At the recommendation of my commenter, I actually decided to
skip starting with Wikipedia (however, when it becomes relevant I will return
there to seek out new sources), and I started by searching Jane McGonigal and
her book "Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can
Change the World." At the moment I haven’t had an opportunity to get my
hands on a copy, however her website, Reality is Broken. offers links to a variety of wonderful resources. In addition to the interview
that Allison mentioned with Stephen Colbert, Jane has done a TED Talk on this
topic, which can be viewed here.
In this 20 minute video, McGonigal discusses quite a few
ideas about how video games can help better or fix our broken world. She also
discusses how games are helping better our youth. And she presents a few
interesting factoids. 1) We currently, as a people, spend 3 billion hours,
globally, playing online games… weekly. 2) Globally we as a people have
invested 5.93 million YEARS worth of hours playing World of Warcraft ALONE. 3)
Per a Carnegie-Melon researcher the average young person in a developed country
will spend 10,000 hours playing games by the time he/she is 21; contrasted to
the 10,080 hours spent in school (assuming perfect attendance) from the 5th
grade until high school graduation.
All of these things she presents actually help to explore a
question I was ruminating on the other day: Social games, and how they can
affect players. Now specifically I was wondering about social disorders, such
as social anxiety. Can online games be used as an effective alternative
treatment regimen? Based on her TED Talk, yes they can and more. It was rather
inspiring to listen to, to be frank.
McGonigal’s talk also inspired another question. Can games
be developed or turned to helping solve global problems? Gamers are notoriously
focused and goal driven. We enjoy meeting and beating challenges. And we aren’t
easily deterred. Can craft scientists, mathematicians, psychologists, and game
designers work together to start solving real crises? We, as a group, already
understand tactics and strategy. Resource management is well within our scope
of ability.
So with that in mind I ended up recalling an interesting
news story from last year. With this to inspire us, it would seem that yes
games and gamers can be put to practical use! In 3 weeks, gamers produced an accurate and workable model of a protein that
retroviruses need to replicate; read the full article here. This is, apparently, an accomplishment that
scientists were unable to achieve in over a DECADE. To motivate players they simply gave them
points for each chemically stable model a player or team could produce.
Both of these sources are interesting to delve into, however
both regard online games. Online gaming is one facet of the world that is
gaming. I haven’t had an opportunity to
really explore offline games, which some of my original inquires relate better
to. So I now wonder, since online gaming offers such promise to the player (and
even the global community) is it only online gaming that has merits? Perhaps
offline games are too limiting and isolationist? And I also wonder, especially
after watching McGonical’s talk, is it healthy or unhealthy to spend so much
time on games? 3 billion hours weekly… it’s staggering. And she wants to
multiply that number 7 fold in the next decade!
Watch the Ted Talk below:
Watch the Ted Talk below:
There is also another great video on how to implement a gaming model into education to make kids want to achieve more. I'll see if I can dig up that link for you. I'm sure my gamer boy has it somewhere.
ReplyDeleteYou do know that your "commenter" is the instructor (Allison), right? Just wanted to make sure you knew that ENG 121 Prof is me. I don't have my full name on the site due to FERPA and social media rules at the school.
ReplyDeleteYep. I started writing this entry early in the morning on a day when I had left my wallet at home. No wallet = no breakfast. I also had a surplus of blood in my caffeine system. >_<
DeleteYour post started me thinking about my economics class and the computer games we play online to simulate markets. Video games are a great way to learn something. I think they create more focus and have more repetition, which helps with memorization.
ReplyDeleteI found an article by Barbara Bein, “Video Games, New Media Have Place in Training, Say Medical Students” published in American Academy of Family Physicians. Bein explains how video games are transforming medical education.
http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/resident-student-focus/20110126newmediastudy.html
I did hear that some of the FRCC economics classes were using games. In fact, games are the new "hot thing" in education and technology. I haven't figured out a way to include such games in English though...
DeleteThe sources you found definitely seem more specific than what you would find on Wikipedia. (The Colbert Report video about Wikipedia is now up on D2L by the way).
ReplyDeleteYou can get rid of the messy long web addresses/URLs and just make the title of each source the link. See my blog for a post on creating links and embedding videos in Blogger.
What's the difference between an online and off-line game in terms of what you are discussing? Is an off-line game a video game that one plays at home on a game console, and that does NOT connect to the internet in any way?
Online games are games that specifically require an internet connection to play. They are, literally, unplayable without one. And most of them are multi-player and highly social. World of Warcraft is probably the currently most well-known example.
DeleteMeanwhile offline games are games that don't, intrinsically, require an internet connection to play. As you surmise, most console games are offline. But not all. And there are plenty of offline PC games. Offline games also do not eschew internet connectivity, instead potentially using it for bonus features and allowing for updates. Additionally offline games may offer an option online multiplayer experience. Might and Magic Heroes 6 in an offline PC game with online bonus features- including bonus dynasty items/perks, chat rooms, and multiplayer (including co-op and PVP) options. But the main game can be played without ever having an internet connection.
I actually started to watch that TED Talks video a few days ago but then I had to leave. I've never gotten into online games but I've always been an off-line gamer. About five years ago though, I stopped playing cold turkey. Why? because I wasn't getting anything done. I felt like I was wasting my life away. So, I am very interested to see where this blog goes and whether or not gaming is healthy or unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteAs a wife who has lost her husband to Fallout on a few occasions and as a big sister whose 11-year-old little brother is better at video games, I was rather curious to see what research you could find on the effects of gaming. But I really have no idea where you're trying to go with this. I want to offer up some questions about the effects of gaming, but I feel like I got all this information about how video games can solve world crises got dumped on us, and it doesn't really go anywhere. I'm rather confused...I feel like I'm sitting in the middle of all this information scratching my head wondering which direction to go...
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the comment Elizabeth and sadly I can agree with your statement. This project is very difficult for me in that it differs greatly from any writing method I've used before.
DeleteFor this post I inadvertently looked at the potential effects that video games had on the future for society as a whole as well as providing an example of how they are already being used to push us in the direction that McGonigal is talking about in her video. My next post returns to focus on how video games may affect an individual.
I actually thought of something that might help.. sometime ago, there was a study done using mice to test the addictiveness of slot machines. The mice had to press a button, and they would get food. If the button was programmed to dispense food every x number of times the button was pressed, the mice would press that button x number of times and stop. But if it was randomized, the mice would not stop pressing the button.
ReplyDeleteThere have been studies done (though I can't think of any specific ones off the top of my head..) that gaming companies are using the same psychology that slot machines use. Especially mmorpg's. The way the game is set up, it will randomly drop awesome stuff when you don't really deserve it, so you get better, and you think the better you get, the more stuff you get...but you don't. So you keep playing and keep playing waiting for more stuff. It's psychologically addictive. So maybe you could look into these types of studies, and see if these types of psychological ploys have more of an effect on adults or on children, and even look into the differences in the adult and child brain if they are affected differently.
does this social anxiety occur in all circles?
ReplyDelete