Game designer/researcher Jane McGonigal asserts that collaborative videogames are the key to solving our real-world problems. In the video below, she outlines why she considers World of Warcraft to be an “ideal collaborative problem-solving environment.” She discusses four key factors in gaming culture that give gamers an edge at problem-solving—urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning. An underlying theme throughout the talk is motivation, and McGonigal’s research squares off soundly with Daniel Pink’s theories on motivation—namely the importance of mastery and purpose—and also with Will Wright, who in 2006 wrote that “the gamers’ mindset—the fact that they are learning in a totally new way—means they’ll treat the world as a place for creation, not consumption.”
Excerpts From Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk
3/17/10 Gaming can make a better world
3:30: This is a problem that a lot of gamers have: We feel that we are not as good in reality as we are in games. And I don’t mean just good as in successful—although that’s part of it. We do achieve more in game worlds. But I also mean good as in motivated to do something that matters—inspired to collaborate and cooperate. When we’re in game worlds, I believe that many of us become the best version of ourselves, the most likely to help at a moment’s notice, the most likely to stick with a problem as long as in takes, to get up after failure, and try again.
9:00: Urgent optimism is desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle combined with the belief that we have a reasonable hope of success. Gamers always believe that an epic win is possible, and that it’s always worth trying, and trying now—gamers don’t sit around. Gamers are virtuosos at weaving a tight social fabric. There’s a lot of interesting research that shows that we like people better after we play a game with them—even if they’ve beaten us badly. The reason is that it takes a lot of trust to play a game with someone.
McGonigal’s recent videogame design: Urgent Evoke—a crash course in changing the world.
Image: flickr/avantgame
