Unit 8 – TED Talk
I really enjoyed listing to the TED talk this week. It is very interesting to hear Jane McGonigal’s view on how gaming is extremely effective on huge world issue for instance hunger. She claims that problem solvers should create the feeling that gamers do when playing a game. At first, listening to her speech I thought it was ridiculous that heavy volumes of gaming should be encouraged throughout our world. I then thought deeply about the meaning behind it, and her comments on the feedback of points given in a game is something that we don’t get in real life. If you incorporate certain aspects of this in life, it’s a huge motivation factor that can really help focus on the importance of striving for success. The feeling of “epic win” allows for a positive and bright mindset, which should be translated to real life. “We like people better, after we play a game with them, even if they have beaten you badly” – (Jane McGonigal, TED Talk). She goes on to explain how this builds trust between the two, due to being under the same guidelines. If this was established as the mentality of society, nationally and internationally, our world would be much different.
November 21st, 2014 at 11:59 pm
Hey Berg! I enjoyed your post and I also enjoyed this week’s video and I agree with your opinion that It is very interesting to hear Jane McGonigal’s view on how gaming is extremely effective on huge world issue for instance hunger. Moreover, I really like “let’s save the world” attitude toward games. It is also good idea to build a lot of trust by playing games together and that people are happier working hard than people are relaxing or hanging around if they are given a right work. However, I strongly believe that “epic win” should be allowed to real life because of its a positive and bright mindset.
November 22nd, 2014 at 2:56 am
Thank you for sharing your response. I was also attracted by the TED talk. I also questioned Jane’s view that we should encourage people to spend time on playing games. I felt it was ridiculous to encourage people spend tons of time on gaming. However, after listening to her reasons that why playing game was good, I was on her side. As she said, there were lots of benefits of playing games. For example, she mentioned “we are using games to escape the real world suffering” in her speech. Perhaps, playing games will help with escaping suffering and make people feel relaxed. However, we cannot depend on games to escape the suffering. I believe facing difficulties and overcoming it are the right way.
November 22nd, 2014 at 3:40 am
I really enjoy your post. I also talks about the Ted Talk, but what I said is a little different yours. Your post gives a different perspective and really provides a hint for me to think the relationship between the gamers’ positive mindset and real problem-solving. Especuially, you mentions that “We like people better, after we play a game with them, even if they have beaten you badly” – (Jane McGonigal, TED Talk)which is a very important point and the most valuable part behind the video games. We really need to think about why people in the virtual world can build a trust cooperative relationship. It is paradoxical that it is easier to build trust between the people you don’t know at all, rather than a person you knows for years. If we explore further, we will find more valuable and positive mindsets behind games and gamers.
November 23rd, 2014 at 11:13 pm
Thank you for the response. Yes, I agree we must explore further to really dig into the underlying factors of why gamers feel a certain way and how a bond is formed by playing video games with someone you don’t know. Gaming is something i would have never thought would work to help world issues. Its the idea of the feeling and attitude that is given when playing these games. Maybe it is not possible for something to feel this same feeling without playing video games, however, if it is, this is the feeling we need to find and figure out how to apply it to real world issues.
November 24th, 2014 at 6:29 pm
I have to say I kind of disagreed when the TED talk said we like people more after having played a game with them, even if we lose. I have not had that experience, I have played games with people who turn into completely different people during the game. Sometimes people have the game and competition overtake their personality and they will do anything to win, even cheat and make other players feel bad when they aren’t doing as well. I think competition can often times bring out the worst in people.