Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

3 billion hours are spent weekly to play games --> the target is 21 billion hours

Jane McGonigal tries to convince the TED audience that the future of problem solving (education) lies in gaming. Her main argument is the "Epic Win" moment of game play:

THE EPIC WIN:

The epic win is a moment of ultimate achievement during which a player experiences both the surprise and satisfaction of achieving something that has not even seemed possible.

    Epic win expression

It is an emotion most frequently seen during game play.

In online gaming you are entrusted with a world saving mission right from the beginning of the game. These missions are always matched to your level in the game (always possible to solve).

The combination of trust and satisfaction is so strong that it seems more appealing to spend more time in these game world then in the real world --> bring real world scenarios into the game

Gamers have spent 5.93 million years on WOW alone, solving problems (playing)

Average Gamers have spent 10,000 hours by the age of 21 playing games. This amount almost equals the amount of hours an american kid spends in high school.

According to a theory if a person had spent 10,000 hours learning about anything it would became the master of that subject.

SO WHAT ARE GAMERS GETTING GOOD AT?

Urgent Optimism:

• Extreme self motivation
• Tackle a problem with a reasonable hope of success

Social Fabric:

• It takes trust to play a game with someone
• We like people better after playing with/against them
• Builds bonds, trust and cooperation

Blissful Productivity:

• We are happier working hard, even in games

Epic meaning:

• The importance of tasks and missions is "epic"

These four lead us to believe that gamers are: Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals

These are people that believe they can change the world on their own.

The only problem is that they believe they can change the virtual worlds not the real world.

THE SOLUTION:

Developing games that end up in finding the solution to real world problems in order to set the gamers way of thinking in a specific way.

By creating Epic Wins in the real world people will strive to achieve them in the game and therefor have a better view on how to solve them in the real world.

Jane McGonigal has developed several such games which are already online and playable by anyone with a computer and internet access.