Living in an Augmented Reality

As usual, Ian has some very insightful, cut through the hype, things to say about the gaming and social media.  While he isn’t talking about AR, his comments about the nature of personal media and game-creator tools will be even more poignant as handheld AR games and social spaces “get out there.”  Once people can start “attaching their content” to the world, for anyone to see and experience, their will be a stronger push to move from static/linear content (e.g., photos, notes, videos) to dynamic media (e.g., animations that react to the viewers actions or to nearby activity in the world).

Inevitably, these will be called “games” and the kind of hype Ian refers to will pervade the media.  I tend to agree with Ian that focusing on the personal and shared nature of these “experiences,” the notion of “AR snapshots” if you will, will be key to understanding what people will want to do.  It won’t matter if they are “good games” or “clever art”, but that people can make their mark “for themselves”, for their friends and family.

Ian’s comments make me look forward to the day “the world is filling with trite and silly 3D litter” rather than bemoan having yet another channel of noise to wade through.  Like youtube and flikr, the key will be making it easy for users to author, to control what they see, and to serendipitously stumble on “random fun.”