Technology and you

The game layer. Interesting. I hear the words "game layer" and I imagine something along the lines of World of Warcraft and the Sims taking over the world. But really, it is something I never could have imagined. I don't hear the words "the game layer" and think of creating new ways to use technology to influence behaviors. This whole idea is that game dynamics, things that make games work, have a way of completely influencing the way that things actually work in the real world. Basically, the concept is that everything is a game in life. Every single person has a way of being motivated int he real world in the same way that they can be motivated to continue playing a game until they've succeeded to their desired level. This is such an intriguing concept, and one that I have never really thought of before. Yet I see how true it can be. It's easy for us to continue doing things if we reap some benefit from doing it. In fact, we often won't do something if we don't see some benefit, some reward, to be gained by doing so. We don't do our homework for fun, you know, we do it because it gives us the grade that we want in order to mark on along the path toward graduation. We don't get a degree for fun, we get it because we know that it will help us attain a good job. Attaining a good job will help us buy a good house, and live a comfortable life. Etc. It seems that nothing that we do is done without the consideration of the reward. Quite the concept.

Before even addressing "Gaming can make a better world" can we please just acknowledge how great it is that her name is Jane McGonigal? Like how cool is it that she gets to have the same lat name as one of the greatest witches in the entire Harry Potter series!? Jealous much. Now this Miss McGonigal, she encourages us to play more games. Wait, what? Did she just encourage the entire world to do exactly what we've been discouraged to do for the past . . . I don't know, ten years? Gaming, can apparently save the world. Gaming is really all about problem solving. And well, problem solving is what's going to allow us to save our world. We need to tackle to obstacles of the next century and the only way that we can do that is to problem solve. For gamers, they seem to feel most empowered and brilliant playing games, they have their biggest AHA moments when they play games. This sort of thing is exactly what needs to be brought into the real world. We need to feel the urgency of our epic mission, find the inspiration to attempt it, and feel empowered to follow the mission all the way until we succeed. This may take more work than we ever expected, and it may push us to our very limits, but whatever we set our minds to can be done. Now that's freaking cool. I've never really realized that games had this sort of power. In all honesty the only time I play games is when I am bored and have free time (which as a college student is awfully rare). And when I play games I don't feel like I am achieving anything other than alleviating my boredom and relieving the mounds of stress that sit on my shoulders each and every day. But if I really, really think about it, I guess it's pretty damn true that I am still solving some sort of problem.

Out of all this, we can look at games as tools to conquering the problems of the world that we live in. If we capitalize on the potential of the game layer, and the influence that games can have on people, the suggestion is that we can come up with solutions for all of the obstacles we currently face, and the ones that we are bound to face going forward. It's a little mind blowing to think of the potential power that these supposedly "mind-numbing" things called games have.