Game for Greater Good

In “Gaming Can Make A Better World” a Ted Talk by Jane McGonigal video games are discussed in a positive way and Jane describes a way to use games to help people better the world. Because gaming has because such a large part of our world today she takes the time to explain why video games could have a positive effect on people. There are many stereotypical views about people that play video games excessively and they all are relatively negative. McGonigal a videogame designer challenges these stereotypes. McGonigal argues four reasons that games are helping people gain important skills such as “urgent optimism, weaving a tight social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning”. To further her argument McGonigal explains games she has created that demonstrate real life problems and how to work through them. Skills acquired from her game can be applied in This is an important topic to consider because it is such a big part of many people’s lives and takes precedence over an abundance of other tasks. McGonigal includes that “Right now we spend three billion hours a week playing online games.” and continues to add “Three billion hours a week is not nearly enough”. A question so easily forgotten but so important is: so what? Many times I have caught myself so engrossed in something online just for the fun of it, but why should I care about an article that pops up on social media? In “Gaming Can Make A Better World” the speaker does a great job at making sure the listener feels a need to take in her information. She does this so well by including astonishing facts that convince you of the importance of video games. If the information you are taking in has some significance to you there is a better chance you will pay attention. By relating gaming to certain groups of gamers it is easy to see an impact on the population as a whole. This strategy can help me reinforce a topic to make more people feel involved and acknowledged, thus getting them more interested in the topic.