Gaming can make a better world

[mega_vegeta6]

I think this is an interesting topic, but i dunno if this is the right forum part for it. Either way, i think someone could get inspired by this.

 

Jane Mc Gonigal: Gaming can make a better world

 

I see a lot of similarities towards Runescape, but there's only one thing that's very different. In my eyes, Runescape has been severely lacking in Community, Co-op and the like, for the better part of it's existence. Considering the effort Jagex is now putting in promoting communities, we might be seeing a definite improvement in not only the quality of the game, but also in the gamers themselves, in the not so distant future.

 

I think RS is really a versatile game, not pushing you to play with others but allowing loners and clanners alike be part of a big system. Most of the game play is meant for single player, but it can easily be done simultaneously with others to converse, bicker and so on and so forth. The only exception i can think of now would obviously be instanced events and running skills like agility and RC, where little room is left for the hands to be typing.

The problem solving is really dominated by single player game play. I refer to quests where the most difficulties can be met.

[Myweponsg00d]

This would be an inspiring idea if 90% of the people I have met on the internet were not the most vile, ignorant, arrogant, rude, and STUPID people I have ever met in my entire life.

 

I have played the "epic adventure" World of Warcraft, and my experience differs greatly from the illusion that this woman is under. First of all, the game is overly simplistic in nature. Second of all...honestly...people SUCK AT GAMES. I am sorry, but they honestly do. It is unbelievable how many life-long gamers have level 80 in World of Warcraft and they honestly just SUCK. They are terrible, they are stupid, and they don't even fully understand the simplist instructions.

 

If we were to harness the man-hours that Mr. Joe-Shmoe "I equip my level 80 DK with spellpower gear" there would need to be the online equivilant of a garbage man or fast food service worker.

 

Out of the billions of hours that stupid people are playing videogames, there is a tiny percent that would be of any use to mankind.

 

I think you need more than just QUANTITY of hours to solve mankind's problems. The intellectual quality of the mass of online gamers is disgustingly sup-par. I don't see how we could simply turn man-hours into relevant problem solving. People just do not have the skills.

 

And I disagree with the "optimism" that gamers have. Gamers are not optimists. They are afraid of failure. Failure in games means nothing. You die, lose items, and can easily re-build. People play these online games to get a feeling of virtual sucess because failure in the real world is much more meaningful, and much less reversible.

[Earth_Poet]

The Institute for the Future? Sounds like a hippy organization.

 

On topic: I'm not sure how much we can bridge the gap between fantasy gaming and the real world. If anything, I think the real world has more influence on books, movies, games, etc. I grew up just before the internet exploded. What I find interesting is that communities such as what you would find in online gaming has made the world a little smaller. I've learned more about the everyday lives of ordinary people in other parts of the world, things I'm not sure I would understand as well in another method.

 

It's an interesting theory, because games are so commonly thought to be counterproductive. I agree with some of what she said, games help build problem-solving skills and such. Interesting concept to try and motivate gamers. On the other hand, there's so much talk about how video games desensitize us to so much. You're not going to trick people who work into thinking its a game.

[Robert_R]

I don't agree with her that we need more people to play world of warcraft or another online game to help the world in real life situations. She suggested something like an accumulated 21 billion hours a week spent online gaming to help the world which is rediculous. More people playing online gaming means less people actually doing something in real life. Her games may help prepare you for some sort of real life situations I just don't believe world of warcraft or runescape or another game like those is helping anything with real life.

[Myweponsg00d]

This would be an inspiring idea if 90% of the people I have met on the internet were not the most vile, ignorant, arrogant, rude, and STUPID people I have ever met in my entire life.

 

I have played the "epic adventure" World of Warcraft, and my experience differs greatly from the illusion that this woman is under. First of all, the game is overly simplistic in nature. Second of all...honestly...people SUCK AT GAMES. I am sorry, but they honestly do. It is unbelievable how many life-long gamers have level 80 in World of Warcraft and they honestly just SUCK. They are terrible, they are stupid, and they don't even fully understand the simplist instructions.

