Thursday, September 23, 2010
Apparently video games can save the world...
I was listening to an episode of the Guardian's Tech Weekly podcast last night and the final item was an interview with a games designer, Jane McGonigal, who seems to believe genuinely that the key to "saving the planet" lies with video games. I'm personally very averse to her whole perspective: it creeps me out, actually. But she is getting a lot of exposure, including a slot earlier this year on the TED Talk circuit. Whether you watch the video or listen to the last part of the podcast, I'd be really interested to hear your views on all this... especially if you can give me some reasons to tone down my cynicism and distaste for the views expressed by McGonigal!
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Her perspective is certainly interesting in so far as video games are often criticised for promoting violence as a solution to even the most complex of problems (not the method for saving the world that McGonigal has in mind, I'm sure!) It'd be interesting to see a study (one may even exist?) that examines what responses are most common within games which offer multiple was of overcoming an obstacle (e.g. fight the guard, sneak past the guard, lure the guard away, navigate an alternate path etc.) My money would be on most players choosing the violent option!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, though it depends on context, of course. But I think there may be something evolutionary (and not necessarily worrying) about that, in so far as "play" is an arena where the young of many species rehearse the battles for survival they'll face when they go out into the world. If it makes sense to talk of a "play instinct" in that way (which I'm sure is far too simplistic) then I think that games in which cognitive problem-solving are encouraged (rather than fast-reaction survival instincts) are not in quite the same bracket, even though we still label them together under the heading of "playing games".
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