Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming
This article comes to you from Jane McGonigal, one of the lead designers at 42 Entertainment, the ARG (alternate reality gaming) company behind the revolutionary “I Love Bees” Halo 2 promotion. Not having participated in the game myself, the article fascinated me with its lengthy recollection of how the events of the now-legendary alternate reality game unfolded. More importantly, however, McGonigal used her experience to study the phenomenon of collective intelligence in general, classifying the events into three distinct stages of CI development, observing the emergence of specialization, and noting how even the most insignificant of players were able to make significant contributions to the “hive mind.” The article is an amazing look into the potential power of CI and how social gaming may very well be training the minds of today to tackle the problems of tomorrow.
MMO designers, consider this required reading.
