What intrigued me the most about this weeks reading/videos, was the TED video of Jane McGonigal, “Gaming can Make A Better World”. I don’t think that I necessarily agree with all of her thoughts, but I see the approach she is taking. It is true, if we lived our lives as we do video games, then we would be more influenced to make a change. I think it’s sad that our society has come to the point where people are actually considering the fact that we need to live our lives more like a video game. With the rapid expansion of technology throughout the world, the use of video games as a leisure activity is going to increase. McGonigal states, “The amount of gamers is increasing greatly throughout the years, gaming is happening throughout the world.” Gaming is something that everyone around the world is actively involved with, and it’s an enjoyable activity with internal rewards. “We don’t get the same kind of feedback in real life then we do in video games. It’s so satisfying to be in an epic win, and we want to keep going.” If you look at video games from the feedback perspective, I agree with McGonigal, sometimes in real life we don’t receive rewards right away when we work for something hard. Sometimes it may take months, or years to receive something we have been working hard for. In video games, after you work hard for hours trying to conquer a level and you do, you automatically see results (moving to the next level, more lives, gold coins, etc.)
Do I think Jane McGonigal’s idea of turning gaming into reality is realistic? No, I don’t think so. I think in order to turn our society over into a gaming world, it’s going to take a lot of work and effort that I don’t think our society is particularly prepared for. It’s a good idea, but whether or not we have enough people to act upon it and make it happen is a whole different story.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html