Game designer and researcher Jane McGonigal appeared on The Colbert Report tonight to promote her new book, Reality is Broken. In the interview, McGonigal discusses some of the potential for games when it comes to improving our lives and improving the world itself. You can watch the interview above, provided Comedy Central deems people in your part of the world worthy.
I really like Stephen Colbert, but his persona sometimes makes his interviews frustrating to watch. This one isn't too bad on that front, and McGonigal comes off as sweet and smart. Were I not already buried deep into her book, I'd probably be buying it right about now.
February 03, 2011 - Jane McGonigal [Colbert Report]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
3:30 AM on 02.04.2011 | 
I know that it's old by now, but I can't resist posting the link for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
The book came in the mail yesterday, I'm gonna tear through it this weekend~
Can you imagine the amount of parents whose worlds would be rocked by this kind of interview?
I want to see more of this rather than the kinds of interviews that came out after MW2's Airport scene controversy.
Well said, Ms. McGonigal--spoken like a true gamer.
You did us proud.
/claps, nodding with approval.
She makes a couple of good points, like "10 million people doing something for a whole year equals 10 million years of actions", but other than the 2-3 good point she makes, her talk was agonizing.
@Skribble
I'm not sure if you've ever had to talk about games to a bunch of academic fuddy duddies, but they eat that kind of stuff up. She has a great presentation style.
Sure, I get to build things and be imaginative and all that. But the real reason why I like Minecraft is because not only can I do that, but because the problems are incredibly simple. I don't generally have to worry about physics or any actual complex understanding when it comes to raising crops.
The same can be said about any game, even Demon's Souls. It's escapism on the purest level. Sure, it makes for some decent amount of motivation, but the fact is the real world is so overly complex that even if games teach us to be resilient in the fact of a challenge, the complexity of the real world far overwhelms any in the video game realm. So beyond learning to be collaborative, and helpful, I don't see it having this huge impact like she seems to think it will.
It's easy to be dedicated to a game for the most part. Not nearly so easy to be dedicated that takes a lot more effort like a physical sport. There's a reason why I haven't been to the gym since I started college and yet was a high school athlete. Games are built to be fun and entertaining. And even the more sadistic games are still not THAT sadistic in the end.
I think that's part of the idea with games: problems are difficult, but manageable. If a player fails at overcoming a particular obstacle, they're encouraged to think of new ways to approach it, always with the understanding that a solution exists.
In that way, I think it fosters creative thinking and problem solving by not being so frustrating that the player gives up. I don't think it necessarily has to be pure escapism.
I hope this book changes a lot of minds and I'm happy he gave her an opportunity to get herself and the book a lot more exposure then she would have had before.
Only thing I found -off- about this is when she say she wants to get 3 billion people playing video games. Its a noble cause I support fully but I couldn't help to automatically think we have to win over China in a big (maybe even mythical) way to get to that goal.
I'm not saying it COMPLETELY does away with the quandaries and points of interests in that girls piece, but doesn't Jane McGonigal sort of back up the idea that not only can females make it in the gaming world but can make a huge difference without folding to name calling and stereotypes?
I sort of think the girl needed to stop yelling at her TV and read Jane's book before she made even half the assumptions she made (at least) towards the back end of her piece as I think the girl ONLY thinks that people making games we see everyday are having an impact on the industry as a whole. Theres a lot more going on past the mainstream.
Thanks for the link, interesting talk.
You're right. He's not funny. He's hilarious.
Anyway, Colbert is back on Hulu as of a few days ago--don't know if that is more accessible to people.
And definitely do watch McGonigal's TED talk.