In this TED Talk Jane McGonigal presents the idea that gaming can be used to change the world. People are playing games for billions of hours. Kids growing up today spend so much time playing games, they are virtuosos at it. Therefore, we can use the incredible amount of skill they have built up and direct it towards world-changing activities for the betterment of everyone.
The talk itself is insightful, and the research Jane is doing at the Institute For The Future is very interesting. I especially enjoyed the part of the talk where she discussed Herodotus’ story of the Lydians using dice games to ease famine possibly being true. It at least rings true considering the use of video games to distract ill people from their pain and suffering.
Regardless of that Jane’s talk seems to gloss over many obvious factors. Mainly she completely fails to deeply analyze the mechanics of the games themselves. The sad fact is that games can not change the world, at least not in the way she presents.
