Games Can Save the World? Review

 

Jane McGonigal’s video blog explores the ideas of how games can stimulate and solve issues for the modern world; apparently the globe, as a total, spends 3 billion hours a week playing games… when we should be playing 21 billion hours per week to ‘save the world’ says McGonigal. Farfetched aye? And that’s only within the first couple of minutes of her arguement. When McGonigal shows us a Phil Toldano’s photo of an extreme gamer, captured before an ‘epic win’, as an example of the emotions game can create and how these ’emotions’ could be captured and utilised for more serious issues, she slowly begins to win me over, and has me thinking… am I becoming crazy too?

But the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Games create a reality where failure and obstacles are not so dramatic, a constant reassuring and positive re-enforcing place, where you are always rewarded for your ability and failure is not so threatening, therefore it offers an environment of security. Capturing this environment would be very useful for “humans to become a more collaborative species”. It doesn’t stop there however, McGonigal claims that gamers can develop a good trustworthy and ongoing relationship with other ‘players’, not only this, ‘gamers’ are eager and interested in what they do. All these qualities are in fact good qualities in any human, put into the real world and taken out of that safe comfort zone though would it actually work?

I believe so, McGonigal makes a good argument and presents some really strong examples at the end of her talk, esp the ‘world without oil’ online game, where users are asked to register their real address and presented with real situations of the scenario with the help of multi media videos. The concept is so utopic on so many levels, and the ideas presented allow the viewers to spawn off into their own idyllic worlds of how a fantasy online could use media to develop skills and expand our abilities to help us prepare and apply in real life.

Rami A Nour

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