Here is the video that must be watched in order to participate in this topic, and trust me, this video rocks. I fell in love with this women as she spoke: http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

So the idea of using games to create a better world. In her story of the ancient civilization, they used games as a means of escape from reality much in the way that most gamers today do. I know I feel more at home while playing video games, not always but often, when compared to the real world. Can the optimism and motivation that gamers have be applied to real world problems? Is the real world without a "reset" button the reason as to why gamers haven't been mass motivated to work collaboratively to make the a better place? Do you think that the aspects of gaming can actually be applied in real life?

I for one find this whole idea to be extremely interesting and extremely optimistic. It seems that it took a gamer, well a game designer, to come up with this idea so full of optimism and motivation. Can people who aren't gamers be apart of a mass motivational movement, or will this type movement be exclusive only to people have immersed themselves in games? Do you feel the lack of a reset button in the real world will deter everyone from participating in such a movement, or do you think the imminent danger of not having a reset button will act as a powerful motivator?

Can gaming make a better world?

I have not seen all of it yet, but my current impression is that the woman is completely cuckoo. I will contribute a more in depth analysis when the video is finished.

Update: I have watched all of it now and I think she has come to the wrong conclusions. In my opinion, the main reason why people play online games is to win and beat other people, to be respected by the particular peer group which values performance in a given game. Personal competitiveness, essentially (as well as a means of escape from practising the skills needed in real life) She completely ignores the fact that you have a large number of griefers, hackers and other idiots playing games also.

She claimed that gamers don't feel the same sort of frustration at failure as a person feels in real life. I don't think this is true either. How many people here have thrown a game controller across the room in frustration, or got snappy at family and friends because they're doing badly at a game?

All that said, I like her game ideas and I do think that games could be harnessed in a way which is productive to society - all you need to do is get people competitive.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 8 2010, 9:54 pm by CaptainWill.

It was actually amusing and I like her ideas. However, there are some games where it allows you to be an evil bastard, which I doubt would be productive to saving the world.

The "Evoke" idea is an interesting one, and I've signed up to the game out of curiosity.

I think the point she was emphasizing was the motivation gamers have to push through obstacles in order to obtain a goal. The goal may be hacking, or peer recognition, but they are goals nonetheless.

Really? I don't remember that. Sure people get frustrated in games, that's obvious. Although, how many times did you throw your controller only to pick it up again later, regretting you ever threw it? It isn't often that a player will just give up altogether during gameplay, and when this does happens it's usually due to a hardware or game design fault, not the player's own lack of will.

Sign up to one of the games that she's helped develop and see if your viewpoint changes on the whole gamers pushing through obstacles thing - her games require you to make real life actions to achieve rewards in the game, including some fairly major stuff. I can't see your average lazy gamer running too far with that idea.

I watched the video, but didn't play her games, and I mostly agree with Will. I don't believe people with a considerable iota of intelligence will find themselves motivated to change their lifestyles because they get feedback on a computer screen. I know that it won't affect me; I don't even participate in WoW achievements, and those can be easy as hell to get and have in-game rewards. (That wasn't exactly what Will was saying, but this is my own addition)

I think that there needs to be an equal reward for each achievement. In her games, which I have not played, if it's required to do real-life changes then the achievement should give real-life prizes. Sure there was the reward of being on a team in Africa. But that's only if you want to go to Africa.. If, upon completion, I get a monetary paycheck or free gadget, then I would give up every other game and focus on that on game! But the problem is lack of funding for that.. Online achievements are strings of code, real-life achievements cost precious money..

Practice makes perfect, and sequestering yourself near your monitor makes you alone.

It depends what kind of games we're talking about. That woman seems to only focus on certain genres and I admit that she does bring up some good points. However, a lot of games kids play nowadays involve violence, mindless shooting, gore, crude/vulgar humor, sex, larceny, etc. I find it rather difficult to imagine any of those games engendering a better world.

Games like Left 4 Dead are obviously preparing us for the coming apocalypse. We'll be trained veteran zombie killers.

Because you learn how to handle and aim a weapon using a mouse or joypad.

Those things you can learn quickly, it's the important mental things like teamwork and tactics that you learn playing a game.

Until they come out with a study where video game nerds do better than the average soldier in war, I'll dispute that a game can teach that.

Actually, Nude, a lot of the people against video game violence feel that war games make kids think they can fire guns well since they are able to kick ass in first person shooters. On our last season of "Bullshit!" we actually did an episode on video game violence and gave an 11-year-old who was in love with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare an assault rifle and took him to a shooting range. He didn't know how to hold the gun, hurt himself when he fired it, and cried after ward saying he'd never want to hold a gun again. Still, however, people feel like the games are creating little killing machines. It's so dumb.

Anyways, I have a friend who met Jane McGonigal (I think it was her at least) and was completely inspired by her. I think her ideas are fantastic, though somewhat impractical given what games interest kids these days. I play WoW and love it dearly, but I don't play it to make myself better, I play it because it's an amazing way to kill time and have fun doing it. I've never figured that it was teaching me anything other than how to quickly click names on a list to heal them, or mash button combinations to kill other players.

Soldiers aren't trained to deal with zombies. When the apocalypse comes only gamers will know how to properly deal with them. Also, video games are more easily accessible to the public than actual training soldiers receive.

I think it's not about playing more hours that will make a change, but enhancing real life with gaming attributes, somehow.
For instance, it would be freaking awesome if I could have school tests on arcade style, so that when I choose the right answer I could see scores popping out from my pen. Imagine how a "rampage" would be. I would probably be one of the best students of my school, no kidding!

Also, I read some comments on the video page and some guys were talking about the idea of having special shoes that register how much the wearer walks, this way having a sort of measurement of the person's activity and taking such information to the games, so if the gamer is too sedentary, his character would move slower. That could be a motivator for making exercises (specially for kids), for example. Pretty interesting. Perhaps stuff like this really could change people's lives.

I know, and that exactly the stupid fact I was alluding to.

If it takes such steps to motivate kids then they are already lost. At the latest when they grow up and stop playing games.

So you're saying that every kid gamer stops playing games when they get older?

Not everyone, but when people get married/have children/get a real job, they have less time for video games.