Everyday, gamers max their focus, cooperation, and determination, among other skills, to solve the many problems of countless virtual worlds, and McGonigal hopes to harness some of this power to solve real world problems. She truly believes that gamers have the power to save the world. So, if world saving sounds like your cup of tea and you fancy a game from time to time, you're going to want to watch this.
I drank the Kool-Aid before I ever heard McGonigal's talk at TED. Games are ubiquitous. The population of gamers is huge and growing. What excites me most, however, is how truly young the medium of digital games is. It's only been 40 years. For perspective, look at how much film has grown and evolved as a medium since the 1940's. We're experiencing digital games in their infancy. I'm with McGonigal 100 percent. There's just too much unexplored potential in the digital games' space to think anything other than that unbelievable things are achievable with games by gamers!
Here's what I actually posted on my class's forum:
Through TED, Jane McGonigal shares a simple but radical idea: People spend billions of hours in virtual worlds because these virtual worlds are fulfilling genuine human needs many cannot find in the real world. The time and commitment people dedicate to games can be harnessed to solve large-scale real world problems, but only if the real world starts taking notes from virtual ones.
McGonigal's enthusiasm for games and the impact she believes they can have is infectious. She continues to convince people that video games can be a force for good through both words and action. I'm amazed at the success she's already had with many of her alternate reality games. McGonigal's vision of what games can become is a young one. It's exciting to think about what will be accomplished if others follow McGonigal's lead and take the leap.
Cheers,
Danny
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