Gaming to Solve the World’s Problems
on March 19, 2010
Game designer Jane McGonigal argues that games like World of Warcraft attract players because the worlds allow them to 1) experience blissful productivity 2) engage in an online community/social fabric 3) feel urgently optimistic about winning and 4) create epic meaning. We play for the epic wins. We play to be the best.
An average gamer plays 10,000 hours of video games before s/he is 21. That’s the same number of hours that person spends in school between fifth grade until high school graduation. That’s the same number of hours of work that it takes to achieve virtuosity according to Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. What if those same number of hours spent solving problems and achieving wins in our virtual worlds could move us closer to solving problems in our real world?…What if gaming could save the world?
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