 

If we were to harness the man-hours that Mr. Joe-Shmoe "I equip my level 80 DK with spellpower gear" there would need to be the online equivilant of a garbage man or fast food service worker.

 

Out of the billions of hours that stupid people are playing videogames, there is a tiny percent that would be of any use to mankind.

 

Agreed there are so many [developmentally delayed]ed people there.

 

But the morons are a minority still

 

I full-heartedly, 100%, absolutely, positivley disagree. The majority is terrible. Absolutely terrible. The percent of the world of warcraft population who are competent enough to quickly clear the easy bosses (honestly, they ARE simple) and dominate in arenas is a tiny fraction of the playing population.

 

It is the same in every game. Players with skill/knowledge/any intelligence can go into any random environment and simply farm the hell out of morons who run in and get themselves killed.

 

Every now and then, I hope between games: Runescape, Halo, WoW, COD, GoW. Any time I play in a FPS I will always get 1st, 2nd, 3rd place. Am I a good gamer? No. I hardly ever even play. But I am 50 in Halo, why? Skill? Aiming ability? No. Its simply because when you are playing against the bottom 95% of the population, all you have to do is have enough god damn brains to sit back and open fire on the morons who are running around getting themselves killed.

 

Gamers are bad. That is one thing this lady completely left out of the equation.

[Myweponsg00d]

I don't agree with her that we need more people to play world of warcraft or another online game to help the world in real life situations. She suggested something like an accumulated 21 billion hours a week spent online gaming to help the world which is rediculous. More people playing online gaming means less people actually doing something in real life. Her games may help prepare you for some sort of real life situations I just don't believe world of warcraft or runescape or another game like those is helping anything with real life.

 

I believe she meant that we need people to play 21 bil hours of "World saving" games in order to save the world.

 

I could be wrong.

[Robert_R]

I don't agree with her that we need more people to play world of warcraft or another online game to help the world in real life situations. She suggested something like an accumulated 21 billion hours a week spent online gaming to help the world which is rediculous. More people playing online gaming means less people actually doing something in real life. Her games may help prepare you for some sort of real life situations I just don't believe world of warcraft or runescape or another game like those is helping anything with real life.

 

I believe she meant that we need people to play 21 bil hours of "World saving" games in order to save the world.

 

I could be wrong.

I think she just said online gaming in general. Not sure either and too lazy to go skim through it to find that lol

[mega_vegeta6]

I don't agree with her that we need more people to play world of warcraft or another online game to help the world in real life situations. She suggested something like an accumulated 21 billion hours a week spent online gaming to help the world which is rediculous. More people playing online gaming means less people actually doing something in real life. Her games may help prepare you for some sort of real life situations I just don't believe world of warcraft or runescape or another game like those is helping anything with real life.

Although she has a valid point in making the games to platforms for innovation and simulation. The potential is huge, and so is the audience. The interest and the results of such attempts are not as good. There's a great difference between WoW, etc. and and these kinds of ambitious and optimistic attempts at harnessing this relatively new and unexplored medium. As said before, people online tend to be.. simple minded and generally unimpressive. At most, the benefits are much the same as those you get in school. Social, historical, mathematical, lingual and logical knowledge is undoubtedly something that anyone spending a long time in an online community like Rs will get. That's about as far as it goes. An epic win will never cure cancer.

[la la la]

I completely agree about the social fabric.

 

I had a friend who I talked with sometimes at school, and when I found out he played RS, we played that a ton together. When he quit, we still hung out a ton and continue to be great friends today.

 

Great talk. I really liked it.

[Patr1ck]

Something I thought while I was watching the video was this...You may say that spending more time playing games means less problem solvers? That's not really the case though, you see the more people who play video games, the less problems we will have. Less kid's getting high, less kid's having sex, Just an overall less loss of life. I personally can speak to this fact, and growing up I really do believe that it was games that ultimately kept me out of trouble. I regret in saying this but while people my age were getting stoned and drunk around me, I was playing video games. Gaming just uprises your spirit, it's an unreal feeling when you achieve something great in an online game, it's what causes you to do great things in real life, it gives you confidence to succeed at the most difficult things in the real world. So before you go bashing on this lady and saying that she's a lune, take time to really think about it and understand that video games are one of the greatest creations ever.

