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Could Nobel Peace Prize Winning Gamers Save the World?
Company: SCI-FI-LONDON
Date: 30 Oct 2008
October 29, 2008 – New York, NY – Could the next Nobel Peace Prize winner be an online gamer? Jane McGonigal, noted PhD and Director of Game Research and Development at The Institute for the Future, presents her theory on why gamers can save the world on SCI FI’s howyoucansavetheworld.com blog (www.howyoucansavetheworld.com).
Why am I so confident that gamers can save the world? It all boils down to this: Online gamers – even the most competitive gamers – are the most collaborative and cooperative people on Earth. You might not guess it by the way they gleefully battle each other to the (virtual) death. But even games that seem designed to stoke and inflame our competitive spirits are, in fact, quintessentially collective adventures. To play a game with someone else, even ruthlessly cutthroat games, requires extraordinarily collaborative behavior.
What’s so collaborative about playing an online game with others? Well, when gamers play together, they agree to play by the same rules and to pursue the same goal. They agree to ignore the real-world together for as long as they’re playing. Perhaps most important, gamers actively work together to make believe that the game truly matters. They conspire to give the game meaning, to help each other get emotionally caught up in the acting of playing. Games don’t just happen. Gamers come together to actively collectively bring to life the game world. They construct the game experience together. That’s why the notion that online games are somehow “anti-social” is so wrong. Any time you play a game with someone else, unless you’re just trying to spoil the experience for other players, you are actively engaged in pro-social behavior.
SCI FI’s howyoucansavetheworld.com is a destination for remarkable ideas from today’s most sought-after visionaries, innovators, and thought leaders. These new viewpoints are presented to battle the challenges our society faces today and highlight the effect they have on tomorrow. Howyoucansavetheworld.com is an extension of SCI FI’s public affairs initiative Visions For Tomorrow.
SCI FI's Visions For Tomorrow is a multi-platform, public affairs campaign using the power of science fiction to inspire individuals, organizations, corporations and policymakers to meet the growing challenges of the future and advance the idea that individuals can affect positive change. Guided by an advisory board of 19 of the world's most relevant visionaries and innovators in science, technology, design, journalism, film, television, business, government and future studies, the campaign utilizes public service announcements, educational curricula, and an interactive Web site (www.visionsfortomorrow.net) to impact the future.
Why am I so confident that gamers can save the world? It all boils down to this: Online gamers – even the most competitive gamers – are the most collaborative and cooperative people on Earth. You might not guess it by the way they gleefully battle each other to the (virtual) death. But even games that seem designed to stoke and inflame our competitive spirits are, in fact, quintessentially collective adventures. To play a game with someone else, even ruthlessly cutthroat games, requires extraordinarily collaborative behavior.
What’s so collaborative about playing an online game with others? Well, when gamers play together, they agree to play by the same rules and to pursue the same goal. They agree to ignore the real-world together for as long as they’re playing. Perhaps most important, gamers actively work together to make believe that the game truly matters. They conspire to give the game meaning, to help each other get emotionally caught up in the acting of playing. Games don’t just happen. Gamers come together to actively collectively bring to life the game world. They construct the game experience together. That’s why the notion that online games are somehow “anti-social” is so wrong. Any time you play a game with someone else, unless you’re just trying to spoil the experience for other players, you are actively engaged in pro-social behavior.
SCI FI’s howyoucansavetheworld.com is a destination for remarkable ideas from today’s most sought-after visionaries, innovators, and thought leaders. These new viewpoints are presented to battle the challenges our society faces today and highlight the effect they have on tomorrow. Howyoucansavetheworld.com is an extension of SCI FI’s public affairs initiative Visions For Tomorrow.
SCI FI's Visions For Tomorrow is a multi-platform, public affairs campaign using the power of science fiction to inspire individuals, organizations, corporations and policymakers to meet the growing challenges of the future and advance the idea that individuals can affect positive change. Guided by an advisory board of 19 of the world's most relevant visionaries and innovators in science, technology, design, journalism, film, television, business, government and future studies, the campaign utilizes public service announcements, educational curricula, and an interactive Web site (www.visionsfortomorrow.net) to impact the future.
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