A Powerful Platform for Change

I thought that Jane McGonigal’s talk about games being a “powerful platform for change” was quite interesting.  I had never before thought about using games as a means to change the world, but the evidence McGonigal gave was convincing, at least for me.  As McGonigal says, in the real world, we often associated failure with feelings of frustration, disappointment, or weariness; however, those feelings don’t always exist when playing games.  So how can we apply the motivation that is felt while playing games to real-life problems?

McGonigal refers to gamers as super-empowered hopeful individuals.  The only problem is that they think they are only capable of solving problems in the virtual world, and not in the real world.  But with the development of games that reflect potential real-world problems (like the world without oil game) the line between “virtual” and “real” becomes much less visible.  It is in this fashion that gamers can start to make a positive difference in the world beyond the computer screen.

It should be noted, however, that games intended to motivate change should incorporate certain learning principles, as illustrated by James Gee.  One of these principles is that the game be “pleasantly frustrating”.  This is the principle that struck me the most.  It requires the game to be doable, but still challenging.  The problems we face in real life are also challenging – pollution, hunger, poverty.  But does that mean that these problems have no solution?  I’d like to think there is something that could be done to address these issues.  We could think of the problems as being “pleasantly frustrating”.  The solution to them may not be visible at first, but we can be motivated to find one, just like in a game.