Online Games, Super Empowerment, and a Better World

For active online gamers, real life is broken. It doesn’t make any sense. Effort isn’t connected to reward. The path forward is confused, convoluted, and contradictory. Worse, there’s a growing sense that the entire game is being corrupted to ensure failure. So why play it?

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Complete entry

Posted by J  on  03/19  at  09:48 AM

As an occasionally obsessive gamer I felt personally attacked when you mentioned that McGonigal thinks gamers could and should be "used". How dare she suggest that people make games that pump me full of "a-ha's" while I solve problems every one in the world wants solved? I mean ummm, well actually it doesn't sound like a terrible idea.

Let's face facts; gamers are already being used. They throw away their time, their money and their good health and get little or no tangible return. Meanwhile gaming companies are among the very few who are not only unaffected by the recession but are actual making gains. What harm could there be in providing gamer's with something they're paying for anyway, AND having them solve the major issues humanity faces at the same time?

Well, I'll tell you. The real harm is that corporations aren't always going to use this newly discovered resource to solve the worlds problems. Some might, but others will probably have more profitable ideas in mind. In their greed they may even create a few new epic disasters which future generations of gamers will struggle solve.

Overall, I support McGonigals ideas even if it is a bit naive to think people will use them for the forces of good, but I have my own suggestion. Make it as abstract as possible. I don't mind participating in an experiment to see how people would cope with creating their own free and unlimited fuel source by flapping their arms hard and fast enough to power a windmill in the still dry heat of the summer IF I'm experiencing a fantastic story line or a more tetrisier than tetris puzzle game. If I'm actually flapping my arms, I'm probably not going to play (Do you hear me Wii Fit? I'll play it a few times for novelty's sake, but then I'm done!).

Bonus Round -> Do you think gamers would lose their will to play if only they had a perfect society in real life? They don't play games because games make more sense than real life. In fact mmo's are usually even less fair and just than real life. Yet people flock to them and (until we can modify our real bodies to be able to stand up straight even though our waists are 14" in diameter and our busts are 42") will continue to enjoy them simply because novelty is fun, not because they are trying to drop out of a just too unbearable real life.

On a very serious note, I think you are right on about creating a competing analog social system. Our current system is the product of evolution of ideas and is as flawed as it is great. There is no doubt in my mind that humans can engineer a (or several?) better participation optional game from scratch which can be run over the current social operating system. I hope more people latch onto this very big idea.

Posted by BOINC  on  04/04  at  09:02 PM

Harvest their idle CPU cycles.

Posted by Andrea  on  11/19  at  06:03 PM

Let's face facts; gamers are already being used))

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