[elucin8er]

Gamers are bad. That is one thing this lady completely left out of the equation.

 

In relation to Wow and Rs, yes. These games are simple, they don't requite much skill. Go play a good gamer at Starcraft Dota or CSS. Come vs me I'll show you the amount of skill you need to be that much better than others.

 

I'm a gamer, and when I have a 250+ apm game of Starcraft, it feels gooooooood. As she says, on the verge of an "epic win."

 

I enjoyed the video, thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

[elucin8er]

Re-watching this certain bit at around 10 minutes there's an interesting controversal point. If you don't want to watch it It says:

 

Gamers spend 22 hours a week on games, because they feel more alive doing something that ( i'll expand here ) opens their mind, tests them, challenges them or requires attention. They feel more fufilled doing this than lounging around hanging out not doing much which entertains or develops the mind. This is a very interesting point, however you have to be careful with it. I think it relates to situations in which you can't go out and do something ELSE productive. She's not suggesting to blow everything off and spend your time playing games because it's the best thing you can do. I think she's saying unless you have something else productive to do, gaming is your best choice that will satisfy you.

 

This point in turn, shows us the links between the amount of hours people play. For instance, if someone lived in a town of small activity with nothing much to do, then gaming these amount of hours will be far more productive than hanging out doing nothing for your mind. However, if someone was working full time and enjoyed waterskiiing when they came home, then it would be unhealthy to trade this time in for paying games. I'm sure most people here at tip it know when to draw the line, and should look at their situation when they're about to sit down and play another game. This point in her video is a good one, and next time I'm playing a game at night I won't feel so bad because it'd be either that or watching some tv sitcom, lol.

[Patr1ck]

Re-watching this certain bit at around 10 minutes there's an interesting controversal point. If you don't want to watch it It says:

 

Gamers spend 22 hours a week on games, because they feel more alive doing something that ( i'll expand here ) opens their mind, tests them, challenges them or requires attention. They feel more fufilled doing this than lounging around hanging out not doing much which entertains or develops the mind. This is a very interesting point, however you have to be careful with it. I think it relates to situations in which you can't go out and do something ELSE productive. She's not suggesting to blow everything off and spend your time playing games because it's the best thing you can do. I think she's saying unless you have something else productive to do, gaming is your best choice that will satisfy you.

 

This point in turn, shows us the links between the amount of hours people play. For instance, if someone lived in a town of small activity with nothing much to do, then gaming these amount of hours will be far more productive than hanging out doing nothing for your mind. However, if someone was working full time and enjoyed waterskiiing when they came home, then it would be unhealthy to trade this time in for paying games. I'm sure most people here at tip it know when to draw the line, and should look at their situation when they're about to sit down and play another game. This point in her video is a good one, and next time I'm playing a game at night I won't feel so bad because it'd be either that or watching some tv sitcom, lol.

 

Yeah, totally agree with what you just stated, when you think about it there are many things where gaming would actually be more productive. One popular thing I can think of is as you stated watching TV, rather than just sitting there and having your mind interpret what is going on on the screen, it'd be better to challenge yourself and play some video games where you must think and understand things. However this only applies to some parts of television, well actually probably like 99% of it, 99% of Tv is crap, but the other percent is educational like discovery channel etc, that'd be the only exception.

[Myweponsg00d]

After listening again to this speech while training, I think this lady is on to something, but the problem I have with this particular speech is the heavy comparisons between her ideas, and ACTUAL video games that exist. I think the REAL point of what she is saying is more along the lines of the following: If life was more like a game, the world would be a much better place, and people would make a ton of progress.

 

 

I can agree with this. We live in a very opressive society. In a game, every person starts off at the same level. We put in hours of effort, doing something we may or may not inherently enjoy. However, the system allows us to get frequent, reliable rewards.

