Is It Possible To Hack Practicing With The Addicting Properties Of Video Games?

Don't click on this link.

Really, don't. The above link goes to Cookie Clicker, one of the simplest, absurdest, and most addicting online games on the internet. The goal is merely to click on cookies and buy upgrades so that you can click on even more cookies.

Cookie Clicker is one of the most popular of a new genre of Idle Games, where the addiction to the game arises out of performing small actions and watching numbers go up. Justin Davis writes in an IGN review:

Idle Games seem perfectly tuned to provide a never-ending sense of escalation. They’re intoxicating because upgrades or items that used to seem impossibly expensive or out of reach rapidly become achievable, and then trivial. It’s all in your rearview mirror before you know it, with a new set of crazy-expensive upgrades ahead. The games are tuned to make you feel both powerful and weak, all at once. They thrive on an addictive feeling of exponential progress.

What if we could make practicing similar to that? Although Idle Games only require a minimum of attention and practicing an instrument requires a great deal of attention, perhaps the act of merely showing up and practicing could trigger a counter that over time went up, creating a desire to repeat the action that makes the counter go up even more. We can add performances, festivals, exams, auditions, goals, and outcomes, and all of these will serve to keep the total number of hours climbing ever higher.

This is an issue that fascinates me, although I don't as yet have a solution regarding how I could implement it in my studio. Many software solutions emphasize things such as overall studio management (Music Teacher's Helper), multimedia, multi-platform note-taking (Evernote), and pedagogical process (iScore). What I would love to implement is an addiction-creation mechanism that exists alongside a teacher's teaching process. A lot of us underestimate just how mind-bogglingly amazing video games are these days, how much wonder they create in the life of a child, and just how much addiction mechanisms are built into these games.

If you know of any products that could possibly fill this need, leave a comment.

But I'm serious, you really don't want to click on that link at the top of the article.

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From Unknown — Sunday 27 October 2013 — Add Comment — Piano Pedagogy