Can video gaming change the world? I don’t know. Jane McGonigal believes it can, and appeared on The Colbert Report on Thursday to share her beliefs.
We currently play an estimated three billion hours playing online video games. Jane claims that this is not nearly enough, and that we should be playing 21 billion hours a week in order to change the world, and we should make this change within the next decade. Seems a bit excessive doesn’t it? Watch her interview with Colbert, then take a look at her TED video as well and let me know what you think.
One of the most controversial comments she makes in her interview is that playing video games is one of the most productive things that we do. Now, you might be thinking, “I play video games to avoid being productive,” but I see her point in a different light. When we are playing video games, we are being extremely productive within the game. We don’t play a video game where we tell our character or avatar to go watch TV (unless you are playing The Sims in which case I never let them watch TV for long). In our video games, we are constantly in motion and completing objectives, which, as it turns out, is incredibly productive.
Her idea of making “productive” games has began to catch on already. For example, there is a fantastic iPhone app called Epic Win. In Epic Win you make your to-do list, and for every item you complete, you level up a character, discover new places, and gain stat points that reflect your own life.
Stephen Colbert unfortunately doesn’t let her get her idea across (quite honestly, I feel like its obvious he didn’t read the book or his assistant didn’t give him a very good summary). He was more receptive to the idea by the end of the interview, but I wanted to get her point out a little better. TED TV is one of my favorite sources of ideas, and she had a talk on it about a year ago expressing her same ideas.
Her talk on TED is much more informative, and gives insight into some of the games she has been involved with such as Superstruct and A World Without Oil. I wish that Jane had talked more about what type of games she was referring to when she told us that she wanted us to be playing 21 hours of games a week. If we are talking about games like Superstruct and A World Without Oil, I could really see where she is coming from. On the other hand, if she is talking about any online game, I don’t think that the world is going to get any better with everyone playing World of Warcraft for an hour a day.
It is an interesting concept. I watched the video for A World Without Oil that featured some reviews and thoughts about the game. One of my favorite quotes was from Stephanie Olsen from CNet.
The best way to change the future is to play with it first. – Stephanie Olsen
I feel like that is the best way to describe what Jane is trying to show us, or at least it is what I am hoping she is trying to get across. Playing games may be a good source of motivation for some people, but it won’t be the solution for everybody, nor will it be the practical solution to making the world a completely better place. While I definitely see the value in these types of games, it is like studying. Some people do better studying with others, some people can only study with music playing, etc. There are going to be different ways to motivate different people.
Jane is to be the keynote speaker at PAX East this year, so gamers will have a chance to see her in action there and voice their own opinions.
What do you think? Will productive games in turn make us more productive in “real life?” Or will they simply be another distraction from getting things done?