Gary Hayes on The Gamification of Social TV

The Gamification of Social TV Inspiring the stories of tomorrow from Gary Hayes

I can imagine a few friends (who hate tech buzzwords) cringing at the title of this post.

Isn't "gamification" just a pretentious and off-putting way of describing the basic human impulse to play?

And what is "social TV" anyway?

Do you mean video conferencing? Or do you mean some gadget that captures user response, like a remote control, that users push buttons on as they watch TV? Or by "social TV" do you mean the use of Twitter to vote on Idol or to comment on Breaking Bad? (And, let's face it, isn't voting on Twitter just a new way of voting for the best performer? Didn't we used to do that by applause? And isn't live-tweeting a show very similar to whispering something funny to the friend seated beside you during a movie)?

Why make things sound more complex and novel than they really are?

OK.

I hear you.

But the ability to interact with TV and your friends (yes, using web-enabled devices) is yet another way 21st century filmmaking is changing... And, yes, the words we use to describe these behaviors may need a bit of polishing... (I imagine "refrigerator" sounded weird to people who were used to ice back in the day)... but the opportunities to engage fans and monetize online interactions need to be part of what filmmakers consider going forward.

Here, to give you an idea of where Gary Hayes is coming from, is a video about the social TV Grey's Anatomy app for the iPad:



And here's a link to Gary Hayes' full post from May 2011. Notice how Gary Hayes identifies the impulse to share as the key element driving so much of the changes in motion pictures in the 21st century.