Jane McGonigal - Gaming can make a better world
Nobody wants to change how they live, just because it's good for the world, or because you're supposed to. But if you immerse them in an epic adventure, and tell them 'we've ran out of oil', this is an amazing story, an adventure for you to go on. Challenge yourself to see how you would survive. Most of the players have kept up the habits they've learned in this game.
-Jane McGonigal
She says this here, as part of a somewhat interesting and amusing talk on how gamers can change the world.
I play computer games myself. (Don't play World of Warcraft; play Eve Online). I have my doubts over her proposed solutions to worldly problems. I don't disagree with the fundamental notion that gamers are a resourceful bunch of people. After all, a game is where one uses the resources at one's hands to either outsmart an opponent or to achieve some kind of goal in a limited environment. People who spend time on games probably develop ways of thinking or skills that can be applicable to some extent in solving real-life problems.
McGonigal's route is to do it the other way: define real-life problems in terms of a game. Gamers who play such a game would then either change their lifestyles or develop solutions in the game's context, solutions that would presumably be translated back to reality terms. At least, that was the gist I got. There's just something we would want to say here, but I can't quite place my finger on it. Maybe it's just the effect of it being a mildly bizarre, novel solution. Maybe there's some deficiency in doing things this way. In any case, I don't think going her route is necessary for me. All the motivation I get in wanting to do something good for the world, I get from an increase in knowledge of states of affairs, or in exploring the consistency of my behavior and thought.
Computer games are just like sports to me. Playing sports may give you a robust frame, and that may be useful in other areas of life. It may even be better for the common good. But to translate a real-life problem to sports, such that when people play this new sport, they are contributing quite directly to an improvement of the world, doesn't seem quite so attractive to me. I prefer playing games to solve problems I don't encounter in real life.
-Jane McGonigal
She says this here, as part of a somewhat interesting and amusing talk on how gamers can change the world.
I play computer games myself. (Don't play World of Warcraft; play Eve Online). I have my doubts over her proposed solutions to worldly problems. I don't disagree with the fundamental notion that gamers are a resourceful bunch of people. After all, a game is where one uses the resources at one's hands to either outsmart an opponent or to achieve some kind of goal in a limited environment. People who spend time on games probably develop ways of thinking or skills that can be applicable to some extent in solving real-life problems.
McGonigal's route is to do it the other way: define real-life problems in terms of a game. Gamers who play such a game would then either change their lifestyles or develop solutions in the game's context, solutions that would presumably be translated back to reality terms. At least, that was the gist I got. There's just something we would want to say here, but I can't quite place my finger on it. Maybe it's just the effect of it being a mildly bizarre, novel solution. Maybe there's some deficiency in doing things this way. In any case, I don't think going her route is necessary for me. All the motivation I get in wanting to do something good for the world, I get from an increase in knowledge of states of affairs, or in exploring the consistency of my behavior and thought.
Computer games are just like sports to me. Playing sports may give you a robust frame, and that may be useful in other areas of life. It may even be better for the common good. But to translate a real-life problem to sports, such that when people play this new sport, they are contributing quite directly to an improvement of the world, doesn't seem quite so attractive to me. I prefer playing games to solve problems I don't encounter in real life.
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