Living In A Game Gets A Whole New Meaning: GreenGoose Unveiled
This past week I heard something rather disturbing on the radio and it is not something new — no I’ve heard this kind of thing over and over again for the past five years at least. I’m not talking about the revolts that have been going on all over the world, or the latest news scandal. I’m talking about a young man dying in an internet cafe in China from exhausting because he refused to leave his online game to eat or sleep.
It is pretty sad when someone values a fantasy life or world over the real one they live in every day, to the point that their fantasy life actually takes their real life. The worst part is that as you know, I was once a pretty hardcore gamer and something like this quite possibly could have happened to me. Now I never went without food when gaming. I always made sure to have snacks on hand, but as a kid, I did go a few days without sleep and I know I’m not alone there. It was pretty common among my friends to play away the entire weekend without sleep, or with very little.
But what if that same addiction for gaming that took this young mans life could be altered in a way that changes life for the better?
I just read about GreenGoose. It is a new company offering a very different type of product, what is being called a real-world gaming platform and may be just what the world needs to shift an addiction that takes a few lives a year into something that could improve our lives drastically every day.
And this is not only for those addicted to gaming, but for those that need a little accountability and a reward for doing things they should be doing anyway.
How the game works is pretty futuristic. GreenGoose sells a starter pack for their gaming system that includes a few sensors, and a base station. The base station connects into your wireless router at home so the sensors can communicate with the base station and then the GreenGoose website.
You then set certain goals within the GreenGoose website, and use the sensors to track your progress. Goals could be to brush your teeth three times a day, to jog a certain distance, or floss. These sensors are designed to automatically report your actions to the GreenGoose base station. When you brush your teeth and your toothbrush has a sensor on it, your brushing is reported.
While that is pretty cool in itself, to make things more competitive and more like a real life game, you are given points for completing goals. All your points are shown on the GreenGoose website and compared to others in real time. There are even different levels.
It’s like something out of The Island or Star Wars. I can just see in the future, computers filtering our urine in home for iron deficiencies or diseases.
For something like that to happen though, this technology would have to be readily available, inexpensive and convenient; no assembly required, or it would remain in the Solar Power stage, only suitable for government bodies with money to burn.
Well, while GreenGoose isn’t shipping their product out or even taking pre-orders just yet, they do have the information for their starter kit on their site. It comes with one base station and ten sensors and only costs $24.00! That’s even cheaper than most video games on the market now and because of that alone, I can see this technology really taking off.
What is being called “The Internet of Things” meaning all sorts of devices that are not computers being connected to the Internet is an amazing place in history. For the first time, devices are able to communicate with humans all on their own. Your TV is interactive on a whole new level, your digital scale can email you notifications when it’s time to weigh yourself again, and your house can literally welcome you home. It’s like something out of a movie, and it’s real, right now.
Do you own any Internet-enabled appliances? Will you be playing the GreenGoose game when it becomes available?
Image by Dark Botxy
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Tags: accountability, consequences, future, health, humanity, improvement, lifestyle
8 People have left comments on this post
Wow! I cannot imagine EVER playing a video game for so long that I even lose sleep for the night. I can’t believe that someone would not know they were close to death…you know? You would probably be super hungry and super thirsty?
Jesse Michelsen
Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
When you’re that engrossed in something, hunger, sleep, kids crying, nothing can bring you out of that trance. It’s hard to believe but it happens.
There are people that can get obsessed with games, no doubt. I never got that, but what do I know, right? Heck, there might be people obsessed with blogging too:)
As for the new platform you’re discussing, the first thing I thought of was getting kids to learn good habits by using this. The brushing and flossing type of actions could be tracked this way, and maybe the kids could compete for a good overall score? Interesting….
Jesse Michelsen
Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Yep, people can get obsessed with anything including blogging 🙂
I think one big point is having kids learn good habits, but how many of us as adults brush, floss or work out as much as we should? I know I don’t 🙂 this product is for everyone and I really hope it catches on
Man, it makes me feel like such a NERD that I got so interested in this post. WHY would I love to live my life by sensors and a points system?
I have a dark history in obsessive gaming. In fact, as recently as a few months ago, I was occasionally waking up in the middle of the night to tend to a 24-hour online RPG. I’m so much happier having quit playing, as I now have time to focus on…what’s it called again?…oh yeah: life.
And now you’re telling me that it’s possible to turn life INTO an RPG?! I wonder if GreenGoose would turn me into a productive machine or just sink me back into the same obsessive, point-gathering rut I was in as a gamer…
Either way, great post! Thanks!
Jesse Michelsen
Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Right there with ya Justin! But if you did sink back into your obsession (if it was limited to scoring points in GreenGoose) at least you’d have great teeth, good breath and a small waist!
Bringing the Internet into the real world through ubiquitous computing is going to be a big game changer, just as the Internet itself has been in terms of spreading communication around the world over the past couple of decades. I think the lines between “real” and “virtual” will continue to blur.
Jesse Michelsen
Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 9:43 am
I agree. It will be interesting what other companies do once this technology catches on. How will the internet of things grow from here.
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