In her 2010 TED Talk, video game designer Jane McGonigal talks about her desire to use games to solve some of the world most pressing problems such as hunger, poverty, obesity, and global conflict. By her own admission, she says her goal is counter intuitive because even in 2010 numbers we would need to go from playing three billion hours of games per week to 2100 billion hours per week to accomplish this. Yet, she firmly believes that gamers excel in four key areas that can serve as a model for real life problem solving including: urgent optimism and self motivation; a high level of social connection; blissful productivity and happiness when working hard; and epic meaning attaching to awe inspiring work. I love McGonigal’s notion of gamers having super powers and what a unique and awesome way to think about tackling societal issues. But, I wonder if these super powers that come to the surface in the virtual world could really be transferred to the real world? Do gamers have the focus and creativity they do specifically because they have stepped out of the real world? I am not a big video game player but I have to imagine that people are drawn to games, of all kinds, because they represent a break from reality, much like movies or books. I am really curious how McGonigal might propose getting us to those 2100 billion hours of gaming and for real world problem solving, what are the rules of such a game?
McGonigal, Jane. ‘Gaming Can Make A Better World’. Ted.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.
I am glad you brought up the question about how we would get that many hours of gaming to happen. Especially when there is a stigma surrounding the negativity of gaming currently in the media. I think agree with you also that Jane did a very good job by highlighting the uniqueness of gamers with positive language that inspires optimism. I would have never thought of gamers as “optimistic” people before listening to her Ted Talk because In my opinion I have seen gamers as more reclusive and passive about the world. Now I see the potential to use their experiences with success on line and creativity in the real world. It definitely makes sense to use technology creatively to solve problems that involve issues with technology currently.
Thank you for your post. I found this hard to believe as well. Why should humans be playing more video games? Even though I really enjoy video games, I believe that we play too many already. I see too many kids at the dinner table playing on their tablets, I see too many students playing games during classes, and I see too many people wasting their other life skills and talents on video games that are not helping the world. For a majority of gamers, they will not play a video game if it is not fun or peaks their interest. If the speaker’s hypothesis were assumed correct, I would ask the question, how could we make video games that help the world fun for players?
I totally agree that it is really hard to apply those positive attitudes into real worlds. When I watch that video I felt the same way as yours. McGonial’s arguments about how playing online game can make the world better were effective in some ways. I wasn’t persuade by her to start playing online game because that’s not the only way to make a better world.
However it’s also undeniable that the online game has become so popular that it could be thought of as a symbol of the age of technology when she mentioned that wiki thing.