Jane mcgonigal: Gaming can make a better world
www.ted.com Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane mcgonigal says we can, and explains how.tedtalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and tedtalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 tedtalks at www.ted.com
i must have been on the wrong server. the wow she played must be reserved for the cool people.
lol wat.
Warcraft is about being better than other people laughing at them, then kicking them to the curb and doing it to someone else.
A lot of MMOS are selfish power struggles for egotists and social outcasts to gain some sense of superiority over others. This is not going to save the world, unless by plugging into some kind of game world like the matrix and forgetting about real life good luck with that.
@shaneho78
I know I did.
@shaneho78 I know I did….
the voice of the future?
@icarus313 You have a good sense of humour
I say good luck on that, because if the world was taken hostage as it would be in a game, everyone would cower out. I can already tell, people are going to reply to this saying “ya, I would save the world, I’m not a pussy.” but in fact, if a giant shady character with fire shooting from his forehead, then you would just sit in your room waiting for him to tell yo to do something.
Heres a good videogame “get back to the kitchen”
@shaneho78
Only faggots play WoW
W00T! She needs needs to say IRL instead of “in real life”. I’m playing WOW as I watch this, freaking awesome.
WoW can Ruin lives, not help them
Free WoW game cards at freewowgametime(.)com?join=9 . Thanks Joel Clam
@EveryHumanBeing
I believe you’re wrong on both counts.
1) The “high” she’s talking about doesn’t come from ease. You’ll see more of those “high”’s in FPS’s, where people are challenged in combat. No one’s face contorts in that way when they’re mining ore–it’s from overcoming a challenge.
2) Leveling up is hard work itself, to a certain degree. It may not be physically demanding, but it’s a pain in the ass to have the patience to sit through it all.
Anyways, this TED talk was blargh.
If the population keeps to play videogames, and in fact, as she hopes, times it by 7, we wont be able to do anything anymore. She implies that gaming will inspire you to help, but we only “save the world” in video games because it is easy, and we dont have to meet many physical requirements.
I played WoW for 3 years, and its too addictive, and it takes up far too much of your time. If we want to change the world, we need to STOP playing these sorts of games, increase our physical potential, and that will make us more able to “save the world”.
As she said, she is a games designer. I think she just wants us to spend more time playing games so she gets more cash in hand, if I’m horribly honest, and covers it with a facade of “saving the world”.
@mwtillotson – Sorry but I beg to differ, I played Ever-quest for 5 years, was in the #1 guild on my server and was ranked in the top 5 for my class… Meaning… We never used spoilers cause there were none… that is REAL PROBLEM SOLVING, Real Teamwork… — The rest of the gaming community is Sitting around with a spoiler AND BEGGING people to help them with goals amounts to 98% of all players
I never played war craft because it’s for pussies and children and console geeks Consoles=Ghetto
@mwtillotson – I quit everquest because SONY got greedy and the balance between risk and reward was skewed to whiney players and children, Meaning they made it easy and dumbed it down a little bit at a time
IRL its risk for reward with actual penalty’s , something that today’s games do not provide.
Leveling up is not not handwork. its JUST A TIME SINK…. There is a difference. Gather 240 wolf pelts and hand in for a Key, for a zone…. No skill needed… just a waste of time
@EveryHumanBeing
I’m not sure what statements of mine you are trying to undermine.
I’ve never said that World of Warcraft did not have plenty of websites to help with “problem solving.” My two statements were:
1) Those “high”, “epic win” faces by no means necessarily come from easy gaming.
2) World of Warcraft, and just about any online game, can require hard work depending on how you set your parameters.
@EveryHumanBeing
I fully realize games can be easy.
Spending long amounts of time doing easy tasks is still hard work. Is it hard to pick cotton from a cotton plant? Not really. Is it hard work to sit down for countless hours doing this task over and over? Of course it is. People spend outrageous amounts of hours leveling up, picking skills, and working with others. This is hard work.
It’s not necessarily a “waste of time.” If people enjoy it, it’s not really a waste of time at all.
she’s an idiot. Hey bitch, you’re an idiot.
EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC How many times can she say epic!!??
Also i hate hearing about WoW. JEEZ.
Two things:
1- her idea of an “epic win” always happens is BS, doing a quest in WoW At level 10 and getting 5% of your experience of that level is not EPIC omgogmmg! Yea you are pressing towards sick gear and pvp gear etc. but its definitely not a epic experience throught he whole thing.
2- she also talked about the idea of people working together and striving for goals, but it is just like the real world where people screw you over for theiur own benifit . Good effin game
Ok…. this is how school should be…
She should be the secretary of education
Whoa, this is superficial.
She did have some points at the end: that campaigns towards some goal can use games as a means to an end, but overall just a very naive and superficial talk. Games don’t make people behave better. In fact they often unleash the very worst facets of Humanity, especially in WoW.