This stuff about gaming made me excited on the one hand and apprehensive on the other.
The TED talk was great (as TED talks often are). First of all, I loved that the presenter was a professional woman. Gaming is supposedly a "male" activity, and World of Warcraft is supposedly played by a bunch of (millions and millions of) socially awkward, unemployed people. So I like that the presenter, just by virtue of being a well-spoken woman with a career, was able to send the message that gaming isn't just for some narrow slice of the population.
Anyway, her points about gamers as a human resource were interesting. I do wonder if games that aim to solve real-world problems would have trouble competing with fantasy games, since I'm not aware of any real-world problems that involve magic and swords (although science is basically magic).
I enjoyed the text that we read. The author made some points that overlapped with the TED talk. Because his emphasis was more on how to make the school experience more like a gaming experience, I got to thinking: how could my class be more like a game?
That's where the apprehension comes in. Making school like a game seems like both an awesome idea and an insanely tall order.
*As an aside: how come people look at experts at Go, Chess and other strategy board games as super-smart achievers, but then view gamers as losers? I'm really bothered by stigmas against gamers.*
-B
Good call on Jane McGonigal herself sort of shattering the stereotype of gamers. I had a boyfriend when I was 20 who was really into gaming and he had an online character he called Vrethia that he was obsessed with. When we broke up that became his name and my friends and I would jokingly call him that. Joke's on me now!
ReplyDeleteYes, you ask a good question about whether games about real life problems could compete with fantasy games, and if so, would they automatically translate into real-life action? How would that happen?
I have a friend whose fiance plays poker for a living. With other people's money (the only way to play poker for a living). How did he get his start (and how did they meet) - Magic the Gathering (yes, that Magic). Apparently the strategies and reading of people are similar, and lots more money playing poker than MtG.
ReplyDeleteI think there is that sterotype because those games have been around so much longer and have been seen as games of knowledge and skill. Give us a few hundred years and maybe online games will get there too?
Hi Brianne~
ReplyDeleteYou make a great emphasis about Jane McGonigal's refusal of stereotypes about gaming... not just for teenage boys. And you point out that she speaks from the perspective of a woman with an intelligent voice, validating her propositions that challenge our perceptions about gaming.
~Mindy