Every interesting topic for this week. Personally, I am typical PC gamer. I spend more than 15hours a week on games with friend or alone. According to the TED talk by Jane McGonigal, game can save the world by solving the real life puzzles in the imagine world. You might think it won’t be true and I can’t promise you playing game can save the world either, but what I can tell you is game improve a person’s ability to manage and observe things. Why is that? Because there are so many puzzles in every games. Some are pretty simple but some are extremely hard. I am also a Economics student. Economics teaches me the importance of allocating resource. How important is it? For example, every month you need to buy food under your budget level so you won’t run out of money and get hungry. And we can make it bigger, every month, the whole world is allocate their money to buy food supply at their budget level. If you don’t manage your money well, you might get hungry or if accident happened and you don’t have money for medical supply. So allocate resource is always a big issue in the world and everyone is solving it. How does that connect to the game world? Because we, gamers, solve these problems in game. It is like a simulation. Without the actual cost in real life, we might solve the real life problem in games.
There is a group of people called “Extra life”. People donate money to them by playing games together and “extra life” send these money to help kids. One of the big donation was on Twich.TV which is the world biggest video platform and community for gamers. On that day, so many people donated under the name of games. Now, Extra life has over millions donations overall to save the kids around America and Canada. People know they are doing the right thing and they just need a right platform to help them. Game is just the right tool.
Before watching the video named “Gaming can make a better world: Jane Mcgonigal on TED.com”, I was one of those who think that playing game is such a waste of time; however, Jane somewhat convinced me to think in a different way. I agree with your statement, “If you don’t manage your money well, you might get hungry or if accident happened and you don’t have money for medical supply. So allocate resource is always a big issue in the world and everyone is solving it. How does that connect to the game world? Because we, gamers, solve these problems in game. It is like a simulation. Without the actual cost in real life, we might solve the real life problem in games.” (Yiqi 2014) Game can be thought of as the simulation of real life. By doing things in game before doing them in real life, people might know what the outcomes might be and follow with reducing the risk of uncertainty.
I think both confidence and possitive feedback in games are easy to handle in real life, and the hard thing is the attitude differences between in games and in real world. I remember that McGonigal said that people love the feeling that games gave them because game producers set up a function in the first place. Many people are ready to work with the gamer, even work for them, and all the missions are suitble to their skill level. This is something that is impossible in the real world. So I think we wish gamers could apply their skill or passion in games into real life is a kind of beautiful fantasy at least for now.
I really enjoy your discussion response this week. I am not an online game fan, your step-by-step viewpoints convince me on the meaningful function of online gaming. Reflecting to the TED presentation, Jane (2010) connected the online gaming and real life by saying gamers were able to get positive feedback, which made them chase the epic win of the task. Yiqi (2014) also commended “game improve[s] a person’s ability to manage and observe things, …… Because there are so many puzzles in every games, [some of which] are pretty simple but some are extremely hard”, I agree with you that the ability would potentially be trained and improved during the process of problem solving in online gaming. In other word, your discussion is another powerful example on the importance of simulation in online game. You stated “every month, the whole world is allocate their money to buy food supply at their budget level. …… So allocate resource is always a big issue in the world and everyone is solving it. ……Gamers, solve these problems in game. It is like a simulation” (Yiqi, 2014). I am now finally convinced by the effect of playing online games relevant to real life issues. In addition, your introduction of “extra life” sounds very interesting to me. The contribution this institution does for the children in need is very helpful. I start to believe there are positive outcomes of online gaming at this point.
I enjoyed hearing about “Extra Life” because coming from someone who is not a gamer, it is interesting to hear about the positive aspects of video games that are sort of hidden by the negative outlook. Responding to your work,, there is one section I want to focus in on. You said, “How does that connect to the game world? Because we, gamers, solve these problems in game. It is like a simulation”. Do you think that all gamers would relate the video game to real life? I just feel as though people who play these games so much start to feel like the game is their real life and don’t seem to succeed in the world around them. I just am not sure that these types of games that Jane McGonical created and was describing are ones that would even be attractive to the general gamer. I don’t think that all gamers think in the same way you do. I believe that they are more interested in just escaping from the world than applying the video game to it. I understand what you are saying by the food budgets and what not helping in real life, however, I do not believe that most people play games like this. I feel as though video games are mainly just violent and teach the wrong things and I don’ think we will ever escape that because that is how the makers get people to buy them… they go after our dark sides as human beings.
I like your views about games because you are a gamer. It is better to get something from a real gamer. Actually I don’t like games and when I was young, my parents always told me that games are harmful. I also saw some of my friends quit school because of games. After I watched Jane’s presentation, I feel shocked. Her points change my original views about games. However, I still feel skeptical about her recommendations that we should increase the time of playing games. I feel interesting that you combine your life experience with games. You are an economic student and your major teaches you that allocating resources are important. So you use this theory in your games. It seems that the life experience can help people solve problems in the game, also people can learn some new skills in the game to help them solve real-world problems. These two impact on each other. You also mention an organization called “extra people”. All the people in the organization are gamers and they use the money they earn from games to help kids. This is very inspiring. Not every gamer can play games rationally like you and these gamer you mention. Maybe one day more and more gamers can realize something and use the skills they learn in games to resolve real-world problems.
I am also quite interesting in video or online games in my life, thus when I see your point on how games affect the world and improve one’s ability, I cannot agree more. In addition, it is also interesting for m e to heard about the “Extra Life” program about donate money by playing games.