 

Reality is much different. (I am going to be writing this from an American [capitalist] viewpoint) Somebody can work his whole life, and not ever have a chance at making a true sucess of himself. A person can also basically be screwed from birth. I know, I know. You are going to tell me that mister nobody so-and-so was born into a poor black family and is now an NFL player. Well, he is the exception. Most people born into poverty live their lives in poverty. Even if they can make it out of poverty, it is a huge struggle to get any higher than the middle class.

 

Also, it is just technically impossible for everyone to advance into the higher class. First of all, the high class CEOs make get their money from everyone below them. Wealth wouldnt exist if they hadn't taken it from the poor, so not everyone can be wealthy in our society. Secondly, there just ARENT that many jobs available with that high of prestige. If you add up all the CEO, movie star, etc...positions around the world, do you think the number would even be 5% of the population?

 

In a society fueled by the "gaming" drive in people, everyone would be able to see progress that was proportional to the ammount of time you put in. You wouldn't go to work every day for 20 years and then lose the promotion to the new guy who just married the boss's daughter. You wouldnt have unfair progression due to starting wealth. Everyone would be equally able to see rewards, and they would have FUN working because they would feel like they are actually getting somewhere, and they will KEEP getting somewhere if they just keep trying.

 

I have no idea how this type of society would be possible, but it is interesting to theorize about.

[geekdude]

This reminds me of the documentary called "Second Skin". It touches upon video game fantasy worlds in relation to the real world. It is a good documentary. I watched it like 20 times, but that was because I had to do a 10-page paper on it for my psychology class.

[3hitm4g3u]

Most gamers are not [developmentally delayed]ed but actually children.

[Pirate_Felix]

Gamers are bad. That is one thing this lady completely left out of the equation.

 

In relation to Wow and Rs, yes. These games are simple, they don't requite much skill. Go play a good gamer at Starcraft Dota or CSS. Come vs me I'll show you the amount of skill you need to be that much better than others.

 

I'm a gamer, and when I have a 250+ apm game of Starcraft, it feels gooooooood. As she says, on the verge of an "epic win."

 

I enjoyed the video, thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

You need 300+ apm to play the terrans well in starcraft II

About dota, WATCH OUT TECHIES *BOOM*

[elucin8er]

Gamers are bad. That is one thing this lady completely left out of the equation.

 

In relation to Wow and Rs, yes. These games are simple, they don't requite much skill. Go play a good gamer at Starcraft Dota or CSS. Come vs me I'll show you the amount of skill you need to be that much better than others.

 

I'm a gamer, and when I have a 250+ apm game of Starcraft, it feels gooooooood. As she says, on the verge of an "epic win."

 

I enjoyed the video, thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

You need 300+ apm to play the terrans well in starcraft II

About dota, WATCH OUT TECHIES *BOOM*

 

My terran micro stops at MM. I can't play them after that rofl. I r zerg

[Pirate_Felix]

But seriously i came to this vid

Im saving the world <3:

[Wachtwoord]

She lost me when she started about "in game world, we are the best version of ourselves". If the average RS/WoW player, 4chan visitor, etc. is at their best, I surely don't want to meet their worst version.

[Pirate_Felix]

I think she wasnt talking about interaction with other people but with NPCs

[TheAncient]

300+ apm? really? didnt boxer play around 250? then again he was way oldschool

 

anyway, glad to see someone else follows TED :) I saw this video on TED and was like, wow I saw that topic name in GenDIsc

[AirWales]

"I believe that when we play a game, we become the best version of ourselves".

 

Lol'd irl

 

Too much use of the word epic for my liking.

 

OT: She is right on the fact that if we behaved more like an in-game/die-hard goal-achieving way like we do in a game, the world could be better. But as many people already wrote before me, the reality is much different. Has she actually ever played a MMO?

 

Interesting video though. Thanks for sharing!

[rangeor]

Nice thoughts for an idealist. I can agree with the social fabric concept 100%, but for everything else... it would be very naive to assume that these traits will help gamers save the world. Games are just an escape, similar to television and books. How come people have read stories of heroes conquering nations that had similar traits to the reader, yet haven't done anything about it yet? The same reason that gamers haven't yet and will never utilize their skills to achieve real life "epic win's."

[TheValeyard]

FML