Glen Rudis
House of Games
House of Games is an all new restaurant where you can also play a variety of board games and video games. An engaging rewards system that allows you to customize your customer persona with a variety of bonuses and discounts.
Artist/Thesis Statement
We are fully invested in the digital age, dominated by screens and social media notifications. We connect to our friends and family with the touch of a button. It has never been easier to stay in contact with the outside world. However, in this hyper-connected world, have we been disconnected from society? Social media is king, and it works well— too well. Today, staying up to date with your friends and family takes little effort. The world of gaming has also exploded with online gaming. Now, with an internet connection, you can always play with friends online and worldwide. The days of group meet-ups for Smash Brothers tournaments are long gone. Unfortunately, this has resulted in crippling our social skills and destroyed the regularity of face-to-face interactions. Social skills have been slowly declining, and many are more secure with digital communication. There is a funny thing about social interactions. According to the longest-running psychological experiment in history, they have been proven psychologically to be essential for happiness, and we are becoming an unhappy society.
The roadblocks are all there, and we are taking the path of least resistance, which is staying online. Then, an unforeseen element put the nail in the coffin, and we entered a global pandemic. We were presented with tough times. We were forced indoors, and technology kept us interacting with each other. During this time, we had little choice. We needed our technology to survive. We have successfully navigated through the pandemic, and while Covid is here to stay, we are now better equipped to handle the challenges. Society must be retrained and acclimated to the outside world as we move forward. We have become too comfortable interacting virtually.
My goal is not to change the way people interact. I would be naive to think people will abandon their devices. I love my devices too. We need more alternatives and opportunities to venture back into society. My objective is to find a way to make the digital world public. I want to create a secure public place where social interaction is encouraged and rewarded. My idea is to create a gaming center with food and drinks. The leading hook is the reward system, and the establishment is part of the game. Patrons can build a custom experience by spending rewards to level up their customer persona. After leveling up, customers can spend points in three unique customer skill trees. Spend points on Food, Beverage, and Gaming to unlock permanent perks for each visit. Turning your experience into a real-world video game, play how you want to play.
