventions, standards and ethics embedded so deep most would have a hard time throwing off no matter what everyone else was doing. Jason’s post made me think of two books — Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Pink and Tipping Point by Gladwell.

Pink creates two sets — those primarily motivated by money and the vast majority (75%) motivated by “do the right thing” sense of ethics, justice and morality. Jason speaks to the 75% whose motivation to even go to a Westworld is in question, a question I didn’t see or understand until reading Jason’s post.

I thought of the “clean windows” or turnstile jumping Gladwell shares in Tipping Point. Gladwell’s point is human behavior is monkey see and monkey do to some degree. When a few “bad apples” jump turnstiles others would be encouraged to do so too. The morality and standards Jason discusses aren’t absolutes but flexible memes we subscribe to and can change as Gladwell points out.

Jason discuss a pull back and he leaves the idea of connecting dots open and I agree with that idea too. I’m fascinated by the game mechanics, but when you are a carpenter everything looks like a hammer and a nail. Team Curagami thinks the show will pull back to explain why Westworld’s game and game within a game would appeal to “vacationers” and sink the hook so deep they would come back for “over thirty years” as Ed Harris’s “man in black” character says.

It should be fun, challenging and fascinating no matter and hats off to Jason for getting my brain going fast first thing in the morning. I’ve asked if I can steal large chunks of his piece (with quotes and attribution) in the content marketing game we’re playing on Curagami so stay tuned for more thoughts on the game within the game :). Marty